Ere we go, ere we go !

By Bunga Pakma

Only with the utmost effort of the imagination can a person who has never spent at least one year-cycle in the higher latitudes of the globe, north or south, understand the visceral pull of the seasons.  We on the equator experience little change from January to January.  Some months are wetter, some drier, some smokier.  Daylight lasts twelve hours, and night twelve, always.

Holidays on the equator are timed by the moon, not the sun, and the Islamic calendar ignores the solar calendar altogether. Our holidays are entirely religious.  The appointed day comes and it’s time to fast, or feast, to make offerings, to perform some rite or pious deed.  These days serve to remind the faithful of some commandment or signal episode or saint in the history of their religion.

“Temperate” is commonly taken to mean “mild.” Temperate climates are anything but mild.  In New England the thermometer shows a range of 60°C, the landscape is at one time a wasteland of marble-hard ice, another heat more than tropical.  The seasons succeed on another in a titanic, and often violent, drama.  Spring causes plant and animal life to surge in a continuous orgasm, racing to grow, stock food, and reproduce in the short summer.  Nature matures and “dies” in a glorious massacre of leaves the colour of blood.  The days grow short and winter and darkness spread over the world like death.  This cosmic spectacle bears a much too intimate connection with Life to be called a metaphor. When people liken the year to our mortal span, they feel that in their bones.

The Ministry of Higher Discrimination: are Sarawakians third class citizens?

By Pak Bui

 

The mainstream Sarawak newspapers and internet blogs have been ablaze with furious comments about the marginalisation of Sarawakian students, treated as “third class” citizens.

Marina Undau, ( Photo right ) a bright teenager, has been refused entry into a pre-university matriculation programme because she is not a “Bumiputera”. Her father, Undau Liap, is an Iban civil servant, and her mother, Wong Pick Sing, is a Chinese.

Marina did well in her SPM last year, earning 9A1B. She achieved this against substantial odds, coming from a rural school, SMK Simanggang. Most schoolchildren there do not own a laptop, unlike their wealthier peers in urban schools.

She also managed this remarkable feat under her own steam. She did not bribe anyone for her results, nor pay black-market rates for exam questions.

PKR struggling in Sarawak and Sabah!

By Sim Kwang Yang

When I was told that Baru Bian would be appointed as the new PKR Sarawak chief a couple of weeks ago, I was relieved.

The PKR Perak chief Mustapha Kamil Ayub was the PKR Sarawak Chief for a while, but that kind of stop-gap measure cannot be sustained for long.  Sarawak PKR must be led by a Sarawakian leader.

I met Baru for the first time a few months ago in Kuching.  I found him impressive, calm, and thoughtful.  He told me then that he lost the Ba Kelalan seat by over three hundred votes only.

He mentioned the sum of his miniscule campaign funds.  I was shocked. With that tiny war chest, he lost by a mere 300 votes.  That is unthinkable in rural Sarawak constituencies.  Another candidate would have lost his deposit and his pants.

PKR must now work hard to make sure Baru Bian win the next round; the meek people in Sarawak need his voice in the state assembly.

SKY: Reason versus emotions: part two: feeling the feelings

By Sim Kwang Yang

From a very young age, we have been taught by parents, teachers and the society at large to control our emotions and feelings with our reason.  The head and the heart are always set in opposition to each other.

But how well do we know our own feelings and emotions though.  A useful game will be for you to write out a list of all the feelings that you have ever felt throughout your life.  If you are good with words, you will be amazed at how rich your emotional life is.

By now we know some emotions and feelings are bad for us and bad for others.  The feelings of hatred, envy, jealousy, and fear can poison our soul, while the feelings of passion, love, compassion, hope, and happiness can enrich our lives.

But we know sometimes we cannot always control our feelings.  They seem to spring out of nowhere and continue to burn in our nadir.  For instance, whenever I read about reports of rape, including and especially the rape of the Penan girls by logging workers in Sarawak, my nameless moral outrage just bursts forth, and I wish I can do something about it.

SKY: Reason versus emotion Part One: thinking about thinking

By Sim Kwang Yang

We are often told by our top political leaders that we must make our political decisions, like voting, rationally and not succumb to our feelings.

