Poor Penan being victimized in their homeland!

The police and the Penans
Sim Kwang Yang | Oct 25, 08 1:54pm
The brief uproar over the alleged rape of Penan school girls in the national media has died down, while the white-wash campaign in the Sarawak media continues unabated.


MCPX
Recently, Sarawak Police Commissioner Mohamad Salleh reportedly said that a four-man team under his supervision went to Baram to start investigations. He announced that the team would investigate an alleged rape in 1994. He said, “Although the incident took place 14 years ago, I want to assure the public that are will investigate without fear or favour”.

I remember that old case well, as I was directly involved in having the police report lodged-at the central police station (CPS) in Kuching.

I was still the sole opposition MP from Sarawak then. While attending Parliament sitting in Kuala Lumpur in 1993, I was pressed quite a few times by my then colleague the MP of Petaling Jaya Dr Kua Kia Soong to look into the allegation of rape of a 15-year-old Penan girl in Baram. He had heard about it from some Australian NGOs.

On returning to Kuching, I decided to send my personal assistant See Chee How to Baram and visit the Penans. The 2000-mile journey to and fro would take two weeks, requiring Chee How to fly from Kuching to the town nearest the Penans in the inhospitable rugged and torturous terrain of the great upper Barram headwaters. From the town, Chee How would then have to travel by longboat in the treacherous Baram rapids and walk for days in the jungle before reaching his destination.

I was already physically weakened by my diabetic conditions while Chee How was young, fit, and very well-trained.

When Chee How returned to Kuching, he confirmed that the local Penan communities did tell him the story of a 15-year-old girl raped by some security personnel, and a six-year-old boy had also died from a tear gas attack upon a blockade put up to resist logging operations.

Penans brought to Kuching

Apparently, the Penans had made the long-trip downriver to Marudi and even Miri, trying to make police reports against the crimes committed on their children. But the policemen on duty in these places simply refused to accept their police report. (It is against the law to refuse to take a police report, but if you are meek, shy, and respectful Penans, what can you do?)

We then decided that perhaps it would be better to bring the Penans to Kuching to lodge the police report. I was a serving MP, and had a little clout with the police, the media, and government departments and agencies in the capital city of Sarawak.

It must have been a logistics nightmare, a huge financial burden, and a communication cul-de-sac across 1000 miles of the dense forest in Sarawak. But with the help a group of very supportive friends, Chee How pulled it off.

Many months of hard work and thorough preparation later, the Penans walked into my office in Kuching one bright morning, in a single file, as they are won't to do in the forests. They wore street clothes and looked rather smart, though I surmised that they could not have felt very comfortable in them. Apart from their short stature in their physique, they looked no different from any other group of Sarawak natives.

There were 18 Penans in the party, including four tua kampong (village chiefs) village elders, women, and the rape victim whose identity was never revealed. They settled down on two rows of long benches and faced the excited crowd of reporters who had turned out in full force to attend the first press conference by some Penans in their lives. Even reporters from a TV station were there!

I still remember it as if it was yesterday.

A reporter would ask a question in simple Malay, such as “How many Penans in your area have been affected adversely by the logging?”

Apparently, the idea of a single spokesperson was (and probably still is) alien to the Penan culture. A Penan man would turn to his nearest neighbour and a brief consultation in their Penan language would ensure in a soft murmur.

That neighbour would turn to his nearest neighbour in turn, for a soft conference lasting a minute or two. The process would continue down the line until it returned to the first Penan who initiated the process. He would then give an exact number of Penans affected by bad logging in his area.

Despite the reporters impatience for quick, shot-gun responses to which they were used, the Penans answered their every question with this languid laborious and amiable process of group consultation in low whisper!

Naturally, there was little press coverage of what the Penans said at the press conference the next day. The media organisations in Sarawak were all either owned directly or under the thumb of the elite group who control political power and the logging interests in the state.

