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RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: Win Some, Lose Some for Beleaguered Penan Tribe
By Baradan Kuppusamy
KUALA LUMPUR, Sep 21 , 2009 (IPS) - In wealthy Malaysia that employs over four million Asians to service its high-
rolling lifestyle, a tiny indigenous tribe is fighting for its survival against state
inaction and bureaucratic apathy, as well as marauding giant multinationals and
timber loggers.
It is an increasingly losing battle for the Penan, a tribe of about 12,000 semi-
nomadic people fighting against destruction of their home in the jungles of
Sarawak state in East Malaysia, home to the world’s oldest rain forest and a
complex ecosystem.
The state’s wildlife and unique tropical ecosystem are equally under threat
from loggers who swing into the forest felling the best trees, leaving giant oil
palm plantations while clearing the logged forest to grow more palm oil.
In recent months about 3,000 Penan in the Bakun area in upper Rejang River
– the second longest river in the country – faced severe food shortage for
various reasons, including drought sparked by deforestation. Food supplies
had to be airlifted after church groups raised the alarm.
Exacerbating their already harsh living condition is that Penan women and
children are being raped by loggers and their workers, according to a long-
delayed government report that concluded in mid-September what human
rights activists and non-governmental organisations had been saying for at
least a decade.
But despite evidence of sexual assaults, Malaysian police are dragging their
feet in investigating the cases and bringing the culprits to justice.
"They don’t take the Penan people seriously; they give all kinds of excuses
(for their inaction)," Ragunath Kesavan, leading rights lawyer and president of
the Malaysian Bar Council, an association of legal practitioners, told IPS.
"(The) Penan might be semi-nomadic and live differently. Nevertheless they
are (still) citizens and have the same rights to protection under the laws as
other citizens."
The beleaguered tribals are fighting back in the way they know best — with
spears and blowpipes with which they arm themselves when staging their
blockades, and the media. Assisted by a network of supporters here and
abroad, they are using the press to shame the government for their alleged
inaction and force concession.
The rate of deforestation in Malaysia is estimated to be the fastest in any
tropical country in the world, according to United Nations data. The Food and
Agriculture Organisation, a U.N. agency, shows the annual deforestation rate
jumped almost 86 percent between the periods 1990-2000 and 2000-2005.
Annually, Malaysia has lost an average of 140,200 hectares or 0.65 percent of
its forest area since 2000.
Oil palm plantation acreage and world palm oil output increased dramatically
as the forest vanished during the same period. The prized commodity is now
the world’s most important edible oil in global production and consumption.
Between 2006 and 2007, it held approximately 32 percent of the market
share of all edible oils by production in comparison to soybean oil, which
comprised about 29 percent of the world market for oils.
Malaysia and Indonesia produce the majority of the world’s palm oil,
accounting for approximately 86 percent of the total global production.
Malaysia has a policy framework for sustainable forest management based on
its National Forestry Act of 1984. Yet on the ground, rampant logging is the
norm, sources said.
Though faced with an uphill battle on several fronts, the Penan are chalking
up some victories. They are successfully blocking logging roads with
barricades, raising hues and cries in the Malaysian media while bringing their
woes to the Malaysian parliament.
Opposition lawmakers are now actively taking up their cause and speaking up
for their rights – a far cry from the 1980s when blockades installed by the
tribe were broken up and protest put down with brute force.
Then, too, there is considerable sympathy for the Penan among the local
population. An awakened electorate concedes the Penan have the right to
preserve their habitat and traditional lifestyle.
Amid these developments is the state’s glaring inaction on the plight of its
indigenous population, advocates say, who noted that it had only paid lip
service to the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that it
voted to adopt in 2007.
"This inaction to protect and promote and recognise their indigenous people
is alarming," said human rights lawyer Ragunath Kesavan. "The sexual abuse
faced by the Penan is but one of a multitude of human rights violations that
indigenous communities face. Their traditions, customs and values are being
eroded and their needs have been long neglected."
He added that it is time "the government formally recognizes, protects and
guarantees the right of indigenous peoples to their ancestral lands and to
gazette such ancestral lands as reserved areas."
Pressured from every side to aid the Penan tribe and stop the destruction of
their habitat, the authorities — in an unprecedented move — reached out to
the tribal group to iron out a peace deal.
According to the mass-circulated ‘Star’ daily around the third week of
September, the Sarawak government, prodded by the federal government in
Kuala Lumpur, had agreed to several Penan demands as preconditions for
ending the anti-logging blockades, which had significantly hurt the profits of
the timber companies.
The concessions include state recognition of the Penan as the original settlers
of the island of Borneo, right to ancestral land and farmland for the semi-
nomadic tribe.
Other concessions include the provision of basic infrastructure, including
housing complete with electricity and water, clinics, kindergartens and
primary schools; official aid for rubber tree planting and fruit farming; and
skills training.
Local officials claimed the Penan have acceded to these compromised
solutions. Promising "positive results within three months," they said that with
the "peace deal," the Penan have agreed to allow logging to resume, the ‘Star’
daily quoted them as saying.
The deal, however, was rejected by some Penan and questioned by rights
NGO, saying the concessions were only on paper, adding that allowing
logging to resume is inimical to the Penan’s interests in the long run.
They warned that the anti-logging protest and blockades would resume if
the promises were not kept.
END/AP/EN/DV/IP/BK/TBB/09/
(END)
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