Independence gone with the trees

For an outsider, the Penans are an unknown enigma. For the government, they are the blind spot that can be conveniently missed; and for the logging concessionaires and plantation kingpins, they are pure nuisance.

However for those who know them, they are shy, genial and sensible people with a ready smile and plenty of love for the forest they call their home.

They have been in the news recently after a government fact-finding mission confirmed that Penan women were victims of sexual offences, including rape, perpetrated by employees of logging companies.

However their sorry plight should not have been in the highlight over these sexual incidents alone. There are many other issues which concern the Penans which the government should put right, failing which would only render Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's 1Malaysia concept to be utterly rhetoric in nature.

They are still living under the national poverty line as their earning capacity is practically limited to the sale of their handicrafts. The jungle, which they proudly claim to be their supermarket and bank, is diminishing by the day as a result of rampant logging and emergence of oil palm plantations.

Although they have now become semi-nomadic, they are still living far from towns that house schools, government clinics and other government agencies. They have major concerns over the safety of their children who go to schools so far away. Likewise the distance they need to travel to see a doctor is also a severe setback to offering these communities the basic healthcare that they deserve.

There is also a fear among them that the government is reluctant to grant them national identity cards, or MyKads, preferring to keep them in a stateless status in order to make it easier to remove them in favour of logging and plantation companies.

Despite facing all these uncertainties, the Penans' approach to life is simple.

"We wake up early in the morning and set off to the jungle to hunt or pick fruits. For those who have farm lands, they do the same by leaving early to tend their farms," said Martin Malang, a Penan from Long Lamam.

‘I want my independence'

Martin is one of a few Penans who has his own farm land. It is located at about an hours' walk from his village and when he goes off to work on his farm, he takes his whole family with him - his wife and two children, including one who had dropped out of school after she was bullied by her peers.

"I have two other children studying in Long San. They are staying in the school's hostel but they too are eager to come back home. They are not interested in studying," he added.

Martin, 30, has planted some fruit trees and vegetables in his farm. He also goes hunting in the jungle regularly to supplement his farm produce. Whenever there is a short supply, he can always rely on the other Penans to share what they have with him.

When Malaysiakini visited him, Martin was tending to his feverish young son Johanesson, administering some homemade remedy to bring down the fever. He said the government clinic was too far for him to take his son for treatment.

When asked what he would do if his traditional remedy didn't work, Martin said: "I will try something else. There are some many things in this jungle for us to use as medicine."

He is firmly against logging in the jungle around his village, stating that he would find it difficult to live if the trees were cut off.

He also said that he was against relocation as a result of logging in the area. "I will lose my independence," he said.

Another villager, Giling Ten had just returned from his farming land when Malaysiakini caught up with him at his house.

A bachelor who doesn't know his age, Giling looked to be on the other side of 70. He was dressed in the traditional Penan wear - a loincloth brief, an array of dangling beads and rattan bangles and the peculiar, trademark Penan mop hairstyle.

"I had bad luck in hunting today. Couldn't get any animals," he sighed.

"Previously all I had to do was walk outside of my house and I could find an animal. Now I have to walk for more than two hours and even then I am not sure of getting anything. Even the animals that we get now are much smaller in size," he said with a wry smile.

The oldest Penan in village

Giling knows full well who to blame for this situation - the logging companies.

He doesn't hide his contempt for the loggers either. He had been involved in blockades set up in Long Ajeng and Long Mobui in the early 1990s and he says he will once again be involved to stop them from logging in his village.

"We will not act in a violent manner. We will just try to stop them from coming into our area to log but if they become violent, then we too should retaliate," said this gentle, elderly person with a sweet smile which showed off his toothless gum.

Giling looks healthy and steady for his advanced age, something which he attributes to the jungle.

Nevertheless, Giling is not the oldest person in the village. That record will have to go to Toy Bayan and his wife Sara Abeng, both of whom have no idea of their age but judging by their physical appearances, they could be in their mid-80s.

They are the parents of the Long Lamam's village head Balang Tui. Another son is the village head of another neighbouring Penan village.

Toy was also vehemently opposed to any logging activities near his village. Like Martin, he too spoke about losing his sense of independence if the logging companies were allowed to continue encroaching into their land.

"They (the logging companies) can do whatever they want elsewhere, but not in the Penan land," he warned.

His other reason for not wanting the trees cut away - he fears that he will not be able to hunt freely if there are no trees left.

Despite his age, Toy still manages to go hunting often. He walks at a snail's pace and has a heavy hunch but the elderly patriarch can still fire a blowpipe accurately. His wife too looks equally a sturdy person, despite being partially deaf.

Both of them naturally share the same fear of the uncertain future that they are handing down to the next generation of Penans.

Restless present, bleak future

Every Penan in Ulu Baram will say the same thing; that their lives have changed for the worst following the logging activities.

At the nearby Long Pakan village, the villagers have a bad experience in dealing with the logging company which had totally ignored an agreement signed between the villagers and the company over non-logging in the Penan's area.

"They have come into our area without our approval and have destroyed our farms and plants," lamented village head Pada Jutang (photo:left).

Another village head, Jawa Nyipa, from Long Ajeng, said complaints made against logging companies to the district officer are always unheeded.

"The district officer's usual response is that the government has given permission to the logging companies to log and we should just leave the area," he said.

Jawa said that in recent months the encroachment by the loggers into his village has become rampant.

"They don't just use tractors anymore. Sometimes they use helicopters to log as well."

This is called heli-logging where choppers are used to take away trees cut down by the loggers.

Jawa (left) said that the villagers had clearly marked out their areas, sometimes even putting up rudimentary signs on the trees to claim ownership but these are all ignored by the logging companies.

"For our troubles to protect our land, we are labelled as anti-government," he said, adding that the result of logging activities in the village has also polluted their water supply.

At another village - Long Sebatu - pesticides used by coffee planters, which has replaced the forest, has also affected the water supply, claimed its village head Juta Iyok.

Fearing for the future

In Long Itam, the logging companies have destroyed everything sacred to the Penans - from their ancestral graves to their fruit trees and the trees which give them the poison for the blow darts. The loggers have also set up a huge camp nearby.

"Our village is being logged from all sides. They have left nothing. Our water supply from the river is polluted as a result of the logging companies dumping oil and batteries into the river.

"We are still consuming water from the river. The logging company never kept its promise to provide us with water tanks. As a result of drinking the contaminated water, my villagers suffer from stomach aches, itchiness and skin rashes," said village head Balam Jun.

This is precisely what Toy does not want to happen in Long Lamam. He feels that the Penans have suffered enough at the hands of the powerful logging companies.

"These are all our children and grandchildren. We are worried about the future...what will happen to them if the trees are all chopped away?"

"That is why it is important that we don't allow the logging companies to set foot in our area. We must protect our area," said Toy, with his wife Sara nodding in agreement.

After the interview, both of them walked back to their windowless house, climbing onto the house-on-stilts on a ladder made out of a coconut trunk.

Outside their house, some Penan teenagers had gathered, getting ready to go to the jungle for hunting, in the footsteps of their elders.

Related reports

It's not easy being a Penan

'Troublemaker Penans' find it difficult to get ICs

Penans rue the day the loggers came

Tomorrow: The sex predators

[Photos by Maran Perianen]