Filed under: Campaign
What Rainforest? is a non-profit collective of individuals and NGOs concerned about the state of the Malaysian rainforests and its inhabitants.
What Rainforest was launched to counter the myth perpetuated by the government and pro-logging, pro-plantation corporate interests that everything is fine with the Malaysian rainforest.
The common rhetoric is Malaysia is under 65% forest cover AND amazingly that figure has not reduced since Rio Summit 1992 even though thousands and thousands of hectares including production forests in so-called Forest Reserves were cleared for development. Promoter of oil palm, possibly the biggest deforestation driver will have you believe that this monoculture plantation is as good as forest and that will push up Malaysia forest cover to 80%.
We also aim to highlight the human rights violations, loss of native customary rights (NCR) land and the poverty entrenchment of the indigenous people of Malaysia that is at the heart of deforestation since 1970s.
Currently, we aim to highlight these plights through posting related media reports on this website and by organizing public awareness campaigns.
Through this, we hope to achieve the following by working with (or pressuring, when necessary) the governments, industry, NGOs, and all relevant stakeholders:
- Restore the rights of the indigenous people of Malaysia
- Stop deforestation
- Reverse deforestation
What Rainforest? is also the title of a film that inspired its filmmakers to start this campaign and website. We constantly seek venues where we can organize screenings to create more awareness on the issue. If you are interested to screen the film at your school, college, university, church, temple, synagogue, clubhouse, office, home, or backyard or your friends and communities; do drop us an email at whatrainforest@gmail.com.
Filed under: Indigenous People, Land, Logging, Media Reports, Oil Palm, Politics, Pulp & Paper
The Untouchable Tiong Hiew King of Rimbunan Hijau has become even more untouchable… The Queen Of England has recently knighted Tiong for his services to commerce, community and charitable organizations in Papua New Guinea.
That’s ‘Sir’ Tiong Hiew King for you from now on.
Below is the news report taken from The Star’s Starbiz section… but first, here’s a tribute to Sir Tiong, read ‘The Untouchables’, a report by Greenpeace on his venerated exploits in Papua New Guinea, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Malaysia, Vanuatu, Indonesia, New Zealand and Russia. Donwload it here: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/the-untouchables-rimbunan-hi
Tiong honoured knighthood
From Starbiz, The Star
16 June 2009
PETALING JAYA: Rimbunan Hijau Group founder and chairman Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King has been bestowed with one of the high honours in Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday honours’ list in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and will now be called “Sir”.
He was recognised for services to commerce, community and charitable organisations.
Also knighted were PNG’s Deputy Prime Minister Dr Puka Temu and Central Bank governor Wilson Kamit. They were among more than 90 people recognised for their services to the country in this year’s Queen’s birthday honours and awards.
Founded in 1975, Sarawak-based Rimbunan Hijau’s overseas timber operations in Papua New Guinea are the largest in that country. Tiong also has interests in logging operations in Russia.
With a reported net worth of about US$1.1bil, Tiong is ranked by Forbes as the 840th richest person in the world.
From The Nut Graph
by Zedeck Siew 26 May 2009
KUALA LUMPUR, 26 May 2009: It remains unclear if the 2008 government-led task force report about sexual violence against Penan women and girls will be made public.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said the report has reached her desk and was ready for circulation to the other ministries. “It will be tabled in the cabinet as soon as possible,” she said today at a press conference after launching a seminar at the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (Ikim).
However, earlier media reports say the task force’s findings were already submitted to the cabinet in January.
Additionally, when asked whether the task force report would be made public, Shahrizat said: “Interested parties can come to the ministry, and we can discuss the details of the report.”
She declined to say if the report would be fully disclosed and did not comment on reasons why the ministry could not publish the report publicly.
This is the first time Shahrizat has discussed the Penan task force report since her appointment as minister in April. It has been six months since the task force completed its investigations into allegations of sexual abuse against Penan women in the interiors of Sarawak.
The Penan task force was commissioned by the ministry under former minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen in October 2008. It was despatched to investigate claims that young Penan girls and women were sexually abused by logging company employees.
Various quarters from civil society have been calling for the report’s release.
“So long as the report is not shared with the public, the Penan community continues to become more vulnerable,” Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) executive director Ivy Josiah told The Nut Graph on 20 April.
Josiah, who was part of the task force, cautioned that the government may be guilty of neglecting the Penan community by withholding the task force’s findings.
“The investigations took place and a report has been produced. The government now has a responsibility to disclose the findings to the public,” stressed Women’s Centre for Change (WCC) programme director Prema Devaraj, who was also part of the task force.
Apart from the WAO and WCC, the task force also consisted of representatives from the police, government ministries such as the home and health ministries, and at least one representative from the indigenous community.
Their fact-finding mission in the Baram district of Sarawak was concluded in mid-November 2008.
Earlier, Shahrizat, who launched the “Family Institution Facing Contemporary Challenges” seminar this morning, stressed on the importance of families in Malaysian society.
She revealed that a National Family Policy was in its final stage of preparation.
“I believe that the National Family Policy, and its Action Plan, will be brought up for consideration and approval by the government this year,” Shahrizat said.
However, she declined to offer details of the policy, saying that it was too early for details to be disclosed
From The Star Online
25 May 2009 by Eddie Chua
Locals of Papua New Guinea, angry with decades of exploitation, corruption and illegal logging by foreigners, are turning to violence to show their displeasure.
THE riots against Chinese businessmen which rocked the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea (PNG), leaving a trail of destruction and at least one person dead, has shocked countries in the region.
A man was reportedly hacked to death as thousands of locals looted shops belonging to the Chinese community in Lae, the second largest city in PNG. The racially-motivated attack has received wide coverage in newspapers across the world, particularly in countries with a large ethnic Chinese population.
China, for example, has demanded safety for its citizens, Last week, construction of a nickel mine and processing plant was stopped after a fight between about 70 Papua New Guinean and Chinese workers. The mine’s part-owners, Australia’s Highlands Pacific Ltd, said on Friday that work had resumed on the US$1.7bil (RM4.2bil) project, it was reported.
Fighting had reportedly broken out between workers and villagers angry at Chinese managers over an industrial accident. The project is mostly owned by China Metallurgical Construction Group Corp.
Local workers protested last year over working conditions at the remote site. PNG is a mountainous nation of some six million people located north of Australia, and its people feel closer to Australia than their Asean neighbours.
