Over the past week, there have been numerous reports about the blockades by several Penan communities in Tutoh-Apoh, Patah, and Baram, Sarawak. The blockades were to halt the transportation of logs by several logging business groups.
These groups have been harvesting timber within the traditional territories of the surrounding villages in the above-mentioned places.
According to community representatives, the blockades were set up for several interrelated reasons. Firstly, with the advent of large monoculture plantations, the people's forest resources are in a state of acute decline.
If logging had devastating impact on affected communities, plantations would be worst off. Clear-felling operations entail the total destruction of the people's land and forest resources, including their communal water catchments.
Secondly, this impending deforestation disaster is certainly linked to the lack of land rights of the native communities to their traditional territories. For years, the communities' numerous applications for their village forest reserves to be gazetted into Communal Forest Reserves have never been approved by the state.
The people maintain that logging has failed to produce meaningful benefits to local communities and has instead, over the years severely compromised their quality of life. They point out that local people even miss out on employment opportunities, as companies seem to prefer to hire Indonesian labour.
The people also stress that their efforts to negotiate with the companies and their agents have often been futile. The protestors are determined not to give in into any intimidations or threats to dismantle the barricades unless their demands are met.
Foremost, they call for all logging and plantation operations to be halted on their land, a call, that if left unheeded, may lead to significant food deprivation and widespread malnutrition among the people.
Equally important, the people also want their Native Customary Rights (NCR) to be fully recognised, and that they be allowed to exercise self-determination with regards to any development plans that may affect them.
In our view, all the demands above certainly require an urgent comprehensive response at a policy level from the Sarawak state government.
We find the statement attributed to Sarawak's Rural Development Minister James Masing in an AFP news article published on Aug 23, which describes the Penan communities as "good storytellers" and that their land rights disputes "were often aimed at wringing more compensation from companies" as most regretful.
Similarly, we find the insinuations about the communities' blockades by state assemblyperson Lihan Jok equally unacceptable. Lihan was quoted by Utusan Borneo on Aug 30, suggesting that the blockades appear to show the Penan communities are uncivilised, this despite the fact that many are highly educated.
In fact, the latest blockades leads to questions about the sustainability claims of the Sarawak timber and plantation industries. Many Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports of the projects in the area seem to suggest that plantation development is necessary in Sarawak due to the depletion in timber resources in the state.
However, timber harvesting for Dipterocarp forests within the Sarawak PFE supposedly operates under a 25-year cutting cycle. If it is indeed true that timber has been largely depleted in just 30 years since large-scale logging commenced in the state, Sarawak should no longer claim to be practising sustainable forestry management.
We believe that the Sarawak state government has also failed to take full cognisance of our judicial decisions on native rights. The Federal Court in 2007 has ruled that native rights owes its existence to native customary laws and not to any modern statute or legislation, while affirming that individual and communal native rights have equal legal force. Our Appeals Court has affirmed that such rights cover both cultivated and forested areas.
SAM is of the view that the continuous occurrence of land rights protests in Sarawak is a result of the absence of a participatory and consultative demarcation process of native territorial boundaries in Sarawak.
Such a process should incorporate the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) mechanism and a set of substantiation procedures designed to yield corroborative evidence to support each native land rights claim.
Given all the facts above, we call on the Sarawak state government to fulfil all the demands made by the blockading communities and exercise restraint in dealing with the protest.
In our view, unless Sarawak halts further forest conversions in the state and subsequently establishes a consultative demarcation process which takes cognisance of the full stature, nature and extent of the NCR as ruled by our judiciary, any sustainability claims made on both the timber and plantation industries in Sarawak must be treated with great caution.
S M Mohamed Idris is the president of Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM)
http://news.my.msn.com/regional/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3593097
ReplyDeleteMalaysian police tear down Penan tribe's anti-logging blockades
Malaysian police said Wednesday they had dismantled blockades constructed in the Borneo jungles by Penan tribespeople protesting against logging and plantations on their ancestral land.
In a separate move police also arrested 17 people, including Penan and other indigenous groups, for mounting a demonstration against a proposed dam in Sarawak state on Malaysian Borneo which will force mass relocations.
On August 20, hundreds of Penan armed with spears and blowpipes set up blockades in three locations in the Borneo interior, escalating their campaign against the destruction of their rainforest home.
Jonathan Jalin, police chief in Marudi which administers the area, confirmed all three blockades had been removed.
"We did not use any force. There was no resistance. We had negotiations with the locals. I intend to place some policemen at the blockade site for a few days to ensure security," he told AFP.
