penan

Penans file complaint to SUHAKAM
Source: http://www.Harakahdaily.com (Opposition Party's online news)

November 4, 2000

Kuala Lumpur, Nov 4 (Hrkh)- Representatives of the Penan tribe from Sarawak today held a two-hour close-door discussion with the National Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM).

The five-member team from Ulu Baram and other representatives from Sarawak NGOs were accompanied by Secretary-General of the National Human Rights Society (HAKAM), Elizabeth Wong.

SUHAKAM Commissioners present were Vice-Chair Harun Hashim, Dr. Mohd. Hirman Ritom Abdullah, Mehrun Siraj, Prof. Dato' Hamdan Adnan, Dr Salleh Mohd Nor and Mahadev Shankar.

The Penans filed the first ever complaint by an indigenous group from Sarawak, touching on the erosion of native customary rights over land; the erosion of economic, social and cultural rights; and the abuse of police powers and the brutality of the Police Field Force (PFF).

Harun Hashim said that they would be looking into the issues raised. He also mentioned that they would enquire from the Sarawak state government.

Balang Nalang of Ulu Baram said that the meeting with SUHAKAM was satisfactory.

"We have sent numerous letters and appeals to government officials and agencies for the last fifteen years. Yet our situation has not improved.

"We will see if SUHAKAM can help us," he added.

He said that they have also invited SUHAKAM to come to Ulu Baram to see the situation for themselves.

Elizabeth Wong from HAKAM commented that the commissioners were very sympathetic and well-aware of the issues faced by the Penans.

"I was very touched by their concerns, especially Shankar who told the Penans that they will not be alone in their fight for justice," she said.

Some of the recommendations forwarded to SUHAKAM were: recognition of the native customary land of the Penans and other indigenous groups; suspension of all logging activities until a public enquiry is held; repeal of the Internal Security Act 1960 which has been used to detain persons working for the cause of indigenous peoples; investigate into abuses perpetrated upon the Penans, including several deaths, rape and torture; and to set up a SUHAKAM office in Sarawak to protect the human rights of the Penans and other indigenous communities.

The meeting came a day after Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and Inspector General of Police Norian Mai rejected the requests for a meeting with the indigenous peoples.

Since arriving in Kuala Lumpur, the group had met with NGOs and politicians including Suqiu and the Bar Council. They have also paid a special visit to the Alternative Front parliamentarians and was personally received by leader of the opposition and PAS President Fadzil Nor in Parliament on Thursday.

In the evening, representatives spoke to 200 people who had gathered in the home of KeADILan President, Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

The group will also speak tomorrow at the inaugural "People Before Profits" conference, organized by Suaram and SOS-Selangor. A special welcome and fundraising dinner on Saturday night will be held for them at the Grand Olympic Hotel.

The Penans are a minority indigenous group in Sarawak, numbering only 10,000 in the state. In the mid-1980s, they have captured the imagination of the international media and won the admiration of environmental groups by their unique way of non-violent protests using blockades. They have been fighting to preserve their cultural identity and customary land rights especially in the last fifteen years when logging companies intensified their activities on their lands.

Monday May 14

Natives jubilant over court decision affirming land rights
Tony Thien

11:58am, Mon: While Sarawak government leaders consider the implications of the Kuching High Court's decision, there is a discernible sigh of relief plus euphoria among the Dayak longhouse community after the judicial declaration that their native customary rights (NCR) will remain intact.

In spite of it creating a new precedent in Sarawak's legal history, news of the Kuching High Court's decision delivered in chambers by a deputy registrar on behalf of Justice Ian Chin, from Sabah, did not make it to the front-page of local newspapers.

Sarawak's leading English-language daily The Sarawak Tribune did not even carry the news nor did the local radio stations. Most other newspapers, both English and Chinese, carried the news in their inside pages, many of them making brief references only.

Four natives from a longhouse area in Sebau, Bintulu, in northern Sarawak had sought a judicial declaration they remain in effect the right owners of customary rights land that has been turned over by the land office by way of a lease to a paper and pulp mill for a tree plantation project.

The judge ruled in their favour, saying native customary rights over lands the Iban traditionally refer to as tanah temuda, pulau, tembawai and pemakai menoa have from the early days to the present time survived all orders and legislation.

Malaysiakini has been told there are at least 20 other cases pending in Sarawak courts relating to NCR land issues.

Land registry

According to a national newspaper correspondent based in Kuching who requested not to be identified, when he asked Tuai Rumah (headman) Nor Nyawai, one of the four plaintiffs in the case, how he felt after the High Court granted the declaration, the latter replied, "I am breathless and I simply cannot describe just how happy and relieved I feel right now."

