statement of claim

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STATEMENT OF CLAIMParties1 (a) The Plaintiffs are Penans by race and are therefore, natives ofSarawak.(b)The Plaintiffs bring this action on behalf of themselves and all otherresidents of the Penan village communities of Ba Jawi asoccupiers, proprietors, holders, beneficiaries and claimants ofnative customary rights (NCR) land at and around Ba Jawi, UpperBaram, Sarawak.2.1 The 1 st Defendant is a company incorporated in Malaysia under theCompanies Act 1965 with a registered address at Wisma Samling, Lot296, Jalan Temenggong Datuk Oyong Lawai Jau, 98000 Miri, Sarawakand a principal nature of business in the manufacture and/or sale ofplywood, and/or the extraction and/or sale of timber. A Re-Entry HillLogging Timber Licence No. T/0413 (hereinafter, ‘the said timberlicence’) was issued to it by the 2 nd Defendant to harvest merchantabletimber over a licenced area in the Upper Baram district. The timber licencewas issued in September 1993 and will expire in August 2018.2.2 The 2 nd Defendant is at all material times and for all purposes, the servantand/or agent of the 3 rd Defendant whose official address is at 14 th Floor,Wisma Sumber Alam, Jalan Stadium, Petra Jaya, 93660 Kuching,Sarawak and of whose official duty and responsibility includes inter alia,the grant and/or issuance of timber licences.2.3 The 3rd Defendant is the sovereign government of Sarawak state withinthe Federation of Malaysia, and is at all material times and for allpurposes, the employer and/or principal of the 2 nd Defendant.The Penan community of Ba Jawi3. The Plaintiffs share the same ancestry as the Penans of settlements inLong Lamai, Ba Lai and Long Beruang.3.1 About 200 years ago, or as far back as the Penans can recall oftheir oral history, the ancestors of the Plaintiffs and the Penans ofsettlements in Ba Jawi, Long Lamai, Ba Lai and Long Beruang andgenerally the Penans who are now settled in the Upper Baram,were living in and around Ba Jawi, practicing the native customary2
ights over the land in Ba Jawi and the vicinity. They hunted andgathered food from the forests and lived on sago (uvut) as theirstaple food. The plaintiffs are presently practicing these rights overthe same land.3.2 As far as the Plaintiffs can recall, the earlier leaders of theirnomadic Penan tribe were Opo Munyai, Opo Peniyiban, OpoJaleng, Opo Muai, Opo Sawen, Opo Tevu, Opo Luti, and OpoNuhun.3.3 By and through their customary practice most characterized bymolong, tribal groups of the nomadic Penan lived in and withindistinct territories. Traditional dwelling huts called lamin toro wereleft behind as distinct marks of earlier settlements.3.4 When the Penans developed the system of setting up satellite sagoharvesting camps, they started to be semi-nomadic, about 100years ago.Ba Jawi4. The present headman of the Ba Jawi Penans, Lija Agang, is a directdescendant of Opo Munyai and Opo Penyiban. He succeeded his father,Agang Ngiung when the latter passed away. In turn, his father succeededBangau as the headman. Since the time of Opo Munyai, the Ba JawiPenans have settled in the watersheds of Baram River, mostly alongSungai Jawi. Opo Munyai was succeeded by Opo Peniyiban as headmanof the Ba Jawi Penans.Headman Agang Ngiung was born on the Kara River, a sub-tributary ofthe Jawi River where he raised his family with his wife, Julan Upa. Sagopalm trees on the right side of the river mouth of Kara River were used toproduce uvut, a sago starch staple of the Ba Jawi Penans. These sagopalm trees are still found today at Kara River.The Ba Jawi Penans bury their dead in their ancestral land, along theconfluence of streams or small rivers and identified to be at Upper Nyoke,Ma’ut, Lamah and Likam, all being sub-tributaries of the Jawi and BuangRivers.The Selaba and Buang River areas were the location where the Plaintiffsand their ancestors roamed to hunt and collect and harvest jungleproduce. In addition, the Plaintiffs’ ancestors had roamed the forests to asfar as the Moh, Pelutan and Selungo Rivers. In their sojourns, they metand befriended the Kayans and Kenyahs.3
Page 1: “X”MALAYSIAIN THE HIGH COURT OF
Page 5 and 6: The boundary of Ba Jawi begins at t
Page 7 and 8: 6.3. The Plaintiffs’ ancestors an
Page 9 and 10: abridges or impairs the Plaintiffs
Page 11 and 12: affected land to be earth-filled th
Page 13 and 14: Constitutional Issues31. Further an
Page 15 and 16: 38.2 Such conduct is oppressive, ar
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