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Extracted from
Malaysiakini
Blockade,
thugs and a well-connected company
Tony
Thien
Oct 1,
Residents of five Iban longhouses in
They are encountering problems at different fronts – with a plantation company
said to be linked to a sister of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud for
encroaching into their NCR land, with individuals said to have been engaged by
the company who are using threats to force them to back down, with the Land and
Survey Department which sent them a 10-day notice to stop ‘squatting on state
land’ and with some locals who are eyeing their land.
The villagers’
spokesperson Matek Geram, 29, formerly an offshore oil rig worker and now a
full-time farmer, told Malaysiakini
that the longhouse residents erected a blockade on the plantation road built by
Saradu Plantation Sdn Bhd on Aug 9 to stop company workers from passing
through.
Repeated negotiations with the company’s representatives had been futile, he
added.
Matek said although the company had sent representatives to talk to them, they
were not serious in resolving the problems. “They just want us out of the
area,” he stressed.
The villagers filed two police reports on Sept 20. The first was about the
two-month-old blockade set up to protect their land, and the second concerned
the action taken by law-enforcement personnel and some locals who tried to
dismantle the blockade.
On the same day Matek and several villagers had lodged the reports,
they were attacked by a group of people in a shop that afternoon. He believes
that the ‘thugs’ were hired by the company or its agents.
He claimed that when he went to lodge a police report on the assault, he was
told that he could be locked up for three days as this was normal procedure.
“Where have you heard of this, a complainant being locked up? To this day, no
action has been taken against the attackers,” he lamented.
Harassed
by cops
According to Matek, the problem started when the company was given the
provisional lease which affects about 500 hectares of what the Ibans claim to
be NCR land.
When the company started moving into the area, they built a plantation land
which went through the native land. “So we set up the blockade to protect our
own interests,” said Matek.
Matek also claimed that he is being harassed by the police who have accused him
of instigating the villagers to go against the authorities.
He also showed a letter dated Sept 24 from the Mukah Superintendent of Land and
Survey Unus Tambi, giving him a 10-day notice to stop squatting on state land.
However, Matek said he will not heed the notice as he considers the land as
belonging to the villagers.
Meanwhile, Borneo Research Institute (Brimas) co-ordinator Mark Bujang said
they are looking at how to resolve the issue.