Masing ‘the good storyteller’ fails to defend indefensible Taib

By Apang and John Riwang

So James anak Masing was in England, accompanying his white-haired lord Taib Mahmud. Taib had been whacked during this overseas trip, and so we made an interesting discovery, via Bernama, that James Masing is a great storyteller himself.

No matter how our cynical minds work, we are sure we aren’t the only ones to expect James Masing be the first to jump to Taib’s defense, following his lord’s unceremonious entrance and exit at Oxford University.

Since Taib is someone who is often spoilt with grand entrances and exits wherever he goes, with no shortage of boys and girls with wagging tails rushing to kiss his hand, we hope that he managed to keep his blood pressure under control. Or at least that he managed to endure the slight dent to his ego.

Police urged to earn Penans’ trust

By Keruah Usit

A leading indigenous land rights lawyer, See Chee How, has urged the police to immediately follow up leads and evidence provided by the Penan Support Group (PSG), in order to gain the trust of Penan survivors of sexual violence.

See’s call to action followed a meeting between representatives of the PSG, PKR women’s chief and Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin, and DAP State Assembly representative for Pending, Violet Yong, with Sarawak Criminal Investigation Department head Huzir Mohamed on July 24.

“We have given Huzir some evidence to investigate and charge offenders such as Ah Hing,” ( Photo of  Ah Hing ) See explained. “The police must show to the Penans that they are committed to their jobs.”

Ah Hing is a Chinese mechanic in the sprawling Kabeng camp in middle Baram, belonging to Interhill, a logging company internationally criticised for practising destructive forestry and for ignoring the rights of indigenous people.

Taib Mahmud: through the looking glass

By Pak Bui

Abdul Taib Mahmud is surrounded by sycophants. They hang on his every word and extol his every move.

The media, controlled by the  government and its affiliated logging firms, invariably report his policies and speeches as works of genius.

The Borneo Post reported that Taib had delivered a “keynote address” to the Said Business School in Oxford, quoting his rather banal and wordy speech extensively.  Perhaps Taib’s speechwriters had something original to say, but if so, I found it indecipherable, even after reading the report twice.

The newspaper mentioned meekly at the end of the article that the conference was organised by the Said Business School together with Tanjung Manis Halal Hub, a component of the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE). This means the people of Sarawak, through SCORE and the government, paid for the conference and for the lavish holiday of Taib’s retinue of press and ministers.

Fadillah trying to curry favour with Taib

By FMT

Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Fadillah Yusof is a man in a quandary.

He had hoped that his recent brazen declaration that Parti Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) Youth wing would send its own fact-finding team to Ulu Baram to look into the issue of rape victims in the Penan community would get the backing of his members and party leaders.

But the whispers filtering through the grapevines are saying otherwise.

One source said Fadillah in his rush to consolidate his position with Chief Minister Taib Mahmud had picked a wrong issue because the nonchalant attitudes of both state leaders on the rape issue had already stoked temperature here.

Fadillah’s insensitive remarks had merely added to the embarrassment and compounded an already pus-infected wound.

Photo Clip of Oxford Protest

By salakkan

When the hunter becomes the hunted

By Mariam Mokhtar from London

The Penan are subject to intimidation, violence and exploitation. They struggle to provide for themselves. Their womenfolk and young girls have been sexually abused and raped. They feel hunted, just like the game they seek in the forests of Borneo.

On Tuesday, Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of Sarawak, had a dose of his own medicine when he had to escape the clutches of demonstrators in front of the Said Business School, at the University of Oxford. He was there to address the “Inaugural Oxford Global Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum”. The protesters held placards reading ‘Penan tribe say NO to logging’ and ‘Malaysia: Stop destroying the Penan tribe’.

At the opening session, Taib’s address was “The Role of Muslim Nations in Rebuilding Today’s Global Economy”.  This was followed by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Nor Mohamed Yakcop’s, address “The View from Muslim Southeast Asia.

