A BIG LOAD OF BULL (REVISITED)

This was originally posted 24 January 2009. In view of what happened in Shah Alam yesterday reposting is fully warranted!
Umno's Bad Loser Club celebrates the Year of the Ox by dumping a load of bull on Khalid Ibrahim.

MOHD KHIR: I HAVE EVIDENCE AGAINST SELANGOR MB
Jimadie Shah Othman and Rahmah Ghazali | Jan 22, 09 6:53pm

Selangor Opposition Leader [and president of Umno's Bad Loser Club] Dr Mohd Khir Toyo today claimed that he had in his possession a copy of a letter from Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim’s office ‘instructing’ the purchase of 46 cattle to be distributed in Bandar Tun Razak last December during Hari Raya Korban.

Revealing this at a press conference in Shah Alam, the former menteri besar also said he was "disappointed with Khalid for having no knowledge of the cattle distribution to the constituency and denying giving out instructions" to pay for the cattle worth RM110,400.



WHAT MALAYSIAKINI READERS SAY ABOUT KHIR TOYOL'S ACCUSATION...

On Mohd Khir: I have evidence against S'gor MB

Ravi Panicker: Well done, Mohd Khir Toyo! You have found evidence that the Selangor MB used state funds for purchase of cattle for Hari Raya Korban for the common rakyat. Where does it itch for you? After all, he has the authority to do welfare services as he deems fit.

How many times in 50 years did your BN government do the same thing.

Khalid did not swallow the entire money. He used it for a just cause in the spirit of Hari Raya Korban. That is part of his duty.

Are you angry that the 20% commission for the purchase of the cows did not come to you?

And pray tell, where did the money you BN people dished out for the Kuala Terengannu by- election come from?

People in glass houses should not throw stones. The whole federal government is corrupt. As the rakyat, we have no objection to what Khalid has done. He did not use the money for himself.

Mohd Khir Toyo, try your luck at the next GE. Believe me, you will fail again. Let Pakatan run their five states without your vested interventions.

CH Siew: First someone accuses our Selangor MB of corruption because he bought some cattle for the people. Now Khir Toyo claims that he has evidence of the purchase. The question is: where is the corruption?

Did the MB ask all those who benefitted from the meat for anything in return? Did he ask them for favours?

Did he pocket any some amount of the money used for the purchase? Is there even proof that an exchange amounting to corruption had taken place?

Already, the reputation of Khir Toyo is beyond redemption. The saga on MP Teresa Kok already shows how much integrity Mohd Khir has.

To think that anything out from his mouth is worth listening to is like believing that BN is not corrupted.

When Mohd Khir come into the picture, it was very clear to the rakyat how incredible this accusation is.

These kind of people are doing more harm than good for Malaysia and I feel very sad that the progress of Malaysia continues to be hindered by people like Mohd Khir Toyo.

Wu: A new low for Umno and Mohd Khir Toyo?

Imagine manipulating an issue of donations for religious event for one’s own political agenda! How low can they stoop? Any wonder why they are losing elections?

Whether or not Khalid used state funds and whether it is right if he did, is another issue for another time.

Hey, Botox face! Time to moooooove on!

Will Umno's Bad Loser Club be wallowing in more hogwash at the start of the Pig Year? Or will they be reduced to a pile of stale dogshit by then?

WISHING UMNO'S BAD LOSER CLUB A THOROUGHLY SHITTY LUNAR YEAR OF THE BULL... AND ALL DECENT FOLKS A FERTILE, PRODUCTIVE & MOO-MENTOUS REGIME CHANGE!

DID SOME BLOODY IDIOT FROM SECTION 23, SHAH ALAM, LOSE HIS HEAD?

Protesters threaten bloodshed over Hindu temple

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal | The Malaysian Insider

SHAH ALAM, Aug 28 — A group of Malay-Muslim protesters claiming to be residents of Section 23 have threatened bloodshed unless the state government stopped the construction of a Hindu Temple.

Amid chants of "Allahuakbar," the group also left the severed head of a cow at the entrance of the State Secretariat here as a warning to Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.

The "residents" said that the construction of a Hindu temple in a 90 per cent Malay- Muslim neighbourhood was insensitive because activities there would disrupt their lives.

