Dayak Penan are starving – are we surprise?
Written by: Dr. John Brian Anthony
Starvation
Just look at the Medical and Health Department statistics – you will see the high numbers of malnutrition cases being treated in hospital. Noty limited to children many adult seek treatment in government hospital and Medical centres becuase they feel not well. Many of these cases are attributed to poor food intake and quality. These symptom are usually as a result of poverty – where food is too little to eat.
Do we need a Minsiter to see for himself these starvation before the government act
Starvation should be more rampant now in certain areas because the State Government do not practice “sustainability”. The government continue to log and award land for plantation and dams not caring for the livelihood of the people staying in the area.
The people who live in certain areas has live of the land but not the government is taking it away. The environment has change and the poor people are not able to adapt to the change in environment. These are people who do not go to school and has very little other skill other than jungle survival skill. What good is jungle survival skill when there is no more jungle?
Dr. George Chan says Dayak Penan will survive
I find that rather naive for Dr, George Chan to say that. He either said that because he feels that the Dayak Penan are poor so what – they have live that way for many generation and why is it only important now. With government assistance or no assistance they will always survive because they have very few basic needs.
If that is BN government thinking – it would be a sad day ahead of us poor Dayak living in the interior. The BN government simply do not care for us because “poverty” is our way of life. Is it right George Chan?
What is the Government Welfare Department – District Office and Community leaders of the area doing?
Do we wait for a Minsiter to come around to witness “live” the poverty of rural people before the government act? What are the community leaders doing – should they not report such incidence to the government or the District Office responsible for the administration of the area.
My fear is that the community leaders and the government department might be getting involved in politics too much without them realizing it that they forgot their duties to help the people under their responsibility.
Is BN government continue to deny that “poverty” is rampant in rural Sarawak
As long as the government and political leaders are taking life easy and focus on accumulating easy money from government contracts the people would be easily forgotten. The government would also not find effective solution for eradicating poverty because the business interest has taken most of the “reichest” of Sarawak without sharing it with the people.
Shame on BN government – with so much money and many Sarawak citizen is so poor.
Conclusion
If this BN government refused to listen to us Dayakbaru – then we should refuse to listen to them too. If that is BN rule, then we will abide by their rule.
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Inspirational word from gkm2020
I would very much like to read comments on this Bernama Report. I am still struggling over Sustainable Rural Economy – what suggestions can readers have. Please post well-thought answers. Thank you.
Dr,
It sooo sad to talk about the plight of the Penans. I am lost for words. Why not?.
The rulers conference had just ended in Kuching Sawarak. All the top political figures were here. Sarawakians all prided themselves with the extravagant opening of the RM269 million New DUN Building.
But…. almost in the same day our daily newspaper reported of starvation among our communities. So where are our pride?. What is there for us to be proud of. Sh*t!
Is there any fair distribution of wealth?. It is obvious that the wealth from this country is totally accumulated by a selected few. This is really unfair.
SDGA, any proposal towards the alleviation of poverty among our people?. Is Collection of donation drive in the pipeline?. It just so sad.
Cheers…
Seranta..tau ka miskin ukai semina nyadi ba sarawak aja tang ba semua menua enggau bansa.
Tang kebendar kitai dayak/iban perlu nyermin diri
nama pengering kitai empu ba menua diri empu .Tu utai ka patut diputar ka bala iban/dayak ka udah mujur.Kitai bisi tanah ka ditinggal aki inek kitai nya meh pengeraja kitai. Aku agi pecaya ka nadai orang ulih ngambi tanah kitai.. empu enti kitai enda ngemendar ka iya .We have to defend this asset by all mean laban tu meh utai ka agi mengkang ba sekeda kitai dayak ka enda enggau sengaja bejual ka tanah ngagai bansa bukai.
Ngambi ka banding maiyoh kitai dayak ka udah ngereja tanah diri empu lebih agi manah pemulai
ari duit rinngit enti dibanding enggau pengawa ka biasa aja ba nengeri..tu nyadi ba pengidup kami sebilik enggau kami serumah.
Ba luar amat meh rumah ukai rumah ka baka ba nengeri but we are debt free. Pengawa ka diri empu
,masa ka diri empu , ba menua diri empu..Nya kebuah ba aku how to really defined poverty ba kitai iban ka diau ba ulu sungai ka ulih muka runding.
Aku arap ka bisi opis penerang ka ulih mantuk , meri penemu ngagai raban kitai kena muka runding.Ka manah ukai ari orang politik ngambi ka tuju iya lurus nadai limpang ngagai politik persuasian.Laban parti politik tu ba aku they are
trying to score point for their survival.