Its small expatriate community comprises Australians, New Zealanders, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Chinese and Taiwanese. Papua New Guinea is rich in a variety of minerals and other resources but has significant crime problems, with at least 85% of its people living in poverty in villages. Resentment against foreigners, including even those from Malaysia and Singapore, has been high for some time. The situation has worsened in recent months because food prices have shot up while the income of the indigenous people have remained the same.
Chinese shopkeepers have been blamed for the price hike. For Malaysia, Rimbunan Hijau, the single largest timber operator, has long been a bane and boon for PNG. Operated by Sarawakian Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King, it runs the largest sawmill in PNG since 1976 with an estimated annual turnover of US$1bil (RM3.5bil).
It owns a supermarket and an English newspaper in PNG.
The reclusive Tiong also owns many Chinese newspapers worldwide including the Sin Chew Daily in Malaysia. But Rimbunan Hijau has been accused of alleged human rights abuses, ignoring indigenous people’s rights, political corruption and ecological destruction. The World Bank has also said up to 70% of logging in PNG is illegal, which has not helped the Malaysian image there.
Two groups that have made investigations and held protests against the company are Greenpeace and Rainforest Action Network. But Rimbunan Hijau in turn has threatened to sue Greenpeace for defamation because of its report “The Untouchables – Rimbunan Hijau’s World of Forest Crime and Political Patronage” demanding that the group withdraw the paper.
Greenpeace has declined to comply. Rimbunan Hijau suffered another setback recently when PNG’s Supreme Court overturned the company’s right to operate in the vast Komula Dosa area comprising 791,000ha of logging land. Eco-Forest Forum, a local civil group, had challenged Rimbunan Hijau’s claim of its rights to log in the area granted by the National Court in 2007. The fight, whether in the courtrooms and newsrooms, by Rimbunan Hijau is unlikely to end. The Malaysian company owns The National which is the largest newspaper in the country. The company, which had been heavily criticised particularly by NGOs, was recently awarded the first independent certificate verifying its timber operations in PNG. The Societe Generale de Surveillance awarded Rimbunan Hijau’s subsidiary, Saban, an official citation stating its timber operations was 100% legal. But local NGOs have dismissed the award, saying groups critical of the operator were shut out of the verification process. The fears,
however, remain.
A study said that more than half of PNG’s forests, the third largest in the world, would be lost or badly damaged by 2027 because of “wasteful logging.” In the years ahead, the volatile political situation in PNG looks certain to explode with further resentment building up. A combination of factors ranging from exploitation of local workers, dominance of local trade by outsiders and the destruction of the forest can only see a rocky road ahead. Stories of harsh treatment of local workers has led to resentment with locals feeling they have been excluded from their own society by the influx of these relatively well-off traders, the AFP reported recently. With over 600 islands, PNG was one of the last places on earth which remained isolated and untouched, but greedy foreigners are raping this country with the help of corrupt government officials.
Eddie Chua is a news editor with special interest in the Indonesian archipelago and surrounding islands. He has also visited Papua New Guinea twice and has fond memories of the country.
by Tony Thien
from Malaysiakini.com 05 May 2009
The Federal Court has upheld the concept of native customary rights (NCR) to land as including not only one class of such land called temuda (cultivated land), but also pulau (communal forest) and pemakai menua (territorial domain).
The apex court delivered its ruling today in Kuching, in an application by the Sarawak government in a case initiated by local Malay Madehi Salleh to claim NCR rights over former Shell concession land in Miri.
Lawyers dealing in NCR cases were quick to point out the implications of the decision for some 200 land cases filed to date against the state government and companies that have obtained leases mainly for plantation and logging activities.
So long as NCR claimants can provide sufficient evidence to support their claims, logging and plantation companies may now find themselves in a quandary unless they are prepared to negotiate.
Madehi had taken the state government to court in 2007 over his rights to 6.6 acres of land and won the case.
However, the state government successfully appealed the decision in the Court of Appeal, following which Madehi turned to the Federal Court and won his case in October 2007.
The court recognised the pre-existence of NCR before the coming into force of any statue or legislation, in particular the Rajah Order of 1921. It said the reservation of the land under the Rajah’s Order for Sarawak Oilfields Ltd (SOL) did not have the effect of extinguishing NCR to the land.
There was no provision whatsoever in the Rajah’s Order that extinguished Madeli’s NCR to his tract of land, the judges said, noting that all it did was to reserve the land for SOL.
Furthermore, the Federal Court said native rights to occupy untitled land in accordance with customary laws subsisted in an area reserved for operation of SOL. Individual rights of natives were the same as communal rights, it added.
Application dismissed
The Sarawak government, unhappy with the decision, then applied to the Federal Court to review its own decision.
Today, however, the court disagreed that the applicants had met the threshold requirement and dismissed the review application with costs.
The Federal Court’s quorum comprised the Chief Justice of Sarawak and Sabah Richard Malanjun, Hashim Yusuf and Zulkifli Ahmad Makinudin.
Appearing for the applicants (Sarawak government) were State Legal Counsel JC Fong and his assistant Safri Ali. Miri-based lawyer Mekanda Singh Sandhu and his son Sathinda represented Madehi.
Sathinda told Malaysiakini later that the judgment can now be applied to all NCR land cases after this.
Millions of hectares of land have been leased out over the past 20 years to many companies and state agencies.
The Federal Court ruling re-affirmed a similar landmark finding in the Nor Nyawai & Others v Borneo Pulp and Plantation case in Bintulu in 2001.
Filed under: Dams, Indigenous People, Land, Media Reports, Politics, Video Report
From Al-Jazeera English
The Malaysian state of Sarawak plans to build 12 new hydro-electric dams along the state’s waterways, saying the projects will create jobs, provide cheap renewable energy and meet the demands of future industrialisation.
The dams are supposed to push the total generating capacity in the state to 7,000MW by 2020, an increase of more than 600 per cent from the current capacity.
There are plans to expand the aluminium-smelting industry in the state which will need the planned output.
But critics question the sustainability of the project.
They are concerned that the dams will destroy the environment and heritage sites, displace tens of thousands of local indigenous people and are unnecessary for a region that already has more electricity than it needs.
Opponents also say that the projects are magnets for corruption, enriching the private coffers of those in power.