They claimed that the "noise" from the temple would disturb their own praying, and that they would not be able to function properly as Muslims.

[Read the rest here.]

Courtesy of Malaysiakini.tv 28 Aug 2009

THAT'S A BIG LOAD OF BULL, I SAY.

Listen to what a wise old owl named Dr Raffick has to say about this stupid and reckless political stunt...

"The actions taken by 50 odd residents of Section 23 have brought shame to all Muslims in Malaysia. They have shown the ugly side of their conduct. They have been disrespectful. They have defamed Islam. They hide behind the veil of the religion for their ugly, uncivilized and barbaric act. To all my Hindu friends, I apologize for their ignorance. To the PM and the MB of Selangor, please use the full might of the law on these people who have defamed Islam. To the other Muslim residents of Section 23 Shah Alam, please talk some sense to these 50 people. To the Hindus, please forgive them for their ignorance."

[Photos courtesy of The Malaysian Insider, Malaysiakini & Google Images]

Farish A. Noor on the gory history of corporal punishment

Punishing the Body or the Person?
Why Some Cannot Accept Physical Punishments

By Farish A. Noor ~ August 28th, 2009

In his book Torture and Modernity: Self, Society and State in Modern Iran (1994), the scholar Darius Rejali looks at how the processes of torture and punishment have evolved over the centuries in Iran, from the period of the Qajar dynasty all the way to the regime of the Shah and the Islamic Revolutionary government. He makes one interesting and important observation which remains relevant to all of those who are concerned about the use of corporal punishment and torture by modern states today: that corporal punishment dates back to the medieval era where the popular perception of punishment was that it was a public spectacle that ought to be enacted upon the body of the individual, and not the subject him/herself.

In this respect, the modes of torture and punishment that were used in pre-modern Iran were no different from the modes of punishment that were used in China, India, Africa or Europe. Throughout the world during the pre-modern era the popular understanding of punishment was that it was meant to be a form of public humiliation, operating through the mode of public violence, that was intended to compel the guilty to repent and alter his/her ways through the threat of violence and force.

Hence we see how in medieval Europe, Asia and the Arab world the modes of public punishment were all equally gory and bloody: Heads were chopped off, bodies were impaled, whipped, burned, branded, broken, quartered and sliced to pieces. Most of these punishments were carried out in public, ostensibly as a 'lesson' to others. But as many modern psychologists have pointed out, these public spectacles of violence also served the voyeuristic inclination of those who relished the sight of bodies being violated in public, and were thus also forms of bizarre public pornography.

In his study on the evolution of torture and punishment in Iran, Rejali notes how this medieval mode of punishment gradually developed to become a more sophisticated mode of care and policing instead. The violent spectacles of state-sanctioned violence that involved public enactments of torture eventually gave way to the regime of the prison and the culture of pastoral care and reform of the Self instead. Why?

Simply put, the reason behind this evolution lay in the growing consciousness that the medieval modes of punishment of the past were simply barbaric, primitive, and missed the point. Particularly after the advent of the Iranian revolution, Iranian lawmakers realized that the aim of law enforcement was not simply to exercise legitimate state violence upon citizens, but to help citizens reach their full potential as rational agents and responsible individuals. Medieval modes of violent punishment could not do that for the simple reason that by abusing and violating the bodies of the condemned, they were targeting the body, and not the conscious Self.

The argument can be illustrated thus: Pre-modern modes of punishment assumed that if an individual had committed a crime or a wrong against society, then the offending organ or part of the body of the individual would pay the price. Hence in many primitive societies we come across instances of bodily abuse and torture that target the organs or parts of the body that were to 'blame': The person who lies or slanders, for instance, would have his tongue cut out. The voyeur would have his eyes gouged out. The thief would have his hand cut off. The rapist would be castrated, and so on.