Under that kind of narrative, there is the old structuralist assumption that reason is opposed to emotions, with reason at the centre as good, while feelings are bad and must be exiled to the margin of our being.

This is an old structure of thought going as far back as Plato and Aristotle.  Generally, people tend to believe in this sort of thought structure without many questions.

But is it true that reason is superior to emotions, and what is reason anyway?

SKY: writing about writing

By Sim Kwang Yang

I know I am expected to make political commentaries, because of my little knowledge and experience in politics.  Also we call ourselves a serious socio-political blog, and with the confusing events unfolding on our national and Sarawak political stage, we are expected to comment on what goes on.

It is not hard for me to write political commentaries, because I have been at it for more than a quarter of a century.  I am now writing six columns for various publications under various names.  Everyday, I have to work on two or three articles.  By late afternoon, if nothing comes in for the Hornbill Unleashed, then I have to start on a blog entry.

Ever since we started six months ago, we have determined that we must update our blog with at least a single entry every day.  We have kept that pledge to ourselves.  It is not easy, I can tell you, because we are all busy and have many things in our life to take care of.

New! Improved UMNO! Washes whiter than white!

By Bunga Pakma

What a week!  Though I have faithfully been following doctor’s orders and not getting my knickers in a twist, it is impossible for me completely to avoid the whirlpool-in-a-septic-tank that is public political life.

Among political pundits and commentators, honoured Reader, you will find no more superficial observer in the country than Yours Truly here.  My contact with newspapers amounts to no more than reading the headlines at the local newsstand. I don’t have a TV and I don’t listen to the radio.  Yes, I do have a look at Malaysiakini in the morning over the cornflakes, and I do read what my brethren post on HU. But I’ve got a job to attend to and trolling the Net for lurid outrages does not raise a thrill in me.  Superficiality is in a sense my strength.  Heaven knows that what’s on the surface is frightening enough.

The earliest thing my memory can drag up from the mists of time is that UMNO seems to have held a general meeting last week.  Specks of glitter-dust left over from the razzmatazz remain among the dust and tattered banners in the dark, deserted PWTC.  I remember the “image” of that event as I’d remember some quasi-carnival event in the Mall—a canopy, stage, and display with balloons, flags, music and lights to launch a brand of soap.  “And now, the, New! Improved UMNO! Washes whiter than white! [In more ways than one.] Now suitable for dirty laundry of ALL races!” and so forth.

To be fair to the makers of Trojan, Omo, and Daia, I must say that I’ve always thought the detergent section of the supermarket a cheery one. It’s kinda nice to see shelves of excited coloured sacks and boxes enthusiastically standing up for the virtues of cleanliness and transparency, taking dirt and filth of all kinds to daily account for their never-ending evil.

Criticism – good or bad?

Kaypo Anak Sarawak is a Columnist  of  Hermit Hornbill at The Borneo Post Online , His article is  published  in The Borneo Post every Sunday. (Used by permission of the Author )

ALL of us have been criticised, sometimes unfairly. We have all criticised others at one time or another.  To be critical is human.To criticise is to pass judgement on something or somebody out of our personal interpretation of what is good or bad.  Some are better than others in this business of offering criticism.

We know the odd individuals among us who criticise everything and everybody. They probably have a bloated self-image, thus appointing themselves as the ultimate judge of everything human. Their constant whining criticism probably stems from their need to assert their sense of superiority. It is often an inferiority complex working in reverse gear.

We have been told often times to make constructive criticism, and avoid negative criticism. What is the difference between the two?

What if…Teoh Beng Hock had been your brother?

By Pak Bui

What if Teoh Beng Hock had been your brother, or your son, or cousin?

Teoh was 30 when his life was snuffed out. He had not yet reached the halfway point of his life, if we accept a Malaysian man’s life expectancy to be around 71. He was old enough to be a father, but young enough to be a grandson.

He was an average Malaysian. His salary was 1800 ringgit a month, as the MACC “revealed”, in their efforts to tarnish his name. His reported salary was bang on the average Malaysian per capita income.

He was on the threshold of one of the defining moments in any man’s life: fatherhood.

The fact that he was well loved, by Soh Cher Wei, the mother of his unborn child, by his parents, his older brother Teoh Bee Lan, and his younger sister Teoh Beng Kee, speaks volumes for the dead man’s character.