This week on 101 East we talk to those in favour and against Sarawak’s proposed new dams.
This episode of 101 East airs from Thursday, March 19, 2009 at the following times GMT:
Thursday: 1230, 1930; Friday: 0300, 0630; Saturday: 1400; Sunday: 0530; Monday: 0130; Tuesday: 1030; Wednesday: 0730, 1430.
Two thirds of the Bintulu 3 arrested under the Emergency Ordinance has been sent to Simpang Renggam. This means that they will be further detained for 2 more years without trial.
We here at ‘What Rainforest’ would like to express our protest against all forms of detentions without trial which includes the Internal Security Act (ISA) and the Emergency Ordinance (EO). If a person is suspected of a crime, he/she should be brought before a court of law and be formally charged. Justice must be carried out and seen to be carried out at all times.
Below is an article from the Star.
Woman released after two-month detention under EO
by Stephen Then,
The Star Online, 19 March 2009
MIRI: A woman arrested with her husband and brother-in-law under the Emergency Ordinance for alleged armed robbery in Bintulu, northern Sarawak, has been freed after 60 days in detention.
Melati Bekeni, 28, walked free after the Sarawak police released her on Sunday. She will be reunited with her 18-month-old daughter Victoria, whom she was breastfeeding at the time of her arrest, and three-year-old son Vincent.
However, her husband Marai Senggok, also 28, and his brother Bunya, 21, were ordered to be detained at the Simpang Renggam detention centre in Johor.
Bunya, Marai and Melati were arrested in January and detained under the Ordinance after Bintulu police accused them of being involved in a series of robberies.
However, family members claimed the three were arrested because of their dispute with a development consortium over a plot of land the natives claim were an ancestral heritage.
The father of the brothers, tuai rumah (longhouse chief) Sengok Sabang, confirmed yesterday that Melati had been freed.
“She is living with relatives near Miri. My two sons have been flown to Johor. The police did not tell me why they were taken out of Sarawak,” he told The Star.
Sengok appealed to police and the Home Ministry to release his sons, saying they were breadwinners for the family.
Sahabat Alam Malaysia Sarawak field officer Jok Jau Evong said yesterday their lawyers in Kuala Lumpur had learnt that Bunya and Marai had been detained for two years under the Emergency Ordinance.
Suhakam’s commissioner for Sarawak Dr Mohd Hirman Ritom said the commission had tried its best but still failed to get the two released.
by Joe Fernandez
from Malaysiakini.com, 8 March 2009
Green activist, lawyer and ex-Baram MP Harrison Ngau Laing, 49, worries that PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) Sarawak suffers from “the curse of the PBDS Syndrome”.
He denies that he is being a wet blanket and predicts that “time will sadly prove me right unless a miracle happens on the ground to save PKR from itself”.
He has, in recent days, warned party adviser Anwar Ibrahim directly and indirectly against “following in the tragic footsteps of Leo Moggie Anak Irok”, the first and only president of PBDS which was eventually de-registered following a prolonged leadership tussle allegedly “bankrolled by moneybags”. PBDS stands for Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak.
Laing, who joined PKR officially in December last year after a two-year courtship, following a long spell in the political wilderness, acknowledges that there are important differences between both parties. However, he said this may, as yet, tip the odds in favour of PKR “but we don’t want another Perak here…there are many disturbing similarities as well with PBDS”.
“It is clear that there is strong sentiment on the ground for political change in Sarawak because voters are sick and tired of Taib Mahmud who refuses to go away despite his ill-health. They would also like to see the back of Alfred Jabu and George Chan but Chan has at least pledged to quit anyway unlike the other two,” is Laing’s reading of the current situation in Sarawak.
“But that’s about as far as it goes. There are few signs, as yet, that the current anti-BN public sentiment will translate into regime change as expected by PKR even if Jabu is not replaced, as speculated, by senior PBB vice-president Douglas Uggah.”
‘Living on hope and wishful thinking’
“PKR in Sarawak seems set to suffer the same fate as PBDS, wresting defeat from the jaws of victory. There’s so much living on hope and wishful thinking. They just sit around attending sponsored party dinner functions, waiting for some nice things to happen to them one day. This is the PBDS Syndrome…the Dayak curse.”
Laing’s assessment on the ground is uncharacteristically bleak for an incurable optimist and idealist.
He believes that PKR’s dream of adding Sarawak to its booty of war will not materialise in the immediate future, despite the “little boy “ (Anwar) telling the emperor (Taib) that he has no clothes, “unless the winds of change blow from within the party itself so it can manifest itself at the ballot box”.
Change must begin with discarding the current top-down approach, reiterates Laing, loosening the grip of the Kuching Mafia on the party, keeping moneybags at bay, democratisation and meaningful decentralisation. It is agreed that Anwar is perhaps “the most energetic politician in Malaysia” but he cannot continue to be “a one-man political entertainment show”.
“At present, the messengers are carrying only good tidings to the king (Anwar) and the result has been a kind of euphoria which has induced a tendency to be complacent and rest on one’s laurels,” said Laing.
“There is a dire need to reduce the influence of political has-beens, sore losers, sour grapes, those with a self-serving agenda and others with no record of serving the public. All of them need to be put in their proper places if they want to be in PKR.”
Laing has brought up his take on Sarawak at the national leadership level but the reply from Anwar was telling. He wants the party to be inclusive, “not exclusive”, an ideal with which Laing agrees but the question is “who should be calling the shots in the party (PKR), certainly not those who are no great loss to the BN”.
Skeletons in the cupboard
Laing, who won his only term as MP (1990 – 1995) as an independent against the combined might of the BN and came late to law as a distance learner in the process, opines that the ex-PBDS – the figure given is 90,000 – and BN influx into PKR is largely led by discredited politicians who will be rejected by the people.
He defines “discredited people” as those who have no record of service to the people despite being given the opportunity to serve, have skeletons in the cupboard, are not wanted by the BN itself and may not be above horse-trading with PBB even when the chips are not down.
“Why is Nicholas Bawin – PKR Batang Ai – going around telling people that there is not even one sincere leader among the Dayaks? He’s right but he should also include himself – ‘that’s right’, fumes ‘we are not perfect’ James Masing and ex-radical Wildfred Nissom of PRS – among them,” said Laing who considers himself among the few leaders to emerge from the grassroots and survivedto fight another day.
