Radio Free Sarawak: Lawas arrests due to pressure from above

Police came in plain cloth on 1st day to send a message of peace-but came back 1 week later to make arrests. Pressure from Bkt Aman is blamed.

Lawas police was transformed within 1 week!

The 1st day of the Radio Free Sarawak featured an interview with the activist of the Lawas blockade where John Labo disclosed that the arrests were due to pressure from above to the police, who earlier said that they would only monitor the situation to ensure peace at the blockade. The police said they will only make arrests -whether on the blockaders or the Petronas personnel/workers if there were any violence act from either side. In fact most of the police personnel from local areas would sympathise with the blockaders because they too fear land grabs from various development projects that keep coming to the Lun Bawang country in Lawas. The fact that arrests happened after 1 week shows that Petronas manage to influence the police from the top and pressure the Lawas police into taking abrupt actions.

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Nicholas Mujah-how I become a land rights activist

Nicholas Mujah just before the last arrest in front of Simunjan police station

from NUT GRAPH.

“I DON’T KNOW IF I CAN REALLY CALL MYSELF A MALAYSIAN” – The Story of a Land Rights Fighter- NICHOLAS MUJAH

By Gan Pei Ling | 15 November 2010 | Read [1] Comment | Print This Post Print This Post
Mujah in Sadia’s office in Kuching, Sarawak.

Mujah in Sadia’s office in Kuching, Sarawak.

IN Oct 2010, indigenous rights activist Nicholas Mujah was arrested and remanded for three days with seven others from his village for an alleged fire in a logging camp.

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Radio Free Sarawak making waves in blogs-to prove impact in Sarawak’s interior

Japanese and China made short waves radios go for Rm35.00 per unit at a itinerant stall in Mukah. Radio sets are prevalent in many parts of Sarawak's interior-which make it a convenient entry point for information.

The Radio Free Sarawak(RFW) has been well received by the blogosphere in and out of Sarawak within 3 days of its transmission. Almost all blogs/web sites are helpful to help publicise its birth and report it as a news item. This speaks volume of the repression of news in Sarawak as well as the bigger such repression in the vast interior of Sarawak where it is almost like an information black hole-nothing go in nor out!

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Jenny Lasimbang can come to Sarawak-but can she perform her work as Suhakam Commissioner?

The ban on Jenny Lasimbang, A sabahan NGO, from entering Sarawak has been lifted-but with conditions which still hold her back from performing her job as a SUHAKAM commissioner. She is seeking clarifications from the Sarawak state government, as reported. Indeed she should be given a clear and transparent explanation why unconditional entry is not allowed to her-and also a long list of other non-Sarawakians from entering Sarawak. The power to ban outsiders was given not to keep different opinions away -but to stop real physical threats to the state. But the power has since been abused to stop political and NGO critics from entering Sarawak.

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