Change We Must

While this is music to our ears, the message is clear, PM Najib do not buy the stories of Taib and his gang of lap dogs.

To ensure this is done systematically, PM Najib must ensure a committee to oversea this survey must not be entrusted into the sole care of Land and Survey Department.

We suggest they rope in the assistance of Dayak NGO such as SADIA and BRISMAS to ensure impartiality of the survey team.

Failing which the very reason the will power to survey all NCR Lands and have it gazzetted have been delayed till PM Najib see the real need for it to be done for Barisan Nasional to remain in power will end up as just retheoric and the allocation of RM20 million of tax payers money wasted.

Subsequent to the announcement by PM Najib, we have hypocrites coming up with the new land policy by Thief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and the Deputy Thief Minister Alfred Jabu. Read all about it here. Incidently Thief Minister Abdul Taib and all his cronys are the very same gang of thiefs and bandits resisting the call by Dayaks and Dayaks NGO to have all NCR Land surveyed!

Similar to the reduction of Land Lease Renewable announced in Sibu, is not too late to implement the survey of NCR Land now that educated and more aware Dayaks are arousing the awareness of the rural Dayaks? Will this now see the day of the light?

KUCHING: It took 47 years for the government to decide to survey native customary rights (NCR) land, issue titles and return the land to the rightful owners. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak allocated RM20 million to carry out the survey works.

Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud should have made the announcement instead of Najib as land matters come under the purview of the state. So, why did Najib make the announcement? And why did Taib refuse all this while to survey NCR land?

Najib made the decision last week after visiting Long Banga, Baram, an interior seldom visited even by Sarawak state ministers. He must have heard about the Dayaks’ grouses after he took over as prime minister last year. To learn more about their problems, he sent his Sarawakian minister Idris Jala to seek the truth. And based on Jala’s reports, Najib announced the decision.

It not only caught state government leaders by surprise, it also embarrassed them. But Najib does not seem to care; his federal government’s survival depends on solving the problem. To continue to occupy Putrajaya, he must win over the Dayak-majority parliamentary constituencies. There are 23 Dayak majority and Dayak-mixed constituencies.

The decision puts great pressure on the state government to survey the NCR land. It must show support and react immediately.Thus, the state government issued a press statement not only to concur with the prime minister’s announcement but also to say that Taib’s government has approved a new NCR land initiative.

By Joseph Tawie @ Free Malaysia Today

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Sarawak Pakatan Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Wanita Vice Chairlady Voon Sia Nie refuted to YB Snowdan Lawan’s statement on the frontpage of New Sarawak Tribune’s on July 26th (yesterday) comparing the opposition’s tactic of the CCOs (communist guerrillas).

“We are not like communist and we are not thieves,” she said adding that “it is not a very fair statement” and asked Snowdan to clarify what does he meant by that statement.

“What is wrong about us coming to the longhouse at night, it a democratic country, we are not “thieves” stealing, we are just campaigning as the State election is near,” said Voon, venting her anger through a telephone interview yesterday.

“That type of statement is not very good and I want to ask him (Snowdan) what is the different when he (Snowdan) went to the longhouses to campaign..nobody is stopping him so what is wrong with us doing it.”

“I believed that this also shows we (PR) are putting out a creditable candidate (Ibi Uding) who is the Sarawak PKR wanita chief and that is why the challenge was thrown directly by Snowdan, indicates that Barisan Nasional (BN) is running scared of our candidate.”

“Wait and see the next State election, PKR central had identified Ibi as one of the potential candidate (in N.25 Balai Ringin) according to the quota for Pakatan Rakyat (PR),” she adding that Ibi is presently concentrating on the fight (campaigning). = Sarawak Tribune

If MACC and Federal Government fail to come clean on the 4 complaints lodged against The Thief Minister of Sarawak Right Honourable (Yang Kasihi) Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, the demonstration in foreign countries will embarass the Malaysian Government.

Say what you like, the rakyat have no other choice to present their grouses and demonstration seem to be the way to go and fully justified.

