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Extracted from
Malaysiakini
Taib: Stop the 'lies' about
Tony Thien | Oct 9,
Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, usually cool in the face
of criticism levelled at his government, has reacted badly to recent media
reports about the eviction notice served to some 10,000 Kadayan-Malay villagers
in Bekenu, near Miri and the alleged rape of Penan
girls by logging company workers in the remote Baram area.
At a Hari
Raya function in Miri on Monday, he said the reports were nothing but “lies”
and demanded that the newspapers corrected them. The irate chief minister also
warned that appropriate action would be taken against those who failed to
apologise for the ‘false’ reports.
The Borneo
Post, a leading local English daily, quoted the chief minister as
saying that he regarded the media reports as acts of sabotage against the
state.
“Check your
information or you will be suspected by the decent people of
Apart from The Borneo Post, several local Chinese
dailies also published similar reports.
Local and
national papers reported that a large group of Kadayan-Malay land-owners staged
a ‘friendly protest’ after a legal firm, acting for a plantation company, last
week issued notices seeking to evict them from their ancestral land which is
now part of a provisional land lease issued to the company by the state
government.
The company
is said to be linked to a prominent Chinese businessman with powerful political
connections in the state.
An Orang
Ulu lawyer acting for some of the aggrieved native customary rights (
Irate
chief minister
Taib’s
initial reaction to the reports on the protest by the Kadayan-Malay landowners
surprised many as he was quoted by local newspapers as saying then that if the
land-owners wanted to play rough with him, he was ready to do the same with
them, adding that whether they liked it or not, here in
It was
initially reported that the chief minister would hold a dialogue with the
landowners but yesterday the chief minister changed his mind and instead
dispatched his Assistant Land Minister Naroden Majais to meet representatives
of the Kadayan-Malay community, led by Pemanca Abu Bakar
After the
meeting, the assistant minister told reporters that the villagers and the Land
and Survey Department would carry out a joint survey to determine the location
of the
At another
function in Betong yesterday, Taib again lashed out at the newspaper reports,
calling them “acts of sabotage” which Sarawakians should ignore as they were
written by journalists who had little or no knowledge of the state.
The Borneo
Post today quoted him in a front page report as saying, “I have a
heavy responsibility looking after the welfare of the people and will not allow
the freedom of some newspapers to disrupt our progress and racial harmony.
‘We need to
protect
Shocked
by ‘sheer arrogance’
Meanwhile,
Sarawak PKR legal advisor
“Any
reasonable government would appreciate the efforts of journalists and
newspapers who have the courage to assist in the
exposure of these heinous crimes,” said See when contacted by Malaysiakini today. “But unfortunately,
the
See said
the
“We are
talking about the sexual abuse of teenaged school girls,” he said referring to
the alleged sexual abuse of Penan girls by logging company workers operating
near Penan settlements.
See opined
that one of the reasons why the victims have yet to come forward to lodge
police reports could be their distrust of law enforcement agencies in
“I do not
blame them, considering the circumstances they are in. Before any investigation
was carried out, the Marudi district police chief Jonathan Jalin was already
reported to be dismissing the allegations, saying that there was no evidence to
support them.
“How can we
expect a thorough and impartial investigation into the matter from the force in
