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updated 2001-01-31
KUCHING, August 21 , 2000
Penans used by groups to serve political ends
BERNAMA News Agency
Members of Sarawak's Penan community who staged a timber blockade in Ulu Baram, Miri last week, have been used by certain groups for their own political ends, State Industrial Development Datuk Abang Johari Tun Abang Openg said Monday.
Abang Johari, who is also in charge of Penan Affairs, said that the Penans had been influenced and used all along by so-called activists and NGOs such as the Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) to serve their own agenda.
"The Penans are ignorant of what is happening and help for them should be given in the right perspective," he said when commenting on the protest by more than 100 members of the community.
"At the height of the anti-logging activities, SAM strongman Harrison Ngau was even elected member of Parliament while self-proclaimed champions of the Penans such as Bruno Manser had made huge profits out of publicising them overseas," he said.
The Penans, according to SAM, had claimed that timber logging companies had encroached on their land in the Apoh-Tutoh area and destroyed their crops.
The protesters also wanted compensation "because the companies had blatantly and indiscriminately extracted timber in their ancestral land without consulting them."
They also wanted government leaders in Sarawak and the forestry and district offices to intervene in the dispute. So far no one had been arrested.
Abang Johari said the Sarawak Government would continue to help and interact with the Penans through proper procedures and channels.
"We know what we are doing because it is our job to help them," he said.
He said the government had set up service centres such as in Long Kevok and Long Gikitan in Ulu Baram and provided schools, medical, agricultural and other services as part of efforts to bring them into the mainstream of development.