If the people of Oxford had not heard of Abdul Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of Sarawak, until today, they certainly know all about him now. His visit, tied to Sarawak’s heavy sponsorship of the Said Business School’s ‘Inaugural Global Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum’, was supposed to buy him credibility. In the event it ended up as a public relations disaster, as his reputation preceded him and was stuck up on banner headlines by protesters outside.

Even though it is the sleepy summer holiday period, a colourful crowd of demonstrators descended on the School to express their outrage that the University should have welcomed such a man and accepted such dubious sponsorship from the Timber Industry of Sarawak. The local press was soon on the scene, followed by Malaysian news teams, who had clearly been brought along to puff up the Chief Minister’s profile. Even the flunkies could not ignore a demo like this and they were soon filming, taking notes and conducting interviews.

Panic Reaction

Panic and concern was soon evident amongst the organisers, who called the police and sent an army of Special Branch officers to photograph the protesters, who were banned from entering the building by anxious bouncers. The School, clearly taking no risks, had hired a phalanx of extra personnel to protect their awkward guest and to block entry to the clearly highly-respectable gathering of locals and some Malaysians who had come to explain to Oxford exactly what they were dealing with. Many reminded the organisers that the criminals were the ones inside, while the people outside were lawfully making a very valid protest.

The forest of banners said it all. “Taib Mahmud Declare The Source Of Your Wealth”, “How Much Forest Is Left?”, “Respect Native Customary Rights”, ”Stop Sexual Harassment and Rape of Penan Women and Children”, “Save Sarawak”, “The EU banned illegal timber, Why won’t you sign the VPA?” and much more. Passers-by were handed leaflets and a string of civil society groups meanwhile coordinated across Britain to produce and sign a declaration of protest that is now being handed to Oxford University. One organisation, Forests Monitor, stated:

“For decades Taib has headed a regime which has ridden rough shod over the rights of indigenous and local peoples in Sarawak, treating the province like a personal fiefdom, worse even than his colonial predecessors. He has overseen the abuse of Sarawak’s own laws and profited enormously from it. By taking his money the Oxford Said School for Business is setting the worst possible example for its alumni. They too should be demanding answers from the Dean, who apparently considers himself an expert in corporate governance”.

Bundled in through the back entrance

The protest certainly denied Taib his grand entrance. He had been due to arrive in style, greeted by the University’s Vice Chancellor (the sponsorship must have been huge) to give the opening speech for the two-day conference, but he ended up being sneaked in past the protesters and ushered in through the back of the building. A break-away group who spotted his entry surrounded his car and waived their banners in disgust.

According to the protesters the police, who, unlike in Sarawak, do not see it as their duty to interfere with legitimate freedom of expression, remained a good natured and supportive presence throughout. One said:

“We needed that even-handed support, because the University bouncers were out of order. I was roughly manhandled out of the building after taking a photograph of the Chief Minister, which was stupid as scores of his own people were filming him too”.

The protester went on to say:

”I am concerned that the Said Business School, which used Oxford’s tradition of free speech as its excuse for taking Taib Mahmud’s money and receiving him in this way, should deny us our chance to come in and voice the truth about what is happening in Sarawak. Will the School be willing to receive some speakers from Malaysia’s repressed opposition in the near future? or can we expect the next move to be an Honorary Doctorate for Taib Mahmud?”

The image and the reality

Meanwhile, as the conference got underway, the disadvantages of the School’s modernist architecture were becoming plain to the embarrassed delegates. The great glass front to the main forum provided an unwelcome ‘Goldfish Bowl’ effect as the people outside were able to look in and photograph the awkward attempts to carry on as normal. Inside, a kitsch display area, of the type favoured by Taib, promoted a ‘tourist image’ of Sarawak with cuddly orang utan toys and a live Dayak music troupe in full ‘national costume’. They confirmed they had been transported with the Chief Minister’s enormous cavalcade from Sarawak.

Concern about the Tanjung Manis Project

Alongside, was a mass of information about the Chief Minister’s new drive to turn Malaysia’s Christian State into the world’s biggest Halal Products Hub, with the help of massive investment, much of it from the Middle East.