S’wak govt always ready to discuss Penan issue: Dr Masing

By The star

The Sarawak state government is always ready to engage with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to discuss the Penan issue, Land Development Minister Datuk Seri Dr James Masing said.

He said the state government has been engaging with NGOs from all over the world, including the United Kingdom and the European Union, through discussions and site visits on how it handled the Penan people.

“We have nothing to hide and what we are doing now is for the good of the community,” he said on the sidelines of the Inaugural Oxford Global Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum here Tuesday.

No red carpet for Sarawak CM at Oxford

By Mariam Mokhtar of Malaysiakini

For someone who is used to the red carpet treatment, Taib Mahmud’s ignominious entry into the Said Business School, University of Oxford, yesterday must have seemed repugnant.

For the man who has everything, Taib was denied the fanfare and was treated more like a common criminal. With protestors at the front entrance of the building and a police car and two policemen stationed nearby, Taib’s three-car convoy employed evasion tactics to smuggle him into the building.

The crowd then started to get noisy and waved their placards. Police reinforcements were called in and a few minutes later, more officers appeared. Altogether, nine men, one in plainclothes, manned the strategic entry points.

They were joined by three burly white-shirted men, who were part of the security detail of the Said Business School.

British MPs write to Taib on abuse of Penan

By Malaysiakini

British members of parliament have written to Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud expressing their concern over the sexual abuse of Penan women and girls and the marginalisation of the Penan.

Speaking for the British parliament’s All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Tribal Peoples, its chairperson Martin Horwood (right) in a letter to coincide with Taib’svisit to the UK this week expressed the group’s concern for the new cases that have emerged of rape and sexual abuse of Penan women and girls.

Horwood also asked that Taib “take steps to ensure that Penan women and girls are protected from sexual violence and the perpetrator of such abuse brought to justice.”

Since 2008 when reports first emerged in the mainstream media of Penan women and girls being subjected to rape and abuse at the hands of logging workers, criticisms have been levelled at the Taib government for failing to acknowledge and investigate the crimes.

Tycoons splash RM8mil in St Tropez champagne war

By Malaysian Mirror

SEEMS like everyone can’t get enough of mystery big-spender Taek Jho Low, the young Malaysian millionaire who was spotted with celebrity socialite Paris Hilton.

Recently, the cherubic Jho Low has been under the media spotlight after he was photographed with the hotel heiress and her sister Nicky Hilton in a yacht in Paris.

Many have questioned the source of wealth of this 28-year-old tycoon who caught the attention of U.S paparazzi back in October last year.

The New York Post was the first to spot a “mysterious Malaysian” who was then suspected as the person behind the 40 over bottles of Cristal champagne for Lindsay Lohan in Angel Ball’s after-party at 1Oak. <The story here>

OXFORD DEMONSTRATION AGAINST TAIB

Sarawak Report Monday, July 26th, 2010 GMT

If the people of Oxford had not heard of Abdul Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of Sarawak, until today, they certainly know all about him now.  His visit, tied to Sarawak’s heavy sponsorship of the Said Business School’s ‘Inaugural Global Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum’, was supposed to buy him credibility.  In the event it ended up as a public relations disaster, as his reputation preceded him and was stuck up on banner headlines by protesters outside.

Even though it is the sleepy summer holiday period, a colourful crowd of demonstrators descended on the School to express their outrage that the University should have welcomed such a man and accepted such dubious sponsorship from the Timber Industry of Sarawak.  The local press was soon on the scene, followed by Malaysian news teams, who had clearly been brought along to puff up the Chief Minister’s profile.  Even the flunkies could not ignore a demo like this and they were soon filming, taking notes and conducting interviews.

Oxford criticized for inviting “notorious” Sarawak Chief Minister

By HU Editor

The Oxford University’s Saïd Business School has come under fire over an invitation extended to Taib Mahmud , the controversial Chief Minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, to present an opening address at the “Oxford Global Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum” held on 26-27 July 2010.

40 people, who were prevented from entering the conference hall of the Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, protested in front of the famed University while the Chief Minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak used a side entrance to enter the conference venue unnoticed.

