By Tony Thien
Some 3,000 Penan from 11 longhouses in the Belaga district in Sarawak filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) against a private company engaged in logging, plantation and reforestation activities on a sizeable area of their land.
A Suhakam team which went to the area recently to follow up on the complaint found clear evidence of what one of its commissioners Dr Denison Jayasooria described as "the devastation of forests as far as the eyes can see."
Following this, Suhakam summoned the relevant government agencies in order to highlight the complaints from the ground and hear their responses.
At the end of the meeting, Jayasooria told reporters today that they received "quite a good response" from the agencies which include the state secretary's office, Forestry Department, Land and Survey Department, the state planning unit, the state attorney-general and the Natural Resources Environment Board (NREB).
Also present were three other Suhakam commissioners Dr Mohd Hirman Ritom, Tengku Nazihah Mohd Rus and Dr Professor Chiam Heng Keng and deputy state secretary Wilson Baya Dandut.
The main complaint (of the Penan) is their land being taken away for logging and forest clearance for oil palm plantation,? Jayasooria told reporters after the two-hour meeting with representatives from 14 government agencies.
The Penan complained that the company's activities were affecting their sustainable livelihood and that the company failed to make any formal compensation or failed to provide for an alternative plan for livelihood support.
No identity cards
Suhakam also raised the issue of the majority of Penan numbering about 13,000 in Sarawak still being without identity cards.
The lack of schooling among Penan children and lack of poverty-eradication programmes for the community were also brought up.
Jayasooria said the various government agencies would write to Suhakam separately within the next two weeks on the points raised.
He said the National Registration Department and Suhakam officials would visit the community to hear their grouses.
Jayasooria said his impression was that the various agencies were not in a state of denial or shirking from their responsibilities.
The commissioner understood that many of the problems required time to resolve.
He also said Suhakam had not been informed as to the extent of logging and plantation activities in Sarawak.
However, his colleague Dr Mohd Hirman Ritom said Suhakam received complaints about logging and land issues from natives from Limbang to Sematan.
Unfortunately, the issue over land was compounded by the fact that Native Customary Right (NCR) land does not have a legal title.
Despite this, Ritom said Suhakam would look into the issue from a human rights perspective.