“Nicholas Bawin is a very naïve man, a colourless character, with an old longhouse brain who doesn’t understand politics. He doesn’t impress, inspire or motivate people.”
Laing readily dismisses the collective Dayak political leadership as not only insincere, as alleged by Bawin, but “largely a creation of the powers that be that have thrust them on the people and hounded genuine grassroots leaders out of existence”.
The ruling elite prefer those who are vulnerable, to lead the Dayaks, so that they can be easily threatened, blackmailed and intimidated into submission, charges Laing.
“This kind of politics started with Abdul Rahman Yakub – who preceded his nephew Taib as chief minister – and the moneybags linked to SUPP (Sarawak United People’s Party).”
As one example, Laing points out that Taib callously replaced the only Bidayuh member in the Federal Cabinet with his son, Sulaiman, after the general elections last year “because the Bidayuh are led by vulnerable leaders in the BN”.
Taib’s cousin sister – returned unopposed despite being unknown — and brother are also in the Sarawak state assembly as first time representatives.
‘Huge government projects’
As another example, Laing claims that PBDS was actually sponsored by moneybags linked to PBB (Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu) to split SNAP (Sarawak National Party), and “was destroyed dutifully by Masing and Sng Chee Hwa, at PBB’s behest, when Daniel Tajem Anak Miri took over from Moggie”.
“Sng is now back again, like a bad smell that follows us everywhere, sponsoring all the PKR dinner functions so far in Kuching, Bintulu, Sibu and Miri while his son, Larry Sng, enjoys Taib’s patronage and remains an Assistant Minister. This is despite him not being in any political party.”
“The father-in-law (Larry’s) continues to get huge government projects,” notes Laing. “I have warned Anwar about the presence of Sng Snr. He merely said he knows and started preaching again about being inclusive.
“Why is Sng Snr.going around handing out money directly to lower line PKR leaders? I have complained about this. This is a guy who gives money to both sides after obtaining it from government projects.”
Laing wants Sng to donate directly to the party, “if he is sincere”, and not “go around buying up people on the ground” and “then run to the government (in the past) with a big bill to reimburse himself many times over with projects which he can sell. This is stealing from the people”.
However, moneybags and “dubious characters” plaguing PKR in Sarawak are not the least of the party’s problems.
Laing wants some way to be found to integrate, into PKR, the thousands of para-legal trainees from the grassroots who have been turned out over the last ten years by community activists linked to Sahabat Alam Malaysia, Sadia (Sarawak Dayak Iban Association) and Brimas (Borneo Resources Institute).
“This is where the future of PKR in Sarawak and Dayak politics lies,” said Laing.
“If we lose these people, BN will continue to rule even if they lose the next state election. Too much is at stake for PBB. They are already bragging that they know who to buy should PKR take over the state government and we have a situation like that in Perak.”
“Why did Perak happen? It’s because the wrong kind of people were fielded by PKR i.e. people vulnerable to threats and blackmail and lacking in commitment to sincerely serve the people.
“Sarawak could easily turn into another Perak especially when the governor is firmly in the PBB camp…and the Rahman-Taib political dynasty has strong lobbyists in Kuala Lumpur with unlimited funds.”
From Bruno Manser Fonds
11 March 2009
ACCOR, the Paris-based European hotel group is setting conditions for its future cooperation with Malaysia’s Interhill logging group on a 388-room hotel project in Sarawak / East Malaysia. ACCOR is thus reacting to a campaign launched by the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) over the controversial Novotel Interhill hotel, which is currently under construction in Kuching, the state capital of Sarawak.
The French business group is requesting Interhill to set up social responsibility standards for its logging operations in Sarawak’s Middle Baram region and to implement significant measures within the next six months:
“We have asked those in charge at Interhill to commit themselves, in writing, to the progressive establishment of social responsibility measures”, writes ACCOR in a letter to the Bruno Manser Fund, published today. “The maintenance of our commercial partnership requires the definition of realistic but significant targets. It similarly requires the establishment of a timetable, especially for the next six months, prior to the opening of the hotel. Finally, it requires a verification procedure to be drawn up in conjunction with our local teams.”
The French hotel group explicitly states that BMF and the Accor group “share common aims, particularly in the field of local development and the fight against the sexual exploitation of children.” ACCOR’s letter is signed by Hélène Roques, the group’s Director for Sustainable Development.
By putting pressure on Interhill, Accor is acknowledging BMF’s criticism of Interhill’s socially and environmentally destructive logging practices. Interhill’s logging operations in a 55,000 hectare timber concession in Sarawak’s Middle Baram region have had a devastating effect on the indigenous Penan communities and have depleted the tropical rainforests which have provided the basis of the Penan’s livelihood for centuries.
The Bruno Manser Fund welcomes ACCOR’s decision to pressurise Interhill on social standards but warns that results might not so easily be achieved, given that Interhill has a long track record of corporate misbehaviour. “Social responsibility should, first and foremost, entail recognition of the native communities’ land rights and respect for the “adat” – the customary rights system”, said BMF Director Lukas Straumann.
BMF is asking Interhill to put an immediate stop to its intimidation of local communities and to withdraw all those employees who have been involved in intimidation or harassment from its timber camps in the Middle Baram. Interhill is also being asked to guarantee the security of both the Penan representatives and the victims of alleged sexual abuse in the company’s area of operations. By way of an immediate move, Interhill must withdraw its bulldozers from the community forest of Long Item, a Penan village that is currently struggling to preserve its last forest reserve from logging.
According to ACCOR, Interhill has not yet responded to the French group’s demands. A meeting between the Bruno Manser Fund and ACCOR is scheduled for next week.
by Wani Muthiah
from thestar.com.my 10 march 2009
SHAH ALAM: The Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, has asked for the rights of the orang asli (aborigines) to be returned to them, especially with regards to their land which had been seized.
The state had come to a stage where the acknowledgement of the rights of every Selangorian has become the basic principle of its administration.
“This is important with regard to the land of the orang asli (aborigine) community,” he said in his opening speech at the state assembly sitting Tuesday.
“In the last few years, the orang asli community has undergone an erosion of identity and it is time their rights be returned to them with the resolution of their land problems.
“I want to stress the need to acknowledge and preserve orang asli land which had been seized from them in the last few years,” said the Sultan.
