|
|
Extracted from
Malaysiakini
In defence of the emerald forests
Keruah Usit | Jun 10,
Tirong Lawing, 61, a respected village chief from the remote
community of Long Kerong, appeared vexed. He was talking about Malaysian timber
certification.
Tirong
spoke slowly and softly - verbal pyrotechnics are not exactly his style. For a
forest-dweller, raising one’s voice is necessary only in an emergency.
Tirong’s frustration could be drawn only from his expression: a few wry smiles
and the occasional frown.
Tirong was describing a visit from the Malaysian Timber Certification Council
(MTCC) in early 2006. The MTCC delegation had clearly offended their shy,
courteous Penan hosts.
The clash between forest dwellers and the MTCC is a case study in the pervasive
doctrine of ‘might is right’ in
The MTCC, a
supposedly independent timber
accreditation body, had certified that logging in the
Selaan-Linau area surrounding Tirong’s (right)
village as “legal”.
The council argued that a logging licence had been granted to the fabulously
wealthy logging giant Samling by Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud over
a decade ago.
Armed with MTCC certification, Samling was able to circumvent a ban and market
timber from the Selaan-Linau area to credulous European buyers.
Seal of approval for logging giant
The MTCC
provides accreditation for a vast area under Samling’s concession called the
Selaan-Linau Forestry Management Unit (FMU). The Selaan-Linau FMU (also known,
more succinctly, as ‘home’ to the people living in the forests) covers 55,949
hectares, almost a fifth of
The FMU envelops the communal land of 70 families in Long Kerong
as well as the land of around 5,000 other Orang Ulu people in remote Baram,
located in northeast
MTCC’s assertion that timber is “legal” ignores the fact that local communities
have been protesting for 20 years since Samling moved in. The communities have
asserted their native customary rights (
Communities living in and around the Selaan-Linau FMU have brought a legal suit
against Samling and the
Four
leaders - Kelesau Naan (left), Jawa Nyipa, Bilong Oyoi and
Pelutan Tiun - brought the suit to overturn Abdul Taib’s concession grant to
Samling.
The suit has been left languishing in the courts since 1998. Manoeuvres to
bring in neighbouring Kenyah litigants to lay claim on the same land as the
four Penan plaintiffs delayed the trial.
The civil court decided that the suit must now be heard in the native customary
court first before Samling’s concession can be challenged in the Miri High
Court. The native customary court has yet to decide which communities have a
stronger claim to the disputed land.
Meanwhile, MTCC, which delineated the FMU in October 2004, has
refused to recognise that these
In a letter written to MTCC in 2004, 19 native community chiefs from the
Selaan-Linau area said: “Many of us have suffered due to the Samling logging
operations: our rivers are polluted, our sacred sites damaged and our animals
chased away.”
Samling claimed, on the
other hand, that it “engages and assists” native communities in its concession
area.
Council protects market, not forests
Malaysiakini
reported that a leading land rights lawyer,
Baru told the committee that the MTCC was more interested in securing a market
for local wood products than in promoting social and environmental justice.
Baru said indigenous peoples’ groups and environmental activists
had pulled out of the MTCC process in 2001, because of the council’s disregard
for indigenous people’s land rights.
“We have chosen to withdraw because, as we have maintained from the beginning,
we feel that the MTCC initiative, among other things, has been weighed down by
skewed business interests, biased government support and lack of transparency
in matters where it matters most... MTCC is also noted for not defending the
truth,” said
Since the MTCC was set up in 1998, its board of trustees has been dominated by
government bureaucrats. There has also been a healthy smattering of timber
industry executives.
The rest of the board has been made up mostly of academics, native NGOs which
have little to do with forest-dwellers, and a few token, compliant
environmentalists, such as the Malaysian Nature Society.
Malaysian taxpayers provided the bulk of MTCC’s 2007 assets of RM86 million.
Tirong Lawing recounted the visit of an MTCC delegation to meet
villagers from Long Kerong, Long Sepigen and Long Sait (both an hour’s walk
from Long Kerong) in early 2006.
“The MTCC officials went to Long Sait together with Samling staff and Forestry
people,” Tirong said.
“One MTCC man was very aggressive,” Tirong reported. “He said the MTCC had come
to tell us to accept the company’s logging. He said if we refused, the next
time they came, they would not be so friendly. They would come with the police
and the Field Force.
“We were unhappy that he threatened us like that,” Tirong explained patiently,
“but we told our visitors we were willing to continue to negotiate. We told
them we are peace-loving, that we would even negotiate with the police. We have
handled the police in the past.”
Pleas to remove the blockade
In Long Benali, further north in the Selaan-Linau FMU, villagers have said that
MTCC representatives had tried to persuade the villagers to remove their
logging blockade against Samling. The Long Benali blockade was the reason for a
six-month suspension of Samling’s MTCC certification for Selaan-Linau, starting
in May 2007.
Certification was
reinstated in November 2007 when MTCC assessors decided that
Samling’s negotiations had led to “progress made to resolve the dispute”.
Clearly,
though, the progress trumpeted by MTCC was illusory: the blockade remains
standing until today, and the heated issues surrounding Samling’s invasion have
not been resolved.
MTCC public relations/marketing executive Sabrina Wu wrote in a letter to Malaysiakini last week that allegations
of MTCC representatives asking Long Benali villagers to remove the blockade
were “totally untrue”.
Long Benali villagers had stated unequivocally that MTCC representatives had
asked them repeatedly, during visits in 2007, to remove the blockade.
MTCC representatives were taken to the village by Samling, in the company of
Forestry Corporation officials. The three parties travelled together, as they
did when the “holy trinity” had visited Long Sait in 2006.
A Long Benali leader, Henneson Bujang, described one well-known MTCC
consultant’s pleas. “He put his arm around my shoulders and asked me again and
again to remove the blockade. He said an MTCC audit was coming up. He told me
with a smile that after the audit, we could put the blockade back up.”
Henneson was not amused, and the villagers refused.
S’wak timber exports RM6 bil a year
The controversies surrounding the MTCC are not unique to the logging industry.
Many other Malaysian accreditation bodies, purporting to provide certification
and licensing, have also been condemned for poor transparency and lack of
impartiality by the Malaysian public.
The disgust induced by
the MTCC is only one sign of the frustration of impoverished forest-dwelling 
communities
in
The crushing weight of government machinery is being applied to wrestle land
away from natives in
The MTCC now claims to certify wood from 4.73 million hectares of forest
throughout
The MTCC, the Forestry Corporation (a privatised version of an emasculated
Forestry Department), the police, the
The rewards for taking over
Sarawakian tycoons, working hand in hand with government politicians, hope that
oil-palm plantations and giant dams will be cash cows in years to come, to
replace rapidly dwindling timber stocks.
But the government and its cronies must first overcome the tenacity and
perseverance of rural communities in defending their land.
KERUAH