Borneo Pulp

by John Francis Kinsella

Ennis met Ohlsson as he came through the felt lined doors of the amphitheatre. He was one of the first out at coffee break. As usual he was dressed in a rumpled safari suit with his iron wood walking stick in one hand and a roll of conference papers in the other.

  ‘So I see you were sitting at the back Lars, near the door?’

  ‘Why not,’ he said grinning, ‘I always sit at the back, I like to keep a low profile in this kind of happening. Too many snipers.’

  ‘Anything interesting?’

  ‘Same old stuff as usual. You know this kind of conference is for the timber producers and forest industries, its almost entirely commercially oriented, nothing scientific or fundamental, I’m not saying that its totally bad, but its not my kind of thing,’ he said disappointedly.

  ‘Well you knew that in advance.’

  ‘Sure, sure.’

  They were attending the World Forestry Congress at the Palais du Congress, in Paris. The French President, followed by a crowd that included ministers and other dignitaries, had opened it in full pomp. There were delegates from every country of the world that possessed forests, or that intended to plant trees, presenting learned papers on conservation, selection and exploitation, and vaunting their national achievements.

  The fact was, that they were not doing very much in the majority of cases. The politicians only paid lip service to the real problems. It was good public relations to be seen active in environmental promotion, especially for trees and forests, which almost any voter could understand and appreciate.

  ‘Let’s go and sit down somewhere quiet,’ Ohlsson said taking Ennis by the elbow.

  ‘We can go to the coffee shop in the hotel lobby,’ Ennis suggested.

  The conference centre was connected to the hotel by long carpeted shopping arcades, luxury shops, where the delegates from the poor third world could spend their aid money. It led to the lobby of the Hotel Concord Lafayette, part of the vast complex. The coffee shop was situated in one corner of the cavernous lobby; a mid-morning calm reigned after the daily departures and before the new arrivals. They took a quiet corner table and ordered coffee.

  ‘Listen John, I thought over what you told me about your next expedition, I think I will join you.’

  ‘Excellent Lars, I’d be delighted to have you along.’

  ‘But don’t forget what I told you, I like to keep a low profile,’ he said with a smile.

  ‘Oh!’

  ‘Yes, you know I’ve been investigating the effect of illegal logging. This trip will give me an opportunity to look around...in a general manner of speaking,’ he said with a sly wink and then adding, ‘don’t worry there’s no locked filing cabinets in the jungle.’ He laughed and pulled out his pipe.

  ‘I see,’ Ennis said shrugging. ‘In any case, as far as I am concerned, there won’t be any problem.’

  ‘Let me give you a little background,’ he puffed on his pipe lighting it up and blowing the sweet smelling smoke in a cloud towards the ceiling. ‘We suspect some of the loggers in South Kalimantan, are front companies for a certain unscrupulous Hongkong trading company, with links back to Jakarta. They’ve been up to a lot of crooked things for some time now in Malaysia, more specifically in Sabah but also in Indonesia.’

  ‘Tell me about it then,’ Ennis said sipping his coffee and encouraging him.

  ‘As you know John, my main interest is in the conservation of the rainforest, not as a curiosity, but an asset for humanity and for solid scientific reasons. The legal aspects of log poaching don’t really interest me, but it is means to an end.’

  Ennis nodded listening to Ohlsson carefully.

  ‘Investigating the problems of illegal logging not as... err,’ he paused looking for a word, ‘a detective. As I said that doesn’t interest me. What I need is to be able to distinguish between government reporting and the reality of the situation.

  Organised illegal logging is taking place on a large scale, everybody knows and is ignoring it. I’ve got to alert public opinion, by that I mean international public opinion.’

  ‘So what can you find out by coming with us?’ said Ennis.

  ‘Well, I’ve received confidential information, that puts a new light on the organisation of illegal logging in Kalimantan and East Malaysia states in the north.’

  ‘That’s interesting; you mean that you think this is going on in South Kalimantan?’

  Ohlsson laughed: ‘My dear John, I don’t think, I know, let me explain. There’s a lot of people - you know disgruntled businessmen and employees - who know of my activities that have been reported in the press quite a lot recently, not so much here in Indonesia, but in the foreign press, in Singapore and Hongkong - they’ve written me letters, and sent me photocopies of documents-clearly showing systematic breaches of forestry and revenue laws are taking place.

