Hello From Kuching & New Comment Restrictions (Sorry)
I am now in a room at the quaint Regal Court Hotel in Kuching, Sarawak having arrived here today as part of an initial fact finding team on the impact of increased oil palm cultivation on the indigenous communities and the environment. I had to do some homework on this issue as I am not very familiar with the situation in Sarawak but was very heartened to see this report on Malaysiakini that spoke of the Federal’s Court decision to uphold a lower court’s decision to recognise the pre-existence of native customary rights over land before any statute or legislation.
This is a very important development in the struggle for the legitimate recognition of indigenous rights over their land, especially with the proposed Native Customary Right Land Development Programme by Sarawak’s Ministry of Land Development hanging over the horizon. Reading the project’s Issues and Responses gave me the jitters. I’d also be interested to see how this plays out for West Malaysia’s Orang Asli. Could it imply that the more restrictive and paternalistic provisions of the Aboriginal Peoples’ Act 1954 could possibly be challenged?
Closer to home, an appeal has gone out to help raise the bail for the 13 devotees of a 100 year old Hindu temple in Kampung Karupiah near Padang Jawa who were part of an attempt to stop the demolishment of temple but were bloodily broken up. The devotees are mainly working class and poor and it would be almost impossible for them to raise the expected RM3,000 each for their bail.
More details about this tragic incident can be found from Police Watch Malaysia. A video is also available from Malaysiakini TV and this article here has a photo of an MBSA enforcer apparently throwing rocks at the Hindu temple while a prayer ceremony was being conducted inside :
If you’d like to know more about how you can help, you can get in touch with P. Waytha Moorthy at 019.664.1101.
On an unrelated front, I think some may have noticed the incessant commenting by our friendly neighbourhood troll a few hours ago. Considering that my job now requires more travelling than I am used to, I have to consider the possibility that I may not be able to access the Internet as often as I’d like.
As a result, I have set this blog to put all comments on review prior to publishing. I know this can be a bit of a a pain but being trolled is equally painful. Sorry to have to impose this on you folks. So if you get an error message after you post your comment, there’s usually no need to re-post it. I just haven’t had the time to change the code to say something more meaningful like “Thank you for your comment. Due to recent abuse, all comments are reviewed before publishing”.
