Cover image via Nigel Dickinson/thegoldenscope.com
While west Malaysians are caught up in political turmoils, racial issues and economic development, the natives of our country are desperately trying to hold on to their lands, the only home they have.
Despite urges by the Penan community and the indigenous people of Sarawak for the Malaysian government to stop providing licenses to logging companies, the problem remains unsolved almost three decades later.
The native community of Malaysia, have over the decades, been in the limelight for a multitude of reasons, including problems that resemble a third world nation: **lack of basic facilities that include no water supply and electricity, little education opportunities, and most ironically, their constant battle with loggers, both illegal and licensed to protect their lands.**
Multiple NGOs and leaders of the indigenous community in Sarawak have been fighting against the destruction of forests in East Malaysia over the years, but the government is yet to provide a solution to this growing problem.
Who are the Penans?
What sets the Penan community apart from the rest of the indigenous people is the fact that they are known to be **hunter-gatherers that lead a nomadic lifestyle.**
The Penans rely completely on the forests that they live in, their hunting skills that include the expertise of using the blowpipe to hunt animals such as **wild boars, deer, birds, squirrels,** to name a few. They mainly consume sago and also eat river water fishes.
The **blowpipes** used by the Penan hunters, usually come with poison darts made from the bark of *tajem* tree.
Known for their gentle manner and equality between the sexes, the Penan community rely completely on the forests for their survival and livelihood. Destroying the forests, would eventually kill the community as everything that they need to survive; shelter and food comes from the jungles.
Their nomadic nature most often takes them moving about the forests, almost every month in groups of about 40 people, according to a report on the Penan tribe by BBC.
Image via Global Witness
However, timber logging isn't the only problem the Penans are up against, as companies are starting to destroy the forests completely after harvesting valuable trees to make way for oil palm plantations
With Malaysia deriving a major source of its income by being one of the [biggest exporters of palm oil](http://says.com/my/news/why-does-the-haze-visit-us-annually) in the world, the need for oil palm plantations have been growing steadily.
Palm oil is basically found in almost all the everyday items we use and consume, including food, cleaning agents, and toiletries. This has caused an increasing demand for palm oil from all around the world over the years.
An aerial view of a barren plot of land, to make way for oil palm plantations.
Image via National Geographic
Image via The Rakyat Post
According to an online NGO fighting for the rights of natives, Survival International, two major companies have been actively logging for timbers in Sarawak, Samling Group of Companies and Shin Yang Sdn. Bhd.
Named as one of the major loggers in Sarawak, Samling was established in 1963.
Image via Samling Group of Companies
Shin Yang Sdn. Bhd. take pride in being one of the leading companies that focuses on logging and forestry plantation.
Image via Shin Yang Sdn. Bhd.
Adding to their growing problems, the Sarawak state government informed on 16 May, that they will be building a RM4 billion dam that is expected to displace about 20, 000 people living in the area
A visualization of what the Baram dam that expected to flood 34, 000 hectors of forests would look like.
Image via Sarawak Report
Contrary to what the government officials have been saying about getting support from the locals to build the dam, a large group of indigenous people have been protesting against it
Locals seen protesting against the plan by the Sarawak government to build the Baram dam.
Image via Sematong Express
Image via Sarawak Report
The Penan community have been receving terrible backlash for reacting against 'injustices' that are destroying their homes and taking them away from everything they know
In a report titled, [A Wider Context of Sexual Exploitation of Penan Women and Girls in Middle and Ulu Baram, Sarawak Malaysia](http://forum-asia.org/2010/Penan_Report.pdf) published by Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) revealed that the **Malaysian Federal Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development in 2009, confirmed the sexual atrocities that have been happening to Penan women.**
In summary, the report explains how the authorities, in this case, the Malaysian government, has failed to provide basic necessities and protection for the Penan women, by downplaying the reports and complains of sexual abuses and violence made by the affected women.
This issue resurfaced and made headlines in 2008, when the **Swiss-based Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) backed up the allegations by Penan women on how certain loggers and company workers involved in the logging activities have been sexually abusing them.**
Image via Hornbill Unleashed
Following that, English daily, The Star, strengthened the report by BMF when they revealed more disturbing details about the rapes allegedly commited by loggers in Ulu Baram
Image via Survival International
While the Penan women face sexual violence from the loggers, the men requesting the workers to stop the logging activities have been receiving direct death threats
A Penan elderly man, holding a blowpipe. The Penans are hunters that rely on the forest for food source.
Image via Nigel Dickinson/photoshelter
In a desperate act to save their land, last year, a group of indigenous people in Sarawak, resorted to stealing logging equipment from a logging company, in the hopes that it would stop them from harvesting timber from the forests there
Friends of the Earth Malaysia coordinator Jok Jau Evong also explained how they have been putting blockades for the past two years, to stop the loggers from coming in, but that has not stopped them from destroying the forests as they operate legally, with licenses from the government.
Image via Malaysiakini
13 years ago, the Sarawak Penan Association (SPA) released the Long Sayan Declaration 2002 that urged the government to stop all logging activities in Penan lands and to convert them into forest reserves
Unfortunately, the report, signed by almost 40 leaders of the Penan community that also asked the government to provide basic facilities for their community has gone unnoticed with most Penans still plagued by third-world nation problems.
