The dramatic Gawai Kelingkang, an Iban ritual ceremony, summoned ancestral and warrior spirits for support in a battle between local longhouse communities against a Sarawak Oil Palm Berhad (SOP) plantation.
SOP, a public listed company whose major shareholders are Pelita (a statutory body of the Sarawak Government) and the Miri-based Ling family-owned Shin Yang company, has been working for over a year to replace the local 'temuda' (farmland) with an oil palm estate - but the cash has gone only to the stakeholders. Along the process, fruit trees, food and cash crops of the local villagers have been bulldozed by the subcontractor hired by SOP.
Throughout Sarawak, other giant plantation schemes and logging operations, also with powerful political patrons, have been taking over traditional Native Customary Rights (NCR) land, sparking similar conflicts with the indigenous communities.
As a result of this latest land takeover, 2 longhouses, Rumah Busang and Rumah Bali, homes to more than 20 families, have become the stage for a tragedy.
The villagers had been appealing to SOP and state politicians for negotiations and a moratorium on the bulldozers, but they had been brushed aside.
The village leaders made 7 police reports this year and wrote an appeal letter to the Inspector General of Police alleging that they had been threatened by gangsters employed by SOP, using samurai swords to force them to surrender their land for the plantation project.
Villagers said that, elsewhere in the region, hired gangsters have also threatened longhouse residents with violence.
Police reports and appeal letter to the Inspector General of Police have proven ineffectual.
On September 1, violence flared up and 4 of the Miri gang members were killed in a confrontation with masked villagers said to be from the 2 longhouses. 4 other gangsters escaped, with light injuries.
Longhouse residents said that 12 men fought the 8 gangsters. However, 19 villagers from Rh. Busang and Rh. Bali are now in Lambir Prison, awaiting their charges being mentioned in the High Court on November 17. No bail is allowed under the tentative charge of murder.
"We are all sad that both our tuai rumah (longhouse headman) are in jail and not at this Gawai," said Elam anak Busang, daughter of the tuai rumah of Rh. Busang.
"We did not want blood spilled on our land. But our government have not helped us, they have not helped all the other people in Sarawak who have had their NCR land invaded."
Ancestral NCR land is central in the lives of the Iban and other indigenous communities in Sarawak. NCR land provides them with food and water, serves as their burial ground and place of worship, and plays a vital role in their kinship ties and communal values. It basically also ensure self-sufficiency to the longhouse communities.
The plantation owners obviously do not recognise the NCR land rights of Busang and Bali villagers. In Busang and Bali, as in other parts of Sarawak, application to the Land and Survey Department for registration of NCR title rights have been fruitless.
High ranking government officials stand to reap huge personal profits from the expanding plantations. Typically, those officials say that they are developing large-scale estates on NCR land to provide jobs for the rural people and to uplift the economic status of the indigenous land owners.
Through the mass media, controlled by the government, indigenous Sarawakians are urged to give up their NCR land rights in order to "join the mainstream of development". However, labourers on the estates are often illegal migrant workers. In addition, there are reports that the daily wage is eight to twelve Malaysian Ringgit (US$2-3).
The ritual of the Gawai Lelingkang Bujang Berani ('Gawai of the brave') were held to demonstrate the villagers' support for the detainees, seen as courageous defenders of their land. The Gawai entailed 3 days of incantations, ritual offerings and dancing.
The Gawai also served as a rally, bringing together neighbouring communities and those across the state in general to oppose the land encroachment.
500 people of all races, including headmen or tuai rumah of nearby longhouses, attended the Gawai Kelingkang. Many neighbouring villagers donated rice and money to the villagers of Busang and Bali.
Following the traditional sacrifice of a pig, villagers danced the ngajat, welcoming their guests. Sitting in a circle, elders performed a miring, an offering of food to the spirits, seeking their blessing.
Several tuai rumah addressed the crowd, calling for unity in the face of further threats. Representative of the village committee read out lists of donations by individuals and groups from Sarawak and West Malaysia, local longhouses and even staff of numerous government departments in nearby towns.
Elam, on behalf of the Busang and Bali villagers, greeted the crowd of reporters, including those from several Chinese-language newspapers and the CNN, speaking to them in Iban, Malay and Chinese.
"We welcome people of all races here, who are trying to help us," Elam said, emphasising that the conflict was not a racial one, Several speakers pointed out that land encroachment, by plantation or timber companies, was a common problem on Malay as well as Dayak (indigenous people's) land.
Villagers said that all state leaders had been invited, including the Chief Minister, and the Federal Energy, Communication and Multimedia Minister, Leo Moggie, who is also the President of the Parti Bangsa Dayak Sarawak (Sarawak Dayak Party).
However, only the sole opposition member of parliament from Sarawak attended the Gawai.
"Where have they been? Who among them has ever come here to help us?" a tuai rumah from a local longhouse said angrily.
After the speeches, the Gawai proper began. The centre-piece of the ceremony was a pillar, representing a tree, reaching from floor to ceiling. This was surrounded by offerings: rice wine, eggs, rice and herbs. Around this altar, a procession of elders, led by the mengap or chief priest, chanted invocations, punctuating their calls to their ancestral spirits with thuds of their wooden poles on the floor.
They were followed in procession by Iban girls and women in traditional costume, their head-dress and clothes decorated by tinkling coins.
The women's dance was to welcome the warriors home from battle - although those they honoured were in prison a hundred over kilometers away. While the women danced, they carried 5 ancient and withered human skulls, relics of a bygone head-hunting age.
The fearsome ceremony served as a reminder of the strength of the Iban in Sarawak over the last millennium, and their ability to survive adversities.
This solemn Gawai was a gathering of strength, for a protracted and painful battle ahead. It was also, in part, an expression of solidarity with the grieving families of those in prison.
Although the 19 men in prison may feel that they have not committed murder, with the local villagers strongly asserting the people's absolute innocent, and that they fought to defend their land, they have tentatively been charged with murder under Section 302 of the Malaysian Panel Code. This means that they are facing a mandatory death sentence if convicted.
Local villagers shed tears during the speeches. Two elderly women, relatives of Tuai Rumah Busang, embraced each other and wept quietly before the ceremony began.
They were joined in their embrace by Tuai Rumah Busang's 5-year old grand daughter, who as yet does not understand the price her grandfather may have to pay for defending the land which one day will be hers.
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