About 100 Penans protested against the laying of a gas pipeline to send gas from Sabah to Bintulu in Sarawak and had set up blockades on five roads.
Reports quoted their chief Belaweng Tunau as saying they were against the project as it had destroyed their environment and the jungle which was the source of their food and income.
He had also said that it had caused river pollution.
But Jabu, claimed he had “dealt” with the Penans for four decades and that such protests were unlike them.
“I know the Penans. I have dealt with them for over 40 years. They are very simple-minded people.
“I was in Baram about 10 days ago. I had advised the Penans not to be easily instigated for the benefit of certain non-governmental organisations (NGOs),” Jabu, who is Sarawak Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture and Minister of Rural Development, told reporters here.
Penan people, Minister Jabu thinks, are simple minded.
Coming from one who has only one idea in his mind, MONEY, this is laughable. We are not simple minded enough to take seriously anything Jabu says. The same goes for the Penan.
If anyone destroyed Jabu’s fancy property in Kuching he would be the first to demand police action. But when he, his master Taib, his colleague Taibenen and his fellow exploiters of Sarawak’s natural resources destroy the habitat and livelehood of an entire people, the Penan, he calls them simple minded for protesting!
If Iban “champion” Jabu were anything but simple minded he would not have the job he has. He might even acknowledge his past and present disgraceful action in regard to these unfortunate Sarawak people as being what it is.
UTTERLY UNACCEPTABLE AND IMMORAL.