It is clear now that all the problems above (Ed  our ancestors were living in the forests of Borneo long before the establishment of Sarawak and Malaysia. The act of ignoring our existence has the same impact as robbing our rights and confiscating our properties.

The process of recognising our rights must be undertaken through legal procedures based on the Sarawak Forests Ordinance 1953, by gazetting a Communal Forest Reserve for each Penan village and each nomadic community. The establishment of Reserve Forests and Permanent Forests is of little use to us, because under the aforementioned forest law, we are not able to exercise our Native Customary Rights on such areas although the law allows for logging licences to be given out in such areas.

This is not a difficult exercise to undertake. Even if there were 100 Penan villages in the Miri division, and each village is given 300 acres of Communal Reserve Forest each, this means that the state government will only have to gazette an area of 30,000 acres for our community.

If 70 percent of forest land in Miri is given out to timber concessions, as the case in the 1980s, this will amount to 2.4 million hectares being given away.

Thirty thousand acres are approximately 12,000 hectares. If only a quarter of the areas can be considered suitable to be logged — which is around 600,000 hectares, 12,000 hectares will only take up two percent of the logging zones.

The number of Penan communities in Miri is obviously much lower than 100 — thus what has been stopping the state government from distributing a little of Sarawak natural wealth to a marginalised segment of society?

  • Compensate and institutionalise a consultation process that is fair, open and meaningful in the management of our forest and land

    We would like to caution the state government that any plan to develop industrial economic activities on our land — from logging to oil palm plantations — must first have our prior informed consent. We must be notified on all matters concerning the projects and we must remain the decision makers in matters concerning our consent and level of participation.

    At the same time, we also demand that the timber corporations that have caused damage to our land and have been responsible for the destruction of our food sources and traditional medicines, our loss of income and the deterioration of our health and quality of life, must provide compensation for our suffering in an amount that we agree upon, whether in the form of cash or infrastructure development.

    The agreement regarding the payment of compensation must be drawn in black and white. We have the right to be accorded the time to study the agreements and receive legal advice of our choice. The timber corporations and police have no right to pressurise or force our leaders into signing any agreements.

  • Provide assistance and a resource support system in our agricultural efforts

    Most of us today have permanently settled in longhouses and have been engaged in farming, on the government's insistence. We have sacrificed our ancestors' way of life to fulfil the request of the state, which has often regarded our customs and culture as non-progressive when in fact we have a far more excellent knowledge on the management and conservation of forest land than modern forest managers.

    However, after settling, there has been little effort on the part of the state government to conduct farming training programmes for our community. We were forced to learn to farm from scratch, without adequate knowledge on the basics of farming such as the preparation of natural fertilisers, proper farm management, etc.

    In addition, most of our farms are also infertile and worse: We also do not have access to a seed supply support especially for vegetable and fruit tree farming.

    We demand that the state allocate a budget to conduct farming training programmes and provide us with a seed support system to enable us to produce a higher farming output. Equally important, allocation must also be made to allow us to undertake animal rearing projects so that we will no longer suffer from the lack of a balanced diet.

    We demand that every Penan village be given agricultural assistance not only for our self-sufficiency but also for commercial purposes.

  • Provide primary healthcare programmes and regular healthcare checks

    Since much of our traditional medicine has been destroyed, it is very important for the government to provide accessible primary healthcare services for our community.

    Members of our community are suffering from poor health due to the lack of a balanced diet and air and water pollution caused by logging activities. As a matter of fact, there have been reports on deaths of infants due to food shortages and fatalities caused by the intake of contaminated river water among the nomadic communities.

    In the light of this, the authorities must first and foremost send medical officers to perform health checkups in all Penan villages and provide us with a regular and steady supply of medicines either through mobile clinics or flying doctors. Most of us cannot afford to travel to the nearest clinics whether they are located in the longhouses of other communities, the Penan Community Service Centre or in the nearest town.

    Secondly, the authorities must also conduct primary healthcare education programmes in our villages so that we can learn to avoid preventable illnesses.

  • Provide decent housing facilities

    We demand that all Penan villages be provided with decent housing. Most of our homes are in such deplorable conditions, without piped water and toilet facilities.

    It is high time that the state makes an allocation to construct decent homes for us given the fact that we had abandoned our forests to fulfil the government's demand.

  • Provide educational assistance to our children

    We demand that the state provide assistance to our school going children. Most of us cannot afford to settle the payment for fees and other costs like transport, books and uniforms because we do not have any source of income.

    Due to financial constraints, a considerable number of our children have had to drop out of school.

    If the both the federal and state governments are indeed serious in improving the welfare of the community, this is an occurrence that they must ensure will be put to a stop. There is no use pledging in the press, a huge amount of financial assistance to our community if our children have no access to their most important right — the right to education.

    • In view of all the above, with the Long Sayan Declaration 2002, we urge the federal and state governments to take appropriate, swift and effective measures to put an end to our hardship, destitution, poverty and suffering by first accepting our explanation on the cause of our troubles and fulfil our demands sincerely by initiating a systematic and serious implementation process.