RETURN NCR LANDS AND FORESTS TO THE PENANS !
Written by YB DOMINIQUE NG
RETURN NCR LANDS AND FORESTS TO THE PENANS !
The Ancestral or NCR lands and forests of our Penan people must be returned to them, says YB Dominique Ng, the ADUN for Padungan. He further calls upon the State government to immediately instruct logging and plantation companies concerned to stop logging in the Baram District and to pull out completely. He says that the forests of Baram have been the habitat of our Penan compatriots for centuries, and no one has the right to usurp their rights over their NCR inheritance.
He was responding to the current protective blockades mounted by hundreds of Penans over their forest territories at Long Belok, Long Nen, and Long Bangan?”The shameful violation of the NCR land of the Penans and the fundamental rights of ethnic minorities has seriously impaired the international image of Sarawak and Malaysia” says Ng.
“For the last several decades, the NCR territories of the Penans have been severely encroached upon by logging and plantation activities, destroying the greater part of the forest habitat upon which their entire survival so critically depends. At stake is not just Penan individuals and families, but the survival of an entire ethnic minority group.”
” For all their lip-service of care, the government record is one of deliberate neglect. Without the tropical forests, the Penans are losing their natural food source. This is amply proven recently when about 3000 Penans were on the verge of starvation for some 3 months before the disaster was reported. The destruction to their ecosystem has thus taken a devastating toll on these natives of Sarawak”
“The government has compromised all the people of Sarawak, who will find it difficult to face the international community on both fronts of human rights and environmental protection to combat climate change.”
“The violation of the Penan people’s NCR jungle territories has threatened their security, no less graphically illustrated by the rape and sexual harassment suffered by the Penan womenfolk and students as reported last year.” “What has the government criminal justice system done to restore their dignity and return justice to them ?” asks Ng.
“Do you expect them to accept their impending doom without a determined fight-back?” asks Ng.
“In actual fact only 5% of the tropical forests of the State are classified as Totally Protected Forests, these been the National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries; much of the rest have been carved out and logged and logged over again. The current Penan blockade is but one confined to a relatively small remnant area of their habitat. Yet the authorities and business concerned are apparently unwilling to concede the last crucial habitat to the resisting Penans.”
“In carrying out unrestricted logging, our Government has made us an international renegade State in the matter of Environment Protection and Climate Change. Of climate change, all Sarawak people are also suffering the cumulative damages as floods, drought, record temperatures, wind storms, forest fires, smoke haze, ill health and so on are being wrought upon us, a direct result of the indiscriminate destruction of our forests and environment.”
“The Penans and our tropical forests are two of our proudest national assets. We have been endowed by heaven with our rich and beautiful forests, and the Penans- they who are the foremost Protectors of our forests, are fighting to keep our forests evergreen and our air pristine clean. Their courage at the frontlines, protecting both their livelihood and the environment, deserves our highest respects. We stand in our total solidarity with them,” concluded Ng.
25.8.09.
Popularity: 23% [?]
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Inspirational word from gkm2020
Mr. YB, it’s is tooooo easy for you to ask logging company to pull out all logging operations completely. We do understand the problem of Penans in Ulu Baram but did you consider the workers working in logging company if they have to lose their job??? Do you ever consider the impact of economy of the country once it close down?? You only know how to give unconsider speeches and never think about the other people. We understand the impact logging will damage ecosystem of our planet but since the government open more jobs opportunity to people, they have to find job in order to feed the family.
Majority of workers working in timber camp do not have other hand skill because they drop out of school at very young age and work as labourers. Once they are unemployed, there will have difficulty to shift to other work since they do not other skill.
Talking about human right issues, western countries have to ask for themselves that they own human right violation are worse than other country.
Indeed, deforestation for oil palm & plantation into interior region have serious impact on global warming and climate change but think seriously on all aspect. We must consider to shift slowly to other industries and train skill workers instead of depending on logging, oil palm and acacia plantation.
Apooo……mayuh amat tanah sida Penan nya neh? Ni enda jilis sida ke megai perintah meda pengaya sida Penan ba tanah nya. Uji tanya ga Awang Middle enti iya bisi tanah ngemayuh baka enggi sda Penan nya. Pelaba aku sigi mimit bidang tanah iya enti iya enda ngerumpak tanah urang bukai. Nya alai sida pen berebut diatua ka ngerumpak tanah sida Penan.
Taib and his BN henchmen want to coax the Penan out from their forest-land where they have dwelt, content and happy, since time imemorable,SUPPOSEDLY to bring them into the mainstream of development and progress.
