JOAS appeals to UN Human Rights rapporteur over dismantling of barricade in Baram

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23, 2014:  Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS) has urged Malaysian and international human rights organisations to unite and publicly condemn the actions taken by authorities and logging company representatives to intimidate  indigenous peoples in Sarawak at the proposed site of the Baram Dam.

Ghani Bina is in critical condition following road accident

KUCHING, Oct 22, 2014: Former Sarawak Teachers' Union (STU) president William Ghani Bina is in critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit of the Sarawak General Hospital following a road accident this evening.

"Money Logging" book on exploitation of Sarawak's natural resources to be launched on Nov 3

(BASEL, SWITZERLAND, Oct 22, 2014: A 300-page non-fiction paperback on Borneo logging will be launched on Nov 3 on the occasion of the 50th session of the International Tropical Timber Council in Yokohama, Japan.

The book, entitled Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian Timber Mafia, reads like a thriller and is authored by historian and campaigner Lukas Straumann, who is also the executive director of the Bruno Manser Fund, a Switzerland-based advocacy group closely connected to the plight of Malaysia’s indigenous peoples.

Blockade set up by anti-Baram dam protesters has been dismantled

BARAM, Oct 21, 2014: A year old blockade set up by the indigenous communities in an attempt to stop the construction of the proposed Baram dam was dismantled this morning by the police, Forest Department officers and the loggers.

Chong: Why wait for royalties when SESCo can afford to reduce electricity tariffs?

KUCHING, Oct 21, 2014: Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen stressed today there is no need for the State government to wait for the increase in the oil and gas royalties from Petronas before it can reduce electricity tariffs.

"SESCo (Syarikat Sesco Berhad) can afford the reduction of electricity tariffs," he said in a statement when commenting on a pledge by Chief Minister Adenan Satem that the State government would reduce water and electricity tariffs if it succeeded in getting Petronas to raise the oil and gas royalties for Sarawak.