Religion: John Hicks’ rainbow of faith

By Sim Kwang Yang

 

Generally, I do not like to write about religion.

In multi-religious Malaysia, where race and religion are related contentious issues, whatever I write about religion, some nut somewhere is going to claim that I have no locus standi to make comments about his religion simply because I am not a member of his faith.

Inevitably some nut somewhere with ultra-sensitive religious nerves would claim that whatever I say would have insulted his religion.  They may even report me to the police for sedition.  You get the picture in Malaysia.

But religion is still one of the most important aspects of our personal and national life.  It is impossible to avoid commenting on religion altogether.

For instance, if one sect of a religion proposes that another sect in their religion must be all be banished, or killed, then it is the business of every Malaysian citizen to oppose this sort of religious persecution irrespective of his personal faith.  This is just common sense.

Adat and land rights neglected in Sarawak – Part Two

By John Riwang and Apang

Land is Life: Rights vs Adat

Colonial and statutory Native Customary Rights or NCR have been divided into land, marriage, death, usage, acquiring of rights, with a fixed time-frame (such as “before 1958”). These “rights” are alien concepts and an alien value system, including calls for land titles and the monetary value put on lands in compensation negotiations.
The state and corporations override, and refuse to recognize, adat.

Beyond constitutional or common law rights

In logging cases, licences are issued to allow the loggers to move in and establish camps, which completely ignore any indigenous people’s rights. This leads to the destruction of life and its resources – forests, water, animals, medicine, and food sources.

The rights of the local people to adat disappear, but “rights” are exerted by loggers and governments. Thus, these “rights” which include workers’ rights, benefit the loggers and the state.

Adat and land rights neglected in Sarawak – Part One

By John Riwang and Apang

Before Brooke rule and colonial administration in Sarawak, the indigenous communities, particularly the Dayak groups, were governed by their own respective adat.

But over time, this adat has been forcibly changed by the State into a homogeneous, State-based institution, thereby destroying the uniqueness of adat to each particular indigenous community.

Among other functions, the adat is used by Sarawak’s indigenous communities to claim rights over land, forest resources and their livelihood. The failure to understand the importance of adat to Dayak indigenous communities of Sarawak would render any discussion on human rights futile.

Clifford Sather said that adat: “[…] covers all of the various customary norms, jural rules, ritual interdictions and injunctions that guide an individual’s conduct, and the sanctions and forms of redress by which these norms and rules are upheld…these rules apply to virtually all spheres of human life, social, economic, religious and political.”3

DO AS I SAY, BUT NOT AS I DO

By Maximus Koh

I read with interest the earlier contribution to Hornbill Unleashed, “Why do people follow the law?” It is indeed a complex area of discussion. Views range from ancient Greece to our local “kopi tiams”.

It gets even more difficult when you throw in the equation, that there seems to be one set of laws for those that enforce them and another set for those that are obliged to follow them.

All of those who have sat in traffic for half an hour at the Jalan Song traffic lights waiting for the lights to turn green will know what I mean.

Just as it is your turn to move and you are gleefully shifting your car into gear, a distant sound of fast approaching sirens becomes audible. Getting louder and louder, it is the familiar sound of the heralds and the entourage of one of the many “VVIPS” rushing across town.

WASPS, HORNETS AND DEVELOPMENT

By Maximus Kho

The sleepy and quiet suburbs of Batu Kawa, on the outskirts of Kuching, were jolted recently with the deaths of three innocents, the oldest being seven years old.

They were victims of a deadly attack of hornets or wasps, locally called “tabuan”. Apparently they were taking a walk with their mother on a piece of land cleared for development. They were intent on finding some sticks to secure their lanterns on, for the recent Mid-Autumn festival.

In their enthusiasm, they happened on a colony of these deadly insects and now they are gone.

The incident galvanized the whole of Kuching society, with donations coming in from every quarter. The press, public and politicians were unanimous in their show of sympathy towards the father of the three children. He had, after all, lost his entire family in one afternoon.

101 East – KL land scam -PKFZ

With billions in cost overruns and unpaid loans, Malaysia’s Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) is a mega venture gone wrong. 101 East investigates a billion dollar land scandal linked to an international free trade zone of Malaysia’s main port.