The tuai rumah has become a hero of sorts in his quest to fight for the rights of his people and to protect and preserve their rights on what is commonly called NCR land or tanah pesaka which has been handed down for generations from one kin to the next.

In recent years, however, with the increasing pace of economic development, the government's focus has also been on the development of NCR lands estimated at around three million hectares or more. Part of the effort is through joint ventures with NCR land owners such as in Kanowit and Teru, Baram by bringing in big plantation companies from Peninsular Malaysia, among others.

In others, conflicts have arisen when certain lands that the authorities say are state land and the natives say are not but are NCR lands are leased to companies for other projects, such as the paper and pulp mill in Bintulu.

The state government has tried to assuage and allay the fears on the part of NCR land owners, mostly Dayaks living in the interior longhouses, by setting up a separate native land registry so they can stake their claims.

But Dayak intellectuals, including some politicians and academicians, are saying that the titles issued under this separate registry are useless because they cannot be used to charge for mortgage.

"The best is to adopt the land settlement exercise and issue titles within the provisions of the Sarawak Land Code before the previous amendments," one said. "If necessary, they can even be converted to Mixed Zone so the titles will have more significant monetary value," he added.

Most owners of NCR lands are Dayaks who make up the Bidayuh, Iban, Kayan, Kenyah, Murut, Lun Bawang, Kelabit and Penan.

Appeal notice

Therefore, Saturday's High Court decision has come as "the best Gawai Dayak gift", according to a local Iban leader caught in the euphoria. The Dayak community who will be celebrating Gawai Dayak or Harvest Festival on June 1, a public holiday in Sarawak.

A strong proponent of NCR land, Sidi Munan, said Justice Chin's findings on points of facts and law confirm native customary rights on specific lands remain as intact as before. "This should never have been disputed in the first place," she said.

Munan is a supreme council member of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) and one-time private secretary to the late Tun Temenggong Jugah, the federal minister of Sarawak affairs in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Munan told malaysiakini that he was rather disappointed that one of the lawyers representing the defendants uttered words to the effect that "the natives are squatters".

"The natives maintain their native customary rights over tanah pesaka, and the High Court has re-affirmed that now," he said.

Malaysiakini understands that the defendants in this case have 30 days to file a notice of appeal.

"If they proceed with the appeal, the Appellate Court will only look at points of law," one Iban lawyer said. "Normally, it will not want to interfere with the High Court’s findings on facts and law," he added.

Saturday May 12

Landmark judgment rules in favour of S’wak natives
Chendang Hollis

6:30pm, Sat: The High Court in Kuching today ruled that Sarawak Native Customary Rights (NCR) to land do not owe their existence to the statutes but have existed long before them.

In a landmark judgment by High Court judge Ian Chin, delivered by the Deputy Registrar Timothy Joel in chambers this morning, the judge held that the plaintiffs' - native communities in Sebauh, Bintulu - rights to temuda, pulau and pemakai menoa, all native Iban terms to describe customary rights to land-use, had survived all the Orders of the Rajah Brooke era, legislation under the English colonial government and the present state government.

The judgment came after a long two-year court battle brought about by Rumah Nor, a 64-door longhouse community against a paper mill and tree-plantation operation. The communities had named as defendants, in order, Borneo Pulp Plantation Sdn Bhd, Borneo Pulp and Paper Sdn Bhd, and the Sarawak State Land and Survey Department which issued the NCR land to Borneo Pulp Plantation.

The decision centres around the definition of NCR to include not just land immediate to the longhouse communities and their farming land, but now also extends to forests, rivers and streams.

The NCR to land had been exercised in the disputed area by the plaintiffs and their ancestors until they were prevented to do so by the destruction of trees by the defendants for the purpose of planting other types of trees.

Overjoyed

In his 96-page judgment, Justice Chin made a declaration that the native community of Rumah Nor are entitled to exercise native customary rights over the section of the land granted by the Sarawak state government to the company, where there are NCR land claims.

The High Court also ordered an injunction against the defendant companies and their servants or agents from entering the said disputed land.

The judge further declared void the land title issued to the Borneo Pulp Plantation and asked that the Sarawak State Land and Survey Department rectify the title so as to exclude the disputed area from the grant.

The High Court also ordered costs to the plaintiffs against all the defendants but made no order as to damages as it was his judgment that there was insufficient evidence to support the award of any sum.

The full judgment of Justice Chin is available at this Internet site.

Two hundred people, predominantly from indigenous communities across the state. turned up in court today and were overjoyed when the lawyer for the plaintiffs, Baru Bian, read out and explained the judgment to them. Many elders were seen crying unashamedly.