Sultan Sharafuddin also urged the state government to expedite the identification and gazetting of orang asli land.
“They should be given the land which is rightfully theirs,” he added.
The Sultan said the orang asli community had a rich history with its own tradition, culture, values and perspective — which need not be sacrificed in the name of development.
Sultan Sharafuddin also said the dialogue initiated by the state government with the orang asli community recently should be continued.
He also urged the state’s executive council members to declare their assets as soon as possible in line with good governance.
The declaration of assets should also be accessible to the public online, he added.
The Sultan also emphasised the need for good governance in all aspects of the state administration and added that the integrity and accountability practised by the current state government would be upheld.
MEDIA RELEASE
BRUNO MANSER FUND, BASEL / SWITZERLAND
Basel, 24 February 2009
Interhill surveyors approach Long Item
Penan village alerts international community: We need urgent assistance to protect our last remaining forest reserve
Surveyors of Interhill Logging are approaching Long Item, a Penan village in the Middle Baram region of Sarawak, in order to prepare the community’s last forest reserve for logging, the Bruno Manser Fonds learned today. The Penan villagers are asking the international community for urgent support.
“Our biggest wish is that Interhill will stop entering our community forest”, headman Balan John of Long Item said. “We need urgent assistance from outside to stop the loggers from destroying our livelihood.” According to the villagers, Interhill already destroyed fruit trees, poison dart trees and had dumped toxic waste in the village’s drinking water supply. In July 2008, the community denounced the destruction of a gravesite by Interhill workers.
Interhill has been logging a timber concession of 55′000 hectares of tropical rainforest in Sarawak’s Middle Baram region since the 1980s. Currently, the Malaysian timber company is reinvesting its profits in a 388-room hotel project, the Novotel Interhill Kuching, which will be managed by the French ACCOR Group.
The Bruno Manser Fund is demanding the withdrawal of ACCOR from its controversial cooperation with Interhill.
Please contact us for further information:
Bruno Manser Fund
Socinstrasse 37, CH – 4051 Basel
info@bmf.ch, www.bmf.ch
www.stop-interhill.com
Support the Penan and sign the online petition: www.stop-interhill.com
French ACCOR group must stop cooperating with Malaysian loggers
from Bruno Manser Fonds
BMF launches new campaign against Interhill Logging and demands the French hotel group’s withdrawal from the controversial NOVOTEL INTERHILL project
Europe’s leading hotel group, ACCOR, ought to withdraw from the controversial NOVOTEL INTERHILL hotel project in Sarawak (Malaysia). This is what the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) is demanding in a letter to ACCOR CEO, Gilles Pélisson, published today. According to the ACCOR plans, the 4.5-star hotel in the Sarawak capital of Kuching, which is currently under construction, will offer 388 hotel rooms over a total of 23 stories. It is being implemented jointly with the Malaysian tropical timber company, Interhill.
“Interhill has been logging Sarawak’s tropical rainforest since the end of the 1980s and bears decisive responsibility for the ongoing destruction of the very basis of the Penan’s existence”, said Lukas Straumann, Director of the Bruno Manser Fund. “We are shocked by ACCOR’s cooperation with Interhill, since it is completely at odds with ACCOR’s ecological and social standards.”
The Bruno Manser Fund states that the Penan have been protesting against the Interhill logging company since the end of the 1980s by setting up blockades on logging roads. Interhill is operating with a timber concession for 55′000 hectares of tropical forest. According to Penan sources, Interhill has had the Penan intimidated by armed thugs on various occasions for purposes of asserting its interests vis-à-vis the local communities. The Malaysian police are currently investigating alleged cases of sexual abuse of Penan women by Interhill workers in Sarawak’s Middle Baram region.
With 150,000 employees and annual sales of EUR 7.7 billion (2008), ACCOR is Europe’s leading hotel provider. The membership of the ACCOR Board of Directors also includes a former top politician from Germany, namely the one-time Finance Minister, Theo Waigel. ACCOR operates more than 4000 hotels worldwide, including 47 hotels in Switzerland.
Help the Penan save the rainforest, sign the online petition!
from Bruno Manser Fonds
Dear friends,
today, the Bruno Manser Fonds (BMF) has started a new campaign against the Malaysian Interhill group. For over twenty years, Interhill has been logging tropical rainforests in Sarawak’s Middle Baram region (East Malaysia/Borneo) with devastating environmental and social consequences. The affected Penan communities are currently struggling to protect their last forest reserves against Interhill’s bulldozers.
As a part of this campaign, an online petition has been launched which asks the French ACCOR group to stop its cooperation with Interhill. ACCOR has been accorded a management contract for the planned Novotel Interhill hotel project in Kuching/Sarawak, in which Interhill is reinvesting the profits obtained from loigging the Penan’s forests.
Please sign BMF’s online petition on www.stop-interhill.com and forward this message to your friends.
Thank you very much!
Your BMF campaign team
From The Star Online
By Stephen Then, 21 February 2009
MIRI: The Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) has sent a protest note to the state and federal police over the detention of three villagers, including a nursing mother, under the Emergency Ordinance.
Suhakam Commissioner for Sarawak Dr Mohd Hirman Ritom said: ”Our stand is that the use of the Emergency Ordinance by the police in this case is unjustified.”
”Do these people pose such a threat to society that they must be held without trial?
”Why is it that they cannot be brought to court and charged under the Penal Code?”
Dr Hirman told The Star yesterday that commission members held a full-board meeting on the latest development involving the arrest of villagers Bunya Sengok, 21, Marai Sengok and his wife Melati Bekeni, both 28, at the Bintulu police station.
The trio were arrested and held under the ordinance for 60 days from Jan 15.
Sarawak CID director Senior Asst Comm II Huzir Mohamed said the two men were suspected of being involved in a series of robberies while Melati was said to have harboured them and had kept stolen property.
However, Sengok’s family claimed that the trio were arrested because their family was involved in a heated dispute with a development consortium over a project on a plot of land they claimed was their native ancestral land.
Melati is still nursing her 18-month-old daughter. She also has a three-year-old son.
Dr Hirman said the Suhakam commissioners did not dwell on the alleged land disputes, but on the reasons given by the police on the detention.
from The Star Online
February 22 2009
MIRI: The Bakun hydro-electric dam catchment area has been overlogged by more than 40,000ha, an environmental group said.
Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) said the original catchment area for the Bakun project in central Sarawak, as stipulated in the first environmental impact assessment report, was supposed to be 64,000ha.
However, more than 100,000ha have already been logged, said SAM field officer for Sarawak Jok Jau Evong, adding that ground studies in Bakun showed that forests outside the original catchment area had been subjected to intensive logging.
“It seems that the logging is being carried out all the way from Bakun to the forested areas earmarked for clearing under the proposed Murum Dam project.
“A large portion of the forest within the Murum Dam area has already been logged,” he told The Star yesterday.
He said the whole area from Bakun to Murum would eventually be cleared of all timber.
“SAM is worried that the ecosystem will suffer even greater damage because of the massive land clearing,” he said.
Evong was commenting on Assistant State Environment and Public Health Minister Dr Abang Rauf Abang Zen’s statement that tonnes of fish in Bakun had died recently due to excessive siltation in the Bakun catchment area.
He said this practice had caused serious siltation in the river systems in Bakun and had contributed to the suffocation of a large number of fishes.
Under Sarawak’s Natural Resources and Environment Board laws, any land development project measuring 500ha and above must be subjected to EIA scrutiny and approval.
Evong said the authorities must monitor all land development projects regardless of the size because all of them contribute to destruction of the environment, riverine resources and wildlife.
Dr Rauf, when asked yesterday how big an area had been logged in the Bakun catchment region, replied that he did not have the exact figure.
MEDIA RELEASE : BRUNO MANSER FONDS, BASEL / SWITZERLAND
17 February 2009
Unprecedented devastation caused by floods appears to be a consequence of logging and changed local climate patterns
Rural communities in the East Malaysian state of Sarawak are facing bleak days ahead as the recent floods have destroyed their padi fields shortly before harvest time. According to a report in The Borneo Post on 11 February 2009, indigenous communities from a number of longhouses in the Baram river region have lost almost their complete harvest.
“Only a couple of farmers who cultivated hill padi this year have survived the devastation”, a farmer from Long Ikan, one of the worst hit longhouses, said to The Borneo Post. “The rest of us saw our crops destroyed before our very eyes”. It is expected that the harvest losses will make a number of communities dependent on government aid.
While local politicians blame changing climate patterns for the floods, the overlogging of the rainforests appears to be a significant reason for the unprecedented devastation caused by the floods. Despite warnings from environmentalists and international scientists, less than ten percent of Sarawak’s primary forests have been spared from logging.
For over two decades, forestry policies under Sarawak’s Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud, have favoured the short-sighted depletion of the fragile tropical rainforest ecosystems without due importance being attached to the long-term environmental, social and economic consequences of logging.
Meanwhile, fish in Sarawak’s rivers are dying from siltation of the rivers, another consequence of the logging. Police officers from the Belaga district found hundreds of dead fish floating on the Rajang River. According to Sarawak’s Natural Resources and Environment Board controller, Dr. Penguang Manggil, the gills of the fish were found to be blocked by silt, and they are believed to have suffocated.
Penguang said the erosion of the rivers was caused by human activities upstream and he agreed that it would have long term consequences on the rivers as well as on the aquatic life. “We would like to call on everyone to ensure that whatever we do, it will have minimal impact on the rivers”, the state government official said to The Borneo Post.
from The Star online
by Stephen Then, 17 February 2009
MIRI: The detention of three Iban family members from the Bintulu Division in northern Sarawak has been brought to international limelight over the alleged violation of their right to a fair trial.
Their detention under the Emergency Ordinance (EO) was already a controversy – police maintain the arrest of the Rumah Sengok family members was for several robberies but the family says it involved a dispute with a development consortium over alleged ancestral land.
The three were picked up with four others on Dec 26 under the Penal Code for armed robbery.
On Jan 14, the four got police bail but a 60-day detention order under the EO was slapped on Bunya anak Sengok, 21, his brother Marai, 28, and Marai’s wife Melati anak Bekeni, 28, the next day.
Suhakam and Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) are involved in the case following appeals from Sengok’s family.
The Sarawak police is under pressure to explain why the three have not been officially charged.
Add to the pressure is the fact that Melati is still nursing her 18-month-old daughter.
When contacted yesterday, State CID chief Senior Asst Comm (II) Huzir Mohamad said: “This case has nothing to do with any land dispute.
“The two men (Bunya and Marai) are suspected of being involved in a number of robberies in Bintulu.
“The woman (Melati) is suspected of having given protection to them and keeping stolen property.
“Suhakam said we had misused our powers but I personally met with their commissioners and explained what was happening,” he said.
He added that the Bintulu police station was allowing Melati to be with her baby, and to nurse her in a special room.
SAC Huzir gave an assurance that Melati, who also has a three-year-old son, would always be allowed to meet her children.
He added the next course of action would depend on directives from the Home Ministry.
The Penang-based SAM made an international appeal on Feb 11, alleging possible violation of their right to a fair trial.
Prior to that, SAM had written to the Sarawak Attorney General, the Inspector General of Police, Sarawak police chief and Suhakam to speed up investigations and charge them if there was evidence, or free them.
From Friends Of The Earth Malaysia (Sahabat Alam Malaysia)
Dear Friend,
Friends of the Earth Malaysia is calling on you to speak out in support of six indigenous Malaysians who were arrested and held without charge by the Malaysian police in Bintulu, Sarawak last December.
The two women and four men all come from Iban families that have regularly defended their land from plantation and logging companies.
Three of the six continue to be detained under an unjust Malaysian law that says they can be held for up to 60 days without trail.
The prisoners are being held without substantiated evidence against them and continue to be denied certain human rights. One of the women is a breastfeeding mother that was not allowed to see her daughter for over a week until Friends of the Earth Malaysia appealed to the Malaysian Human Rights Commission.
We cannot let these innocent Malaysians suffer any longer without a fair trail. Please lend your support and demand the immediate release of the Sarawak three.
Take action now!
http://www.foei.org/en/get-involved/take-action/release-the-sarawak-three
by Tony Thien, 03 Feb 2009
from Malaysiakini.com
The Dayak community wants the Sarawak government and its chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud to end “injustices” against them.
A day-long symposium held in Sibu over the weekend saw attention being refocused on long-held grievances, particularly in the state’s land policies.
