KUCHING: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sarawak women wing has challenged two Barisan Nasional (BN) elected representatives to bring the issue of the rape of Penan women and girls into the august house sitting.
They demanded Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau and Petra Jaya MP Datuk Fadillah Yusof to debate the issue in the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting and Parliament sitting respectively.
PKR national women vice chief Voon Shiak Ni yesterday pointed out that both Dennis and Fadillah had pledged to take action to redress the situation and therefore should fulfil their promises.
The latest case involved a 20-year-old Penan woman who claimed that she was raped by an Indonesian man whom she had got to know in her village.
In her report lodged on Monday, the woman also told the police that there had been similar rape cases involving other Penan girls in her village.
“After the report of rape in Miri, Dennis responded and admitted that there had been a surge in the number of foreigners in the interior because of the expansion of oil palm plantations and logging activities.
“Dennis had said that he will have an urgent dialogue with the plantation companies to discuss this matter,” Voon said.
On the other hand, Fadillah had declared on July 18 last year that Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) youth would form a task force to collate information about the alleged rapes of Penan women and girls in an effort to assist the police to prosecute the culprits.
“But until today, there has been no information about the progress of the PBB task force or any information about the expected task force to be carried out by PBB youth,” said PKR state women chief Nurhanim Dato Mokhsen.
Voon added that since two related task force reports had provided adequate information on the incidents, the authorities have no excuse for not taking stern action.
Voon claimed: “It is the inaction of the government that allows rape to continue to plague the Penan community.”
A national task force report was conducted after the first reported rape case by the Women, Family and Community Development while the non-governmental organisation (NGO) report by the Penan Support Group, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development and Asian Indigenous Women’s Network (AIWN).
source:borneopost
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