Such modes of physical punishment were, however, deemed to be less and less effective and furthermore failed to solve the problem of criminality itself, for the punishment was not being inflicted on the truly offending party, namely the subjective Self. For it is not the tongue that lies, but the person. It is not the hand that steals, but the person. It is not the penis that rapes, but the person. Addressing the responsibility of the person entailed going beyond the body, and dealing with the psychology of the individual itself. This in turn meant that violence was not a solution to the problem, but in fact only made things worse: For a state that endorses violence as a means to achieve justice eventually arrives at a different destination altogether. Such a state merely normalizes violence and makes violence more and more commonplace and acceptable. Rather than morally uplifting society, it debases and brutalizes society even further. An example would be the case of the French Revolution, where the revolutionaries who executed the leaders of the old regime eventually ended up being murdered themselves too, including Robespierre, who died at the guillotine that he himself introduced.

The development of the related notions of justice, care, reform (of the Self) and responsibility (of both the State and the Individual subject) only came about much later, with the development of modern social sciences that included political sociology, psychology and notably the psychology of criminality. The modern age marks its difference from the medieval age by accepting that bodies are not to be blamed, but rather subjectivities and selves. In other words, modern human beings relinquished their obsession with violent torture and punishment when they realized that torturing and abusing people would not make them better human beings.

Which brings us to the current debate about caning in Malaysia, be it caning that is enforced by civil secular law or by Islamic law. Already in Malaysia we have the instance of a woman who may soon be caned for the Shariah offence of drinking beer. And meanwhile in Malaysia we have illegal immigrants being caned for over-staying their visas and entry permits in the country.

Human rights activists who oppose caning and other forms of state-sanctioned physical violence do so on the grounds that we believe that such violent punishments do nothing to solve the attendant problems and issues that need to be addressed in another, more intelligent way. Caning an illegal immigrant does nothing to reform the person, but merely violates and abuses his/her body. Likewise caning someone for what is perceived to be a moral crime by religious law does nothing to reform the person’s subjectivity, but merely abuses the body of the person instead. Why, even in the Islamic Republic of Iran the regime of the Ayatollahs realized that physical torture was never and could never succeed in making someone a better human being, but would actually lead to the opposite and create a society that was more and more violent and accustomed to violence. Hence their use of public education and counselling instead.

Malaysians are now faced with a similar question and we need to ask ourselves whether the time has come for this society of ours to understand and accept the fact that violence is not and will never be a solution to the social problems of our times - be it criminality, corruption, abuse of power or the breakdown of the social contract. The modern human subject realizes that one cannot be forced to be just or good, and that a good society cannot emerge out of violent compulsion. State violence merely brutalizes us further and denies the value and primacy of human reason and the capacity for human beings to think rationally and to alter themselves rationally too. Whipping someone into submission cannot ever do that; for violence and reason are never complementary.

Would you like a Norwegian fishwhipping? Great for your morals!

15Malaysia: 'HOUSE' by Linus Chung

Among the five short features posted on the 15Malaysia website as of 26 August 2009, Linus Chung's tender and unpretentious study of a young boy's concept of his dream house immediately touches the heart. So very timely, too, in view of all that’s been happening around Kg Buah Pala.

“My father built this house with his own hands...” and that’s why Rama is happy to live in it. Outwardly it looks like a hovel, but the love that dwells within transforms it into a heavenly abode.

Excellent effort, Linus! Superb casting... and it was a real treat to see Yasmin Ahmad in a cameo appearance in the final scene. As Anil Netto pointed out, she looked just like an angel :-)...

DINOSAUR DYNASTIES & THE DINOSAUR TECHNOLOGIES THEY FOIST ON US

I read this letter in Malaysiakini from "Malaysian with Children" with profound disgust and outrage at the way Barisan Nasional is leading the nation straight to hell with their myopic, greed-driven, environmentally and morally ruinous schemes...

MALAYSIA GOING NUCLEAR FRAUGHT WITH DANGER
Malaysian with Children
Aug 24, 2009 3:31pm

The sun has been the main energy source for all life on the planet for billions of years. In Malaysia, we are blessed with a bounty of sunlight.

Yet, our Malaysian government is pushing for nuclear energy as though it is the best and only option for Malaysia's future energy needs.

The government seems to be brushing aside the dangers relating to nuclear power plants, as if they were issues that didn't exist or could easily be remedied in the near future.

Developed countries are having serious difficulties with their own nuclear programmes. In the US, there are problems disposing of nuclear reactor waste.

