Greetings! You may have received a newspaper cutting from the New
Straits Times (NST), Malaysia about 'Penan fund rip-off' by James
Ritchie on 1/11/93. This articles call for cautious response. James
Ritchie had in the past written articles for the same paper to
discredit both the blockade action of the Indigenous peoples and the
involvement of the NGOs, in particular the foreign environmental
groups.
In an earlier article (NST 24th July 1992), James Ritchie wrote that
the blockades set up by the Indigenous peoples in Sarawak have been
inspired by western environmentalists. This allegation has insulted
many Indigenous groups who have been involved in blockade and other
nonviolent direct actions, risking their life and facing extreme
hardship, to stop the logging of the rainforests and the encroachment
of their traditional lands. Those involved in the blockade maintains
that their action comes from their heart and strong desire to protect
their customary rights to the land, forest and rivers as well as their
choice of lifestyle.
It is contradictory that this time James Ritchie is claiming that
the Penans are being ripped off. There may be funds raised by some
NGOs which never reached Sarawak because these groups used the money
raised for local campaigns, which is legitimate. How each of the
groups spent the money raised is entirely up to the strategy adopted
by the group. The hidden agenda of James's article is probably to put
pressure on those groups mentioned to disclose the groups and
communities in Sarawak which have received assistance from foreign
NGOs. The Malaysian Special Branch has for the last few years been
trying to trace such links and connections in order to incriminate
local people involved in kind of activities.
Here are some points which groups and individual may like to
take up in response to the article :
(1) Write to the Editor of the NST expressing your outrage and
disrespect for the blatant lies they are spreading and the lack of
ethics in this kind of journalism in James Ritchie's part;
(2) If your group has been sending money to Sarawak, please be clear
that the money is given on humanitarian ground, to ease starvation and
sickness as well as for other basic needs as a result of the destruction
of the rainforest and the dispossession experienced by the Indigenous
peoples in Sarawak. Please DO NOT mention the communities, groups or
individual whom you have send money to as this will incriminate those
poeple conceerned in Sarawak.
(3) This article is obviously a smoke screen to divert attentions away
from the recent military assaut of the Penan people at Long Mobui,
Upper Selaan area of the Baram region. In this incident, the Penans
who had been guarding the blockade for more than nine months since
January this year were being tear-gased, arrested and physically
attacked by the military and the police.
No doubt James Ritchie would be checking E-mail for updates on
the international campaign against the destruction of the rainforest.
This is obviously where he got most of his information on the
activities of the various NGOs - He will no doubt send a message on
Conference to ask me to disclose my identity and write something to
discredit this piece of information. As far as I am concerned, I know
where my heart lies and and I understand the problems faced by the
Indigenous peoples of Sarawak. While I am prepared at any time to be
accountable and answerable to those people affected by the so called
'development' projects in Sarawak and elsewhere, I have very little
respect for people like James Ritchie who would lowered himself to
became a corrupted government's servant to put pen on paper to earn a
few dirty dollars, at the expense of thousands of people already
victimised by the system.
I would be very interested to hear the feedbacks from anyone who
read this and will be happy to discuss with you on ways to handle this
situation as well as what's happening in Sarawak.
for Melbourne Rainforest Action Group
A supporter of Indigenous Landrights struggle