 

 

Reading and writing with a pinch of salt

By Bunga Pakma

Last week I went to see my panel doctor, in order to get looked at and to pick up a renewal of medication.  After ten minutes the receptionist called me into Dr. S****’s office, and I sat myself down by the desk in the chair to which Dr. S waved me.

“Let’s take a look at your B.P., B.P., hehe.” He wrapped the cuff around my upper arm.

We had made some jokes before and taken the measure of each other, and I sure did appreciate Dr. S’s hokey humour.  It speaks of a sane and realistic approach to our precarious hold on well-being, not to mention mere being in the prospect of non-being.  A grave theologian, the Rev. Dean Swift, has written that “Health is worth preserving, though life is not.”

“Hm,” said Dr. S, after the air hissed out. “A little high, not too much. You walked here, didn’t you?” He gazed at me and with gentle suddenness his expression narrowed to one of scrutiny. He’d noted something.

One Sarawakian’s view of Bagan Pinang and the Umno revival

By Pak Bui

The newspapers are full of Umno triumphalism. Umno’s ecstasy is overwhelming: you’d think they had managed to take back Perak by a popular vote.

Umno’s victory in the Bagan Pinang by-election has put some spring back into Umno’s goose-steps at their 60^th General Assembly.

Many pundits have argued that Umno is winning back the trust of the Chinese and Indians. There may be a tiny kernel of truth in this.

Since Pakatan Rakyat (PR) have been bickering publicly over beer raids and municipal councils, a proportion of the Indian and Chinese population may, indeed, have voted against PAS to show their displeasure with certain pea-brained squabblers. But a vote against PR’s loudmouths is hardly a vote for Umno.

Throughout Umno’s ongoing General Assembly, speakers have tried to capitalise on this perceived swing among non-Malay voters, back towards Umno and the BN.

MCA – Malaysian Chaos Association

By Sim Kwang Yang

As you read this on Thursday, the MCA central committee is to meet to discuss how to mop up the mess left by the delegates in their EGM on October 10.  The MCA delegates had voted their party into an impasse, by voting out both Ong Tee Kiat and Chua Soi Lek as President and Deputy President respectively, thereby creating a vacuum at the apex of the party’s power structure.

They say that nature abhors a vacuum anywhere in our physical environment.  Likewise, a political party also abhors a vacuum in the highest places.

The most democratic thing for the MCA to do to wriggle out of their paralysing quagmire is to hold another EGM, to hold a fresh round of election for all the posts of the central committee, including that of President and Deputy President.  This is unlikely to happen.

Now that the two highest posts of the party are up for grabs, you can be sure that the four Vice Presidents in line for succession to the top posts will be agitating and engaged in all kinds of horse-trading to get themselves appointed.

Law, trust, and justice

Kaypo Anak Sarawak is a Columnist  of  Hermit Hornbill at The Borneo Post Online , His article is  published  in The Borneo Post every Sunday. (Used by permission of the Author )

WHY do we obey the law? What makes a law-abiding society?

The common sense answer to those critical questions is: “People obey laws because they fear detection and punishment. That is why we have the police and the courts”.

In The Republic, Plato recounts a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon, Plato’s older brother. Glaucon argues that only fear of detection and punishment prevents people from disobeying the laws of the land. He demonstrates this view of human nature with the Myth of Gyges.

Gyges was a shepherd who one day found a ring that could make him invisible when he wore it. (He found the ring on the corpse of a bronze horse, which was exposed when an earthquake broke up the ground below his flock.) Using the magical power of his invisibility, Gyges seduced the queen, murdered the king, and took the throne.

UMNO victory in Bagan Pinang – what now?

By  Sim Kwang Yang

As expected, BN candidate Isa Samad of UMNO defeated Zulkefly Mohamad Nor by a thumping majority of over 5000 votes, with a 2920 postal vote majority contributing to the BN victory.

I have expected this result from the way the campaign has been conducted all along.  Isa Samad is the local favourite.  He was MB for Negeri Sembilan for 22 years, and he must have built up a vast network of social contacts and political patronage.  Many locals of various races must have felt indebted to him personally.