In Finland, construction of nuclear power plants have been delayed and gone way over cost due to shoddy work on the concrete foundations.

What more of the situation in Malaysia, where we tend to have even less oversight in commercial dealings? Where is the safety or economic sense in all that?

From what I have seen, there is no detailed information available to the public on Malaysia's nuclear plans. Where will the reactor be located - maybe in Ipoh, or maybe Putrajaya?

What type of reactor will it be? Who will we buy the uranium to run the reactor from? How much will it all cost and who is paying for it?

If those weren't enough questions, what about the waste generated from our nuclear power plant - where and how Malaysia will be dealing with its own nuclear reactor waste - waste that remains highly radioactive for thousands of years?

Will we dump it in deep geological recesses off our coasts? Will we bury it in the jungles of Sarawak, Sabah or Pahang? Will we be reprocessing it in factories in Miri or in Kota Baru?

The world got into the mess of climate change and global warming because we went the quick, easy and convenient way.

We did not look at the long-term consequences of burning fossil fuels, perhaps because in the beginning, we didn't really know the consequences.

Our oceans and rivers are now choking on plastic pollution, because we needed cheap and lightweight material for packaging.

But we do know, right now, that nuclear energy will produce highly radioactive waste, even if it is in small amounts, every day a nuclear plant is open.

We do know, right now, that this highly radioactive waste must be disposed of somewhere on our finite planet. We do know, right now, that we have no technology to make this waste safe.

And as more countries build nuclear power plants, more of this waste is dumped into our Earth, the planet that sustains our lives.

It is unforgivable that we, as governments and responsible adults, knowingly create such dangerous waste without a concern for tomorrow.

We are already leaving our children with our legacy of global warming, and choking pollution.

And now we wish to leave this massive mess of nuclear waste and closed reactor sites to our grandchildren, leaving them with the burden of trying to figure out how to solve the problem that we ourselves have no idea how to solve.

I know I'm afraid, very afraid.

Here's an eminently sensible letter in response...

SOLAR ENERGY A BETTER ALTERNATIVE

Hai Hiung
Aug 26, 2009 4:03pm

I'm writing in regards to the following letter: "Malaysia going nuclear fraught with danger." I agree with the author, Malaysian with Children.

For reasons unbeknownst to most of us ordinary folk, TNB is pushing hard for the use of nuclear energy for generating electricity. The studies they used to justify going nuclear is biased.

First, they used South Korea as their case in point. South Korea is nothing like Malaysia in terms of the availability of solar energy.

In a year, South Korea would probably enjoy less than six months of effective sunlight for solar energy generation, compared to Malaysia's year-round sunshine.

Secondly, the cost cited by nuclear experts is inaccurate at best. In my opinion, TNB has been ill-advised on the cost of security.

The cost of guarding the nuclear plant itself could easily outweigh the cost of operation and the cost of nuclear waste disposal.

Even though Malaysia is relatively safe from terror attacks, there is no guarantee that terrorists would not target Malaysia in the future.

Having a nuclear plant sitting on Malaysian soil makes us that much more vulnerable to terrorism.

Third, the justification that by the time the plant is opened, we should have proper maintainance procedures in place.

We still don't have a good track record where that is concerned if you see how TNB and our public trains are concerned.

Fourth, First Solar recently opened a RM2bil plant in Kulim. So, we actually have a solar panel manufacturer here on our shore.

Yet, it never occurred to TNB to approach First Solar to setup a solar power plant.

If France, a Mediterranean country, finds using solar energy good enough to be part of its energy-generation needs, then we must ask TNB - why can't Malaysia do the same?

MY COMMENT: Ask TNB? Ha ha ha. The world is plagued with dinosaur technologies because it is secretly run by dinosaur dynasties. Whether the family name happens to be Rameses, Thutmose, Amunhotep, Ming, Han, Sung, Borgia, Medici, Hapsburg, Plantagenet, Rothschild, Rockefeller, Morgan, Bush, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Windsor, Razak, Taib or Mahathir... we're dealing with powerful bloodlines that absolutely believe they are entitled to ownership and exploitation of the Earth and all her inhabitants.

