Open Letter to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak; Foreign Minister Anifah Aman:

Dear Sirs,

We, the undersigned are grievously concerned about the statement on the Penan community made by the Malaysian High Commissioner to the UK, Zakaria Sulong which was reported in the Borneo Post on Friday, Feb 10, 2012.

The article quoted Zakaria as describing the role the High Commission plays in monitoring NGOs in the United Kingdom in the following words: "What we do is collect reports on all the good and bad things written or said about the country and send them back to Malaysia. Issues range from politics to petty issues like animals in zoos and the Penans in Sarawak."

Without interrogating the question of whether the ill-treatment of animals in human captivity is indeed a ‘petty issue', as animal welfare activists might quite rightly wish to do, we find it highly alarming that the High Commissioner would equate the Penan indigenous community with zoo animals.

Such comments display nothing less than overt racism and are highly unacceptable from an official who represents the Malaysian government and people in a foreign country.

On another level, however, we are worried that the high commissioner's remarks indicate the general attitude of Malaysian high officials towards the struggle of the Penan community against the destruction of the forests which are their traditional homeland and the serious disruption of their traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle, namely that of disinterest, irritation, or even contempt.

The Penan community has been the subject of much injustice over the past half century due to irresponsible policies where the timber industry in Sarawak is concerned.

The acceleration of unsustainable logging in the 1980s was met with strong resistance by the Penans in the form of representations to logging companies and the government, as well as direct action blockades when their complaints were ignored.

Promises were made in the early 1990s by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud to give the Penans land that would form a biosphere reserve, but such promises have proved to be hollow as the boundaries of the reserved land have time and time again been shifted even as the demands of the timber industry continue to grow.

As a result, the forests, rivers and wildlife that have sustained the Penan for centuries continue to be destroyed, endangering their health and way of life while their land rights remain in limbo.

Even more worryingly, numerous reports by Penan women of rape and sexual abuse by employees of logging companies have not been followed up with any real action.

The report of a task force to investigate the matter set up in October 2008 by former minister of women, family and community development Ng Yen Yen, was not made public as promised for more than a year after the task force concluded their inquiry.

It was finally released as a result of a protest outside the ministry's building organised by NGOs and PKR women, by which time Ng had been succeeded by Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

Shahrizat has subsequently chosen not to take action on the matter beyond some perfunctory fact-finding despite being tasked to personally look into the matter by the prime minister in July 2010.

Zakaria's comments are an example of what Oscar Wilde diagnosed more than a century ago as symptomatic of cynical contemporary society, in which many know the price of everything but the value of nothing.

In other words, anything that is incapable of having a price attached to it is regarded as unimportant, ignoring the priceless value of such a thing.

The Penan traditional way of life, the rights and dignity of Penan women, and the ecological diversity of the North Borneo rainforest have been sidelined in favour of things that can be measured in Malaysian ringgit and sen such as revenue from the timber industry, international trade and the reputation of the Malaysian government.

We call upon you to take swift action against Zakaria for his horrendous statement. We ask that you compel him to resign as high commissioner, as well as make a public apology before he leaves office. What is at stake here is nothing less than the reputation of Malaysia and its people.

Yours sincerely,

Concerned Malaysian citizens in the UK:

Ken Ly, representative for the Penan

Ben Singh,

Cheng Geok Sidhu,

Francis Kheng,

Jasbir Singh,

KT Yeap,

Regina Lim,

See-See Leong,

Soo Tian Lee,

Teo Hoon Seong,

Woong-Sin Hiu,

Vijay Krishnan,

Yolanda Augustin.