The PAS campaign was apparently badly managed.  This is what Raja Petra Kamarudin has to report in his latest posting in his Malaysian Today website:

“In Bagan Pinang, the opposition is so disorganised. There are allegations that Kuala Lumpur has taken over the Bagan Pinang election campaign while the locals from Negeri Sembilan are being sidelined. It was not until the fourth day after Nomination Day when PAS invited the other component members from Pakatan Rakyat for a meeting. In the end, PAS did their own thing while PKR and DAP, who were left out in the cold, organised their own programmes independent of PAS. PAS did not even arrange for the Wakil Rakyat from PKR and DAP to speak at the ceramah.

The biggest winner of the MCA EGM is ………………DAP!

By  Sim Kwang Yang

When the voting results came out in the afternoon of October 10 (Saturday), I was in the neighbourhood coffee shop with my neighbour Jimmy.

Jimmy is a retired teacher from Penang.  Though his son-in-law is the treasurer of a local MCA branch, he is himself non-partisan.  But like many Malaysian Chinese, he hates pandemic corruption in high places.

When he learned that the MCA EGM had carried the motion of no-confidence against Ong Tee Kiat as party President, he was very upset.

He said he had no goodwill towards the MCA, but he has tremendous respect for Ong because of his work in unearthing the massive abuse of funds in the PKFZ.  He said Ong is the only MCA leader who could reform the party and the government for the good of the people.  He was thinking of joining MCA to help Ong, but now the delegates’ rejection of Ong means there is no chance of salvation for the MCA.

I narrate this little story because I suspect many of the non-partisan Chinese probably share Jimmy’s view.

Writing about political garbage

By Bunga Pakma

It’s a pleasure to come to the keyboard to confect my thousand words for the Hornbill Unleashed this week as every week.  I am proud to be in such distinguished company and to have such discerning readers before whom I can set my thoughts, whatever they are worth.

The American comic writer S. J. Perelman, a stringent perfectionist in his strange little fictions, hardly produced 1k words per week.  His motto was “Easy writing makes hard reading.” While I do wish writing were easier—among the other pains of writing is having to sit in one place for hours—I will never allow anything but my best to hit the Web, and that means work. There’s no other way. As another writer says, “You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.”

Every occupation has its peculiar difficulties. I’ve been fortunate to avoid Writer’s Block, yet each week I face the other bugaboo that plagues us scribes: What on earth am I going to write about? I won’t write garbage, but the secular garbage has been piling up outside my door.  I ask you, what can one write about garbage? Today my offering may be merely ornamental but perhaps I can turn this common complaint into a theme.

Sexual indiscretion and public life in Malaysia

Kaypo Anak Sarawak is a Columnist  of  Hermit Hornbill at The Borneo Post Online , His article is  published  in The Borneo Post every Sunday. (Used by permission of the Author )

SEX is big business in our political life these days.

The big power tussles in the up-coming MCA extraordinary general meeting will be held on October 10 to decide whether their deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek ought to be sacked or suspended from the party for four years because his sex video scandal has damaged the image of the party.

Everyday, the national Chinese newspapers and the Chinese language net news portals are filled with endless pages of blow-by-blow coverage of the plots and counter-plots between the Datuk Seri Ong Tee Kiat faction and the Chua faction.  Daily, numerous face-to-face meetings are held by both sides all across Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah to win the hearts and minds of the over 2000 voting delegates.

Fortunately for Sarawak, we are not too bothered because we have no MCA branches and divisions here. Besides, we have our own SUPP factional fight to entertain us.

Martin Heidegger, anyone?

Hornbill Unleashed aims to provoke discussion and thought, but not only in political life. We support curiosity and exchange of ideas in other aspects of our lives too. The following write-up testifies to the fact that many Malaysians are not dead from the neck up – HU Editor

By Liumx

How can you judge a person, at a single glance, by looking only at the name of Martin? Or the name Heidegger, for that matter – does it ring a bell?

My personal encounter with Heidegger started six or seven years ago. I attended philosophy classes offered in Kuala Lumpur. Our texts ranged from Plato’s Republic to Heidegger’s Being and Time.

Our response was neither cold nor warm, you might call it lukewarm, I suppose. In total, there were 15 or so Mandarin speakers in those seminars. After Plato’s Treatise on Justice, Aristotle’s Ethics attracted a few new members, while some who could not take the mental strain dropped out.