These are the so-called Master Bloodlines that have utterly misunderstood the meaning of Mastery. They measure the power of a Master by the number of Slaves at his command. Little do they realize that a TRUE MASTER is master only of his own destiny and the way he responds to his environment.

Because they are so reliant on other people's weakness for their own sense of power, they are terrified of technologies that liberate rather than enslave. That's why they are invariably drawn to colossal and expensive methods - especially capital-intensive schemes that can further enslave the human race and ensure that traditional power hierarchies are perpetuated ad infinitum.

The Serbian supergenius, Nikola Tesla, produced a host of breakthrough inventions that might have freed humanity from drudgery and enslavement and enabled real wealth to spread throughout the social spectrum. Of course, he was thwarted at every turn by avaricious and cynical capitalist elites who understood and cared for nothing but profits, profits, and always fatter profits.

We have to stop these desperate dinosaur bloodlines from foisting their destructive technologies on an ignorant and unsuspecting population. Educate yourself now... before it's too late!

TAHNIAH, MOHD SALLEH MAN! BRAVO, PAS!

YOU DA MAN, SALLEH!

Another solid win for Pakatan Rakyat!

IT'S OFFICIAL: PAS WINS PERMATANG PASIR 

Malaysiakini | Aug 25, 2009 | 6:34pm

PAS has won the Permatang Pasir state seat by-election in Penang today with a majority of 4,451 votes.

The majority however had decreased by nearly 900 votes since the last general election which saw the party winning by 5,433 votes.

The Election Commission announced that PAS candidate 52-year-old candidate Mohd Salleh polled 9,618 votes while BN's Mohd Rohaizat Othman, 38, garnered 5,067.

Voter turnout had also decreased this time around to 73 percent which the Election Commission chief Abdul Aziz Yusof blamed on the A(H1N1) outbreak. In the previous election, the turnout was 82.6 percent. The by-election in the heart of Anwar Ibrahim's parliamentary stronghold of Permatang Pauh was held following the death of PAS state assemblyperson Mohd Hamdan Abd Rahman on July 31st.

This is the eighth by-election since the March 8 polls last year. With this victory, Pakatan Rakyat has taken seven with BN only emerging victorious in Sarawak's Batang Ai contest.

ANOTHER CHANCE TO KICK BN BUTT TODAY!

Polling starts, Anwar predicts victory 

Malaysiakini | August 25, 2009 | 8:51am    

Voters in Permatang Pasir started voting at 8am today to elect a new state assemblyperson for their constituency.

In all eight polling stations 39 streams are available for voters to cast their ballots.

The eight polling stations are SJKC Lay Keow Permatang Pauh, SMK Sama Gagah, SK Permatang Pauh, SK Permatang Pasir, SK Bukit Indra Muda, SJKC Kubang Semang, SK Seri Penanti and Sek Rendah Islam Al-Masriyah.

A total of 20,290 registered voters can participate in today's by-election which has been called following the death of incumbent PAS representative Mohd Hamdan Abdul Rahman, 63, on May 31st.

The by-election sees Barisan Nasional's Rohaizat Othman, 38, taking on PAS' Mohd Salleh Man, 55. However both the candidates will not be voting today as they are not registered voters of Permatang Pasir.

Anwar confident of win

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and his wife Dr Wan Azizah Ismail are however among the voters in this constituency and they were among the earliest to cast their votes.

Anwar, Wan Azizah and Mohd Salleh arrived at the SK Seri Penanti polling station at about 8.20am to vote.

Speaking to reporters after voting, Anwar said he was confident of a satisfying majority for Mohd Salleh.

"I am happy with our machinery. They have been working hard. I am confident Salleh will win with a satisfying majority," he said. 

[Source: Malaysiakini]

Global PR for Najib ~ and by PR I don't mean Pakatan Rakyat!

Malaysian government brings in PR firm, will need all the help it can get

Benjamin Bland | The Asia File | Saturday, August 15, 2009

The Malaysian government has appointed APCO, a global PR firm, to advise it on how to engage with the public and the media.

When I covered the stock market in London, the appointment of a new PR firm by a troubled company was usually the equivalent of the band on the Titanic striking up a new cheerful tune: they may be hoping to lighten the mood but ultimately the ship's still going down.

