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Extracted from Malaysiakini
Shahrizat
stonewalls on 'sexual abuse' report
Keruah Usit
| Aug 12,
Minister for Women, Family and Community Development Shahrizat Abdul Jalil has been
resisting mounting pressure to make public a controversial report on the
alleged rape and sexual abuse of Penan girls in
Civil society groups have documented 15 reports of alleged rape or
sexual abuse of young Penan girls in the Baram area by logging workers. Many of
the survivors are minors.
The allegations provoked national outrage when the stories of two teenagers
from Long Item and Long Belok were highlighted in the
mainstream media last year. The reports described unwanted pregnancies as a
result of the sexual abuse.
Survivors have said reports made to the
The Bar Council, the Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO), Suaram, and other civil
society groups called for Bukit Aman
to send an investigative team to the Baram villages.
The groups said last year that a police report on the alleged rape of a
12-year-old Penan girl had been made as far back as 1994, yet no meaningful attempt
at investigation had ever been carried out.
“There has been a loss of confidence in the
Sarawak Police Commissioner Mohamad Salleh said the police could not act without official
reports, but victims have accused the local police of refusing to accept
reports.
Deputy
Chief Minister Alfred Jabu anak
Numpang treated the rape allegations with contempt.
He dismissed the claims as unfounded, without waiting for any investigation by
the police.
“I have not heard of any such complaints from Penan communal leaders in my many
trips to ulu Baram,” said Jabu,
chief of the state government’s steering committee on the Penan.
Marudi district police chief Jonathan Jalin echoed Jabu, saying police had interviewed teachers from Long Item
and Long Belok, but “the teachers told us they had
received no reports on the matter”.
Jalin went on to say that police had also interviewed
workers from the two logging companies operating in the area, and had found no
incriminating evidence. He did not mention whether the survivors of alleged
abuse or their families had been interviewed.
The appeals by civil society groups to Bukit Aman have also been ignored after it initially promised to
investigate the reports.
Silence not explained
The only ‘investigations’ that have been made public were on the front page of
a local newspaper, the Borneo Post,
owned by KTS, a logging company.
A team from the newspaper interviewed several villagers from Long Item and Long
Kawi, and reported that those interviewed had not
heard of any cases of sexual abuse.
The Borneo Post went on to
report that a Chinese man, referred to as ‘Ah Heng’,
a worker at a timber camp, had said he is “married” to one of the alleged
survivors of sexual abuse and admitted he had fathered her two children.
However, ‘Ah Heng’ could not
substantiate his claims of marriage. Local sources alleged that the girl herself
and her parents continue to insist that ‘Ah Heng’ had
forced himself on her over several years.
Around the same time as these articles, two large logging companies - Interhill and Samling - made
unsolicited public statements denying that their employees were involved in
sexual abuse of girls from local communities.
Civil society groups turned to the federal government to seek redress for the
victims and to protect the vulnerable Penan from logging workers.
Shahrizat's predecessor Ng Yen Yen
responded by sending her ministry’s task force to Baram last October.
The team was headed by director-general Dr Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur
and included representatives of the Women’s Centre for Change (
Ng had
claimed the cabinet “was very supportive” of the task force.
“We are very focused on looking into the plight of Penan women and girls…we
must ensure that Penan women are protected and not exploited,” Ng said.
The report was submitted to Shahrizat last November.
However, nine months later, she has continued to refuse to release the report
to the public.
“Interested parties can come to the ministry, and we can discuss the details of
the report,” she said.
Shahrizat did not offer to transport Penan women from
rural Baram to visit her ministry to discuss the report.
“So long as the report is not shared with the public, the Penan
community continues to become more vulnerable,” said WAO executive director Ivy
Josiah (left), a member of
the task force.
Prema Devaraj of
Shahrizat has declined to answer questions regarding
the findings. She has also refused to provide any reasons for with holding its
recommendations from the public.
The deprived region of Baram is vast: it covers an area larger than Selangor. The rural poor in remote areas remain in the
thrall of the wealthy timber, plantation and dam-building companies.
The
The elite of the state and the federal governments, the police, the mainstream
media, and the mammoth logging companies have shown close historic cooperation,
in crushing dissent against logging.
Frustrated civil society groups see the suppression of the 2008 report on
sexual abuse of Penan girls as another example of this collaboration.
KERUAH