Concern soon developed among the protesters as the information available indicates that the Hub is set to destroy 70,000 more hectares of valuable mangrove area and lowland peat forest – zones, described in Tanjung Manis literature as being uselessly unproductive in their current state. Information has leaked out that experts from Oxford University have been consulting Sarawak on this so-called ‘Green Development Project’. The questions and protests against Oxford’s ill-judged event will not end here and the Tanjung Manis Project may discover that instead of finding investors on its UK trip it has acquired unwelcome notoriety instead.

Taib’s Party Falls Flat

As Taib left after his speech the demonstrators’ success in photographing him both from inside the conference hall and the outside, through the glass, created havoc amongst Taibs security men. Burlesque scenes ensued as they rushed round the building lowering blinds and pulling screens in front of the glass walls to protect their horrified boss from the glare of unwelcome publicity.

It was clearly a rare and unnerving experience for Taib Mahmud, a specialist in managed press and mass personal protection. As the laughter grew on the outside, his party on the inside was publicly ruined. That’s the problem with turning up in a free country Taib and we bet you think twice about doing it again any time soon.

It was an awkward exit (shit should be flung and thrown at them) for The Thief and hos entiurage!

Sarawak Report

The Sarawak Pakatan Rakyat (PR) parties have pledged to ensure straight fights with Barisan Nasional (BN) in the upcoming state election, which must be called by July next year.

The coalition of four parties — DAP, PAS, PKR and local opposition party SNAP — made the decision at the inaugural meeting of its leadership council last night.

Sarawak DAP chairman Wong Ho Leng told The Malaysian Insider that the state PR is also aiming to take over the government led by Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, who has been in power for almost three decades.

“The leadership council also decided to topple BN in the state election, so we are aiming for at least 50 per cent of the seats,” said Wong.

“At the very least we must deny the two-thirds majority,” he added.

The Malaysian Insider

Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin will have her statement recorded by the Kuching police on Friday over the latest allegations on the rape of Penan women.

“I feel quite happy (to give a statement) because the police have finally given me a chance to provide further details of the allegations,” said Zuraida, who will fly to Sarawak.

“I cannot understand why last September, I could not lodge a report with the police, the Sarawak Chief Minister’s Department and the Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu.”

The police had issued a call to several individuals on July 13 to assist with investigations following a report entitled ‘A wider context of sexual exploitation of Penan women and girls in Middle and Ulu Bernam, Sarawak’, distributed by the Penan Support Group.

The hard-hitting report claimed that sexual crimes are “allowed to flourish” because of widespread poverty, deprivation of land rights, citizenship and basic services, as well as lack of respect for rural communities, their autonomy and their calls for justice.

Seven rape cases were said to involve Penan women in Ulu Baram, with the suspects said to be loggers.

Zuraida, also the PKR Wanita head, had submitted an emergency motion to have the matter debated in Parliament, following the release of the report.

Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Heng Seai Kie has denied the new allegations.

Malaysiakini

If Rural Voters in Sarawak can overcome this fear and understand that the Government are elected by the Voters and are in fact our servants, Sarawak Barisan Nasional can be toppled!

zulhaidah.com

What has been reported about the assault on Penans in Limbang last month is what surfaces. There are so many problems that went unreported and the native people have suffered in silence.

No one takes pity on them. It has become a routine when a native is being victimized by a the logging company. This is just one of the many incidents that managed to surface. There are many more that have been suppressed or unknown.

To the natives, it has become a normal challenge in their daily lives. They have been told and indoctrinated that these are part of the process of politics of development.

As such you are not to or cannot question the effect that you may suffer.

But above all, the people have been instilled with the spirit of fear. They people fear the authorities and Chief Minister Taib Mahmud so much. For no apparent reason. But that is the reality. They fear him so much.

People are told that if they go against the logging companies, they are fighting the government. They are fighting against development.

