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Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| WIKILEAKS: PENAN TRIBAL LEADER'S DEATH RAISES SUSPICIONS Posted: 05 Oct 2011 01:00 AM PDT
An official from Borneo Resource Institute (BRIMAS), a Sarawak-based human rights NGO, told poloff villagers' suspicions were strengthened because several weeks prior to his disappearance, a senior member from the Samling company visited the village. The company representative offered money to the villagers for their cooperation with the logging company. After they refused to take the money, the representative warned villagers they faced "dire consequences". THE CORRIDORS OF POWER Raja Petra Kamarudin
Classified By: Classified by: Political Section Chief Mark D. Clark fo r reasons 1.4 (b and d). Summary 1. (C) Penan tribal members in the East Malaysian state of Sarawak found tribal headsman and anti-logging activist Kelesau Naan dead on December 17, 2007, after he went missing for two months. Police initially refused to open an investigation until Malaysia's Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) intervened. Kelesau's death has raised Penan suspicions, as yet unsubstantiated, of possible logging industry involvement and left the indigenous ethnic group without a strong leader to protect their traditional land rights against ongoing logging efforts. End Summary. Death of a Tribal Leader 2. (SBU) Kelesau Naan, a Penan tribal headman in the East Malaysian state of Sarawak was found dead, on December 17, 2007, at a riverbank near his village after missing for two months. Kelesau was active in protecting indigenous people rights to customary land for over twenty years. He was a lead witness against the logging industry's efforts to encroach into protected lands. Kelesau, one of the Penan headmen in the Ulu Baram district of Sarawak, often erected barricades preventing loggers from entering the Penan tribal homeland. In 1998, several land rights activist persuaded Kelesau and other Penan elders from Baram to file a land rights suit against the state government and Samling, a prominent timber company. The lawsuit remains pending in the Miri High Court. Tensions between the indigenous people and logging companies escalated in recent months over logging issues in Upper Baram region. 3. (C) Kelesau's skull and bones were found on the rocky banks of the Segita River. He disappeared two months earlier while checking on an animal trap. His family identified his remains based on Kelesau's traditional bead necklace, watch, and sheath of his machete, found on his body. Villagers of Long Kerong previously searched the area without finding his body and suspected he was murdered and his remains later placed in the area to make it look like an animal killed him. An official from Borneo Resource Institute (BRIMAS), a Sarawak-based human rights NGO, told poloff villagers' suspicions were strengthened because several weeks prior to his disappearance, a senior member from the Samling company visited the village. The company representative offered money to the villagers for their cooperation with the logging company. After they refused to take the money, the representative warned villagers they faced "dire consequences". Police Don't Investigate; Family Asks SUHAKAM for Help 4. (C) Kelesau's son, Nick Kelesau, lodged a police report in Marudi, two weeks after the recovery of Kelesau's skeletal remains. The BRIMAS official told poloff that police at the district nearest to the Penan village were initially reluctant to accept the police report, which forms the basis for a police investigation. Police tried to persuade the villagers to drop the case and consider Kelesau's death an accident. Nick insisted and the police subsequently accepted the report. However, neither police nor government officials investigated the case. Instead, police classified the cause of death as "sudden death." 5. (C) Unhappy over the initial police response, Kelesau's son lodged a report with SUHAKAM. Nick also claimed a person representing logging companies offered him up to 25,000 Ringgit ($7,820) to retract his statement in which Nick claimed his father was murdered. The BRIMAS official believed SUHAKAM's intervention, and calls from local NGOs to investigate Kelesau's death, caused Sarawak state police headquarters to take over the investigation from the local police district. State Police Commissioner Mohamed Salley announced the reopening of the investigation and exhumed Kelesau's remains for analysis on February 29. Police released the postmortem report on March 17, which stated death resulted from unspecified natural causes. The pathologist assigned to conduct the autopsy told reporters it was difficult to ascertain the cause of death because the skeletal remains were incomplete. Comment 6. (C) At this point, we do not have any further information to suggest foul-play in Kelesau's death, but the circumstances of the case and the local police's initial poor response naturally raise suspicions among the Penan. The logging industry is politically very well connected in Sarawak. During the 1990s, two other Penan villagers, both anti-logging activists, similarly disappeared after threats by logging company representatives. Kelesau's death may well take the wind out of the sails of the Penan's effort to protect their traditional lands. It remains unclear if other Penan tribal elders or Kelesau's son will take up the mantle. KEITH (April 2008)
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| Posted: 04 Oct 2011 05:45 PM PDT
One bone of contention with the opposition in Malaysia is the absence of a Shadow Cabinet or Shadow government. Since Malaysia's system is modelled after the British Westminster system, let us do a comparison between Malaysia and the UK to see where we have fallen short, in particular with regards to the Shadow Cabinet. THE CORRIDORS OF POWER Raja Petra Kamarudin
Malaysia has a population of 27 million. There are 222 parliamentary constituencies in Malaysia. Malaysia has 31 Ministers and 40 Deputy Ministers. (See the full list of Malaysian Ministers here: http://www.pmo.gov.my/?menu=cabinet&page=1797)
The UK has a population of 72 million. There are 650 parliamentary constituencies in the UK. The UK has 24 Ministers. (See the full list of British Ministers here: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/prod_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/documents/digitalasset/dg_187701.htm) There are 27 members in Britain's Shadow Cabinet. (See the full list of Shadow Ministers here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/pm/2010/10/that_shadow_cabinet_in_full.shtml)
In Malaysia, we do not have a Shadow Cabinet from Pakatan Rakyat like what is being practiced by the UK and most Commonwealth countries that also practice the Westminster system of government. The strange thing, though, is that after the 1999 general election, Barisan Alternatif did have a Shadow 'government' (not only a Shadow Cabinet but Cabinet committees as well). Now, Pakatan Rakyat somehow does not seem to see the need of continuing with this practice. Why do we need a Shadow Cabinet or a Shadow government and what purpose will it serve? Well, maybe this extract from Wikipedia can explain it better: The Shadow Cabinet (also called the Shadow Front Bench or Shadow Ministry) is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who, together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition, form an alternative cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual member of the government. Members of a shadow cabinet are often but not always appointed to a Cabinet post if and when their party gets into government. It is the Shadow Cabinet's responsibility to pass criticism on the current government and its respective legislation, as well as offering alternative policies. In the United Kingdom and Canada the major opposition party and specifically its shadow cabinet is often called His or Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. The adjective "loyal" is used because, while the role of the opposition is to oppose Her Majesty's Government, it does not dispute the sovereign's right to the throne and therefore the legitimacy of the government. However in other countries that use the Westminster system (for example, New Zealand), the opposition is known simply as The Parliamentary Opposition instead of shadow. Some parliamentary parties, notably the British Labour Party and the Australian Labour Party, elect all the members of their shadow cabinets in a partyroom ballot, with the Leader of the Opposition then allocating portfolios to the Shadow Ministers. In other parliamentary parties, the membership and composition of the Shadow Cabinet is generally determined solely by the Leader of the Opposition. In most countries, a member of the shadow cabinet is referred to as a Shadow Minister. In Canada, however, the term Opposition Critics is more usual. (Wikipedia) |
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