Aku aku arap bala ulih bekunsi ka runding penemu..
or suggestion.Manah topik tu.
Jungle survival skill is useless when all the homes of the monkeys, wild boars, deers, kancil etc have been destroyed in order to give way for other economic development. Majority of these animals have migrated to the area where the folks do not like to eat them, leaving the penan really struggle to looking for them in the deforested areas.
YB Billy Abit was quick to rebut what YB Entulu had discovered.How it is possible that the TWO BN/PRS leaders dispute each other????
It shows to every Dayak that Parti Rakyat Sarawak has no CREDIBLE leaders and not worthy of Dayak support.Better dissolve PRS so that its members can join PKR or DAP.After all DAP cares for all Malaysians including poverty ridden Dayaks.
I don’t know what did the Penan plant when they experienced crop failures.
The hardship of the Penans is due to lack of their personal proper planning. They should have diversified their livelihoods, not to depend too much on hunting alone but planting several types of crops, eg, rice, tapoica, yam, maize, rear fish, pig, chicken, cow, deers, monkey etc etc….They cannot simply depend on rice or tapoica alone for their staple food. When there is a bad rice harvest, they can resort to yam, tapoica or maize etc, and to resort to become beggars. Initially, begging activity could be view as laziness. They must work with vision for what they want to have in future. They might have relied too much on the wild life meat, forgetting that the population of these animals become less or chased out of the area to give ways for certain economic activities took over.
I hope the Penans will learn to diversify their livelihood in order to have numerous options for survival.
My suggestions:
1. Continue to plant rice but must plant tapoica, maize, yam which are very easy to cultivate. Even a monkey or wild boar know how to plant these crops.
2. Rear pig, chicken, goats, cattles, duck and feed them with raw material which can be cultivated in their lands, no need to buy feed from towns.
3. Rear fish, frogs, turtle, tortoise. Theses creature can survive easily when we provide ample wild product or create natural environment for them.
4. Take care of certain rivers that are not affected by logging. Release fish fries, anak ikan empurau, semah, lajong, mengalan, bantak, palau, tengadak. Do take care of all the fruit trees along the rivers, to provide fish food.
5. Lastly, idup mapab together with the representatives they support and hoping for their blessing.
The American Indians used to say: “I wish I could creep behind your eyes and see me the way you do.”
The two different perceptions about Penans’ starvation is the result of two different sets of eyes. Joe Entulu is a YB, but he still retain his executive/academic eyes. Dr Chan was “shocked” because he is a pure politician, a reminiscence of Marie Antoinette’s “let them eat cake.” After all he had said this would be his last term as SUPP’s president (and member of the ADU, maybe).
When KL wants to verify the poverty of the Dayaks (Penans are Dayaks), PM Najib would ask the CM Taib. The CM would ask the ADUN – in this case the Cigku Billy Abit. And Billy had said there’s no poverty.
Dayak Baru, in this case is aligned to YB Joe Entulu’s vision. In fact Dayak Baru had said this again and again previously: “Rural People are very Poor, undernourished and live below the poverty line.” That is why RM20 was able to bribe an electorate so as to elect BN. But that is politics, we leave politics aside because now its life and dead situation for the Dayaks.
If Najib care to see, he should ask the executives not the politicians, about the real situations in rural Sarawak & Sabah.
Dr Chan is right on one aspect; rural people will survive; the same survival skills that have been theirs for generations. Rural people had NEVER experienced the benefit of being part of Malaysia. While Dr Chan talked about his beautiful mansion, properties and cash, the rural people according to him: “they will survive.”
I think they will survive too; caveat – if their forest had not been destroyed. For every tree that was fell, was there a RM1.00 set as endowment fund for the welfare of the Penans? Now their forest is gone, none of their children are educated (and can work in P Malaysia’s factory and be able to send money home), how are they going to survive?
Some false benevolent acts in the next few days will see politicians using helicopters going there. That is not benevolence but pricks of guilty conscience because they are the ones that destroyed the forest where the Penans live.
Poor Penans. Poor Dayaks. Rich Dr Chan. Rich politicians. But it all depend on whose eyes you use to see them.
Somebody yesterday (2nd of august 2009) on borneo post or utusan borneo say that he is blamming a logging activities that cause our fellow friends – penan starving….
I have no idea…
True as you have said Reserved Player.one of our Dayak minister had said the Dayak Penans no longer have their ’supermarkets’.Why ??? Due to indiscriminate logging or encroachment into their hunting grounds.
For the Penans jungle or forest is the source of their lifelines,primarily their food sources but for the Timber companies-the source of their RM Millions/billions.