At the end of last week Sarawak Report sent an emailed request for comment to the information desk of the major public company Puncak Niaga Bhd in Kuala Lumpur.

The title of the request is self-explanatory: “Demonstrations by Sacked Penan Workers from Murum – URGENT MEDIA ATTENTION – FOR ROZALI ISMAIL”

Businessman Rosali Ismail is a director and, together with family members, 39% shareholder of Punckak Niaga whose subsidiary Danum Sinar owns 6 Sarawak oil palm plantations in Murum, a region that was logged out just over a decade ago to make way for the Murum Dam.

In the process the hunter gatherer Penan people who had inhabited the previously untouched rainforest territory were displaced, their homes flooded.  With little alternative means of subsistence many of those dispossessed tribespeople have in the intervening period taken up jobs in the palm plantations that Rosli was licensed to establish.

However, on 28th May 126 of those Penan workers were suddenly laid off by Danum Sinar, without notice or compensation, on the grounds not of any failure on their part but rather ‘financial constraints’ on the part of the company.

A representative of the community told Radio Free Sarawak last week that the locals soon found that they had been replaced by Indonesian workers brought in by the company to do their jobs.

Gereng Jadum, speaking for the residents of Penan Metalun, Murum claimed to the online radio show that he has been able to establish that those replacement workers from Indonesia are working without a valid work permit.

Although he is still employed at the plantation he has refused to keep silent.

“I’m not afraid of being fired, I still speak up for my friends who were fired without notice. I was able to find out that the Indonesian workers employed to replace the dismissed Penan are Indonesian workers without a valid work permit”

he told the station.  Sarawak Report has not been able to independently validate this allegation, however the situation raises several questions regarding the conduct of the company and also the state government which drove through the destruction of the Murum forest on the grounds it would benefit the indigenous people bringing them ‘training in agriculture’, services and development.

The Penan were forcibly removed from their original homes and hunting grounds in 2013 and resettled in the still uncompleted Tegulang and Metalun Settlements to make way for the logging, plantations and eventual impoundment of the dam. The settlements have suffered ever since from shortages of water and utilities.

Each family was also promised a monthly subsistence allowance of RM850 per family from the state government until they became independent.  However, this was soon stopped leaving the families utterly dependent on the low paying and back breaking work provided by the plantations licensed on their own indigenous territories in spite of their bitter opposition at the time.

As a result, when their jobs were suddenly ended the families were left destitute.

It is notable that services provided by the state government to the region, such as a made up road to the area, end at the plantation gates which is well short of the Penan resettlement villages which are situated hours from anywhere else these people could find work.

The land provided to the villages to grow crops is minimal and there is no longer access to hunting and fishing.

Thus on 28th July the villagers set up camp outside and began a blockade of the plantations. Their demands were simple: to be paid compensation for being laid off and to be given two of the company’s six estates, the Kelayan and Lakin Estates, so that they themselves manage the two farms.

Asked whether the demand was “rational”? Gereng replied “the palm oil estate was opened on our land. So we have the right and we have established our own company that manages the farm“, which indeed does sound pretty rational.

Meanwhile, the locals are quite clear about why they think they have been cast aside. They say that the use of illegal foreign workers without permits (should this indeed be the case) costs the company a fraction of the amount they have to shell out for legal Malaysian workers in terms of pay, benefits, taxation and all the rest.

If the angry demonstrators are correct then such an arrangement also constitutes an abuse of trafficked labour (a growing scandal and major problem generally in Malaysia) as well as a violation of employment and taxation laws.

According to the latest information received by Radio Free Sarawak the company agreed to set up a negotiation process on July 31st in return for a suspension of the blockade.  They have asked for three weeks to arrive at a settlement with the workers and local community.

Meanwhile, the police have been called to the area and received reports from the angry community about their grievances.  There is no information so far as to whether an investigation has been opened into the accusations of the importation and exploitation of illegal foreign labour at the expense of indigenous Malaysian citizens.

One person who has reportedly made no effort to take up the situation is the community’s highly paid state assembly representative, the Murum YB, Kennedy Chukpai Ugon, who is naturally a member of the ruling GPS party.

Mind you, the Penan did not even seek to ask for his help as they say that for years he has done nothing to protest the cutting of their promised RM850 per month family subsidy, which they have been begging him to help get renewed.

Locals say they rarely see him in the area.

For this reason and on behalf of the community’s very brave and desperate spokespeople Sarawak Report wrote this following email to the owner and director of the estate Rozali on Saturday:

Dear Rozali Ismail,
A company information check tells me that you are the director and major shareholder of the oil palm plantation company Danum Sinar which is situated in the Murum area of Sarawak.
As has been widely reported, this area was controversially logged some ten years ago and the population forcibly removed into settlements during the construction of the Murum Dam.
The justification given by the state government was that the people would be made better off having been thus ‘developed’ as resulting agriculture and profits from the dam would provide them with jobs and utilities and the opportunity to join the modern economy.
Concessions for plantations were then handed out, specifically to your majority owned company, Danum Sinar, of which you and your son are directors.
Unfortunately the made up roads constructed for logging and the dam only reach the entrance to your plantation and do not extend to the resettlement area provided for the local Penan people.
Nonetheless, I understand from local reports that until May of this year 126 of those people did have low grade employment as fruit pickers on the plantations you have established with the apparent permission of the state government on their former hunting and foraging grounds (there is a lack of transparency in Sarawak that makes it hard to determine which concessions are officially supported and which are not).
However, it has been reported that in May your company informed these native workers that owing to financial constraints you would be terminating their employment. They were sacked without compensation and are now jobless and without any form of support from the state either.
In the intervening period it is reported that your company has now substituted these native workers with immigrant workers believed to be from Indonesia.  I would like to ask the following questions:
– Can you confirm these reports are correct, as the situation now appears to have resulted in demonstrations and protests as desperate families in the area demand a proper stake in their own lands?
– Members of the community have told Sarawak Report that they believe that you have replaced them with these foreign workers because you can pay those workers a fraction of what you have to pay to a Malaysian citizen and can avoid all the other obligations relating to security and pensions.  Is this true and if so do you believe it to be justifiable?
– Can you please confirm and provide proof that these new Indonesian workers are legitimately licensed to work in Malaysia and are receiving proper working conditions and pay?
– Did the state or federal government agree with your company that it was acceptable to replace local workers with foreign workers in this manner, leaving the native families without sustenance owing to the forced change of land use in the region from virgin forests to palm plantations?
– Needless to say, this is a matter that very many onlookers will regard to be reprehensible both on the part of the state and federal governments’ oversight and the actions of your company.  Do you have any comment or rebuttals you wish to make with regard to the above record of events?  

SR plans to report on this matter shortly and will be happy to include your comments and research any information you provide.”

We have yet to receive a reply. Perhaps others might like to question him or to raise a question to YB Kennedy?  Clearly, there is no point waiting to put a question to the state assembly given that it scarcely ever sits.