Tribal chief Danny Ibang lived most of his life in the pristine jungles of the Malaysian portion of Borneo island until he was pushed into a modern world he was told would be better.
And in many ways, it is.
His Kenyah community of 2,000 enjoys electricity, running water, health and educational facilities previously undreamed of since being moved out of the jungles to a new village to make way for the huge Bakun hydroelectric dam.
Photo: AFP
However, as expanding dams, oil-palm plantations and other development forces thousands off ancestral lands in the state of Sarawak, a host of modern new problems threaten to break down once tight-knit tribal communities.
Village elders and activists say alcoholism, drug use and crime are on the increase and anger is rising over continuing encroachment on native lands.
“There have been a lot of social changes after the Bakun dam,” said Ibang, 66, whose people were among the first moved to the relocation village of Sungai Asap 14 years ago.
“Some teens who go to school learn to rebel against their parents and boys and girls now mingle freely as they see it on the television,” he said.
There were 10 recent teen pregnancies — something unheard of in the old days.
The state government is pushing to develop the economy of Sarawak, which is blessed by rich natural resources yet remains one of Malaysia’s poorest states.
However, critics say the effort, while necessary, is plagued by graft and harms tribes that are ethnically distinct from the nation’s majority Malays.
Tribal lands make up about 80 percent of Sarawak and “nearly all has been taken for logging and plantations,” said Mark Bujang, head of Borneo Resources Institute, a body working in defense of native land rights.
Last month, Penan tribespeople blocked roads into their lands for a week to protest logging and alleged river pollution by Malaysian firm Interhill until the blockade was dismantled by authorities.
At a forum on native concerns in the town of Bintulu last month organized by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, about 150 Iban tribespeople alleged a palm oil company illegally seized their land for a plantation and disturbed ancestral graves, said Joseph Laja, an Iban.
“We are really angry,” Laja told commission members. “If they move into another part of our land, there could be violence.”
About 4 million of Malaysia’s 28 million people belong to indigenous tribes, most of which are native to Malaysian Borneo where some retain diminishing traditional rainforest hunting and farming ways.
Officially, they enjoy the same preferential treatment in business, education and other areas accorded to Malays — a controversial policy meant to lift Malay socioeconomic standing.
However, natives and activists say this has meant little to tribes, who remain among the country’s poorest groups.
As a result, many youths welcome their new life and opportunities in Sungai Asap, which now has 11,600 people from a range of tribes living in traditionally inspired longhouses.
Roads linking the village to coastal cities have, along with modern telecommunications, opened new employment vistas for tribal youths.
“I love living in Sungai Asap,” said Lenny Prescially, 18, as she tapped out messages to friends on Facebook in a local community center. “Only the elders want to continue the old lifestyle. They don’t know anything.”
The Bakun dam has been widely criticized as a white elephant, disastrous for uprooted tribes and pristine jungles that are now inundated by a reservoir the size of Singapore, its projected power output exceeding Sarawak’s needs.
Transparency International has called the dam, which began generating electricity in August, a “monument to graft.”
There is a palpable sense of rootlessness today for communities whose identity was long linked to ancestral lands passed down through generations.
“When our land is taken away, there is no longer any blood in our body,” said Sungai Asap resident Stem Liau, 48.
Ibang, the Kenyah headman, said his people were promised 8 hectares of farmland per family at Sungai Asap, but only received a little more than 1 hectare of poor-quality land.
Hasmy Agam, chairman of the rights commission, said it had received nearly 2,000 complaints over native land rights infringement in Malaysia over the past decade. Many of those complaining have threatened violence.
“We sense that. We hope that is not the solution,” Hasmy said.
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