  ‘Let me repeat I don’t care a dam about that, but in order to corner these boyos, I need the cooperation of the authorities. If they think laws are being broken, which mean they are losing revenue, they will act much quicker than if some obscure species of animal or plant is disappearing.’

  ‘I see, why you don’t turn that information over to the authorities.’

  ‘Its not that easy, those logging companies owners are more slippery than a bag of snakes and in cahoots with the officials who cover up the tricks that they use such as under-declaring the volume of log exported.’

  ‘How does that work?’

  ‘Well it means low quality reject logs are being delivered to local sawmills, to help cover up the disparities.’

  ‘Reject logs?’

  ‘Yes, they are low quality logs with defects that affect their commercial value and have been rejected by the buyer. They are usually sold to local sawmills at low prices, because these are heavy government penalties for unsold timber, you can’t just go around sawing down trees for the fun of it.’

  ‘Reject logs make up for part of the difference in illegal timber not declared. Sawmills must pay delivery charges and royalties for reject logs that have hardly any commercial value and sometimes do not even exist.’

  ‘Don’t exist, what do you mean?’

  ‘Well they are virtual logs, they report they have delivered them to the sawmill, you know false declarations.’

  ‘What about the sawmills then?’

  ‘Many sawmills accept this, because the loggers own the sawmills or are the major shareholders. The minority shareholders are against this because they are local people and never see the profits, which disappear to Hongkong or Singapore.’

  ‘Can’t they do anything?’

  ‘It’s very difficult, you know it’s a small world out there and trouble makers can easily be made to disappear in the jungle. But that is why many local people and small businessmen are against the illegal loggers, who are often foreign or Jakarta babas, who are depleting the regions forests and their reserves.’

  ‘I see but how does this tie in to our visit.’

  ‘I’m coming to that, the information I have got has confirmed with solid facts that illegal logging in Borneo is rampant and has foreign connections.’

  ‘So what are you doing about it?’

  ‘I’ve transmitted information to the authorities in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, which shows that the logging quotas over the last four years have greatly exceeded the permits approved by the forestry departments. For example in Malaysia, in the state of Kelantan, quotas have been estimated to have exceeded as much as three hundred percent of the quantities permitted.’

  ‘What do they say to that?’

  ‘You can imagine many of the local authorities, forestry department people and concessionaires have denied this, but the authorities have said that abuses would be checked, for example in Malaysia by the National Forestry Council, which monitors logging limits.’

  ‘Is that effective?’ asked Ennis.

  ‘I’m sorry to say no, such measures do very little to tackle the illegal logging problems. The actions of the state bodies h
ave always been long and inefficient and in any cases open to corruption. What I have to do is give this information to the press.’

  ‘The foreign press?’

  ‘Right, for example I’ve received a letter from the ex-manager of a timber group in Sabah, he says that his former employers are engaged in illegal logging activities on a large scale. They had changed the species and measurements of logs in the areas where they were extracted, so that they avoid paying full royalties on the logs.’

  ‘So what have you done?’

  ‘I went to see this man and according to his information, the group operates through front companies, which have carried out contracting. These front companies are responsible for tropical timber being felled illegally and shipped from Sabah. ‘

  “So the state doesn’t know.’

  ‘Sure they do, but they’re powerless, it costs the state millions of dollars in lost revenues, the loggers should pay royalties to the state for every cubic metre of wood exported.’

  ‘How much timber is involved.’

  ‘He told me that he personally was involved in the felling of about four hundred trees in reserve forests areas in Sabah. Where the felling of trees is prohibited!’

  ‘It’s like poaching.’

  ‘You’re dead right there, it is poaching!’

  Ennis waved to the waitress and paid the coffees, then they strolled slowly back to the congress centre.

  ‘This fellow said he had no idea that it was illegal. That’s pure rubbish, but of course he has to protect himself. He reckoned the value of the illegally felled timber at over one million dollars. In another case, he said that the owners of the companies had bribed Sabah Forestry Department officials to falsify the species of the trees felled. Instead of registering the trees as valuable commercial timber, they were recorded them as low grade timber, to avoid paying higher royalties.’

  ‘More profits and tax avoidance.’

  ‘Yes, based on the difference between royalties for the high grade commercial timber and low grade timber. He said they had avoided paying millions of dollars when they shipped the timber from Sabah.’

  ‘What about the laws, is there any legislation on illegal logging, I mean what are the penalties?’

