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Extracted from
Malaysiakini
Penan abuse: S'wak launches counter-attack
Keruah Usit | Sep 23,
Embattled
Flurries of angry headlines have emerged in the past few days in the
In a Sept
12 front page article in the Borneo Post,
"Doubts over KL Penan report", Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister and
Minister in charge of Penan affairs Alfred Jabu cast doubt on the credibility
of a report condemning the rape of minors by logging company workers.
The report had been issued by the national task force set up by the Ministry of
Women, Family and Community Development to investigate allegations of rape of
Penan girls and women by logging companies in far-flung villages in Baram.
The release of the report was delayed by Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil for
almost a year, raising questions of political interference. Shahrizat
eventually released the report on Sept 8 after intense pressure by opposition
parties and civil society.
Jabu's outburst
According to the Borneo Post,
Jabu said "there may be a report, but you must remember that negative
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were strongly behind it... (but) if there are grounds to take action, then it must be
done."
Jabu had added that the media had "played a role" by highlighting the
issue.
He went on to admit that he had not even seen the report. However, the article
quoted Jabu as saying he "believed negative NGOs had a hand in it".
He did not elaborate on the NGOs' identities.
There was no response from Shahrizat or her ministry to Jabu's outburst.
The national taskforce comprised senior members of her ministry, as well as
members of the Home Affairs, Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage, Education,
Rural and Regional Development, and Health, ministries, as well as
representatives from the
The task force found that Penan girls as young as 10 had been sexually abused
by employees of logging companies in remote Baram communities. The report
concluded that Penans' poverty and dependency on the logging companies for
transport to and from school had contributed to the sexual abuse by logging
company truck drivers and other workers.
Jabu has attempted to portray himself as a champion of Sarawakians, resisting
interference from the federal government. He ignored the fact that the
The Borneo Post quoted Jabu
as saying some of the Penan were in "cahoots" with foreign NGOs,
bringing up the spectre of Swiss environmentalist Bruno Manser. Jabu alleged
Manser had gone to live with the Penan to make a documentary so that he could
"make some money".
Manser had highlighted injustices perpetrated on the Penan by logging companies
in the 1980s and 1990s. He went missing in Baram in 2000. He is believed to
have died there, but his body has never been found.
"The negative NGOs made use of the Penan to feed their concocted stories
about
Jabu appeared to describe the activism of Manser's NGO, and the work of two
women's NGOs in the Ministry's national task force on sexual abuse of the Penan
by logging workers, as being under the same umbrella of "negative
NGOs". However, he stopped short of accusing the
In another Borneo Post
article on Sept 20, headlined "NGOs manipulating Penan issue: Dawos",
State Environmental Advisor Dr James Dawos Mamit echoed Jabu's allegations.
He was quoted as saying "if (the NGOs) highlight an issue like this, the
foreign donors will come in and give them more money."
Both Jabu and Dawos condemned the Sept 16 Malaysia Day protest by Penan and other
Dayak villagers from Murum, at the Chief Minister's office in Kuching. Fifteen
protesters had been arrested for attempting to hand over a memorandum to the
Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud. They had been protesting the loss of their
ancestral lands to the construction of the giant Murum hydroelectric dam.
"It is not the Penans who oppose. You tell me who are the Penans? Where
did they come from? Did they come from Murum?" Dawos asked, according to
the Borneo Post.
Blockades dismantled
Meanwhile, Telang Usan state assembly representative Lihan Jok
argued that Penan blockades against logging and plantation companies had been
voluntarily dismantled in Baram, according to the Borneo Post on Sept 18.
PKR state information chief
See uploaded a copy of a
video of Lihan's meeting with the Penan communities onto the website
Hornbill Unleashed. He said the police, army and forestry officers had forcibly
dismantled the blockades, after Lihan had said he could not ensure the Penans'
land rights could be protected.
"State leaders like Alfred Jabu and Lihan Jok should be held responsible for
"The revelation of the task force report on the alleged sexual abuses of
Penan girls and women has exposed the state's neglect for the welfare of the
state's minority groups. The suppression of truths concerning their aspirations
and dissent will only fuel the anger and agitation of right-thinking
people."
Chief Minister Taib did not respond personally to the international furore over
With