Tan Sri Adenan Satem discussing the Penan Peace Park proposal with TK Bilong Oyoi (Penan headman of Long Sait, Baram) and Mutang Urud (Kelabit researcher and activist) in London. – Pic courtesy of Bruno Manser Fund, May 5, 2015.Some of the most controversial names linked to Sarawak and Sabah – environmental activists, political activists and even an alleged secessionist – “gate-crashed” a dinner held by the Malaysian high commissioner to Britain for visiting Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem in London yesterday.
Instead of being chased out of the premises, the activists were welcomed by Adenan for an impromptu talk on a wide variety of issues.
"We heard he (Adenan) was at the Malaysian High Commission. So we dropped by for a talk," Lukas Straumann, executive director of the Swiss forest NGO, the Bruno Manser Fund, said via telephone today.
Straumann, a fierce critic of the forest policy of Adenan's predecessor Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud and who had authored the book "Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian Timber Mafia" – which zoomed in on Taib's alleged rape of Sarawak forest – had brought along Bilong Oyoi, a Penan headman from Long Sait in Baram, Mutang Urud, a Kelabit researcher who now lives in exile in Canada and Clare Rewcastle-Brown, the founder and editor of Radio Free Sarawak and Sarawak Report along with him.
Doris Jones, the Sabahan wanted by Malaysian police for calling for the state's secession, was also present.
"Some high commission staff were not too happy with the presence of Clare and tried to ask her to leave.
"Your chief minister instead brushed the high commission people aside and told Clare 'You are welcome. We are happy to have you here'," Straumann said.
Straumann said he had a fruitful discussion with Adenan on forest conservation despite them coming unannounced.
He said Adenan in the meeting had made a promise to save the state’s forests with sustainable management and to fight timber corruption.
"We have read and heard of the fight and we have received reports from our friends in Limbang and Lawas that illegal logging camps have been closed by your chief minister.
"He looks serious in the fight for transformation and it is effective.
"Since he is reaching to international NGOs to assist him with the state's forest reform, we (BMF) are willing to assist him," Straumann said.
"We have no hidden agenda."
Just last week, Adenan in the Sarawak legislative assembly was dismissive of the Basle-based BMF.
He told state legislators that Sarawak had always been the victim to criticisms by NGOs regarding the management of its forest.
He said "They have been quite successful in giving Sarawak a bad name internationally."
He however said with the policy change of his administration, he expected them to stop their attacks and help Sarawak.
"If they are truly concerned with our forest, they must help us.
"Don’t just criticise us."
He said a few are now coming forward like World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and World Conservation Fund, “the more reputable ones”.
"I don’t care about Bruno Manser Fund because their agenda is not our forest. Their agenda is someone else.
"I am not interested in that but I am more interested in NGOs whose real concern is sincerely preservation of forest."
In a statement, BMF said Adenan "surprised the public" by pledging to save Sarawak's remaining rainforests and to fight timber corruption.
The speech, said BMF, stressed on his determination to fight illegal logging and timber corruption, as well as underlining the need to transform the Borneon's state timber industry and urging environmental groups to assist in the necessary reforms.
"No more timber concessions are being given out. No more palm oil is needed – cukup (enough)," Adenan was quoted as saying by BMF in his speech.
Meanwhile, Jones who uploaded several photographs of her meeting with Adenan on her personal Facebook account, said the CM did told her some things, which Sarawakians will soon know too.
"But what he told me was not far off from what I expected," she said. – May 5, 2015
Comments
Please refrain from nicknames or comments of a racist, sexist, personal, vulgar or derogatory nature, or you may risk being blocked from commenting in our website. We encourage commenters to use their real names as their username. As comments are moderated, they may not appear immediately or even on the same day you posted them. We also reserve the right to delete off-topic comments