[Read the whole sordid story here.]

PSST! JUST HEARD A RUMOR THAT HIRING APCO IS GOING TO COST THE RAKYAT A COOL RM20 MILLION. CAN ANYONE CONFIRM THIS?

Nik Nazmi on the manipulation of religion for political purposes

Religion and society in Malaysia

By Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad

AUG 23 — As Muslims the world over begin their fast with the blessed month of Ramadan, perhaps it’s time for us to reflect on the role of religion in Malaysian society.

At a youth programme in Subang Jaya I attended recently, a friend of mine asked whether it was possible to move beyond the twin bugbears of religion and race that has poisoned in Malaysian politics and cleaved our people. This sentiment has been gaining some currency lately — the idea that religion should be removed from our public life. Many even see religion as something anachronistic to the modern world.

I responded by saying that religion will always exert a powerful influence over all Malaysians. In fact, one has reason to doubt the idea that religion is somehow on the retreat worldwide.

In the United States, for instance, Barack Obama helped to reverse the Democrats long malaise because he could reach out to communities of faith. Many Democrats were uncomfortable with religion, thus allowing the Republicans to frame the discourse of faith to suit their conservative politics.

I went on to say that I always express my belief that justice is a central tenant in Islam whenever I address my fellow Muslims. An important part of this includes reaching out to non-Muslims and treating them fairly.

A large part of the failures and troubles that have beset the ummah the world over is due to the fact that our tradition of moderation has somehow been waylaid, and this is something that we must regain. Doing so will not only guarantee our progress in the various fields, but also contribute to peace and dialogue between the other civilisations.

Thus, religion to me is not something that is a barrier or a problem but a source of civic virtue, providing a moral and ethical framework in life. I also feel that it is important for Muslims to always strive to achieve the moral high-ground — because that is what our faith demands of us.

That is why I believe that it is impossible for us to remove religion from the public discourse in Malaysia. What is not right and what no one should countenance — and this is the point of my article — is the cynical manipulation of religion for political purposes. Recent events have unfortunately shown that inciting sectarian conflict to score political points is the “in thing” in Malaysia today.

Thankfully, the vast majority of the Malaysian public have always been wise enough to call the bluff of such schemes. In fact, in my experience, the shrillest cries in any controversy almost always comes from those who are the least knowledgeable about religion (and more often than not the least devout) in order to give them the cloak of piousness.

[Read the rest of this noble and illuminating essay at The Malaysian Insider]

Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad is the state assemblyman for Seri Setia and is the political secretary to the Selangor Mentri Besar. He writes a fortnightly article for The Malaysian Insider.

TAIB MAHMUD, TIME'S UP FOR YOU!

PENAN TRIBE ESCALATES ANTI-LOGGING CAMPAIGN

Malaysiakini | 23 Aug 2009 | 11:13am

Hundreds of Penan tribespeople armed with spears and blowpipes have set up new blockades deep in the Borneo jungles, escalating their campaign against logging and palm oil plantations.

Three new barricades, guarded by Penan men and women who challenged approaching timber trucks, have been established in recent days. There are now seven in the interior of Sarawak.

"They are staging this protest now because most of their land is already gone, destroyed by logging and grabbed by the plantation companies," said Jok Jau Evong from Friends of the Earth in Sarawak.

"This is the last chance for them to protect their territory. If they don't succeed, there will be no life for them, no chance for them to survive."

Penan chiefs said that after enduring decades of logging which has decimated the jungles they rely on for food and shelter, they now face the new threat of clear-felling to make way for crops of palm oil and planted timber.

"Since these companies came in, life has been very hard for us. Before it was easy to find animals in the forest and hunt them with blowpipes," said Alah Beling, headman of Long Belok where one of the barricades has been built.

"The forest was once our supermarket, but now it's hard to find food, the wild boar have gone," he said in his settlement, a scenic cluster of wooden dwellings home to 298 people and reachable only by a long suspension bridge.

Alah Beling said he fears that plans to establish plantations for palm oil - which is used in food and for biofuel - on their ancestral territory, will threaten their lifestyle and further pollute the village river with pesticide run-off.

