Environment : Malaysia Logging Foe Leads a Life in Exile : Kelabit tribesman’s case typifies problems that activists face under some ‘benevolent authoritarian’ regimes in Asia.

Anderson Mutang Urud, a member of the Kelabit tribe native to the tropical island of Borneo, was at his brother’s home there late one night watching television--a National Geographic documentary on deep-sea exploration--when a squadron of police knocked on the door. Mutang was arrested and jailed for organizing an “illegal society.” His alleged crime: failing to register with authorities his Sarawak Indigenous People’s Alliance, a name under which he coordinated scattered protests against logging in the rain forest.

Although Mutang is the sole member of his illegal society, he is an effective organizer who speaks several tribal languages. Among his activities, he provided strategic advice and support to natives of the Penan tribe, who were manning a blockade at the beginning of this year to stop trucks and bulldozers from penetrating their customary land.

Malaysian police detained Mutang 28 days, holding him incommunicado and subjecting him to marathon interrogation sessions. His last 10 days in detention were spent in solitary confinement in a cramped cell.

Now living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Mutang, 34, blushed as he recalled how his jailers force-marched him past a group of schoolgirls while he was wearing only his underpants.

“It was an attempt to humiliate me,” Mutang said. “All along they were trying to persuade me to cooperate and help them break up the Penan logging blockade.”

Mutang’s case may not be the kind to elicit international outrage. He wasn’t physically tortured, or killed, as is too often the fate of dissidents in other parts of the world.

But his arrest illustrates a more subtle problem--how the lines between environmentalism and human rights often blur in what might be called the “benevolent authoritarian” regimes of Asia. These are developing countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia--and even industrialized democracies such as South Korea and Japan--where minor protests can provoke an excessive state response.

The soft side of repression doesn’t grab headlines like the military killings of protesters in Beijing or Bangkok or Indonesia’s East Timor. Yet it is a constant ordeal for people like Mutang--nonviolent activists who find it difficult to blend in with their more docile compatriots.

All things considered, Mutang would rather be in Sarawak, his home state on the northern side of Borneo.

In fact, he was preparing to return to Malaysia after a summer sabbatical here sponsored by a Canadian environmental group, and originally planned to show up for his trial Sept. 21 in Miri, the coastal city where he was arrested Feb. 5.

After all, the government was tolerant enough to allow him to leave the country after his release from jail. He joined the international crusade against logging in Sarawak and attended the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro last June. Mutang’s Malaysian lawyer assured him the charges before the court in Miri were groundless and likely to be quickly dismissed.

In Rio, Mutang confidently remarked at a press conference that he felt “privileged” to be free to speak out against logging without fear of reprisals when he returned to Malaysia after the Earth Summit--in contrast to indigenous people from other countries.

Unfortunately, he was misquoted in the June 10 edition of the Earth Summit Times, a newsletter documenting the conference. The article reversed his meaning to suggest he was attacking his government.

This gaffe sparked a barrage of negative coverage in the Sarawak press and prompted sharp rebukes against Mutang by Malaysian officials in Rio.

Then, it seemed to Mutang, the prophecy of the distorted Earth Summit quote came true.

Back in Vancouver, Mutang learned there was yet another outstanding warrant for his arrest in Malaysia. This time, reliable sources told him, he was probably going to be detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA), a Draconian law drafted decades ago to fight Communist insurgents, which gives sweeping police powers to the state.

Suspects can be held under the ISA initially for up to two years without trial, without seeing a lawyer, a judge or a family member. The two-year detention period is renewable, indefinitely. Although it may sound like an antiquated law left harmlessly on the books, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed used it vigorously in 1987 to crack down on opposition politicians--and pesky environmentalists.

“After what I was accused of saying in Rio, the (Malaysian) press began trying to discredit me before my court case,” Mutang said. “The trial doesn’t worry me. But I’m afraid of the ISA, because they can be so arbitrary in the way they use it.”

Harrison Ngau--a representative from Sarawak in the Malaysian Parliament, and himself a tribesman and a dedicated environmentalist jailed in 1987 under the ISA--thinks Mutang is making a mistake.

“The local people will support him, even if he’s detained, because they know there are no grounds to arrest him,” said Ngau, who spend 60 days in detention and 18 months under house arrest. “Now the government can say he’s run away to be with the foreigners. We need more people like him here on the ground.”

Mutang said he agonized over his decision not to return.

“There are times when we need to be on the front lines, and there are times when we need to take stock of ourselves and prepare to come back stronger,” he said.

Anderson Mutang Urud was born in a small village in the highlands of the Sarawak rain forest, one of nine brothers and sisters. His village converted to the Borneo Evangelical Church, and he chose the name Anderson for himself because he liked the way it sounded.

His father, a farmer, died when he was a young child, and it was his oldest brother who raised the family. That brother, now a state bureaucrat, joined the early protest movement against logging in “customary lands” belonging to the Kelabit and other tribes.

“I suppose watching him was an influence on what I ended up doing,” Mutang said. “My religion also was a major influence. The Bible says you must speak up for the poor and needy.”

Mutang pursued an education on government scholarships for indigenous minorities and ended up in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, where he obtained a diploma from a vocational school, majoring in business. He returned to Sarawak and started a successful landscaping company with one of his brothers in the industrial city of Bintalu.

Soon, he began using earnings from his business to travel around Sarawak, helping natives in the forest to write petitions to the government, filing official complaints about the ubiquitous loggers violating their land rights.

“Land is so very important to indigenous people,” Mutang said. “They’ve lived in a place for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years. To suddenly have no power, no control over their land is traumatic.”

For the time being, Mutang is enrolled at the University of British Columbia, studying political science and rural development. He’s single and lives hand to mouth, staying with friends and working as an unpaid researcher at an office affiliated with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee.

“I’ll stay here for a few years, but then I’m going back to Malaysia,” he said. “When the time is right.”