An elderly Iban man fighting for land rights in Melikin, Sarawak, Surik anak Muntai, was viciously attacked on March 15 by four or five men armed with sticks and parang , while he waited outside Sekolah Sungai Menyan, Serian, to pick up his son from school.

Surik, 66, has identified one of the assailants as an administration "executive" of an oil palm plantation company embroiled in a court battle over the Melikin villagers' native customary rights (NCR) claim to land.

The plantation "executive", 57, has now been remanded, while the other suspects are being hunted by the police.

According to Surik's wife, Rosni Langap ( top photo ), Surik suffered splintered fractures of his right wrist, and a deep gash on his right forearm, when he tried to ward off machete blows from the thugs. Both his kneecaps were broken by clubs.

He also endured a contaminated ankle wound. Surgeons operated on him for four and a half hours, and he remains weak but stable in hospital.

Violent intimidation tactics

Surik is a farmer from Kampung Danau Kerangas, some two hours by road from the capital Kuching. Over 300 of his fellow Iban have filed a lawsuit against plantation company United Teamtrade and its partner Memaju Jaya.

These firms have met with local resistance in their efforts to take over 7,300 hectares of the villagers' traditional NCR land, using a "provisional lease" issued by Sarawak chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Whistleblower website Sarawak Report has documented that two powerful Sarawakian politicians are behind the company.

The natives have complained of being victimised over their rejection of the companies' offer of RM300 compensation per hectare, a pittance compared with the millions to be potentially made.

The villagers claim the authorities have attempted to intimidate them. Last October, five villagers were held on charges of criminal intimidation of United Teamtrade employees.

Last year, the authorities also tried to charge villagers with the torching of a company bridge. In both cases, the villagers were discharged from court, and were greeted by hundreds of villagers outside the courthouse, demonstrating their support.

The villagers had told Sarawak Report that the companies had used thuggish intimidation tactics, including brandishing a samurai sword at an Iban longhouse, and boasting of owning a pistol.

On September 1, the villagers watched in dismay as a company bulldozer destroyed a community bridge, in a form of collective punishment against the villagers.

According to the Borneo Post , a local daily, the village head of Kampung Engsebang, Patricia Pantau, said "they (plantation companies) demolished the bridge built by the government.

As a result of that, we lodged several reports at Serian Police Station together with all the evidence but there was no action taken by the police. That's why the villagers are very unhappy."

"Consistent pattern" of attacks

Last July, Michael Luang, a leading Melikin NCR activist, had his four-wheel-drive- vehiclce destroyed by arson. In a similar attack last November, the villagers' lawyer, Batu Lintang PKR state assemblyperson See Chee How, also came under threat.

A Molotov cocktail was flung into the lawyer's driveway, scorching his car. 

No arrests have been made following either attack.

NONE See ( left ) has written to the inspector general of police and the state police chief to point out the "consistent pattern" of the modus operandi of the attacks, the hate mail sent to his office, and the latest brutal assault on Surik.

See described the brutal attack on Surik as "cold-blooded madness".

"I must commend the police in Serian for their swift action in arresting one of the assailants," he told Malaysiakini . "I appeal for calm among the villagers, and at the same time, I pray that the police will be vigilant and bring the assailants quickly to justice."

He said this was the first NCR case he had come across where a senior "executive" of a plantation company was allegedly involved in a brutal attack on an elderly native villager. See said the state government must immediatelysuspend the provisional leases.

He urged the police to register and examine the records of all those claiming to work as "security officers" for the plantation companies.

See pointed out that villagers had reported that the companies' "security officers" had behaved like gangsters, and the detained plantation ‘executive" was "often giving commands, in the thick of the action".

News of Surik's ordeal has spread rapidly by social media, stirring anger at the state government's contempt for native communities' land rights.

In 1999, gangsters working for an oil palm plantation from Miri threatened and abused Iban villagers defending their NCR land at Rumah Bali and Rumah Busang, near Bintulu.

The Iban retaliated by killing four of the thugs. The villagers and lawyers in Melikin will have to keep the villagers' tempers in check to ensure there is no further violence.

The Iban with access to social media have expressed fury at the assault on Surik.

But no-one expects this assault to spark protests in Sarawak, in the way that Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation and death launched the Arab Spring.

Still, this scandal could not have come at a worse time for Taib and his BN ruling coalition. Taib now faces further rural dissatisfaction, with crucial parliamentary elections looming.