Earthquake survivors shaken in Sumatra

By Pak Bui

“The earthquake in Sumatra, that wrecked Padang,” a friend of mine told me, while we were walking down the street, “buried two thousand souls, it crushed 180,000 buildings.

“The scenes described on the BBC were heart-breaking. Padang people were telling the reporters how thousands were living on the streets, afraid to go back home, even if their houses were still standing. The local people were asking for the basics…for clean water.”

“It was the same in Banda Aceh, when I was there in 2005, three weeks after the Boxing Day tsunami. I was a young volunteer with a Malaysian NGO for a fortnight. When we were driving along the coastal road, kids would sprint out from their refugee camps and ask for bottled water. ‘Aqua! Aqua!’ they were shouting. We gave away as much as we could.

Invitation to Public Forum: What about the Penan?

What about the Penan? The Future of the Orang Asal & Orang Asli in Malaysia

14th October, 7.30pm

KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, 1 Jalan Maharajalela, KL.

What kind of future do indigenous people have in Malaysia? Come hear and discuss issues around the recently highlighted rape cases of Penan women, including how these relate to the politics of development and indigenous people’s struggle for self-determination.

Panelists:

Hellan Empaing

Persatuan Wanita Desa Sarawak/ Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia

Pakatan Rakyat Malaysia in Sarawak – You must be joking!

By Sim Kwang Yang

So Gabriel Adit and some other like-minded people are going to form a new party called Pakatan Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) in Sarawak.  Dr. John Brian Anthony even claimed on his blog Dayak Baru that the new party had been registered with the Registrar of Societies a few days ago.

I know Gabriel personally.  A long time ago, I used to drink in the same pub in Kuching with him, sometimes every afternoon.  It is hard for me to bad-mouth him, though Internet commentators are beginning to bad-mouth him already.

Some fair comments on this latest development are still apt and possible.

First of all, it is very difficult to form a new political party in Malaysia, and Sarawak is no exception.

THE REAL PAKATAN RAKYAT IN SARAWAK: Sarawakians’ Victory in sight?

By Apang

It is here with us again: the hype among ordinary Sarawakians about the impending state election. Yet it is clear the publicity only highlights Sarawakian voters’ feeling of helplessness, and their conviction that nothing fundamental will change, beneath the cosmetic surface of politics.

The rhetorical pledges, fake concern, and high-ranking “support” touted by the Barisan Nasional (BN) should be viewed in the light of the governing coalition’s abysmal track record in Sarawak.

BN’s record is especially foul when it comes to Native Customary Rights (NCR) lands and development. The BN uses its might, threats, bribes and the people’s own money to arrange for the select few to be elected to form the government.

This provides the BN the “legitimacy” to first deny the indigenous communities their NCR lands. Then the ministers and elected “people’s representatives” go about “representing” their own selves and their families, partnering up with corporate elites to rip their fortunes from the stolen lands.

October 10: MCA’s day of reckoning — does anybody care?

By Sim Kwang Yang

In a few days’ time, on October 10 next Saturday to be exact, MCA will be confronting their day of reckoning.  2377 central delegates will be casting their crucial votes, to determine whether Ong Tee Kiat or Chua Soi Lek will have to go.

The mainstream and alternative media have been saturated with news of the campaign for weeks, giving blow-by-blow and state-by-state reports of how the campaign has been shaping up on both sides.

The latest revelation by the commentator and long time MCA member Ho Chee Ping is that the offer for one vote has gone up from a few thousand to tens of thousand of the Ringgit.  Ho should know, because he is a loyal MCA member and has witnessed more than a few MCA internal fights.

China dolls in Cat City, miew!

By Sim Kwang Yang

I have just returned to my Cheras home after about a week’s visit to my home town of Kuching.  This time around, home coming was a very ambiguous experience.

Of course, I used to know Cat City inside out, having lived there most of my life, and served three terms as the MP of the people there.  One grows deep roots in the local community that way.  It is a small town of about half a million where everybody knows personally or hears of everybody else anyway.

All the good things about Kuching have remained unchanged.

The old city centre has not changed much.  The people are still very friendly, and racial alienation does not exist.  The weather is really agreeable, and a bowl of kolok mee still costs RM2.50.  There is no traffic jam to speak of, though local drivers complain about the worsening traffic — they have not lived and worked in KL.  Parking is never any problem, and the parking fee is something like 20 cents per hour.