The consequences that may follow if they fight the government are:

1. There will be no development;
2. There will be no project for the village;
3. The schools in the village will be closed;
4. The clinics in the village will be closed;
5. The police will arrest them;
6. If they have children working in the government department, they will be dismissed;
7. Their children will not be entitled to government scholarship;
8. They will not be given any contracts; and many others.

The fact remains that the people fear Taib so much. This fear must be broken. People must vote and act based on a rational thinking not out of fear.

Just wonder, whether the situation is similar to those employed by the KGB in Russia during the Soviet Union era.

To break this spirit of fear in the people; all people must pray for freedom and liberty from the control of the spirit of fear.

Once the people are liberated and freed from the spirit of fear, they will no longer be subjected to any manipulation. Then what had happened to the Penan in Limbang will not recur.

The attacks on the natives must stop

If and i say if, there is any element of rape in whatever form (as the word consensual is being overused and manipulated) or statutory rape, all Sarawak Barisan Nasional Leaders should be casterated in Public!!

How the government ignores indigenous rights

The Penan have been involved in a long struggle against the Sarawak government over the awarding of licences to timber companies allowing these companies to log and deforest the Penans’ lands.

These logging companies have spelt further trouble for the marginalised community. A government task force and an independent fact-finding mission by non-governmental organisations have confirmed that logging companies’ employees have been sexually assaulting and preying upon Penan women and girls for years.

There already was task force was headed by Datuk Sharizat and even Datin Fatimah Abdullah than admitted that there was an element of rape. Since than nothing much have evolved until the recent report by PSG!

It is appalling to note that Senior Ministers such as Alfred Jabu and James Masing till now are still in denial mode. Have they made public their own report?

Not convinced, PM Najib have despatched Datuk Sharizat to Baram again on a fact finding mission besides additionally going to the ground himself to have first hand information on the allegation.

It’s been almost two years since the sexual violence was highlighted by The Star and almost a year since the government task force’s report was released. But there is precious little evidence that the police and the government took the rape and assaults seriously. Like the US police and government, the Malaysian government and police have demonstrated similar scepticism, discrimination and foot-dragging.

No less than Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Alfred Jabu reportedly said that the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which highlighted the Penans’ plight were “living off the misery of the few, and manufactured lies.” Sarawak Land Development Minister Dr James Jemut Masing told the BBC in December 2009 that the Penan “operate on different social etiquette as us”. He said a lot of the sex was actually consensual.

If it is consensual sex, are they of legal age! If not is it not statutory rape!

When confronted with an account of a girl who was beaten unconscious and raped he replied, “They change their stories, [as and] when they feel like it. That’s why I say Penan are very good story tellers.”

Indeed, the Sarawak police closed their investigations in 2009, citing lack of evidence. When asked about the Penan Support Group (PSG)’s recent report containing more allegations of sexual violence, state police commissioner Datuk Mohmad Salleh said the Penan had been uncooperative during investigations. “The police have taken all necessary efforts in the investigation but the real problem lies with the victims themselves,” Mohmad reportedly said.

Mohmad also accused PSG of “politicising” the issue to tarnish the Sarawak police’s image. And so, instead of taking the reports of sexual violence seriously and ensuring the community was protected, the police blame the survivors and their advocates instead.

With a Commissioner of Police like him, who needs the PDRM to maintain law and order. We know the Police Officers, are easily intimidated by politicians from Barisan Nasional. Even those from the lowest rung are known and have been seen throwing their weight around at police stations.

Does the state really care?
Surely, if the police really cared about the Penan, the state police commissioner would not be blaming the survivors of violence for not being able to catch the crooks who prey on them.

And by saying that the Penan can “come to me directly” if the district offices ignore them, what is Mohmad saying? Does he expect the Penan, who live in the deep interior, to drive out and knock on his door just like that? Why is the burden placed on the victim to find a way to be heard? Why isn’t a state authority like the police taking the initiative instead to assist a vulnerable community?

One also wonders, did the police commissioner take pains, during police investigations, to ensure that officers complied with cultural norms? Did they bring along female officers to conduct the interviews? Were they properly trained to handle accounts of sexual violence? Did they ensure there was an interpreter whom the Penan felt comfortable with?