Feja Lesniewska, of the School of Law, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London together with representatives of 8 European human rights and environmental groups handed to the Oxford University’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Andrew Hamilton and conference organizers a letter to register their protest over the invitation extended to Taib Mahmud.

RM180bil defence bill: Little bang for the buck

By Kuek Ser Kuang Keng

Over the last 23 years, Malaysia’s defence spending has taken a whopping RM180 billion from the national coffers.

The average annual defence spending each year is close to 2.5 percent of the nation’s GDP from 1987-2004, which should turn Malaysia into a country with decent defence capability, according to a defence analyst.

However, Malaysia’s defence forces is in a sorry state which can only deal with ‘military operations other than war’ (MOOTW).

Keris-armed Orang Asli ready to battle for land rights

By FMT

The Orang Asli are prepared to unsheathe their keris to defend their land and rights from “invaders” as a desperate act of resistance.

If they don’t fight, they fear they have to answer to their angry ancestors in the hereafter.

However, these humble and unassuming indigenous people prefer not to resort to violence. Instead, they want to battle the Selangor government in court for failing to protect them from the encroaching outsiders who have gobbled up their ancestral land.

They want to take the Selangor government to court next month for failing to act on their behalf against the injustice that had been perpetrated on them since 1990.

Live updates: Protest in Oxford U gets under way

The protesters come from various groups; they are mostly individuals concerned about various issues. Says one British protester: “We want to make people in the UK and around the world aware and to let them know that there are people who care about the Penan. It is completely unacceptable that under Taib’s administration, much of the forest has been given to plantations and dams. The Penan have the right to their land.”

1837: One eye-witness observes of the delegates: “(Almost) everyone looks Malaysian. Very odd!”

1811: The protesters are holding up placards bearing messages such as ‘Any forest left?’, ‘Stop denying Penan rape’, ‘Don’t halt EU-Malaysia anti-illegal logging deal’, and ‘Declare your wealth’.

Protests to greet Sarawak CM in Oxford

Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud can expect to be greeted by an unpleasant welcoming committee later today, when he attends a forum at Oxford University’s Said Business School in London.

Activists from the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), who called Taib “one of Southeast Asia’s (most corrupt) politicians”, have sent out emails since Saturday garnering support for the protest that they plan to stage at the Said Business School’s entrance.

The longstanding Sarawak chief minister was invited to deliver the opening address at the school’s inaugural Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum this morning, London time.

The BMF in an email statement said Oxford has tarnished its reputation by inviting Taib to speak at the forum, claiming the chief minister had pillaged and plundered Sarawak for his own gains during his past three decades in office, at the expense of Sarawakians.

Oxford University under fire over Taib invitation

By iniviting “one of Asia’s greatest kleptocrats”, the Said Business School is betraying the Oxford University’s academic integrity

Stay with HU for updates on the Oxford demonstration

meantime , read all about the stories :-  links and related articles

The Oxford University’s Saïd Business School has come under fire over an invitation extended to Taib Mahmud, the controversial Chief Minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak. Taib Mahmud will present an opening address at the “Oxford Global Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum” to be held on 26-27 July 2010. British civil society groups have announced a protest rally this morning 26 July 2010 (5pm Malaysian time) in front of the Saïd Business School.

Breeding a Culture of FEAR

Another Worried Student is speaking out against the use of oppressive laws such as the UUCA/AUKU, ISA, and OSA that are used to subjugate Malaysians by breeding a culture of fear.

Another Worried Student:

FEAR: -noun

1. A distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.

2. A specific instance of or propensity for such a feeling: an abnormal fear of heights.

3. Concern or anxiety; solicitude: a fear for someone’s safety.

4. Reverential awe, esp. toward god.

5. That which causes a feeling of being afraid; that of which a person is afraid: Cancer is a common fear.

TAIB’S TOP GIG

By Sarawak Report

Taib’s Big Moment

As the news about Taib’s top gig in the UK started to break in the astonished host city of Oxford last week, anyone who was anyone in Sarawak was piling into planes (who paid?) to come and applaud the great moment.  If you were not invited on Taib’s big trip, then consider yourself out of the picture as far as he is concerned.