Perfect hosts, perfect guests

That evening, i invited all my visitors from the Upper Baram forest to my house for a meal. I had prepared a huge pot of pork-leg-peanut stew, knowing the Penans' partiality for pig meat. I was sure my farm pig was nowhere in taste near their wild boar, but then wild boars must have disappeared in their over-logged jungle. After the meal, we sat around in a big circle on the cement floor and chatted, as was the fashion with friendly gatherings among fellow Sarawakians. A good time was had by all.

Bright and early next morning, we proceeded as a single group to the Kuching central police station looking out to the Central Padang, where the Merdeka celebration is held annually.

I had made an appointment with the commanding officer at the CPS, and he was prepared. We were invited to sit round a large oblong table in a conference room. We had prepared a long report of the rape of the 15-year-old girl and the untimely death of the six-year- old boy at the blockade. While the long report was copied dutifully word for word into the brownish official police report book, the visitors from Baram were treated to coffee or tea, and cakes. The hosts were perfect hosts, and the guests were perfect guests.

During the remainder of the day, the Penan visitors made a few trips across town, trying to see officers in the Health, Education and other departments, and even the Chief Minister's office. It was no surprise to me that everywhere they went, the door was slammed shut in their face.

The transport and communication infrastructure in the vast remote rural area of Sarawak is so primitive that progress in working with the indigenous communities would take years where it would take mere weeks or months in the urban centres.

Unfortunately, my time ran out. In 1995. I was defeated in the parliamentary contest in Kuching. I was compelled to retire from politics because of my bad health.

(Fortunately, my friends in Sarawak continued to work hard in their lonely cause of defending the rights of the Sarawak indigenous communities. Chee How had since qualified as a lawyer and he joined Baru Bian's law firm. Between them, they now have over 100 cases in court, representing various indigenous communities all across Sarawak against encroachment upon their customary land rights by the state government, loggers, and plantation companies).

I tell this tale not for the self-serving purpose of showing how heroic I was in trying to bring justice for the Penans. I merely want to show how hard it is for the Penans just to make a police report if a Penan girl is raped, and a Penan boy, killed.

That is the sort of injustice that cries out for the total overhaul of our political culture. Surely, the greatness or meanness of our Malaysian society is judged by how the weakest members of our Malaysian body politics are treated by the institutions of power?

Since then, I have thought about that poor Panan girl often.

Rapists are the real culprits

In my book of crime against humanity, rape is very near to the top of the list. I am not merely being self-righteous. I just have to think of the numerous beloved female members of my extended family.

I also agree with most women NGO's that rapes are not caused by women who are beautiful or who wear sexy clothes. Rapes are not crimes of sexual passion; they are crimes of violence. The rapists are the real criminals. They leave incurable and life-long psychological scars on their victims, who probably would never recover from their ordeal of being violated.

Chee How told me a few days ago that the Penan rape victim has since moved from Upper Baram to Middle Baram. She has never married and led a normal family life. She should be 29 this year.

So now, the Sarawak police chief wants to pursue this case 14 long years later - “without fear a favour”? One can only be “cautiously optimistic” about such a declaration of intent, which is the same as saying that one is down right cynical about the outcome of the police investigation.

Meanwhile, in the last 14 years, how many Penan girls and women have been raped by outside parties in the remote hostile and god-forsaken forests of Sarawak? We will never know. Even making a police report on such a heinous crime is so difficult for the Penans!

I have been cautioned many times not to reveal the identity of any rape victim. I will just say that the initial for that poor Penan girl 14 years ago is “S”, in case the police needs reminding.

I am very fond of her.

Happy Deepavali. May good triumph over Evil!

Mahathir akan mati dengan mata putih terbuka......A story from the web

Mahathir, you have failed the Malays.Mahathir, you have made the Malays more dependent on the goverment.
Mahathir, you have brought the Malays self esteem and self confidence to all time low.Mahathir, you have made enemies throughtout the modern world on behalf of the Malays

Mahathir, you dislike Americans, British, Australians, Chinese, Indians and Jews and other white race people doesn't mean that the whole entire Malay race should follow suit.

Mahathir, you have self victimised the Malays, making them vulnerable to globalisation.

