By Ding Jo-Ann
thenutgraph.com
Shadowy interior of a Penan home (Pics courtesy of Sofiyah Israa @ Flickr)
PETALING JAYA, 9 Sept 2009: Nearly a year after, a government task force report has confirmed that Penan women and children in Sarawak were raped and sexually abused by timber workers.
The report by the national task force set up in October last year also found troubling incidents of children as young as 10 years old being sexually abused by the timber companies' truck drivers when they took the children to school.
The task force reported that students were "frequently molested" by the truck drivers.
"In one account, the truck driver molested a 14-year-old's breasts on the journey to school," the report, written in Malay, said.
It said that in another incident, a girl was taken away by the truck driver after the boys were told to get down from the vehicle. Other girls in the truck managed to escape, but were unable to help that one girl get down in time.
In yet another instance, a girl was riding, together with her father, in a timber truck to go to Long Bangan to apply for her identity card. "Halfway through the journey, the passengers were told to alight, but the driver hung on to Mary (not her real name) and sped off. He then stopped the truck, dragged her to a bush by the side of the road and tried to molest her.
"Her father and the other passengers ran after the truck after realising that Mary had been apprehended, and managed to catch up with them and stop any further abuse," the report said.
An interviewee told the task force she had been raped by the timber company's truck driver on her way to a neighbouring longhouse, in addition to being raped when she was 12 outside the school compound by an unidentified man.
"She recalled that the government used to provide vehicles to take them home from school during the term breaks. However, this had been discontinued, so they had to rely on the timber companies as the only means of transportation," the report noted.
In the absence of any viable alternatives such as proper tarred roads or school buses, Penan children who live in the interior are entirely reliant on the timber companies for transport as some of their schools are located four to six hours away by truck.
The report was prepared mostly from interviews conducted by ministry officials and other representatives, including women's groups, in November 2008 when they visited the Penan community in Sarawak. The task force was set up to investigate the allegations of rape and sexual abuse of Penan women and girls in the Baram district.
Surprising release
After close to a year of not wanting to make the report public, the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry released a copy of the report to Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Wanita chief Zuraida Kamaruddin on 8 Sept.
"After months of unanswered calls and letters to the minister, I went to see the minister (Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil) yesterday and was informed by her staff that I could collect the report," Zuraida told The Nut Graph over the phone.
The report was subsequently made available to The Nut Graph via e-mail.
No explanation was given by the ministry as to why the report could not be made public initially. The ministry has also yet to explain why it took so long to make the report available to the public despite numerous calls to do so in the interest of public accountability.
Penan woman
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Apart from documenting the individual instances of rape and sexual abuse, the task force also found that the Penan were especially vulnerable because of their low socioeconomic status and lack of access to government and healthcare services.
The factors that cause the community's vulnerability include overdependence on timber companies for transportation and other services, poverty, and the remoteness of their villages.
The report also cited the Penan's distrust of the authorities, and their low self-esteem as a result of prejudices against them.
"All these factors — sexual violations, not having ICs, health problems, dropping out of schools — are closely related to imbalanced development. The lack of roads and public transportation causes the Penan difficulties in engaging with the outside world, including government agencies.
"In order to ensure more balanced development, the involvement of the Penan in matters that affect their lives must be increased," the report said.
The report also made several specific proposals to address sexual abuse, including raising awareness within the Penan community on personal safety, violence towards women, and sex education.
"Teachers in Penan schools would also need to be educated to be sensitive to the specific needs and difficulties faced by the community," the report said.
The task force also proposed for "trusted vehicle drivers" and a pupil management assistant to accompany the Penan children back to their villages. No specific proposals were mooted on how to make it easier for those who have been raped and sexually abused in the Penan community to report such incidents.
Despite the task force's findings, it remains to be seen whether any of the offenders will be charged and brought to justice for the sexual abuse perpetrated on the Penan women and children. Although several police reports have been made, it is unclear whether the police will be investigating the matter.
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