Heartbreaking account of hunting Penan girls for sex

By Rosita Maja

After endless calls from many quarters of civil society and the continuous international pressure, the Penan Taskforce report was finally released to the public three weeks ago.

However,  Abdul Jalil, Federal Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, failed to release the report in a responsible manner. She only released the report to PKR Women Chief Hajjah Zuraidah Kamaruddin, after a demonstration by PKR Wanita outside Sharizat’s office on September 8.

Penan Girls hunted for sex by the loggers

The full report makes for heartbreaking reading.

Murum Dam misery for displaced Penan

by anilnetto.com “with permission of author”

A few days ago, The Star reported that the relocation of seven Penan villages affected by the proposed RM3 billion Murum Dam in Belaga, Sarawak would be carried out according to the findings of a social and environmental impact assessment.

State environmental adviser  was reported as saying that the government had appointed consultants to conduct the study, expected to be completed by year-end, and would consider their report before coming up with a resettlement plan. The villages affected are Long Wat, Long Luar, Long Tangau, Long Menapa, Long Singu, Long Malim and Long Uba. Long Wat villagers face double jeopardy: they are to be “temporarily relocated” (to enable the construction of a cofferdam to divert the river) before later resettlement.

A Sarawakian, by whatever colour

By Bunga Pakma

During Raya my son came up from his college to spend the holidays at my little house.  He brought with him a guest.  Both my son and his friend are Sarawakians, and it made sense for them to save airfare by numpang-ing with me for a week rather than spend money and endure the crush.  I know this young man’s parents, not well, but well enough to do them a favour.

Let’s call the boy Gary.  Gary’s mother is a Sarawakian, a Dayak; his father is an American.  The father had his first experience of Sarawak long ago in the Peace Corps days.  As a young man he was posted here to teach, and he taught a variety of subjects in a variety of places both outstation and in Kuching, which at the time could hardly be called “urban” in today’s sense.

He went back to the US and trained as an engineer in a specialised field that took him to many regions of the world, including Sarawak.  There he met up again with a former lady student of his,

Police torment rape victim – but ignore rapists

By Pak Bui

 

The Sarawak Police have cemented their reputation of being humble servants for rich timber towkays, and their patrons in the State Cabinet.

The police provide, unquestioningly, the muscle needed to allow the tycoons and politicians to succeed in business. Sarawakians seeking security and justice for the weaker members of society need not apply for relief.

Sarawak Deputy Commissioner of Police Hamza Taib announced on September 30 that the police will question four people, who helped a Penan woman from Long Item, Baram, escape to safety in Kuala Lumpur last October.

The Penan woman was known by a pseudonym “Bibi” in the national task force report on rape, while her alleged rapist was called “Johnny” (known locally as Ah Heng, according to Penan villagers).

From his pronouncements, Hamza appeared adamant that the police report, made by “Bibi” in Long Lama on September 28, was genuine. At the Long Lama police station, the 22 year old woman claimed she had been “conned” by an unnamed Penan man, into going to Kuala Lumpur to make a report of rape against her so-called husband, “Johnny” or Ah Heng, a mechanic in an Interhill timber camp near Long Item.

PENAN SUPPORT GROUP RESPONDS TO MINISTRY-LED TASK FORCE REPORT

By Penan Support Group

PRESS STATEMENT

1 October 2009

THE PENAN SUPPORT GROUP RESPONDS TO THE REPORT OF THE WOMEN, FAMILY AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT MINISTRY-LED TASK FORCE ON THE RAPE OF PENAN WOMEN IN SARAWAK

The Penan Support Group (PSG) would like to acknowledge the important role played by the Jawatankuasa Bertindak Peringkat Kebangsaan bagi Menyiasat Dakwaan Penderaan Seksual terhadap Wanita Kaum Penan di Sarawak (the Task Force) in the mission to ascertain and establish that the reported rapes of Penan women and girls by outsiders had indeed taken place. We applaud the Task Force for correctly identifying imbalanced and poorly planned development programmes as a cause of the problems faced by the Penan, including the exploitative situation that Penan women and children in Middle Baram, Sarawak find themselves in. However, acknowledging that these incidences of violence against women and children have taken place is only the first important step towards more crucially redressing these heinous crimes and the structural problems underlying them.