Five Blockades by Penan Groups up from May to June

By Sahabat Alam Malaysia

Utusan Konsumer July 2003

2003-07-26 | The situation is critical --the people are troubled by frequent food shortages, river and air pollution and income loss which in turn produce poverty and ill-health and reduce the people's access to basic housing and sanitation facilities, agricultural assistance, primary education and healthcare services.

WHAT do you do after all that letter-writing and memoranda?

In 2002, SAM tirelessly publicised the many problems faced by the Penan communities caused by the encroachment of logging operations into their traditional forest.

Still there was little response from the state to halt logging operations on their land -- the chief demand of the Sarawak Penan Association's Long Sayan Declaration 2002 which was drawn out during the inaugural Sarawak Penan Community Meeting that was attended by Penan representatives from Miri, Limbang and Bintulu Divisions in June last year.

The lack of swift action is unacceptable, especially given the fact that even the SUHAKAM report on Sarawak released in June 2002 also published similar findings on the people's extremely dismal living conditions.

Thus it was no surprise to us that for the past two months, several Penan communities in Miri and Limbang had resorted to erecting blockades again.

TIRED by the unceasing operations of timber companies which show little regard for their customary land rights, at least seven Penan communities once again jointly resorted to erecting blockades across the roads used by the logging trucks between the month of May and June in Sarawak.

Altogether, five separate blockades were put up in the Division of Miri and Limbang to stop the movement of the timber companies' trucks and press the companies to enter into a consultation process with the people.

Receiving heavy pressure from the state and companies to discontinue their protest, there was reportedly heavy police presence in some of the blockade locations with some of the barricades ended up being dismantled by workers of the timber companies themselves.

By mid-June, most of the blockades had already been taken off the roads. However it is highly unlikely that the communities involved are going to stop putting on pressure on the companies.

The first three blockades were jointly erected by communities from Sungai Apoh and Sungai Patah of the Baram river basin in the Miri Division. The blockades were put up on May 20 by semi-settled Penan groups from four villages to restrain the free passage of log transport on the main road used by two timber companies, Interhill Logging and Rimbunan Hijau.

This information was conveyed to us by Long Sayan Village Chief and Chairman of the Sarawak Penan Association, Chief Ajang Kiew. According to Chief Ajang, police from the Marudi Police Station were deployed at the protest site to maintain peace and order, and according to him then, no violent actions were initiated against the protestors.

Blockading at three locations, the semi-settled protestors came from Long Sayan, Long Belok, Long Daloh and Long Lilim. There were reportedly between two and three hundred protestors who were manning the barricades which had been erected at various strategic locations near their respective villages.

The protestors then maintained --a that they would not dismantle the blockades until their demands to the companies are fulfilled.

Chief Ajang alleged that at one point of time during the protest, the General Manager of Interhill made the move to persuade the protestors to dismantle the blockades and assured them that the company would settle all of their demands before the end of May. The timber company representatives also confidently declared that should their demands remain unfulfilled by the end of May, the people could then resume their protest. The community then temporarily halted this protest, only to resume it on June 1, for obvious reasons.

On the day after the second blockade resumed, Chief Ajang confirmed to us that police personnel from the nearest station in Long Lama had already arrived near the blockade location in several logging trucks which were then parked in the vicinity. This second blockade was torn down within a few days.

People's preference

Meanwhile in another location, another blockade had been erected by the Long angaran Iman villagers in upper Sungai Akah, also part of the Baram river basin in the Miri Division, since the middle of April. Led by Chief Tony Bujang, the blockade was constructed on the road used by the timber company Samling Sdn Bhd.

Chief Tony alleged that the company concerned did offer the people a negotiation opportunity, but the people decided to turn down the proposal as they prefer their forest to remain free of any logging activities.

Finally the fifth blockade was one which had been erected for more than a year since March 2002 in Ulu Sungai Nyakit, part of the Limbang river basin in the Limbang Division. Jointly manned by two nomadic groups led by the charismatic Chief Along Sega and Chief Aweng Tuvai, the blockade was put up to prevent the movement of trucks plying the road used by timber operator Lee Ling Timber.

Despite their previous appeal letters to the company concerned and to the Sarawak's Ministry of State Planning Unit stating their demands for an urgent recognition of their rights to their traditional land and forest, this blockade was also allegedly dismantled by agents of the company concerned in mid-April, 2003. The courageous people constructed another barricade on June 4 but this too was later dismantled.

At press time, it is unclear as to the strategies of the communities in the few months to come although they are firm in not giving up the fight to defend their rights.

SAM is extremely disappointed that despite its promises to the people, the Sarawak State Government has again failed to look into the welfare of the people who has been made impoverished by logging activities.

Over the years, our continued documentation on the impacts of indiscriminate logging on the Penan communities has been equated to instigating the community to reject "development".

As recent as May 28, we were reported to have been poisoning the minds of the people. Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Alfred Jabu was quoted by The Star announcing the government's intention to reach out and help the Penan communities, and additionally, the fact that the state is wary of Penan groups in Baram and Belaga falling into the trap of some non-governmental organisations.

We thus find it imperative to state that SAM does not at all disagree with the government's intention to provide assistance to the people, as a matter of fact we have been highlighting the urgent needs of the people to the authorities numerous times over the years, which include state assistance as basic as access to proper housing and sanitation agricultural support, healthcare sevices and education for the Penan children.

However the abject standard of living in most Penan settlements seems to be the same for more than a decade. Central to their troubles is the destruction of their natural wealth, their traditional land where forest and river resources could be freely obtained. Thus after all these years, how much has been done by the State to address the people's issues and provide them with the kind of help that could bring about genuine community development if this is the case?

Once again, we urge the Sarawak State Government to seriously look into the plight of the Penan communities and heed their various demands as stated in the Long Sayan Declaration 2002 in order to seriously improve their living conditions.