20 NOVEMBER 7 2010 SUNDAY CANBERRA TIMES www.canberratimes.com

SundayFocus

Full speedahead forbig damsCONTINUED FROM PAGE 19

There was nothing left here.On top of that, as Kulleh Gau had

observed from the start, therenever were sago palms in thisregion for them to harvest andprocess. Now the Penan are fringedwellers, sometimes working forthe palm oil companies and grow-ing a little rice.

It is not only the Penan wholament the fact that the jungle isgone.

A chief of the Kayan – known asa penghulu, a rank higher than alonghouse headman – PenghuluSaging Bit, of Uma Belor, said thatwhen the headmen were taken tothe region it was all forest. Theywere told, ‘‘ ‘Your house will behere.’ We thought we could hunt.

‘‘We never thought the lifewould be like this – if we build ahouse here, they will clear the land[around].’’

He said they now knew thatofficials had already surveyed theland and that the surroundingarea would go to the logging andpalm oil companies. This, he said,could be the reason why thefamilies had been squeezed, eachgiven a mere three acres for theirfarms, an area everyone agrees istotally inadequate.

“[We] never know this land givento this big company,” he said.

But from the companies’ point ofview, the relocation has been agreat success. The longhousedwellers are now an ample sourceof cheap labour for the palm oilindustry.

One can’t help but wonder if thatwasn’t the plan all along.

A Kenyah woman, Bivillie BuaGariny, said her family of sixbrothers and sisters had grown upand married. How can the threeacres allocated to the family bedivided?

“If I want to plant then mybrother also wants to plant,” shesaid, “. . . We try to ask theGovernment to give us anotherthree or six acres. We think if theGovernment can give [to] compan-ies to plant palm oil, they couldhave given it to us.”

In the old world the growingfamily could be accommodated bythe extensive forest. The peopledid not see the land around theirlonghouse as “state” land. Jungle itmight be, but it was their jungle todistribute to those who could useit. Each community allocated newland to grown-up children as re-quired.

But they are no longer in aremote region, beyond daily gov-ernment authority. The Sarawaksystem is more like that in Aust-ralia before the 1992 Mabodecision when the ludicrous legalconcept of terra nullius, or landbelonging to no one, prevailed. TheSarawak state does not recognisethat native people own their landunless they have clear propertylike that of a Malay peasant, ie, arice field, or a home with title.

Penghulu Saging Bit said com-pensation for some of his people’sgardens was not paid because theGovernment said they were on

state land. He said his people “didnot know state land. We regardthat place as ours, no matter aforest. We assume that area is ourplace. We never know it’s likethat.”

In addition he said that when thedam filled there would still be landabove the high water mark thatthey still regarded as their land.

“We want this land and not theGovernment. . . . We want this tobe given back to us,” he said.

As chief of the kampong, Peng-hulu Saging Bit works with theGovernment and is paid a smallsum for his services to his people.Like all headmen, this paymentand service must, to some extent,compromise him and limit hisability to act independently.

Penghulu Saging Bit and thePenan Talun man who agreed tospeak acknowledged that they nowhad better roads, education wasbeing provided for their childrenand that their longhouses hadrunning water and electricity, al-though they had to pay for this.

At the resettlement site of Asapthere are lock-up shops, housingfor government servants, who pro-vide administrative services, and aclinic, albeit with no doctor.

There is some complaint aboutthe quality of the wood and work-manship on the longhouses butthey look solid, and are muchbetter than the housing in manyAboriginal communities in Aust-ralia. The residents maintain thehouses and have modified theinteriors to create rooms to suiteach family’s needs.

The elderly, with little to occupythem and give them self-esteem,are lost in the new world and yearnfor the old. But the young know noother and are more optimisticabout the future.

All representatives from thevarious tribal groups said thecompensation paid to them wasinadequate. Penghulu Saging Bitsaid there were a number ofsurveys done on their old land andthe vegetable gardens, fruit trees,pepper plants, rubber and cocoatrees were measured and counted.Prices were proposed for the pro-duction, but he said the priceoffered was very much less thanexpected. As a result, 10 yearsdown the track, his case is stillbefore the court.

A Kenyah man also said therewere multiple surveys.

“My father claimed from the firstsurvey and then they did a second.We didn’t plant because we hadalready signed [to move]. They cutour claim by 20 per cent because[they said] there is no maintenanceof the gardens.

“We had a crop, rubber trees.. . . They came again and surveyedand said, ‘It’s abandoned.’ Theyrefused to pay. If it was based onthe first claim we would get onemillion ringgit but they offer200,000 ringgit based on the latersurvey.”

Only a few are still fighting in thecourts. Others were unable toafford the drawn out battle, need-ing whatever money they could getto restart their lives. Some say theylacked faith in the lawyers, who

were frightened of the Govern-ment.

The dam flooding will inundate69,000 hectares of land, alwaysdescribed in reports as “almost thearea of Singapore”. It will create a205m deep lake to drive eightturbines, planned to generate2400 megawatts of electricity.

It may also affect those who livebelow its walls on the 400km of theRajang from Belaga to Sibu. Theriver is not only a source of food forthese people, but a major trans-port hub, with 100-person expressboats charging up and down itscourse. It is feared the dam willreduce the flow and make somerapids impassable. And the ques-tion remains: will it also affect thefishing and gardens along the riverbanks?

Dam representatives say theyhave agreed to release 150 to 300cubic metres of water per seconddownstream to enable river trans-port and they will monitor thesituation to ensure no adverseeffects.

Bakun, which cost an estimated7.3 billion ringgit ($A2.4 billion) to

build, is only one of 13 damsproposed for Sarawak. Further upthe Rajang River system theMurum Dam is in development.

A Penan band from the region tobe affected by this dam movedthree years ago to Asap/Koyan,although ultimately they are to berelocated to Tugulang. Their movewas prompted by a decision to seekeducation, and a new future, fortheir children. Other tribal groupsreadily accept the boarding schoolsystem the Malaysian Governmentoffers. But Penan everywherestrongly dislike being separatedfrom their children and their smallsettlements, or nomadic lifestylesin remote jungle regions, make itextremely difficult for the Govern-ment to offer schools at theirhomes.

The Murum group of 30 familiesfrom Long Wat has taken upresidence in an abandoned chick-en farm. They are well aware thatthere is no game to hunt but theadults appear to have consciouslydecided to sacrifice their lifestylein the hope their children will get afoothold in a world they now seem

to accept is going to swamp themregardless. Another Penan groupin the Bario region near the Kali-mantan border similarly came intotown 10 years ago to be near theirchildren at school.

The Murum band’s farm hasonly one water pipe and conditionsare clearly poor. In the schoolholidays, if they can find transport,they go to their old home to huntand gather. They appreciate thatthey have a school nearby andalthough they say their kids arenot doing well they are pleasedthat they can read.

But the Murum Penan are alsonot happy about the proposedcompensation for their displace-ment. A special concern is that,being nomads, they do not havethe houses and permanentgraveyards that the Governmentregards as evidence of possession.An elder, Paneh, said they had onlybeen offered payment for onerecent burial and not for peopleburied in the past, as other tribeshad received.

Penan traditionally move campafter a death and do not speak the