For tickets costing £1,000 a head, according to a forest group who enquired, the audience will be entertained with an opening speech by Abdul Taib Mahmud at the University’s Said Business School’s ‘Inaugural Global Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum’ on Monday 26th July.  That’s the top slot, courtesy of the University of Oxford.

Champions of  justice, freedom, democracy, open government, the environment and indigenous rights, all the great causes espoused by this proud university for hundreds of years, will be left to express their indignation outside. No wonder that the Said Business School is no stranger to controversy!

Penans bite the bitter pill

By Joseph Sipalan

Multi-million ringgit promises didn’t cut it for the Penans, for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak failed to live up to the hype of his much-touted maiden prime ministerial visit to Ulu Baram yesterday.

It was reported that some 2,000 people from the Penan, Kayan, Saban and Kenyah tribes spent four hours at the event – some walking two days just to attend – after word spread about Najib’s pledge of more than RM100 million to complete various projects in the area.

Despite the supposed aim of the visit to help the premier see first-hand the problems faced by the Penans and other tribes living in the area, it ended up being more of a public relations exercise as community leaders did not even get the chance to come close to Najib, let alone have a meeting.

Pay for your own expenses to help the police to solve crimes

By Rosita Maja

YB Hajjah Zuraida  Kamaruddin, MP Ampang, Keadilan National Women’s Chief came from Selangor for the purposes of meeting up with the Sarawak Commissioner of Police pursuant to a letter from the Polis Diraja Malaysia dated 13.07.10 signed on behalf of  Police Commissioner  Sarawak  by Tuan Huzir Bin Mohamed (Ketua Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah or Criminal Investigation Department head).

The letter was addressed to a number of  NGOs from the Penan Support Group or PSG) requesting them to come and make reports to the police to help in the investigation of the rape incidents as contained in the NGO taskforce report “ A Wider Context of sexual exploitation of Penan Women and Girls in Middle and Ulu Baram, Sarawak”.

YB Zuraida came as the  President of  WIRDA  (Women’s Institute Research Development and Advancement) a women’s NGO, which comes under the PKR women’s wing. She attended also as the national PKR women’s chief to make the reports as requested by Sarawak police, hoping that the police can look into the allegations of rape of the Penan girls and women with urgency.

Malaysia’s Timber Baron coming to the UK – Join the protest

By Malaysia Today

One of Asia’s greatest kleptocrats and single-handedly one of the most destructive forces against the environment and the people who depend on it, the Chief Minister of Sarawak, Abdul Taib Mahmud, will be making the opening address at the Said Business School’s inaugural Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum on Monday 26th July.

During his 30 years of iron grip over Sarawak, Taib Mahmud has systematically plundered a country once rich in natural resources, oil and timber.  He and his family are now multi-billionaires, while indigenous tribes resort to the law courts to reclaim their ancestral lands.

Demeaning remarks blight PM’s Baram visit

Fadillah Yusof, Youth wing head of Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB), the dominant party in Sarawak’s ruling BN coalition, has ignited controversy with a public statement demeaning Penan girls and women.

Fadillah suggested in a Star report on July 18 that the Penan have different sexual mores from other people and insinuated that Penan girls begin sexual relations at the age of 14.

The remarks are likely to have caused embarrassment to premier Najib Abdul Razak, coming just days before his planned walkabout in upper Baram tomorrow.

The rape of indigenous Penan communities by loggers who appear to enjoy immunity from the law has drawn worldwide condemnation.

Who makes a better opposition?

By Ding Jo-Ann

THE last general election birthed a situation that was not common before 2008: the Barisan Nasional (BN) functioning as an opposition. Although the BN has been the opposition in Kelantan for many years, it was a completely new experience for them in Selangor, Penang, Perak and Kedah. Indeed, the blanket term “opposition” previously used to describe DAP, PAS and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) can no longer be used as they now form the government in several key states.