Penan chiefs say that after enduring decades of logging which has decimated the jungles they rely on for food and shelter, they now face the new threat of plantations which will destroy forest resources and pollute the rivers.
Indigenous rights lawyer Harrison Ngau said the Penan would pursue their campaign despite the tearing-down of the blockades, because their grievances had still not been addressed.
"Definitely the blockades will be put back in time to come, whether now or later. Because where will the Penan live in the future if their land is already licensed out?" he told AFP.
"There has been no progress at all on the Penan demands, particularly the issue that their ancestral land has been leased or licensed out by the government to different companies. That is their main grievance."
In the Sarawak capital Kuching, a police official said at least 17 people were arrested outside the offices of chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud after attempting to hand him a petition against the proposed Murum dam.
Activist groups say the Murum dam, one of a dozen mega-dam projects planned for Sarawak which lies on Malaysia's half of Borneo island, will see 1,000 Penan and 100 Kenyah forced to move.
Those arrested included rights activists as well as representatives of the Penan, Kayan, Kenyan and Iban indigenous people.
"We came here to submit a memorandum to the chief minister, asking the government to halt the building of the Murum dam," said Raymond Abin from the Sarawak Conservation Action Network, who was one of those arrested.
"We want them to stop all dam projects and stop any forced relocation of indigenous people from their ancestral land," he told AFP from police custody.
Abin said the group spent four hours outside the chief minister's office, refusing to leave until he or one of his staff received the memo.
"They were arrested for illegal assembly after they refused a police order to disperse," said Sarawak Rural Development Minister James Masing.
"That's the law of the land. I believe they will be released soon," he told AFP.
There are at least 10,000 Penan in Sarawak, but their way of life is under threat from extensive logging of their traditional hunting grounds, as well as the spread of palm oil and timber plantations.
A high-level Malaysian investigation last week also confirmed allegations that women and young girls from the Penan tribe in Borneo have been sexually abused by workers from jungle logging camps.
http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/press_statements/press_release_lack_of_political_will_to_uphold_rights_of_indigenous_peoples.html
ReplyDeletePress Release: Lack of political will to uphold rights of indigenous peoples
Friday, 18 September 2009 10:01AM
The Malaysian Bar is disappointed at the Government’s continuing lack of political will to promote and protect the welfare
and rights of indigenous peoples throughout Malaysia. The Government’s inaction makes a mockery of its vote in favour
of adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007 (“the UN Declaration”).
Most recently, the Government refused to make public the report of the National Task Force established to investigate
the allegations of sexual abuse against Penan women and girls. This refusal flouts democratic principles of transparency
and accountability. The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development finally made the report publicly
available only after pressure from various interest groups.
We are further disappointed that despite the Inspector-General of Police’s pledge of full support for a joint police-NGO
investigative mission, the Sarawak police have now reportedly stated that the funds allocated for the project are not
sufficient to fund the participation of NGO representatives.
The sexual abuse faced by the Penans is but one of a multitude of human rights violations that indigenous communities
face on an ongoing basis, and which are inextricably inter-linked. Most indigenous persons are not able to fully enjoy
their fundamental human rights because their traditions, customs and values are being eroded and their needs have
been long neglected.
A crucial first step for the Government, in fulfilling its state obligation, is to formally recognise, protect and guarantee the
right of indigenous peoples to their ancestral lands throughout the country and to gazette such ancestral lands as
reserved areas for them. If necessary, land laws must be amended to achieve this.
We are concerned that many indigenous communities still live without basic amenities and infrastructure. It is within the
context of the deprivation of their rights to ancestral lands and access to basic services that indigenous peoples have
become vulnerable to sexual abuse and other violations of human rights. We strongly urge the Government to perform its
duty by taking concrete steps to improve the welfare of indigenous peoples.
Finally, we denounce the wholly unnecessary arrest of 15 Sarawakian indigenous leaders on 16 September, who were
reportedly detained as they attempted to deliver a memorandum to the Chief Minister to protest the building of hydroelectric
dams that would adversely affect their communities.
The manner in which our nation deals with the needs and rights of these communities is a reflection of our commitment
to democracy and human rights. In this, our leaders have failed.
Change is possible. More can, and must, be done.
We therefore echo our earlier call, made in a resolution that was unanimously adopted at the Malaysian Bar’s 63rd
Annual General Meeting on 15 March 2009, that the Federal and State Governments, as well as all public and private
enterprises and individuals, respect and protect the rights of indigenous peoples pursuant to the UN Declaration, and not
act in any manner inconsistent with those rights.
Ragunath Kesavan
President
Malaysian Bar
18 September 2009