The Story Sarawak’s Journalists Didn’t Get Hits Europe
Sarawak Report
The story that Sarawak’s Journalist Association and Commonwealth Journalist Association branch did not get when they were taken on their Sarawak Energy (SEB) sponsored tour of Murum is appearing prominently in European papers this weekend.
France’s top Paper, Le Monde features the Murum native blockade (which a statement issued by the Sarawak Journalists called abandoned) in a long article about the destruction caused by Taib’s mega-dam projects.
Meanwhile, Norway’s weekly paper Ny Tid has separately focused on the protests against the Oslo based CEO Torstein Sjotveit.
Ny Tid reported on the allegations that their own national has been complicit in the corruption surrounding Sarawak’s mega-dam projects and handing of hundreds of millions in contracts to Taib’s family companies and that the matter has now been passed to the crime agency Okokrim.
None of this has been allowed to surface in Sarawak’s own restricted press and the Swiss Bruno Manser Fund has issued a press release quoting Sjotveit’s comment to the paper, “I am taking no stance on corruption in Malaysia”. The NGO asks:
“How can Mr. Sjøtveit say he is not taking a stance on corruption in Malaysia if he is working for a Chief Minister who is currently under investigation? We challenge Mr. Sjøtveit to publicly clarify if he is working for an honest government or for a corrupt government.”[Lukas Strauman, Director of BMF] “
Le Monde did the story that Sarawak’s journalists ignored
24 members of the Sarawak Journalist Association and Commonwealth Journalist Association had joined a PR trip to Murum, organised and escorted throughout by Sarawak Energy in late October.
Some then reported at length from the briefing material, without mentioning the protests of those Kenyah and Penan people, who are refusing to be moved to resettlement sites without proper compensation.
They issued a statement on Thursday complaining that Sarawak Report had indulged in “gutter journalism” for pointing out that they had failed to mention the protesting indigenous tribes:
“DJA and CJA stressed that it was not their concern where the Penans set up their blockades… ”In the first place, it was not even the aim of the trip to the meet the Penans at the blockade sites,” they said.”[Bernama]
Sarawak Report can now provide a google translation of this week end’s article in Le Monde covering the conflict. [In the Malaysian rainforest a village is resisting – by Remi Barroux]
Lost in the Malaysian forest, a village is resisting . We are on the island of Borneo, in the state of Sarawak. This village is called Long Singu . Here, 200 to 300 Penan refuse to leave their land and make way for the hydroelectric dam Murum . ” We want to keep our village and our forest,” proclaim young and old .
A desperate struggle . Because the site is in full swing , and the dam almost completed . When you take the road and the track, which connects the city of Miri , north of the state, Long Singu ? eight-hour trip in the rainforest ? , progress is made hazardous by the continuous flow of trucks carrying tree 15-20 m and construction equipment trunks. Suddenly , placed on the ground, in the midst of lush vegetation, a tray. The boat was placed there because it will take the equipment palm plantations and forestry, when the waters overflow the valley. The evidence here, soon all will be gone.
” I WAS BORN HERE AND I DO NOT WANT TO BE MOVED FROM HERE “
On the road to Long Singu must pass many tests , give the vehicle registration , leave an ID officers stationed behind the barriers set up by the Malaysian company Shin Yang, whose red initials adorn the sides of trucks carrying workers. At the end of the journey , we finally discovered , hidden by trees , the longhouse , a wooden house on stilts , all in length , where each family is a “door” and two or three pieces. This evening of October 1 , many Penan left block Murum dam . Several hours of track . Women, children and some men remained . The Tiger , the local beer flowed freely , it makes them say laughing that much of beasts in the forest.
Night has now fallen and the sounds of animals invade the house humming , yelps , grunts and hoots correspond. During dinner ? rice, a soup of wild pig legs and forest fruits ? few Penan are discussed in the ” manse ” that hosts the rare visitors. “Tell the world what you do to the Penan . I ‘m Karang Bo , I was born here and I do not want to leave, said a septuagenarian . We live in the forest and all our food comes from it . Animals flee , birds, pigs, monkeys, and found fewer fish in polluted rivers. ”
The Penan refuse “progress” promised by the government . ” We want to grow but not that we decide in our place ,” insists Minah Siap young woman of 25 , squeezing it against her three children. In humid tropical night rain, the dim lamps powered by a generator, Robert Beatle , a guy 35 years tattooed wrists to the neck, is furious . “The dam is killing us , we’ll blow it up with explosives ! ”
