Sarawak minister calls raped Penan girls "storytellers"

Bruno Manser Fund asks for an apology from James Masing, Sarawak Minister for Land Development – the Sarawak government continues to deny the results of a Malaysian government report on the sexual abuse of Penan girls and women

The Sarawak Minister for Land Development, James Masing, has dismissed Penan girls and women who have reported sexual abuse by logging-company employees as "storytellers". In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, which was broadcast this morning, James Masing was confronted with the statement of a teenage Penan girl who had been beaten unconscious and raped. Masing replied "They change their stories, and when they feel like it. That's why I say the Penan are very good storytellers."

BBC reporter Angus Stickler had met the girl at her village in Sarawak's interior. Stickler said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I spoke to Mary, a teenage girl who was tending to her baby daughter amid swarms of flies. The child's legs were covered with running sores. It's a desperate scene. Mary fell pregnant after she was raped." According to the BBC, the girl had been hitching a ride to school and was picked up by a logging company driver and two other men. When they stopped off overnight, she was dragged from her room, beaten unconscious and raped.

The Bruno Manser Fund is dismayed that Sarawak officials continue to deny the results of the Malaysian Federal Government report on the sexual abuse of Penan girls and women and asks James Masing to apologize for his unacceptable statement.

In a 110-page report published in September 2009, the Malaysian Ministry for Women, Family and Community Development identified at least eight cases of sexual abuse of Penan girls and women by logging company workers in Sarawak's Middle Baram region. The report said the girls’ vulnerability, widespread poverty and “dependency on the logging companies for transportation into towns, including the sending and ferrying of children to and from school” were among the reasons for such incidents of sexual abuse.

Despite the report, the Sarawak police have recently closed all investigations into the matter and are refusing to charge anyone over the cases. It is suspected that the perpetrators are being protected by the Sarawak police and the logging companies for political reasons.

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written by popuri, December 09, 2009 10:09:03

Who are the real story tellers here, eh? Go F**k yourself.

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written by Ghifarix, December 09, 2009 07:32:04

When I look at the Afro_American and Afro-Carib & Arawak slavery I see exact trends of white oppression- rape and denials and subsequent oppressions for speaking up. They forever viewed them as child-like storytellers until their dicks begin to rot in their pants and their deformed children emerge from forced solitude. These UMNO/BN copy-cats can't seem to engineer anything else but their downfall InshaAllah.

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written by Debbie, December 08, 2009 21:08:55

i have been raped....of my stature of being a true malaysian,.,,mentally and emotionally.....

seasons greetings and may the Holy Season bring us closer with all our brethren,,,,white, yellow black and brown, from all across the nations

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written by Msian Idol3, December 08, 2009 20:18:04

Scums in power to protect the crooks inflicting pain & sufferings on the poor. Hell can only be waiting for this Masing.

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written by sataysticks, December 08, 2009 19:04:43

Do a DNA on this Masing fellow.
Keep his records for our future reference ~ ~ Never trust a Masing!
Same catogory as Musang!

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written by otoole77, December 08, 2009 17:57:02

James masin @ telur masin quarter masak,

fcuk you .. you are heartless and a liar ... all the Sarawakian must make sure that you are mampus in GE13 !

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written by JJFoo, December 08, 2009 17:30:56

Who is he to lightly brush-off serious charges such as rape allegations as storytelling?
James Masing succeeded only in shaming us Malaysian and our country.

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written by Nixcloud, December 08, 2009 16:58:34

yeah, the penan girls are story tellers - wat do you call najib and his best friend, what do u call hippo vellu and his son then, wat do u call mamathir and his children, the bunch of morons in mca... moronic storytellers or storytellers of the century???

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written by rocky, December 08, 2009 16:03:15

this is what you call rakyat didahulukan..... smilies/tongue.gif

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written by wood, December 08, 2009 16:00:33

. Masing replied "They change their stories, and when they feel like it. That's why I say the Penan are very good storytellers."