How has the BN adapted to this new state of affairs? Has it embraced its role as the opposition in Pakatan Rakyat (PR)-controlled states? Has the PR continued to play its role as an effective opposition in BN-controlled states and at the federal level? The writer asks political scientist Wong Chin Huat.

Lies, damned lies and official denials

By Pak Bui

It is now clear that rural girls and women, Penan and other Dayaks, have been raped and violated by loggers. It has also been shown that the loggers are able to abuse the rural womenfolk, because the logging companies enjoy immunity from the laws obeyed by the rest of us.

The Penan Support Group (PSG) has explained in intricate detail the domination of rural areas enjoyed by logging companies, thanks to the support of the political elite.

The loggers behave as if they were untouchable, because the state authorities, in collusion with the federal BN government, have not come anywhere near to a competent and unbiased investigation of the sexual violence and the political corruption in their businesses.

SARAWAK REPORT’S CORRECTION AND APOLOGY

By Sarawak Report

What is the Chief Minister’s Official Salary?

Sarawak Report has had its attention drawn to an inaccuracy regarding its reporting of the Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud’s, official salary.  For this we apologise, as we have attempted, despite a conspicuous lack of public information, to stick to accurate and objective reporting.

In this context we have frequently questioned how Mr Mahmud’s reported remuneration of 20,000 ringgit per month could have supported a multi-million dollar property empire across the globe.

We are now advised that the Chief Minister’s official salary is MYR 13,000 per month (excluding allowances or perks, such as the sole, exclusive use of a personal jet courtesy of the Sarawak taxpayer).

Penans not ‘NOBLE SAVAGES’ but our ‘FELLOW BEINGS’

By Sim Kwang Yang

The political, cultural, and journalistic climate in Malaysia has improved after all, and the long-suffering Penans have begun to attract national attention.

While I was the sole opposition MP in Sarawak, I began to take on the lonely cause of fighting for the indigenous people of my homeland. There was massive infringement then of their land rights, first from loggers, and then from the plantations.

No newspaper in Sarawak dared carry any of the news and press statements because of their fear of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud. He was and still is the big patron behind the loggers, the plantation companies, and most other big businesses, including those that owned the newspapers.

The national press was also not in the least interested in this issue for reasons best known to themselves. Massive numbers of the native people in Sarawak suffered untold misery of dislocation and marginalisation in silence for decades.

Old world of cinema halls and bubbling excitement

By Sim Kwang Yang

The most exciting event of the week in those long gone, bad old days was going to the movies. Nowadays, there is nothing extraordinary about going to the movies any more. Every household has a DVD player and television set, and watching a movie is such a routine activity in our daily lives that we think nothing of it, and take it for granted.

Growing up in 1960s in Kuching, before all these electronic gadgets made their appearance, going to the movies at the weekend was the high point of our social and entertainment life for the entire week.

That was because going to the movies was the only entertainment at the mass level available to the people. It was the cheapest and most easily available distraction and escape from living the tedium of a stultifying life.

Film shows were cheap enough then, costing as little as 30 sen per ticket for the matinee morning film. The regular show cost a mere ringgit, if my memory serves me right.

Papua New Guinea judge ticks off Rimbunan Hijau

By MalaysiaKini

A judge in Papua New Guinea has has told off Malaysian-owned logging company Rimbunan Hijau PNG Ltd for abusing the court system in order to harass and threaten a local newspaper from reporting on the logging giant’s activities in the country.

According to a July 13 ABC news report, Judge Ambeng Kandakasi threw out the company’s defamation suit and other motions against the Post-Courier.

Four years ago the logging firm filed a defamation suit against the Papua New Guinean daily after it reprinted an Australian newspaper report headlined ‘The Rape of PNG Forest’. 

Subsidy in the wider context

By Apang

It is here again, whatever you want to call it. Price rise, subsidy reduction or cuts, rationalisation, etc may be mere semantics, but the one commonality among all of them is the effect of the higher cost of living this will have on Malaysians.