But have Taib and gang prepared these Penans for such a life,…like: Will their new lives ease or burden them? How will they earn their living? Will there be jobs that they can do? For a people so used to having free and unlimited supply of food and meat from the forest,will their income be enough to buy such?
Obviously, the Penans saw and felt themselves as not ready or prepared for such a life,and that it would burden and trouble them. Life in the forest has been so carefree and abundant for them.
Taib’s proxies,the timber companies, have practically muscled in and shooed them out of their forest-homes,felled the timbers,scared away their food sources,and polluted their drinking water. Isn’t that against basic human rights?…the right to live the only way they know how,the only way they are able to?
Even if Taib sees the importance,the wisdom,the need,to resettle these Penans, why fell the trees and pollute the rivers? IS IT THE PENANS THAT HE IS CONCERNED ABOUT OR IS IT THE TIMBER THAT HE IS INTERESTED IN??
These poor Penans must have felt so helpless and abandoned by fellow Malaysians,who are equally powerless,that they seeked the attention and help of foreigners to highlight their grouses and problems. And these foreigners flew back and paint bad(but TRUE)pictures of the heartless cruelty of the government under Taib towards such a humble albeit naive ethnic race.
Kalau nak biarkan hutan belantara tidak ditebang apa akan jadi?Kaum Penan tentu masih terpencil dalam hutan2 belantara dan mereka tidak melihat dunia luar.Kaum Penan cuma hidup memburu binatang2 dan makan tumbuhan hutan,untuk sampai bila?100 tahun lagi?Apa peranan kerajaan jika hanya melihat hutan belantara tanpa diterokai?lihat hutan dan tidak melakukan apa2.Jabatan Hutan tentu tidak wujud,sawmills2 balak dan industri pembalakan tentu tidak wujud.main tenguk dan lihat aje?Ini namanya kera- jaan.Kera bukan pandai berfikir yang lain cuma pandai makan saja.
ATASPAGAR kalau takda benda bagus nak kata lebih baik jangan buang masa taip sebarang nak kata
The PR political personalities has provided some political support to the Penan, and recently I’m pleasantly surprise that the case of an Iban farmer, Matek ak Geram
“http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2009/08/13/joas-committee-member-arrested/”
appear first in Lim Kit Siang blog.
I agree absolutely with KuncitMuncit. The callous and heavy handed way that the Penan issue were handled by the state government is almost criminal if not negligence.
The transition of the Penan to modernity could have been handled for humanely. The government of the day should consider setting up a ministerial level position to look after the affairs of the Penans, instead of just providing schools and longhouses.They have a long way to go.
I’m concern at DayakBaru readers appearance of disinterestedness in the Penans plight and fail to see the parallel between the social injustices in NCR land and the lose of Penan habitat due to unbridle greed.The Dayak political party silence on the issue, is again – unacceptable.
As for the opposition politics, at least there is some voice of support, in chorus with BRIMAS, TAHABAS and JOAS.The Penans do not carry much vote but at least the principle to fight for justice, is consistently applied – and indeed, vigorously defended, in some cases.
Perhaps PR would go further, and make it their election manifesto to set up a minister-level position to look after the Penans affairs ? No big votes from the community – but at least, by contract to the current government, it would show the group/coalition to have compassion for the weakest segment of the community. Besides, would be good for Sarawak international trade, if developed countries do not boycot her product.
Whatever the majority think best, just go ahead!
We agreed with it. Nothing to lose, much more to be gained.
Thank you.
Sebenarnya lisen balak ini kepunyaan towkey besar crony Taib.Lisen kepunyaan towkey tapi yang menjalankan kerja adalah kontraktor mereka yang rakus, tamak dan kalau banyak tebang banyak komisen dapat daripada towkey mereka,Hal-hal undang-undang Jab Hutan mereka tidak peduli. Jadi tidak hairanlah pencerobohan ke kawasan penan dilakukan keatas kawasan tempat mereka mencari makanan. Bangsa penan ini tidak akan membuat “blockage” jika kawasan mereka tidak di kacau seperti kawasan penkuburan mereka dan tempat mencari makanan. Fikirlah jika kawasan kamu diceroboh apa kamu akan buat. Pesan untuk ucak ATASPAGAR jangan beanggapan orang penan ini kolot atau tidak pandai. Bagi saya orang-orang seperti kamu ini langsung tidak pandai menghargai alam sekitar dan cetek fikiran dalam isu-isu alam sekitar. Ini lah akibatnya undang-undang hutan yang hanya “good in writing” tetapi di kuat kuasakan tidak ada. Sekian terima kasih
Wai ATASPAGAR, anang ka kelalu ga ka nebang hutan. Peda dek pemendar sida ba menua Arab nebang kayu menya yau sampai nyadi padang pasir diatu. Kati nya meh utai ka peda dek, wai? Kati bisi sida Arab nya diau dalam tengah padang pasir deh? Pedis amai nya nyau nadai alai belalai ari matari. Nasit agi bisi anak kayu alai sida Penan belalai, beteduh ari panas, ujan. Aki kitai Abraham pen bisi enggau nebang meringga kampong jerong menua nya menya ga. Anang balat ka nebang, enggai ke sida penan nyau beterudus lari ke pasar.
