POLITICIANS today ignore environmental issues at their peril. The year 2012 year saw major environmental protests against controversial projects in Malaysia. What environmental “hot potatoes” will politicians have to deal with carefully this year, especially with the general election around the corner?
penan
Violence against Penan: How the government ignores indigenous rights
By Ding Jo-Ann
THE phenomenon of indigenous women like the Penan being violated is not peculiar to Malaysia. Indeed, there are parallels in other countries, including a developed nation like the US. In their 2007 report, Maze of Injustice: The failure to protect indigenous women from sexual violence in the USA, Amnesty International (AI) reported that indigenous women […]
Holding governments to account
Holding Court by Ding Jo-Ann
Updated on 7 June 2010 at 11.20am IT was interesting to see our Malaysian government defending the rule of law and upholding human rights in the international arena recently. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his colleagues condemned the recent Israeli commando-style raid of the flotilla of ships attempting to deliver aid to Gaza, resulting […]
Land rights key to survival
By Koh Lay ChinTHE problems the Penan and other indigenous communities face can sometimes seem overwhelming and complicated. In this interview with The Nut Graph conducted via e-mail in late September 2009, Koh Lay Chin speaks to anthropologist Kelvin Egay, whom she met while visiting the Orang Ulu in Sarawak. She asks Egay, who has researched these communities […]
Will the Penan survive?
By Koh Lay ChinPenan child EIGHT hours in a four-by-four, and no sleep. One is forced to pay quite a bit of attention to flashing scenes of logging roads outside. These lead to Sarawak’s hinterland where the Penan communities and other indigenous groups live. I had been unable to get a flight on a small plane from Miri […]
Life in Long Lamai, Sarawak
By Koh Lay Chin
RAPE. Blockades. Native rights denied. Such topics inevitably come up in news about Sarawak’s Penan community, such as the recent highlighting of the rape, sexual harassment and exploitation of Penan girls and women by workers of logging companies. But there are also other less prominent issues that the Penan face day-to-day in their idyllic villages […]
What the task force omitted
by Penan Support GroupPenan children (all pics courtesy of Sofiyah Israa) The Penan Support Group (PSG) would like to acknowledge the important role played by the Jawatankuasa Bertindak Peringkat Kebangsaan bagi Menyiasat Dakwaan Penderaan Seksual terhadap Wanita Kaum Penan di Sarawak (the task force) in the mission to ascertain and establish that the reported rapes of Penan women […]
Making Sarawak’s interior safer
By Sarawak Women for Women SocietyTHE Sarawak Women for Women Society (SWWS) welcomes the proposals emerging to tackle the issue of sexual abuse in the interior of the state. All the recommendations from the Penan task force, the Sarawak Women and Family Council and the Sarawak Teacher’s Union will go a long way towards securing the safety of the girls. […]
Ministry supports programme for Penan
By Ding Jo-AnnPETALING JAYA, 24 Sept 2009: The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is funding a Sarawak women’s group initiative to empower Penan girls. In a press release today, the Kuching-based Sarawak Women for Women Society (SWWS) said it would launch the second phase of its programme, Empowering Rural Girls, next month. Community leaders, such as […]
Trusting the police
By Jacqueline Ann SurinEARLIER this week, while I was in the office alone in the morning, two uniformed police officers appeared outside our glass office door. One peered in. I looked up and smiled but my fingers were ready to sign in to Twitter if the police rang the doorbell. The officer who was peering in smiled back, […]