And like so many other matters in our stratified society, the impact will be felt most by those who are at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. As for the minority rich and super-rich, and to those comfortable upper middle class professionals, they have already started their drum-beating in support of this latest move by the government.

They beat to the tune of the simplistic equation of less subsidy = more costly sugar= less diabetics in reference to the cut in subsidy for sugar.

If we apply this same logic to, let’s say, fuel, then according to these well-off Malaysians, less subsidy = more costly fuel = less car use = less jams = less pollution = less pollution-related-disease = less death and so on. Ah yes, so very logical indeed, but only when placed within the self-confined and most often, blinkered context.

Kudos to Sarawak Report

By Bunga Pakma

We Sarawakians, and all Malaysians, owe great gratitude towards the dedicated women and men of the site Sarawak Report. Sarawak Report made its first appearance on the net in January of this year, with a mere two posts. They were warming up. February’s six posts showed us that Sarawak Report was something new and exceptional. Then in June and this month they published four major articles founded on original research.  At last, through the efforts of these diligent journalists, Sarawakians and the world learned the extent and worth of Taib’s overseas property.

It is easy enough for a person like me to sit in front of a keyboard and compose “reflections”  on affairs. Every human being on earth has an opinion about something, most of us are eager enough to blab it to anyone we can grab, and thousands of bloggers in Malaysia alone produce every day a flood of pages.

Facts are what we think with, and facts are rare. As the philosopher Heraclitus said, “Those who seek gold dig much dirt and find little gold.” Without solid knowledge, words are just words.

Shahrizat reached out to Penans to personally look into their plights ?

Shahrizat Visited Tourist Center at Batu Bungan

Where is Batu Bungan ?

Shahrizat: the people’s champion?

By Rosita Maja

Minister for Women, Family and Community Development has said: “The Penan community should know that now they have someone to champion their cause and that is us.”

On July 6, the Penan Support Group (PSG), a coalition of 36 NGOs, released a report, “A wider context of sexual exploitation of Penan women and girls in Middle and Ulu Baram, Sarawak, Malaysia” in Parliament. The PSG brought to light more incidents of rape, sexual abuse and exploitation of Penan girls and women by timber workers.

Penan Support Group: Govt denials “appalling”

By Penan Support Group

THE Penan Support Group (PSG) is appalled that Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Heng Seai Kie has refuted the findings in the PSG’s mission report uncovering more cases of rape and sexual exploitation among the Penan. Heng cited minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s “fact-finding mission” on 13 July to the Baram region and the lack of police reports as proof.

We find this denial and misinformation problematic for several reasons. First, the minister’s visit was not a “fact-finding mission” to investigate the allegations of new rape cases, but to merely “have a feel of the place”, to quote a report in The Star.

Second, the minister did not meet any of the members from the Penan communities cited in the PSG report. She spent only one hour on her walkabout of Batu Bungan, an accessible village near the prime tourist spot of Mulu National Park. This is nowhere near any of the three remote villages the PSG mission members visited during their investigation.

Penan woman gives birth following alleged rape

By KERUAH USIT

A Penan woman from Long Item, Baram, Sarawak, given the pseudonym ‘Bibi’ by last September’s damning National Task Force Report by the Women’s Development Ministry, has given birth to another baby in February this year. The father was her alleged rapist, an Interhill logging camp worker known as ‘Johnny’ or Ah Hing.

Bibi had made a police report of rape in Bukit Aman in 2008, and had been given refuge by the Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO), a participant in the National Task Force. However, she later returned to Long Item to see her family, and fell back under Ah Hing’s control.

Ah Hing told the police and the Borneo Post, a local daily owned by a logging company, that he was Bibi’s husband and not her rapist. However, the Penan Support Group has documentary evidence that Ah Hing is registered with the government as the father of two sets of children born to two different mothers aside from Bibi: a Chinese woman and another Penan woman.