INTERVIEW The Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) has waged a long campaign against former Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and rampant logging in the state.

With Taib now relegated to a largely ceremonial role as the state’s governor, BMF executive director Lukas Straumann said his Swiss-based NGO is looking forward to working together with his successor, Adenan Satem.

Although the people put in power during Taib’s administration are still in place, there are encouraging signs from Adenan, he said, such as his signing of an integrity pledge .

“The most striking difference is that the new chief minister is not involved in the private businesses of his family members.

“(In contrast) Taib Mahmud's children and all his siblings became millionaires, even billionaires , during his time in office.

“I have the impression that new chief minister also has values that go beyond making money, whereas with Taib Mahmud, it is all about money and power,” Straumann told Malaysiakini during an interview on Friday.

According to a Bernama report in September, Adenan had promised not to allow his immediate family members to apply for state land or logging concessions, as recommended by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

None of his cabinet members have followed suit.

BMF has long argued that Taib, through his family members, had orchestrated rampant logging of Sarawak’s rainforests through corrupt practices – allegations that the Taib family and their associates have consistently denied.

Straumann said the BMF, which had set out to protect the rainforests, had set its sights on Taib because it believed him to be at the centre of a corrupt power structure that is causing the destruction.

“The story of Taib Mahmud is about the story of a politician who kept himself in power by corrupt practices, by issuing logging licences to his cronies, and by controlling timber exports.

“So, we think the governance issue is the most important issue to tackle, and that's why we decided in 2011 launch this stop timber corruption campaign.

“The book is, in a way, the result of the campaign,” Straumann said, referring to his new book ‘Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian Timber Mafia’.

Now that Taib is out of the way, Straumann said, BMF hopes to spend the next few years working with Adenan to set up the Penan Peace Park, which was mooted by the nomadic peoples of the Upper Baram region in 2010.

This would entail setting aside some 200,000 hectares of land to be self-administered by the Penan, including pristine rainforests.

“They would like to preserve it as a common heritage and, of course, to be able to do so, the Sarawak government would have to revoke logging licences in that region,” he said.

The reserve would enable the Penan communities there to continue with their traditional lifestyle, including hunting, farming, fishing and making handicrafts, as well as being an eco-tourism attraction, he said.

Straumann, a historian who has been heading BMF since 2004, said the group’s founder, Bruno Manser, was drawn to the Penan after reading about them in a university library.

In 1984, Manser, a Swiss national, travelled to Sarawak in the hope of learning from the Penan. Ironically, he was seeking “a life without money” and ended up living with the Penan for six years.

“During that time, the logging industry came in and so the Penan asked Bruno ( left ) what they could do about it, and he sort of became an adviser to them.

“He became more politically active, but in his origins, he was not a political figure. Not at all - it was not his intention.

“It was more that he sought a private paradise. He was like a refugee from civilisation, away in the jungle,” Straumann explained.

Manser founded the BMF in Basel, Switzerland, in 1991 after his return from Sarawak.

His campaign for indigenous rights however, had led to him being banned from entering the state.

In May 2000, Manser attempted to trek on foot to cross the Sarawak-Kalimantan border illegally near Bario, in order to meet his friend the Penan headman Along Sega.

The final leg of his journey was made alone, and he was never seen again. His fate is still unknown to this day and he is presumed dead.