Tuesday, July 6

Ibans hold peaceful demonstration

By Roselind Jarrow

(This story was first published by Free Malaysia Today and is updated and published for the readers of The Broken Shield).

SEBUYAU: Iban natives of five longhouses held a peaceful demonstration in front of Sebuyau District Office in protest against the licensing of their ‘pulau galau’ (communal forest).

About 250 of them including nine Tuai Rumah (longhouse chiefs) were carrying banners and placards while their representatives were meeting with officials of Sarawak Forest Department, Sarawak Forest Corporation, Land and Survey and Quarry Concrete Holding to settle the dispute over three pieces of forest.

A group of Police personnel was present but did not take any action.

The natives claim that the 3,305 hectares of forest between Sungai Sebangan and Sungai Sebuyau are their communal forest and part of their native customary rights land.

It is also a water catchment area supplying water to Sebangan Bazaar and surrounding villages.

But the Forest Department has given the Quarry Concrete Holding a licence to log timbers from the area where some of the rare species of timber are found.

In the meeting which was presided over by Sarawak Administrative Officer Abdul Rahman, the natives were represented by Numpang Suntai, a retired Shell senior officer and Nicholas Mujah, a local activist.

Mujah, who is also Secretary General of Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (SADIA), said that the Forest and Land and Survey officials demanded that the natives must provide proofs that the forest is their communal forest.

He said the natives will file their claim with affidavits during their next meeting this time with officials of the Land and Survey Department in Kota Samarahan on 14 July.

He said the timber company was told not to carry out its operations until the dispute is settled.

Mujah praised the Police personnel for their neutrality in the dispute.

Last week the natives invaded the campsite and confiscated keys of the company’s five bulldozers, two excavators and five lorries and handed them to the Police for safe-keeping.

12 comments:

Uchu aki Biat said...

All citizens have the right to assembly peaceably and without arms in accordance with Article 10 Clause 1(b) of the Federal Constitution.

In this gathering, Sebuyau police did not take action because there was no violence and not prejudicial to public order.

apai irau said...

au,manah meh nya.Ringat nitih ke chara ti betul.Tang anang ringat skejap wai,tikau ke orang seringit dua terus enda ingat ke kaban agi .Steady orang sebuyau.Election enda lama agi,arap ke kita dia nemu'pemanah' perintah BN diatu enti kita apin nemu ngelama tu.Beratus-ratus rumah panjai kitai Iban bedau bisi api eletrik,paip ai lalu maioh mega nadai jalai raya tang udah begempong engau Malaysia kenyau ari taun 1963,tang JABU MAWAN engau MASING meh manah ko kitai.Taib bulih bebillion ringit ari Score,ni enggi kitai deh,api ai enda di beri,tanah NCR majak di ambi.Manah,amat manah sida Taib,jabu,mawan,masing engau maioh agi tuai kitai bansa.ENCHELAK,DINGA KE lalu BERUNDING wai.

Anonymous said...

The government should respect the ibans interest in the pulau galau. In the interest of peace Forest department should revoke the licence though a wealthy tycoon is behind the company. This is the same group under Lee Ling timber which caused problem in Limbang.

Anonymous said...

Tanah nyau, voting rights Tuai Rumah jeopardised and even intellectual property pun nyau !

Mesti buat nyau semua BN!

the end is near said...

If this gov't is really serious then all this questions MUST be answer.What is the logic of Najib 1malaysia, people first and performance now. Does it have any meaning at all if you read the below........

1) PKFZ White Elephant ,14 Billions
2) 7.6 Billions Scorpene tin can
3) 500 Millions halal commission on Scorpene
4) 810 Millions palace balloming to some 1.2 Billions
5) Maltrade II land grab by Naza, costing taxpayers some 2.2 Billions
6) Limbang off shore blocks L and M giveaway to Brunei of 320 Billions.
7) Mamathir…cornering the tin market cost 2.2 Billions
Bank Negara Forex fiasco costing ? Billions
9) Perwaja Steel 15 Billions
10) Naval support ships to cost 2.5 Billions so we can do humanitarians service to Indon or Philippine as if earthquakes or Volcano erupts every months
11) 60,000 APs worth 2.4 Billions given to a few umNOputras
12) 810 Millions New Parliment…Westminster & white House still standing even after 100s of years
13) BMF scandal 4 Billions…Carian group…BMF manager was murdered
14) RM6.75 billion for PSC bhd for locally made naval vessels which were never delivered
15) RM12.5 billion for economically senseless double tracking railway from Ipoh to the Thai border .
16) Altantuya, pick up a stone while walking in KL which turn out 2 be C4
17) Teoh Beng Hock, room too hot,open window n accidentally fell out !
1 A.Kugan
19) Amirulrashyid
20) Nasir Safar’s ” chinese prostitute & Indian beggars,”
21) Toyol 24 Million Palace
22) missing jet engines…wat a joke. aint u ashamed to be a malaysian?
23) Bala ‘s flip flop
24) Perak coup de tat unlawful grab
25) Sodomy I & II
26) MAS shares – Govt bought at $8 ringgit when market price was $3.5 ringgit
27) School claasrooms & computer labs – 10 billion, direct nego. How much did the Government actually get?
2 Halal Hub – 2 billion spent, nothing done, only 200 million left
29) Armoured carriers – 8 billion going to be spent. By industry standards, a good armoured car will only cost half a million. Mindef will spend 30 million for each armoured carrier!
Long but not exhaustive list of scandals:
I jus LOVE BN sooooo muchie tat I just can't wait to vote BN in GE13 for another 50 + years of WhoREsale CORRUPTIONS , mismanagements & watnots