If the reply above is indeed true, I would like to say this is one of the most DISGUSTING thing a so called minister or politician can say. !!! smilies/angry.gif

Not FIT TO BE A LEADER AND NOT FIT TO BE A HUMAN ! A leader should show compassion this guy what has he got , instead of doing something which a leader should do , he did not and instead passed an uncalled for remark which to me is shameless and outright outrages and should I say better he disappear from the earth.! No point for the padi farmers in Sarawak to plant padi and the rice to feed this human !!!!!!!!

Rakyat in Sarawak, please do something!!!!! Do you all want this kind of people as your leaders ! ?????> smilies/sad.gif

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written by miwaki, December 08, 2009 15:59:22

James A/L Masing could be one of the rapists himself,that's why he accused Penan girls of story-telling. This chap should be burn to death !

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written by arazak, December 08, 2009 15:56:43

James Masing is the real story-teller!

For denying the raping of the girls, the Penan man should lobbed Massing's head and hang the filthy head on their longhouse roof.

That way no need to wait for his appology!

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written by cheekhiaw, December 08, 2009 15:53:08

Thief, liar and rapist calling others 'storytellers'...

xxx

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written by justice seeker, December 08, 2009 15:33:56

he Sarawak Minister for Land Development, James Masing, has dismissed Penan girls and women who have reported sexual abuse by logging-company employees as "storytellers

masing, go play somemore gasing. too bad yr kind cant seem to see through the scums u blokes are and will sell their daughters for a few packets of cigarettes.

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written by advocatusdiaboli, December 08, 2009 15:18:13

Masing wants to pusing like a gasing. You would rather sell your sarawakians to make some money I see. What kind of human are you?

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written by jokersland, December 08, 2009 14:57:22

Hey, James Gasing
Be a man and don't always in the denial syndrome. Look at how our Minister Datuk Nazri Aziz says regarding the BTN. We can't hookwink the people all the time. Admit it if something is wrong and be man enough. Don't always hide under the skirt.

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written by budakindia, December 08, 2009 14:57:18

Let's see how he said that when his own family being raped like the Penan girls. will that be storytelling too?

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written by beijing, December 08, 2009 14:57:13

Who care if the Penan itself not really care about it. Let them going trough this and stay as what as it is. They are just so easy to be currupted by the BN. Even just a note book will currup this people. The most easy way to currup them is buy them alcohol a day before the election. Many try to help but they just could not help.

-4

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written by technoboy, December 08, 2009 14:55:19

How can an ordinary Penan girl beats those corrupted crafty Sarawak BN politicians like Taib in telling lies? Nobody with a sound mind will believe it right.......BN liars never stop lying.

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written by educationist, December 08, 2009 14:41:38

The Penans are the down and trodden in Sarawak.
They are disenfranchised, for all intents and purposes the Taibputras of sarawak consider them as non people.
Which is why until now no action has been taken on the rape claims & they are still disputing the truth of the claims!!

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written by Jeevan, December 08, 2009 14:19:05

An apology?

Would much rather prefer a public lynching.

Political parties are being too silent on this matter, letting the BN say whatever they wish, while no action is being taken against the logging companies and their employees. Perhaps there is too much truth in Hishamuddin Rais's article yesterday. http://malaysia-today.net/inde...mid=100089

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written by magickriver, December 08, 2009 14:19:04

The vampire king Taib Mahmud lies delirious on his deathbed trying to bribe his way out of hell, whilst voracious vultures circle, waiting to plunder whatever remains of the once glorious 120-million-year old Borneo rainforests. People of Sarawak, for your own grandchildren's sakes, you MUST boot out BN asap! Your greatest hope lies in repairing as best you can the horrendous ecological damage several generations of robber barons have inflicted on your beautiful land. Otherwise you will inherit only eco-apocalypse, disease and extended poverty!

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written by sydput, December 08, 2009 14:18:26

Go ask our soldiers who served in sarawak way back in the seventies what it was like to be invited for a drink in one of the long houses. It is an experience they will never forget..