"Once our river was so clear you could see fish swimming six feet deep," he said as he gestured at the waterway, which like most others in the region has been turned reddish-brown by the soil that cascades from eroded hillsides.

Indigenous rights group Survival International said the blockades are the most extensive since the late 1980s and early 1990s when the Penan's campaign to protect their forests shot to world attention.

"It's amazing they're still struggling on after all these years, more than 20 years after they began to try to fight off these powerful companies," said Miriam Ross from the London-based group.

Official figures say there are more than 16,000 Penan in Sarawak, including about 300 who still roam the jungle and are among the last truly nomadic people on Earth.
The blockades, which Friends of the Earth said involve 13 Penan communities home to up to 3,000 people, are aimed at several timber and plantation companies including Samling, KTS, Shin Yang and Rimbunan Hijau.

After clearing much of the valuable timber from Sarawak, some of these companies are now converting their logging concessions into palm oil and acacia plantations.

"They told us earlier this month they were coming to plant palm oil, and I said if you do we will blockade," said Alah Beling.

"They told us we don't have any rights to the land, that they have the licence to plant here. I felt very angry - how can they say we have no right to this land where our ancestors have lived for generations?"

Even on land that has been logged in the past, Penan can still forage for sago which is their staple food, medicinal plants, and rattan and precious aromatic woods which are sold to buy essential goods.

"Oil palm is worse because nothing is left. If they take all our land, we will not be able to survive," the Long Belok headman said.

Masing dismisses Penan as good storytellers


Sarawak's Rural Development Minister James Masing (right) admitted some logging companies had behaved badly and "caused extensive damage" but said the Penan were "good storytellers" and their claims should be treated with caution.

"The Penan are the darlings of the West, they can't do any wrong in the eyes of the West," he said.

Masing said disputes were often aimed at wringing more compensation from companies, or stemmed from conflicts between Penan and other indigenous tribes including the Kenyah and Kayan about overlapping territorial claims.

He said the current surge in plantation activity was triggered by Sarawak's goal to double its palm oil coverage to one million hectares - an area 14 times bigger than Singapore.
"The time we have been given to do this is running short. 2010 is next year so we want to make that target and that is why there may be a push to do it now, to fulfil our goal established 10 years ago," he said.

"In some areas the logging has not been done in accordance with the rules and some of the loggers have caused extensive damage. That does happen and I do sympathise with the Penan along those lines," he said.

"But the forest has become a source of income for the state government so we have to exploit it".

Whole valleys stripped of vegetation


Driving through the unsealed roads that reach deep into the Borneo interior, evidence of the new activity is clear with whole valleys stripped of vegetation and crude terraces carved into the hills ready for seedlings.

Most of the companies declined to comment on the allegations made by the Penan, but Samling said it "regrets to learn about the blockades".

"We have long worked with communities in areas we operate to ensure they lead better lives," it said in a statement.

Its website says its acacia timber plantations in Sarawak will "enhance the health of the forests" and that it uses "only the most sensitive ways to clear the land".

The Penan allegations could discredit Malaysia's claims that it produces sustainable palm oil, particularly in Europe and the US where activists blame the industry for deforestation and driving orangutans towards extinction.

Indigenous campaigners say that past blockades have seen violence and arrests against tribespeople, but village chiefs - some of whom were detained during the 1980s blockades - said they did not fear retribution.

"We're not afraid. They're the ones destroying my property. Last time we didn't know the law and now to protect ourselves, but now we know our rights," said Ngau Luin, the chief of Long Nen where another barricade was set up.

An AFP team reporting at the blockades was photographed by angry timber company officials, and later intercepted at a roadblock by police armed with machineguns and taken away for questioning.

The plight of the Penan was made famous in the 1980s by environmental activist Bruno Manser, who waged a crusade to protect their way of life and fend off the loggers. He vanished in 2000 - many suspect foul play. - AFP

TRIBUTE TO AN ECOWARRIOR

Calls for Total Ban of Forest Burnings in Bakun Dam Reservoir

Miri, Sarawak, MALAYSIA: – The Sarawak Conservation Action Network (SCANE) is shocked to learn that forests have been burning within the catchments and reservoir area of the Bakun Hydroelectric Power Dam project without any action being taken against the culprit by the Government Authorities.