About 150 Dayak professionals from the Iban, Bidayuh and Orang Ulu communities agreed that state policies “by design or otherwise will result in Dayaks gradually and eventually to be dispossessed” of native customary rights (NCR) lands.
In particular, they referred to the policy to freeze the survey of NCR land and issuance of native titles, as well as amendment of the Sarawak Land Code to place the burden of proving customary rights on landowners.
Organised by an independent group led by a former judge Augustine Liom, the symposium concluded that the extinguishment of NCR lands without adequate and proper notice is “unfair and unjust”.
Two of the resolutions chided the state government for:
not giving recognition and respect to Dayak customs and traditions relating to land rights and land use; and
increasing the issuance of leases involving large tracts of state land and NCR lands to “relatives, nominees and cronies of or companies belonging to Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders”.
The latter practice – allegedly done “without due regard to customary rights over these lands and without regard to the consequences to the NCR landowners” – was described as “a breach of fiduciary duty as a government and tantamount to corruption”.
Participants also called for the word ‘Dayak’ to be reinstated in the definition of ‘natives’ and that the Dayaks be identified by their respective ethnic groups, instead of being classified as ‘lain-lain’ in official forms and documents.
The Dayaks, being a minority bumiputera group, they said, should be allocated special quotas in scholarships and study loans, placement in colleges, and appointments and promotions in the civil service, police and army.
In the delineation of state electoral constituencies, the number of constituencies should be proportionate to the size of the community where the Dayaks form the majority.
‘Bigger change needed’
Iban politician Daniel Tajem and Gabriel Adi, the PKR state assemblyperson for Ngemah were among those at the symposium, which was closed by PKR national vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan.
Jeffrey, who also heads PKR Sabah, said changing the state BN government would not be good enough as a solution.
“We must strive hard to change the federal government too,” he said, reminding participants to be mindful of experience in Sabah.
He was referring to the change of government from the BN-Berajaya to Parti Sabah (PBS) in the 1990s.
“The federal government sent the (Anti-Corruption Agency) and (used the Internal Security Act) to undermine the PBS government,” Jeffrey added.
“They created a federal department through which federal money was to be channeled; they deprived the state of financial assistance and they even bought over PBS elected representatives to defect so that the government would collapse.”
From Sahabat Alam Malaysia
Betreff: Urgent Alert: Appeal for release of 3 indigenous persons in Sarawak
Dear friends,
Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) received a complaint from headman Sengok Sabang in Bintulu, Sarawak on the arrest of his family members including his two sons and daughters-in-laws. Following is a brief on what transpired between 26.12.2008 and today.
6 Malaysians (2 women and 4 men) were detained by the Malaysian police in Bintulu, Sarawak on boxing day, 26.12.2008 for purported involvement in a series of robberies and house break-ins. They were all detained under s. 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code pending investigation.
The 6 Malaysians are all indigenous persons of Iban origin and they are Marai Sengok, Bunya Sengok, Melati Bekeni (wife of Marai), Elizabeth Terang (wife of Bunya), Roland Jali and Spencer Jampi. Both Marai and Bunya are sons of headman Sengok and Sengok’s family has been struggling to keep their ancestral land. Currently, their land in Bintulu has been encroached by a number of plantation and logging companies. This family has been defending their land diligently from such encroachments for quite some time.
Out of the 6 Malaysians, 3 have been released – Elizabeth, Roland and Spencer. The remainder 3, Marai, Bunya and Melati were remanded 3 times up to the maximum period of 14 days allowed under the Criminal Procedure Code. On 15.01.2009, all 3 Malaysians and the Indonesians were detained under s. 3(1) of the Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance 5 1969 for further investigations. Under this Ordinance, a person can be detained up to 60 days without a trial.
Marai and Melati are a married couple with 2 young children, Vincent Sabang AK Marai (3 years) and Victoria Ghiendoun AK Marai (1½ years). Melati is still a breastfeeding mother to Victoria. Since the detention, Victoria has been brought to the police station twice daily to be fed by her mother whom she is missing tremendously. The environment at the police lock-up is neither conducive for the feeding process nor is it a place for children. Of late, the police has denied Melati her access to feeding Victoria. This in itself is a human right violation. Further, the entire process of having the children visit their detained parents in the lock-up is distressing and traumatic to them.
SAM is disappointed with the police for detaining all 3 under a law established during Malaysia’s emergency period in 1969. Although we understand that this law today is mostly used against those suspected to be involved in violent and organised crimes, we believe that the denial and delay of one’s right to be tried in a court of law is still a fundamental breach of natural justice as it does not give one a right to be heard.
It is also unfair to detain the three whose alleged acts cannot be substantiated with solid evidence. Numerous letters have been sent to various authorities appealing for information and release of the detainees. To date there has been no response.
We now need your help to send letters to the following people urging the immediate release of the 3 indigenous persons. A model letter has been included but you can write your own polite letters too. Please send emails or faxes to the following addresses and a blind carbon copy (bcc) to us at sarawakoffice@gmail.com. Please share this email with all your friends and contacts in your respective networks and on your blogs or websites. Thank you.
Warmly
Team at SAM
Model Letter
YAB Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud
Chief Minister of Sarawak
22nd Floor, Wisma Bapa Malaysia,
Petra Jaya, 93502 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
mustaphah@sarawaknet.gov.my BY POST/FAX: +6082-444566
YB Datuk Amar Wilson Baya Dandot
State Secretary of Sarawak
20th Floor, Wisma Bapa Malaysia
Petra Jaya, 93502 Kuching,
Sarawak, Malaysia
wilsonbd@sarawaknet.gov.my BY POST/FAX: +6082-441677
Datu Haji Abdul Razak Tready
Sarawak Attorney-General
State AG’s Chambers
Level 16, Wisma Bapa Malaysia,
Petra Jaya
93502 Kuching,
Sarawak, Malaysia
razakt@sarawaknet.gov.my BY POST/FAX: +6082-440525
Tan Sri Musa bin Dato’ Hj Hassan
Ketua Polis Negara
Ibu Pejabat Polis Diraja Malaysia
Bukit Aman,
50560 Kuala Lumpur
musa@rmp.gov.my BY POST/FAX: +603-22731326
Datuk Mohmed Salleh
Ketua Polis Negeri
Ibupejabat Polis Kontinjen Sarawak
Polis Diraja Malaysia
Jalan Badruddin,
93560 Kuching,
Sarawak, Malaysia
mohmad@rmp.gov.my BY POST/FAX: +6082-257664
Dear YAB, YB, Datu Haji, Tan Sri, Datuk,
Call For Immediate Release of Three Indigenous Persons Detained Under the Emergency Ordinance 1969
[You may insert your own Greetings]
[I/We] understand that the Bintulu District Police has detained three Iban people – Bunya Sengok, Marai Sengok and Melati Bekeni under Section 3(1) of the Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance 5 1969 since 15.1.09 for purported crimes, details of which are not clear.
