Sarawak's rural poor, through Najib's eyes

ANTIDOTE Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has been quoted by Astro Awani and the Borneo Post as condemning the perception by "outsiders" that Penan people are uncivilised nomads.

"I was drawn to the assumption of Bruno Manser, the self-proclaimed champion of the Penan, who claimed the Penan were nomads, wearing loincloths (cawat) and deprived of civilisation. That is not true because I saw how modern they are with my own eyes," Najib said on April 30, while campaigning for the Sarawak state election in rural Suai.

Najib's view, formed during a visit lasting a few hours to a "showcase" Penan longhouse, drew headlines. The local press did not compare this with the late Bruno Manser's experience of living with Along Sega's nomadic Penan group from 1984 to 1990, as described in his book, diaries and lectures.

Najib went on to share more of his expertise on the Penan: "I have seen some clever Penan, fair complexion and some pursuing their studies at higher learning institutions and even at universities."

Most prime ministers would be made a laughing stock if they attempted to conflate being "clever" and having a "fair complexion".

Most prime ministers would know that obsession with skin colour is a source of injustice. A practical example of this "pigmentocracy" was demonstrated in an academic study in Pennsylvania in the United States: lighter-skinned female prisoners spent, on average, 12 percent less time behind bars than darker-skinned prisoners.

But Najib appears to have a different view, judging by his remarks in Suai.

If Najib insists that cleverness and a fair complexion go together, then he must suspect that his golf partner Barack Obama bleached his skin for his Harvard law degree.

Najib's "colour vision" would also be a terrible insult to his handpicked attorney-general, Mohamed Apandi Ali, who is not blessed with a fair and lovely complexion. Apandi might conceivably be tempted to arrest the PM under the Sedition Act, for suggesting that his IQ is linked to the colour of his skin.

"Modern, educated" Penan in a hostile world

The Penan, part of the "Orang Ulu" umbrella group, number 18,000 or so in Sarawak, with scant representation in other parts of Malaysia and Brunei.

The Penan do, indeed, aim to be "modern and educated". They save their tiny cash income from farming, hunting or collecting gaharu wood for incense, and they persevere at sending their children to our dilapidated boarding schools.

But their shy and gentle children are bullied by teachers and students from other ethnic groups. Schools in Baram, Belaga and upper Limbang are far and few in between and they have no state support for transportation.

Penan children are vulnerable because many are forced to walk or hitch-hike for days to get to school. Some Penan schoolgirls have been sexually assaulted by logging company employees on the way to school or on their journey home.

Only a few hundred Penan still cleave to a traditional nomadic life in small, egalitarian groups in the dwindling forests around Mulu and Upper Limbang.Najib's observation that Penan have fair skin is also correct, even if it is trite and meaningless. Their skin colour may perhaps be explained by their traditional preference to spend their lives in the forests, under a cool canopy.

The Penan are recognised as expert hunters and trackers in Sarawak, for they rely on the forests for their food, medicines and livelihood - their very survival.

The vast majority of the Penan, like other Malaysians, wear T-shirts, sarung, shorts or blue jeans in daily life, when they are farming rice, fishing or hunting in the forest.

They, like most Malaysians, are struggling to make ends meet, because of low rural household incomes, inflation, the abolition of subsidies and the regressive goods and services tax or GST.

The Penan are indeed modern, in that they are exposed to cellular phones, junk food and motorcycles. They use engines, modified from grass-cutters, on their longboats. But fuel to run the motorcycles and boat engines is expensive in the interior of Sarawak.

The Penan have also been visited by modern crony capitalism, in common with other rural Sarawakians. Timber and oil palm companies have moved into their forests and dispossessed them of their Native Customary Rights land, over the past four decades.

Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem may claim that he has issued no new timber concessions since he was appointed by his predecessor and former brother-in-law, Abdul Taib Mahmud.

But all logging concessions handed out to the Big Six timber tycoons by Taib are still hurting rural communities. The companies continue to extract timber "legally", and even outside their concession areas, in "illegal" logging.

Adenan is Taib's 'own man'

Adenan may insist he is "his own man", and claims his immediate family does not profit from land deals, timber concessions or dam and infrastructure projects.

But Taib's family certainly does benefit from Adenan's rule. Adenan's claims of independence are desperately needed in the state election, because of widespread urban knowledge - and resentment - of the dominance of Taib's family over the state economy.

Taib and Adenan maintain close ties with the timber tycoons, and have even appointed them as BN candidates.

Taib has never taken legal action against allegations by Sarawak Report, the Bruno Manser Fund and others, that he and his family own shares in timber companies and profit from the deforestation of Sarawak.

The Big Six are omnipotent in rural Sarawak. No significant curbs on logging - "legal" or "illegal" - have been imposed in Adenan's two years in office, or in Taib's 33 years as chief minister.

No police investigation was ever launched into the sexual crimes perpetrated by loggers against Penan schoolgirls and women, even after the Women's Ministry task force had confirmed in 2009 that the rapes had taken place.

The Big Six continue to contribute to the state BN campaign war chest.

Most Penan may not wear loincloths, as Najib says, and a handful of Penan have experienced tertiary education.

But Sarawak's rural population - Iban, Bidayuh, Penan and "others" - continue to suffer from lack of land security, poor access to treated water and electricity, safe transportation, decent housing, and employment opportunities.

As "modern, educated" rural communities, living in a modern crony capitalist economy, their modernity means exposure to land grabs and misery caused by the cash economy, the GST, and neo-colonialist rhetoric from their leaders.

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KERUAH USIT is a human rights activist - ‘anak Sarawak, Bangsa Malaysia’. -Mkini