To: Singapore/Malaysia Network
Friends,
Three messages today, all relating to Malaysia:
1.Good news from Canada: Former Canadian Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Paul Martin, speaks out about Anwar's release.
2. Malaysia's indigenous Penan continue to fight for their rights. Amnesty International recently reiterated its
call for recognition of indigenous communities' rights. Will this be addressed by the new government?
3. Diplomatically Speaking by former diplomat Dennis Ignatius is now widely available in Malaysia's bookstores.
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Former Canadian Prime Minister The Right Honourable Paul Martin has over many years called for the release of Anwar Ibrahim, who m I understand he knew from the time each was Finance Minister of his country.
I am now very pleased and proud (as a Canadian myself) to send Mr Martin's most recent statement, welcoming Anwar's release and looking forward to the programme Anwar will undertake in office.
Statement by the Right Honourable Paul Martin:
I know I speak for many of that group of Finance Ministers from around the world who knew and so respected Anwar Ibrahim when he was Malaysia's Finance Minister.
I was not alone in condemning the treatment to which he was subjected over the last many years and I know I am not alone now in rejoicing at his return to public life. Along with many others, I eagerly await Anwar Ibrahim's contribution to the future of Malaysia and the world.
The Right Honourable Paul Martin
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2. BRUNO MANSER FUND, BASEL / SWITZERLAND
08 June 2018 – for immediate release
Penan demand acknowledgement of their nomadic livelihood
The Penan speak out against their discrimination as hunters and gatherers: the law should not only acknowledge rights to farmland but also to forest.
(MIRI / SARAWAK / MALAYSIA) The Penan from Malaysian Borneo are turning to their government requesting the acknowledgement of their right to land, on which they have lived as nomads for centuries. Last year, the federal court of Malaysia denied indigenous communities the right to own forested land and only recognized land titles for farmland.
In a letter to the government of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, 26 Penan leaders express their concerns that their traditional nomadic livelihood is not acknowledged as it was not based on farming: “We feel deeply neglected by the state’s laws which deny us the right to our traditionally used forests and to our territorial domain.”
Researchers have documented the Penan territorial concept of “Tana Pengurip”, which confines a Penan community’s hunting and foraging area. The Penan Community Maps released in late 2017 give further proof to the Penan’s livelihood depending on forest resources such as the sago palm.
Indigenous communities from Sarawak demand that the Iban concepts of the communal forest reserve and territorial domain be acknowledged in the state’s laws. Later this year, the state government of Sarawak will announce how they intend to deal with this currently conflict. Now, the Penan demand that their nomadic livelihood is addressed in the laws, too.
In the letter, the Penan addressed the Chief Minister Abang Johari as well as the Deputy Chief Minister, Douglas Uggah, who is in charge of the matter: “We kindly ask you to do your best to ensure that the Sarawak laws will reflect the various indigenous territorial concepts in the future and do not reduce land ownership to farmed land. Only if the society respects our rights, we can be full citizens of this country and contribute to the country’s development.”
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3.DIPLOMATICALLY SPEAKING
by former Malaysian diplomat Dennis Ignatius
This astute perspective on Malaysia comes remarkably from an unexpected source -- a former diplomat who throughout his career said what he was told to say. Now he speaks for himself about Malaysia's past -- and where it failed its citizens -- but also points the way to a far better future. It comes, of course, at a crucial point in the country's development. But more than that, so much of what he says (about democracy and human rights, for example -- the section I am on) can apply to other countries far and wide. It is now available in bookstores in Malaysia (or from gerak@gerakbudaya).
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