The founder and chairman of a Malaysian timber company that has logged the forests of the Penan tribe in Malaysia for decades has been given an honorary knighthood.
Tiong Hiew King, the billionaire founder of the Rimbunan Hijau Group, has been awarded the honorary knighthood by the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, reportedly for "services to commerce, the community and charitable organisations in Papua New Guinea", where his company also operates. Rimbunan Hijau has several subsidiaries and operates in south-east Asia and Africa.
The hunter-gatherer Penan tribe of Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo, have been struggling for more than twenty years to prevent logging companies, including Rimbunan Hijau, destroying the forests they rely on for their survival. They have been bearing the brunt of logging, dam construction and palm plantations since the 1970's.
Environment organisations around the globe have deplored the knighthood given to the businessman because he's built up an empire on the systematic destruction of tropical rainforests. They allege that his company is the biggest extractor of huge swathes of pristine rainforest in south-east Asia.
"We are shocked by the award and would like to write a formal letter of protest to Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth to deprive him of this honour as it is a joke based on the record of his company's activities in our country," Guardian quoted a spokesman for the Papua New Guinea Eco-Forestry forum.
The Swiss organisation Bruno Manser Fund has dubbed Tion Hiew King ‘Knight of the Chainsaw’.
Tiong Hiew King, the billionaire founder of the Rimbunan Hijau Group, has been awarded the honorary knighthood by the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, reportedly for "services to commerce, the community and charitable organisations in Papua New Guinea", where his company also operates. Rimbunan Hijau has several subsidiaries and operates in south-east Asia and Africa.
The hunter-gatherer Penan tribe of Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo, have been struggling for more than twenty years to prevent logging companies, including Rimbunan Hijau, destroying the forests they rely on for their survival. They have been bearing the brunt of logging, dam construction and palm plantations since the 1970's.
Environment organisations around the globe have deplored the knighthood given to the businessman because he's built up an empire on the systematic destruction of tropical rainforests. They allege that his company is the biggest extractor of huge swathes of pristine rainforest in south-east Asia.
"We are shocked by the award and would like to write a formal letter of protest to Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth to deprive him of this honour as it is a joke based on the record of his company's activities in our country," Guardian quoted a spokesman for the Papua New Guinea Eco-Forestry forum.
The Swiss organisation Bruno Manser Fund has dubbed Tion Hiew King ‘Knight of the Chainsaw’.
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