Friday, June 25, 2010

Police Gangsterism of the Penan Bumiputra

I read with sadness that the Penan in Sarawak are being abused by the police and the timber tycoons. Isn't the Penan bumiputera of the land in Sarawak? And guess what, the Malaysian police are now playing the judge and the jury by way of gangsterism.

Whatever it is, this is their ancestral land and the Penans have their rights to the way of life they have been told for generations before there is any government.

Please, do highlight their plight in your blog, Facebook pages and twitter to mount an international outcry on the abuse of power aimed at the helpless. Shameful, really shameful.
clipped from sarawakreport.org

Police Gangsters

The once proud, well-trained Sarawak police force are now mere lackeys of the timber companies, as events yesterday make only too obvious.

The Penan, who have been erecting peaceful jungle blockades in protest at the savage destruction of their hereditory lands,  were yesterday confronted in Long Sebayang,  Limbang by gun-waving policemen.  They were acting on behalf of Lee Ling Timber, the other party to the dispute.

According to the respected Swiss Charity the Bruno Manser Foundation, the unprofessional, threatening and downright illegal episode came in the wake of an attack the previous day by a logging company employee on one of the Penan.  The tribesman (and rightful owner of the land, according to Native Customary Rights recently upheld in the Federal Malay Court) had been viciously hit in the face. 

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