crap is armno main diet.

greedy parasite said...

QC belongs to Tiang Ming Sing of Lee Ling Timber. The other shareholder is taib's daughter. So you see who the aggressor is. They just bulldozed everything that is in their way.What is left in this state will be nothing but barren land. They will strip everything within their sight.Tiang's office is situated in the Standard Chartered Bank building and he stay at Simpang Tiga, on the same side with Sng Chee Hua office.Presently he have some construction at 7mile.We must stop all dealings with anything that is connected with these people.

Bruno Manser said...

The Penans suffer in silence
SPECIAL REPORTS


ULU BARAM: The indigenous people known as Penans who inhabit this remote area in Sarawak have been subjected to sexual abuse by foreign labour (notably loggers), assault, abduction, forced marriages, domestic violence and on-going harassment.
The Penans are part of the Orang Ulu, consisting of Kenyah, Kayan, Kelabit and several smaller groups who together make up 5.9% of the state’s population. These people live in rural and forested areas, relying on subsistence agriculture, small-scale farming, fishing, and hunting-gathering for food.

The situation relating to the Penan, especially the women, is seen by many as the trickling effects from the effort made by the state government to pursue a development strategy predicated on economic growth concomitant with urbanisation and industrialisation over the years.

As part of their “development” path, the exploitation of forest resources has been high on the state's agenda since at least the mid-1980s. This has first been through logging, but later included land conversion to oil-palm plantations and other large projects, including hydro-electric and tourist development initiatives.

This exploitation has carried critical and severe impact on the lives and culture of indigenous communities like the Penan, with the forests and land on which their culture and livelihoods have depended for generations being concessioned to private companies and destroyed.

What does logging actually have to do with sexual violence?

To put into perspective, these logging activities carried out require labour. These labourers were outsiders, men from different ethnic backgrounds not local to the area.

During their spare time, they stroll out from their logging camps into the villages occupied by the Penan, and as such, lure the women into their clutches, many have no choice but to succumb.

Uneducated and poor, the Penan have no authority to go to except for their chieftain in the village. Logging camp authorities are reported to be generally indifferent to the situation facing the women.

They do not hold their workers accountable when women are brought to the camp or when women were violated on camp premises and in fact, protected their workers in several cases.

In almost all the allegations of sexual violence, there were reports of overt threats, intimidation and/or the use of criminal force and assault and in most cases, the women were deserted when they became pregnant.

Mata Kuching said...

The Orang Asli have long over taken the Dayaks in fighting for their right. WE like to see Dayaks by ten of thousands marching to the DUN to protest against the grabbing of NCR land, rape of the Penan girls, and the marginalisation of the Dayaks.

Anonymous said...

apooo....akai....nyamai...parai kitai....

Anonymous said...

to all my friends, don't be adraid to mugabe regime. dont let our ncr land taken away by "them"..mugabe and cronies. the new voters / our young generations are no longer with them. "vote for change"

Anonymous said...

if any ncr land is not farmed after x years, is it still ncr ? The older generations are gone, how do the younger ones prove it as most never even go back - Modern Dayaks live in cities. The Land & Survi offices issue PLs to Taibe gangs, change hands to the rich timber men. The court, land offices and policemen are theirs. So do it by vote ! it's ok to take their 50 ringgit to pay for your time voting. Oh, it's not their money but all Sarawakians.

Anonymous said...

I always say we dayaks like to invite thieves and robbers to our house. When they cleaned out everything in the house only then we complaint. Yhe robbers and thieves will come again and again still we dayaks organise a big ado for them......mentri bisi datai bah rumah panjai aku so have to go back kampung and welcome him is the common battle cry. Ya so will protest but majority don't dare defy the mentari. Salute to you in Sebuyau.