Ibans to sue Taib’s sister
By Joseph Tawie, Free Malaysia Today
KUCHING: The majority of villagers from 16 longhouses in Sebangan and Sebuyau are waiting to sue Chief Minster Taib Mahmud’s sister Raziah Mahmud who allegedly owns part of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd, which has been licensed to log trees on their NCR (native customary rights) land and communal forests.
“The moment the loggers from this company encroach into our NCR land and pulau galau (communal forests), we will file our case in the court. We know who are the principal identities to be included in the suit,” said Nicholas Mujah, a leader of the group.
He named them as the Forest Department, the state government and Quality Concrete Holdings.
According to Sarawak Report, the latest illegal raid on NCR land is being carried out by Quality Concrete Holdings.
The company has started harvesting the timber worth millions of US dollars even though the majority of the villagers are refusing to accept the RM250 compensation per family.
Mujah said that nothing much can be done now to stop the accelerating logging activities by the company as the land involved are individually-owned NCR parcels belonging to those who have been paid RM250 to surrender their land.
“As a spokesman and representative of the local native people defending our land and forest resources at Sebangan, I am very sad that some of our people are not persistent in their struggle.
“For RM250, I just can’t understand the people who are prepared to sell their right and livelihood to the company. I do understand we are poor but the price mustn’t be that little,” said Mujah, who is also the secretary-general of Sarawak Dayak Iban Association..
“We could have filed the injunction in August if not because of the turn of events: we found out that the penghulu (village head) and a few of his men were engaged by the company to harass illiterate families to give in to their interest,” said Mujah who was commenting on the articles by Sarawak Report, which have also appeared in a number of websites.
‘We know how much to claim’
However, Mujah said that a majority of landowners have insisted on defending their land.
“We are waiting for the logging activities to start encroaching into our communal forest at Bukit Bediri for which the licence has been issued.
“Then we will file our suit against the company, the Forest Department and the state government.
“We know how much to claim after the Sarawak Report revealed the information,” he said.
The 3,305 hectare communal forest is home to some of the most valuable timber such as belian, meranti, selangan batu, kapur, kempas, tekam, resak, lon, penyau, ruan and engkabang.
The estimated tonnage of timber from the area is about 2.31 million tons valued at hundreds of millions of ringgit.
The Sarawak Report stated that it had received information that Taib himself allegedly stands to personally profit by about RM250 million from the timber operations.
