Copycat

The Ki’ong bird found across the forests of Sarawak is a copycat. It mimics the calls of other birds. And here, caught in a cage it mimics the human tongue. But is the Ki’ong the only copycat in Sarawak? 

Though the protection of homelands and the resistance against deforestation has been led by Penan activists and other Dyak tribes, it has always been supported by Western environmentalists. And these westerners became the focus of the Malaysian governments response to the protests. According to anthropologist Peter Brosius, when the resistance to logging gained international attention, the Malaysian government employed an international public relations firm (Burson-Marsteller, Hill and Knowlton) to curve the argument, claiming that the western environmentalists were Eco-Imperialists. The central argument was that for those in the west, they profited from having already extracting the resources of their land. And yet when Sarawak and Malaysia adopt the patterns of development, they are criticised. 

Why should developing countries from the Global South not seek to replicate the models that proved to profitable for the Global North? This poses a curious anomaly, where one can be de-colonial whilst also being capitalist. But whilst the Malaysian government were criticising the western environmentalists of eco-imperialism — they were colonising the Penan Territory. Remembering that Sarawak only became part of Malaysia in 1963. 

The plight of Indigenous and First Nation people around the world seems to have a similar pattern under colonialism. The land is exploited for its resources, the ecology is damaged or destroyed, the peoples cannot rely on subsistence from the land and are then forced to assimilate to the colonising power. This simplification of a complex and horrific pattern reemerges time after time in history. A “copy and paste” of colonial expansion. 

The ki’ong bird listens and mimics. But it is not the only copycat of Sarawak…