On November 7th, the Norwegian head of Sarawak Energy took great care to make his accusations against the Penan tribespeople at the Murum Dam blockade as public as possible, by insisting on broadcasting them in full on our site. In an email to the Swiss NGO BMF, which he copied into our comments section, he […]
Sarawak Report can reveal that Sarawak’s biggest on-going crime mystery has a relative answer. That is to say, the Serian District Police Chief, Mohd Jamali Umi, turns out to be a close relative of the Planning Minister Awang Tengah, who controls one of the companies controversially logging the area of Melikin. Numerous insiders have now confirmed
The story that the Sarawak’s Journalist Association did not get when they were taken on their Sarawak Energy (SEB) sponsored tour of Murum is appearing prominently in European papers this weekend. France’s top Paper, Le Monde features the Murum native blockade (which the Sarawak journalists called abandoned) in a long article about the destruction caused
Hours after the armed arrest of 8 of his relatives, including two young teenage boys, the people of Sarawak will be stunned at the amazing bravery of one young Penan boy at the Murum Dam blockade. He is very young. Sarawak Report has been told his name is Peter Senang and is age is just
We have no pictures of today’s arrest of Penan natives at the Murum Dam blockade, because two boys trying to take photographs were themselves arrested for recording the event. The youngest, Tingang Lingok, is believed to be around 13 years old. The two teenagers are now among 8 Penan who have been jailed at the police
Sarawak Report has received news of a critical development in the Murum Dam blockade, which has now been maintained for several weeks by Penan tribespeople forced from their homes by rising waters Around a hundred of the men, women and children have broken away from the original site, where they were being penned in
Sarawak Report can reveal that four head gangsters, who were caught after the discovery of an enormous illegal arms cache at the disputed logging and plantation concessions at Melikin, were freed by police on instructions from ministers! Since their release there has been a further series of vicious attacks on local people, whom the
When he is not tearing down tropical trees in Sarawak, the chief officer of Sarawak Energy has his home in a very smart, leafy suburb of Oslo in Norway, known as Baerum. Last week, appalled at the latest round of mega-projects handed out by this hired Norwegian to companies owned by his boss, the autocratic
Over the past few days news has come through from both of the main Baram Dam construction sites that Sarawak Energy (SEB) has beaten a retreat. However, the local blockades, which are being manned by surrounding communities, remain in place to ward off further moves by the state owned company to re-start the dam building
Nick Wright, Sarawak Energy’s Australian Vice-President in charge of Resettlement, Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Consultation, made a surprise appearance in Geneva this week. It turned out that his mission was to present a highly sanitised report to the United Nations, praising his company’s treatment of the natives affected by the state’s mega-dam plans. The
It has emerged that many of the families forced from their longhouses at Murum have found there is no replacement housing for them after all, in the half-built resettlement areas they have been bundled into by Sarawak Energy. Visitors last week spoke to families in Tegulang, all of whom had been given supposed vouchers for
Sarawak Energy’s Datuk Torstein Dale Sjotveit and his bosses in the Sarawak State Government have alleged that the anti-Murum Dam blockaders are being incited by NGOs and have painted a picture of trouble-making locals. In fact, there has been very little genuine news or information from the distant and isolated dam site, which has been
Once again Norway’s massive public pension fund has reviewed its investments in Sarawak and blacklisted two more unethical companies, both closely linked to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud. Having vetoed Samling Global because of its destructive and illegal practices back in 2010, the so-called ‘Oil Fund’, which is the world’s largest institutional investor, has now produced detailed
So, Taib Mahmud has yet another business in Sarawak, despite all his protests to the contrary, and it is even named after him. Pehin Sri Heritage Sdn Bhd has featured on a list of 49 Malaysian companies identified in court by his former daughter in law Shanaz Taib, who is seeking a financial settlement from
This weekend campaigners in Sarawak and Malaysia signal the start of a month of international awareness action about the global warming crisis. They are focusing their concern on the “insane” mega dams policy of Sarawak. In a statement, supported by numerous Malaysian NGOs, the group have lambasted Taib’s ill-conceived and outdated policy of building of up to
Taib Mahmud has complained that Sarawak is in the ‘media spotlight’ after years of ‘obscurity’. But, thanks to that obscurity and his own media blackout, gangsterism has been allowed to flourish unreported against the native people of the state. For years these organised thugs have waged systematic violence against rural communities, in order to enforce the
At the weekend Taib Mahmud bemoaned that the recent ‘spotlight of publicity’ on Sarawak has created negative perceptions of his government. So, clearly he wants no further light shone on the disgraceful treatment of the Penan at the Murum Dam site. The tribe are still holding out in protest against his authoritarian command to start
A flurry of denials poured out last week in response to this site’s reporting on the questionable assignment of projects by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. In particular, the Majlis Islam Sarawak (Sarawak Islamic Council) issued a 5 page rebuttal, selecting what it identified as nine issues raised in the report and then apparently
Native people of Murum say they are being bothered by a foreign troublemaker and have lodged a police report against him. Torstein Dale Sjotveit is a Norwegian, who yesterday caused complaints after shouting in the faces of Penan indigenous people, whom he is ejecting from their ancient homelands. It is also alleged that he berated
As news comes in of a weekend when Sarawak Energy started flooding the Murum Dam in the absence of any agreement with the native people, many of whom are still blockading the site, we publish the Bruno Manser Fund announcement (below) that they are nominating the company for the Davos “Public Eye Award” for the
Following our report earlier this week that the Minister for Islamic Affairs and Chairman of the Baitulmal Fund had awarded a mega-building project to his own company, the opposition PKR party has reported Daud Abdul Rahman to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. The opposition DAP party has also gone public to repeat its demands that the Tabang
The Malaysian NGO Suaram has made a representation to the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights, which highlights the ill-treatment of the natives of Sarawak. The oral representation by Nalini Elumalai, the Executive Director of Suaram, called for the Rapporteur, James Anaya to be allowed to personally visit East Malaysia to evaluate the abuses
The Assistant Minister for Islamic Affairs, Daud Abdul Rahman, presides over all the money collected and distributed by Muslims in the state, through his role as Chairman of the Baitulmal Board (Tabung Baitulmal Sarawak/ TBS). These funds include the obligatory Zakat, raised from the faithful in order to help the poor and needy. However, much
Leading politicians in Sarawak seem addicted to showing off how kind they are by handing out money and cheques to the poor and downtrodden in society Scarcely a day goes by when newspapers do not feature a “very poor person” receiving this ‘benevolence’ from smug and very wealthy individuals, who want the world to see how ‘generous’ they are.
Dear Prime Minister – As you know, Malaysia voted in favour of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Rights (UNDRIP) and is a signatory to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Malaysia is also a member of the International Finance Corporation (formulator of the World Bank’s sustainability framework) and Sarawak Energy is