Trust is an important component in encouraging survivors of rape and sexual abuse to relate their ordeal. It is questionable whether our police took pains to build trust with the Penan community especially since the state police are seen to work hand-in-glove with powerful logging companies to protect loggers’ interests. For example, the police have arrested Penan and dismantled their blockades repeatedly in a show of disrespect for indigenous rights. How then are Penan women and girls to trust the state police when reporting crimes by loggers against them?

Class struggle
Truth it, the government really doesn’t care about the Penan. That’s why it took the government nearly a year to make public a task force report about the Penan rapes and sexual assault. And that’s why nothing concrete has been done to investigate these crimes and ensure they don’t happen again.

But imagine this: If a minister’s daughter or wife was raped, how do you think the police would respond? How do you think the cabinet would react?

PM’s walkabout
For now, apart from the Sarawak police denying culpability in not ending the terror against the Penan, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is expected to visit the Penan settlements in Ulu Baram. Apparently, his visit is to demonstrate that he is a “prime minister for all Malaysians”, and that the government cares.

But really, it’s not a prime ministerial walkabout that the Penan community needs. It’s a systematic revamp of the government’s shabby treatment of indigenous rights — from land, health, education and freedom from sexual violence.

Indeed, Najib’s visit is two years late. Not only that, as prime minister, he does not need to do a walkabout in Ulu Baram to ensure the Penan receive justice and protection. He need only direct his ministers in charge of home security and women’s affairs to take stringent measures to end the violence against the Penan. Why hasn’t he done that?

Given his government’s lack of results thus far in protecting the Penan community, his current visit begs this question: Is Najib more concerned about the Penan or about his own administration’s public reputation?

More importantly, what’s in store for the Penan if their story is no different from the story of the indigenous peoples in the US?

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Iban natives of nine longhouses from Sebangan and Sebuyau have warned of serious consequences if a private company, Quality Concrete Holdings, persists in logging activities in their ‘pulau galau’ (communal forest).

Native community leader Nicholas Mujah conveyed this warning to officials at the land and survey department in Kota Samarahan yesterday after handing a memorandum containing several pieces of evidence to prove the community own the communal forest.

“Now that we have submitted these pieces of evidence, we want the department to make a decision as required by our meeting early this month in Sebuyau district office.

“We want them to inform the forest department and Quality Concrete Holding to cease their logging activities. If they persist, do not blame us if we take the law into our hands,” said Mujah to the officials of land and survey department.

Mujah said among the evidence forwarded to the department was proof that the ‘pulau galau’ at Bukit Bediri and Setika were gazetted as their communal forest in 1961.

Under the gazette, anyone wishing to extract timber or collect any jungle products will have to consult the Penghulu and longhouse headmen.

Peaceful demonstration
The natives use timber from the forest to collect jungle products, fish and hunt to meet their daily domestic needs. They claimed their forefathers had acquired the said areas even before it was gazetted as a communal forest.

The existence of old rubber gardens, orchard groves, settlements, burial grounds and sacred shrines in the areas, especially at Bukit Bediri and Setika is ample proof of their occupation.

Twenty representatives from the nine longhouses led by Numpang Suntai, the group’s leader and Mujah, who is also the secretary general of Sarawak Dayak Iban Association handed over the memorandum.

Early this month, about 250 natives from the longhouses held a peaceful demonstration in front of the Sebuyau district office in protest against the licensing of their ‘pulau galau’.

They carried banners and placards while their representatives met with officials of the Sarawak Forest Department, Sarawak Forest Corporation, Land and Survey, and Quality Concrete Holding to settle the dispute over three pieces of forest.

The natives claimed that the 3,305 hectares of forest between Sungai Sebangan and Sungai Sebuyau are their communal forest and part of their native customary rights land. It is also a water catchment area supplying water to Sebangan Bazaar and the surrounding villages.

But the forest department has given the Quality Concrete Holding a licence to log in the area where some of the rarest species of timber are found.

Free Malaysia Today