Prior to that they were detained under Section 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code from 26.12.08 until 15.1.09 for allegedly being involved in a spate of armed gang robberies in Bintulu and few other places. However, after three weeks of investigation, the police have now inexplicably detained them under this Act which allows for their detention up to 60 days without trial.
[I/We] have come to know that all 3 detainees are indigenous persons struggling to keep their ancestral land. Currently, their land in Bintulu has been encroached by a number of plantation and logging companies. This family has been defending their land diligently from such encroachments for quite some time.
Mr Sengok Sabang, headman and a respected person in the community, and father of Marai, Bunya and father-in-law to Melati, has stressed that his sons and daughter-in-law have never had any criminal records in the past. He strongly believes that the detention is motivated by the family’s resolute defence of their ancestral land.
If this allegation is indeed true, then the police should release them with immediate effect.
What is alarming is that one of the detainees, Melati Bekeni, is still a breastfeeding mother to her daughter, Victoria Ghiendoun Marai, 1 year and 5 months old. Melati and her husband, Marai Sengok also have a 3-year-old son, Vincent Sabang Marai.
At the beginning of their detention, Melati was at least allowed to breastfeed Victoria twice daily, despite the unpleasant environment. However of late, Melati has been repeatedly refused access to her daughter. This is clearly a human rights violation; a denial of her right to see and feed her young child who is dependent on her for nourishment. Further, the detention has also badly impacted the children, affecting their sleeping patterns and appetite. We understand that the entire process of having the children visit their detained parents in the lock-up is distressing and traumatic to them.
[I/We] have been informed that this particular law under which the three have been charged was established in 1969 during Malaysia’s Emergency. It allows suspects to be detained anywhere from 60 days up to as long as 2 years or more, without them being charged and given access to claim trial. Although we understand that this law today is mostly used against those suspected to be involved in violent and organised crimes, we believe that the denial and delay of one’s right to be tried in a court of law is still a fundamental breach of natural justice.
Thus in principle, it is inherently unfair for the police to perpetuate the detention of the three individuals above. The police certainly have the need for some time to investigate a purported crime. If evidence is to be found, the suspect must be swiftly charged and tried in court. However, if they have failed to find sufficient evidence to charge a detained suspect, perpetuation of his/her detention is tantamount to a gross abuse of power.
On this ground, we thus condemn the detention and demand the police for an immediate release of the three individuals if they have thus far failed to furnish sufficient evidence to charge them in a court of law.
[I/We] especially appeal to your good office for Melati Bekeni to be released immediately.
Yours sincerely,
[Signature]
Filed under: Indigenous People, Land, Logging, Press Release, Pulp & Paper
From Bruno Manser Fonds
26 January 2009
Three people were killed and seven injured in a landslide which occurred at a timber camp in the Upper Limbang region of the Malaysian state of Sarawak. According to Bernama, the Malaysian National News Agency, the landslide took place on the evening of 23 January. The dead were identified as two Philippine nationals and a Malaysian who worked for a local timber company.
Research by the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) has shown that the landslide took place near Long Sebayang on the upper reaches of the Limbang river. Logging in the area, which is claimed by local Penan and Kelabit communities, has been controversial since the mid-1980s when locals set up a number of logging-road blockades to prevent the timber companies from encroaching their rainforests.
Logging interests in the area used to be closely linked to James Wong, Sarawak’s former minister of the environment. Logging operations near Long Sebayang are currently being carried out by Lee Ling Timber, a company with its headquarters in Limbang. Further upriver, a second company, Samling, extracts timber on a large scale. Both companies have plans to convert large natural forest areas into tree plantations, which is likely to cause further environmental destruction.
The landslide is a direct consequence of destructive logging practices. The landslide is the third in just over a week in Sarawak. On 16 January, a landslide killed two workers at a petrol station near the city of Miri in Northern Sarawak. Last Wednesday, a landslide severed a section of the Pan-Borneo trunk road near Bintulu, causing hundreds of vehicles to be stranded for hours.
As I sipped my morning coffee and flipped the daily papers, I was delighted to see the headlines ‘Paper consumption is set to increase’ thinking that it is a call to reduce the consumption of paper.
How wrong and naive I am. Below is the said article picked out from The Star.
Paper consumption is set to increase
The Star, 19 January 2009
KUALA LUMPUR: Paper consumption is set to increase over the years, and the Government should make it more attractive for local industrialists to set up more paper mills here in collaboration with foreign investors.
“More than half of what is used now is imported,” Malaysia Paper Merchants’ Association (MaPMA) secretary Manmohan Singh Kwatra said at its 20th anniversary dinner last night which was graced by Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Kong Cho Ha.
“About 150,000 tonnes is produced locally at the Sabah Forest Industries (SFI) in Sipitang, Sabah, Malaysia’s first integrated pulp and paper mill.”
Malaysia consumes about 380,000 tonnes of printing and writing paper annually, of which about 230,000 tonnes are imported, including from Indonesia and Thailand.
“With attractive incentives, our mill partners from the neighbouring countries will be more attracted to add on to, or shift, their operations to Malaysia, while SFI will certainly consider expansion plans to meet the present shortfall and the annual growing demand,” Manmohan added.
SFI’s production, he said, was set to increase to 180,000 tonnes a year within the next two years.
Kong meanwhile said the Government would always hold a dialogue with the industry prior to formulating a policy or law.
He encouraged the setting up of more paper mills in the country given that demand for paper would continue to rise.
“I encourage paper merchants to come together and invest in the industry so that we do not have to depend so much on imported paper, as imports can affect pricing,” he added.
He said the fluctuating oil prices had affected all industries, including the paper industry, making budgeting and purchasing difficult.