Mahathir, after helping the Malays for many years, the Malays are still not independent.

Mahathir, after giving so much money to the Malays, the Malays are complaining that they do not have enough.Mahathir, after giving the Malays all the gas station license, teksi license, bus license, APs and all sorts of monopoly license, the Malays are still unable to progress.
Mahathir, you have inculcate dirty political games into the Malay mindset. Khairy, Ahmad Ismail and other racist politicians are the fruit of your brainwash propaganda.Mahathir, you like to achieve numerical results without going through the genuine process.Mahathir, you have taught the Malays the short cut way to success, but they will be vulnerable when the hard times hit them.

Mahathir, you have made the Malays artificially successful by making only a few Malays artificially successful like your son, Mokhzaini, Daim, Halim Saad, Taijuddin Ramli and etc.Mahathir, you like to show the kampung Malays that Malay race is successful by doing circus trick that drain the nation's wealth such as sending a man for a vacation in the space.

Mahathir, so many Malays are unable to progress and the UMNO goverment is spending money here and there where the ecnomic benefit does not trickle down to the poor masses.
Mahathir, today the Malays are more afraid and more likely to resort to violence because they have low self confidence, low self esteem, not equiped with any skills and are ill prepared to face globalisation.

Mahathir, it is education, integrity, strong character, hard work and deligence that will determine the survival and progress of the race and the majority of the Malays are lacking in this departments.

Mahathir, you are a liar and a thief who stole millions of ringgit worth of the nation's wealth.

Mahathir, you are the root cause of the Malay problem.Mahathir, you will die with your eyes open, because you have failed the Malays.

The Racist Datuk Chamil Wariya .....a Indon or Mamak ...who write for Utusan Malaysia!

Looking at his face and his name, you wonder if he is a Indon or Mamak who come to Malaysia and without any shame write and promote racism in our beloved country and hope it will turn into chaos like in Jarkarta or Islamabad! He should be the first one sent to hell.........

The most stupid Home Minister of Malaysian History, Syed Hamid giving the most stupid answer!

Policemen beat a retreat

KUALA LUMPUR: A police beat base located in the Chow Kit area of downtown Kuala Lumpur has been shut down because the “presence of criminals could make it unsafe” for police officers.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said the beat base was located in a dirty area where police faced the possibility of being exposed to contagious diseases. The presence of criminals also posed a threat to the safety of police officers. "What a joke!"

He said this in a written reply to Dr Lo’ Lo’ Mohamad Ghazali (PAS - Titiwangsa).
Dr Lo’ Lo’ had asked why the beat base along Jalan Haji Taib was closed considering that vice activities were high in the area. She also wanted to know what kind of action had been taken by the police to curb vice activities in the Chow Kit area.
Syed Hamid said police were in the midst of finding a new location for the beat base.
In an immediate response City Chief Police Officer Deputy Comm Datuk Mohd Sabtu Osman said the beat base was not shut down but had been relocated to bigger premises near Jalan Raja Bot.

“We moved there to provide better service as we have increased our manpower and need more space,” he said.
Dr Lo’ Lo’s question was the 30th in the Order Paper and hence did not get a mention in the House during the daily one-hour Question Time.
However, Dr Mohd Hatta Ramli (PAS - Kuala Krai) managed to raise the matter when he interjected during Azmin Ali’s (PKR - Gombak) speech during the debate on Budget 2009.
Dr Mohd Hatta said that if the police themselves felt unsafe in a beat base, it would be even worse for the public.

“Maybe it would be better to put the police beat base in the army barracks.”

Dr Mohd Hatta then managed to raise the issue again during his own debate on Budget 2009 saying that Syed Hamid’s response was irrational and hoped he would clarify his written answer as this was not the kind of police the people wanted.
“The police are there to make a place safe. If they themselves are scared and run away, how can we hope for others to want to be there?” he asked.
Dr Mohd Hatta said if the place was dirty, it was up to the police to organise gotong-royong activities to clean it up.
He added the only kind of contagious disease in the area was sexually transmitted, adding that getting infected was a matter of choice.