Extracted From Malaysiakini

 

Sabah group out to assist Sarawak Ibans
Tony Thien

 

It was a surprise but an additional help which the Iban community in Bait Ili, Pantu in Sri Aman, could find handy in the days ahead.

They have found an unexpected ally from a Kadazandusun non-governmental group with a strong network throughout
Sabah in their continuing struggle to keep loggers out of their communal forests.

 

A 11-member delegation from Partners of Communities Organisation of Sabah Trust (Pacos) visited the 18 Iban families in Sarawak to give them morale support yesterday after hearing of their attempts to stop loggers from taking timber reserved for their own use from their 62.5-hectare communal forest.

Seven family heads, including the tuai rumah (village chief) Rayang Ringkai, were even remanded in police custody for five days recently after a timber company Tasinimas Project Management Sdn Bhd contractor lodged a police report alleging the Ibans had burnt felled logs.

 

This is inspite of the fact that the communal forests was approved by the government in 1988 for them to collect timber for their needs.

On a visit to the site yesterday, malaysiakini also saw many rubber trees which the Iban villagers said were part of the government’s rubber planting scheme approved in the 1980s at the heart of the communal forests.

“It was early this month when some villagers went there to tap rubber that they saw people felling the trees within our communal forests," Rayang told malaysiakini.

He said the communal forests was approved for them with help from Daniel Tajem in the early 1980s, who was then a Sarawak deputy chief minister, and Anthony Belon, a political secretary to the chief minister at that time.

The Bait Ili Ibans are contemplating taking legal action against the timber company and contractor for communal trespassing and theft of logs.

 

Rayang said the villagers welcomed the visit by the Pacos delegation, headed by its land rights programme co-ordinator Galus Ahtoi, as they can assist to further highlight their plight among groups concerned about native land rights.

 

Among the Pacos delegation was Wilster Lawrence, chairperson of the Kampung Minusoh security and development working committee, who is one of five plaintiffs in the first-ever NCR case in Sabah brought to court against Hap Seng Co-ordinated Bhd, Asiatic Development Bhd and three others concerning a 25,000-acre country lease affecting 6320 acres of native rights land belonging to five villages in Kinabatangan.

The Sabahan villagers in Minusoh, Namukan, Maliau, Manana, and Liu panpang had united to stop the companies from entering their land. Seven villagers, including Wilster, were arrested by police for their action and later released after they insisted on their human rights and native land rights.

The Pacos delegation members shared their experiences and problems with their
Sarawak counterparts in defending their land rights. They said they had come to Sarawak to learn how natives in the state handled their problems.

Present at the dialogue were Augustine Bagat, pro tem chairperson of Tanah Hal Bansa Asal Sarawak (Tahabas) or Indigenous Landowners Group Sarawak, Nicholas Munjan, secretary-general of Sarawak Dayak Iban Association, and a community adviser on land rights Anthony Belon.

The great forefathers of the Ibans in Pantu originally came from what is now Indonesian West
Kalimantan about 350 years ago, and settled first in the Lubok Antu area and later spread down south to various places in Sri Aman Division, including Pantu.

They are a fiercely independent group and many fought the White Rajah administration and paid dearly for their lives. They are highly protective of their rights to their lands on which they have settled for two centuries.

 

Most of the early educated Ibans are from Sri Aman or what is formerly known as Simanggang, and many of the retired ones have gone back to their kampungs to tend to their family farms and protect their rights on the land.

The Ibans are largely subsistence farmers, planting padi, tapping rubber and growing pepper.

As the government has moved in to open up more country land for development, especially oil palm plantation and logging, this has put them in conflict with the natives in many areas.

Belon told malaysiakini that government’s policies on the development of NCR land are good "but when it is actually implemented, it is a different thing."