“Mr. YB, it’s is tooooo easy for you to ask logging company to pull out all logging operations completely”.
…………………………………………..
Mike,
well, it is all toooooooo easy for him to say so coz he sees that what the current government is doing is just not fair to the other poor Dayak community, the penans. Let our YB talks about this ethnic group as he may have seen a wider picture of things that have affected their livelihood much more than you and I who just know how to put forward one or two things without much knowledge.After all there is nobody who officially could claim to be a spokesperson for this community. So let him be… Perhaps you may suggest Datuk Hassan Sui to do the function. But do you think this bloke is credible enough to persuade the penan community to progress to the extent that they are going to be moving at similar pace with other society?. At least by asking the companies to pull out immediately will solve some of the problems while waiting for their own preparedness to progress along with other communities.
“We do understand the problem of Penans in Ulu Baram but did you consider the workers working in logging company if they have to lose their job???
”
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Mike,
It is brilliant that you truly understand the plights of the penans. I hope you do not just say it in words as doing so means you and I are not much better than the other. We provide lip service only. The real problem that you need to understand is the starvation that they have to face recently, affecting 3000 families in Sarawak. As a Dayak, it saddens me to hell to hear that someone in Sarawak has to starve. It is not because of their sheer failure in looking for foods from the forest as they have been doing this for centuries without any difficulties. It is because the new entities conceptualized by the current government headed by our beloved CM Taib Mahmud have deeply encroached into their way of life. Gone are the virgin forest used to supply them foods. Gone also are the lands they used to roam into the hands of selected few goons with their systematically legal tools of land grabbing designed to enrich themselves at the expense of the unsystematic poor people like the penans. So, if you truly understand their problem, may I ask you to state what sorts of things have you done or planned to do to alleviate them from their plights?. Have you contributed RM18.00 recently?. I guess you have not coz you do not know how to channel your contribution. Am I right?.
Well, why should we consider the welfare of these timber workers/. After all,they are only working for the timber companies extracting the logs from our forest which we have occupied even before these bloody timber companies issued with the licences to extract wealth from our areas. Before they came, we have been living in the area since time immemorial. Whereas these timber companies only came only in the 199o’s, under the new concept of development envisaged by out beloved CM. Therefore, the question of who coming first should not have cropped up as we came and occupied our areas long before the 1990s or the 1950s. The Land Law (State Land Code 1958) in Sarawak state was introduced well after our very presence in the country. Being naive and unaware then of the legal impact of the law, we just accepted it as such. But now, we know that has been revised numerous times making it easier for the cronies of the current government to grab our lands. Therefore, the question of of who is losing more shall not arise at all. We believe that the Penans stand to lose much more than the timbers workers and all of the actual wealth would definitely be going into the coffers of the cronies.
“Do you ever consider the impact of economy to the country once it close down?”.
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Mike,
“Do you ever consider the impact of the economy to the country once it closes down?”. May I ask you another question: what will happen when the government continues to let the timber companies log in the forestry areas whereby the Penans ae now living at an unprecedented scale?
Well, Mike, the impact could either be positive or negative?. It is positive when the government allows the rich to get richer. And it is negative when the government systematically robs the poor to help the rich and the poor will become poorer. This YB sees things in the form of the latter. You got it!.
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“You only know how to give unconsider speeches and never think about the other people”.
Mike,
Here I beg to differ. This YB gives speeches in consideration of others,the poor. Who is going to speak on their behalf?. With due respect, the Penans do not know much until someone cares enough to be i their shoes. It is the other people, presumably the rich cronies who never think of the other poor. It is the opposite!.
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“We understand the impact logging will damage ecosystem of our planet but since the government open more jobs opportunity to people, they have to find job in order to feed the family:”.
Mike,
There is a bit of stupidity and a fair degree of selfishness going in here. I give you respect for claiming to be in the know of the impact of uncontrollable logging activities and its horrible consequences. And this is plain stupidity. You seem to place job security for the workers and their families above all else. And this is self-centredness. This YB wants to see lees of these things.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Cheers….