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| Profile of John Barah |
Environmental activist John Barah exited Peace Boat
earlier today in Seychelles and began the long journey back to his
native Sawarak. Barah spent about a week on board speaking on issues
such as deforestation and indigenous peoples' struggles against big
business. He is a fascinating speaker because he is part of the story
he is trying to tell; no one can describe things better than someone
who was on the front lines.
Barah spoke frequently of the poor working conditions on palm oil
plantations. In 1968, to earn money for school, he worked at the first
such plantation (there are now dozens) in Sawarak. A fifteen year-old
temporary worker, he earned the U.S. equivalent of 50 cents a day,
and women worked for even less. This, combined with long days (upwards
of 10 hours a day, with a 20 minute break for lunch) of manual labor
created working conditions he found intolerable, but his attempts
to lobby management for a wage increase resulted in his immediate
termination.
He finished his schooling in Singapore, and moved away from the longhouse
where he grew up to work as an electricity plant operator in the 1970s.
But unable to sit idle while logging companies and stone quarries
ravaged the Sawarak rainforests that were his home, he resigned in
1979 to return home and focus full time on battling for the rights
of his people. An avid student of the workings of governmental politics,
he focused his efforts on educating his peers as to their rights,
and seeking out officials who were sympathetic to his cause for help.
Barah's success in these endeavors made him famous in Sawarak, and
many of the villages near his asked for help. He began to travel locally,
helping his people to get rights to their native lands and to organize
their legal resistance to the large industries bearing down to them.
Occasionally these methods failed - in 1984, unable to make any progress
using official channels as the last of his native lands were threatened
by logging interests, he took part in a blockade of logging roads.
He was one of 22 people arrested, and in prison was mentally tortured.
He was eventually released and cleared of all charges after staging
a hunger strike.
Barah continued his activities, and in 1997 under a local Brunei law
known as the "Hidden Security Act" a warrant was issued for his arrest,
forcing him to leave the country for its duration. This was his first
chance to travel around Asia and share his experiences and insights
at conferences in places such as Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong,
and he was generally impressed with the level of understanding and
concern he encountered.
Currently he runs a bar and restaurant in the middle of the Sawark
rainforest, where a group of 80 Peace Boat visited last week on an
overland tour. He also volunteers as a social worker with the natives
in Sawarak and works to develop local sustainable development programs.
This was his third experience with Peace Boat; previous trips occurred
in 1993 and 1998. |
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| Shingapore-Mombasa
/ Peace Boat's 36th Voyage |
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PEACE BOAT is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. |
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