SCANE has been informed that the forest burnings were purportedly done as directed by the Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd to wipe-out the forest that would be impounded by the dam. The Bakun Hydroelectric Power Dam project is owned and developed by Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd, a fully-owned unit of the Minister of Finance Inc, Malaysia (MOF Inc).

SCANE found out that Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd has started with the work to clear the forest within the entire Bakun dam reservoir. The contracts for clear-cutting of forest have been commissioned to some contractors since beginning of the year. The forest area which will be cleared for the dam is 80,000 ha that is roughly the size of Singapore Island.

Recently the Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd managing director Zulkifle Osman announced that the impoundment of water catchments would start in October, which by then the whole dam reservoir will be flooded. By July 2010, testing for electricity transmission from Bakun dam will start. The Bakun reservoir catchment comprises some 20 sub-catchments with the main river draining the catchment is the Balui, which in turn is fed by the Murum, Bahau and Linau Rivers.

SCANE was told that one of the conditions as stipulated in the contract is that the contractors and/or its sub-contractors, agents and/or workers are required to do burnings on the cleared and felled forest, without which they would not be fully paid for the work done and/or their contract would be terminated. Over the past few months, large tracts of forest have already been cleared and felled within the Bakun dam reservoir area.

SCANE is wondering as how the Sarawak Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB), the law enforcer of the Natural Resources and Environment Ordinance (NREO) fails to closely monitor the actions of Sarawak Hidro when its development activities are detrimental to the environment. It is scandalous that the Sarawak Hidro does not strictly follow the Environmental Management Plan (EMP), if any, as such stated in the Bakun Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Report.

With the current long spell dry weather, the Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd’s contractors and/or its sub-contractors, agents and/or workers have been doing a series of forest burnings. SCANE has received reports that there were open burnings carried out in the area. Fires were reported at different locations and sites in the area. In certain sites, where the fires were not being able to completely razed the felled trees, logs and debris, their workers are asked to gathered all the logs and reduce to ashes. SCANE was told that those workers who set the fires were not aware at all whether any permits for open burning had been issued by NREB as they merely followed the directive of Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd.

The unscrupulous activity of clearing and open burning of forests by Sarawak Hidro within the Bakun dam reservoir area is clearly violating to the Natural Resources and Environment Ordinance (NREO). It is such outrageous that Sarawak Hidro actions to wipe out the forest within the reservoir area without having any sense of responsibility and sensitivity toward the environment, though knowingly that its activity would cause immeasurable impacts to environment. Due to the large scale nature of such activity, burning should be ban totally before it could become an environmental crisis within Bakun dam reservoir area and beyond. Hence, it is within the jurisdiction of the NREB to take appropriate measures to ensure such activities from reoccurrence.

SCANE is extremely concerns with the environmental implications of development activities surrounding the Bakun Hydroelectric power dam project that causes drastic land-use change and deforestation of sensitive ecosystems.

SCANE warns that removing vast tract of forest, open burning and forest fires in the dam reservoir not only puts flora and fauna at risk by reducing their habitat, but also contributes to long-term environmental problems such as climate change.

SCANE strongly urges the State Government of Sarawak to put a total ban on any forest clearance and burnings in Bakun dam reservoir area until appropriate measures and management plan are in place. With immediate action, the NREB, with the conferred power and jurisdictions should take stringent action against the developer of Bakun dam project for indiscriminate burnings of forest in the reservoir area.

Thank you.

Raymond Abin

National Coordinator

Note: Sarawak Conservation Action Network (SCANE) is a coalition of leading environmental and indigenous rights organizations in Sarawak whose members include Borneo Resources Institute Malaysia (BRIMAS), Indigenous Peoples Development Centre (IPDC), Network of Customary Land Rights of Sarawak Indigenous Peoples (TAHABAS), Centre for Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Sarawak (CRIPS), Sarawak Indigenous Lawyers Associates (SILA), Serakup Raban Iban Bintulu (SRIBin), Gerempung Anakbiak Sekabai (GAS), Indigenous Peoples Institute Malaysia Sarawak (IPIMAS), Society for Alternative Living (PPU) and Native Longhouse Action Committees through out Sarawak.