  ‘Sabah’s Forest Act of 1968 calls for the seizure and forfeiture of any logs falsely documented. There’s a penalty of up to ten times the export royalty for authorised export, or attempted unauthorised export, of logs.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘Other company employees have given us information about the group’s illegal activities and we have informed the police who has taken steps to raise the matter with the federal governments Anti-Corruption Agency.’

  ‘How do those people react?’

  ‘I’m sorry to say that in certain cases it’s ended up in violence and probably murder, you know the money involved is enormous. In one incident, a Sabah based sawmill operator asked for police protection after a person linked to this group had stabbed him. Fortunately it was not that serious, he was lucky, others have not been so lucky.’

  Ennis of course knew that things were not as clean as they should be, but was shocked to hear of violence and murder.

  ‘Does Borneo Timber Corporation ring a bell?

  Ennis said nothing.

  ‘Their front companies are controlled from Taiwan by a certain Thomas Tan. He’s lived in Australia for many years. Made a fortune in shady dealings with East Malaysia’s and Indonesia’s timber industry.’

  He paused and waited for a reaction from Ennis.

  ‘Are you sure those names don’t mean anything to you John?’

  Ennis nodded slowly: ‘They’re friends of Sutrawan.’

  ‘Tan is the master mind behind the front companies close to Golden Timber and Borneo. Tan, through nominees, is the majority shareholder those companies.’

  ‘Has anybody tried to speak to Tan? I mean if all this is known, why they don’t just arrest him?’ asked Ennis a little defiantly.

  ‘It’s not so easy he now lives in Taiwan and has an Australian passport, he’s almost untouchable because it’s so difficult to build up a case against him and there is little cooperation between the different governments.’

  ‘Naturally he’s denied that he’s linked to or coordinates the activities of these companies in any way. When our people spoke to him in Taiwan he simply said, “I have no relationship with these companies.”’

  Ennis waited.

  Ohlsson growled angrily, ‘My arse he doesn’t! What we are sure of is that Tan is, or has been, the managing director of several Singaporean based companies. He is also thought to control several dozen companies in Hongkong, Malaysia and Indonesia through front men.

  In addition to Borneo Timber, Tan and his nominees carry out their business in Sabah and Kalimantan through about twenty other companies. All are involved in timber business.’

  ‘I seem to remember now, there was some kind of fraud in Taiwan.’

  ‘You’re right, your boyo was indicted for fraud in a case that involved a group of Taiwanese, who imported timber from Hongkong. Nine individuals were charged in the case, in which banks were swindled out of several million dollars. Serves the dam banks right, it’ll teach them to look closer in future. Anyway, they had arranged a letter of credit from the banks to back their purchases. But the proceeds from the letter of credit were split among the various parties, not used to repay the banks of those whom they bought the logs from.’

  ‘I remember reading about that, but are you sure it’s the same Tan? That’s a fairly common Chinese family name.’

  ‘He’s the same one. There’s no formal diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Malaysia. That made it impossible to extradite Tan, who has Australian nationality anyway! The bastard says he was aware that he’d been charged in the Taiwan case, but he denied involvement in any fraud.’

  They walked up the steps to the exhibition centre showing the security officers their passes; they strolled around looking at the stands of the different participating countries. At the Indonesian national stand they admired the girls in their brightly coloured national costumes explaining to enthusiastic visitors their government’s policies on conservation and the strict legislation on the export of hardwood. At the same time the commercial representatives were explaining the advantages of joint ventures in Indonesia to potential investors.

  Ohlsson continued his description of the fraudulent organisations and the operating methods of the loggers, as they looked at the activity on the stand. They were short of brochures, one of the girls with a regretfully smile explained to them that they had not arrived in time for the conference.

  ‘A gang of Tan’s cronies are using a complicated system of bribes and kickbacks, obtaining false export and shipping documents for logs loaded at East Malaysian ports. Those logs are exported to Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea and other markets.’

  They then looked at the statistics on the FAO stand, which were impressive.

  ‘Look at that, when you consider that Malaysia exports three billion dollars worth of tropical timber, that’s about thirteen percent of its total export earnings, a lot of money John!’

  ‘Yeah, I’ve seen those figures before, more than half of Sabah’s revenue comes from forestry activities, that’s several hundreds of millions US dollars.’

  ‘Each year, Sabah and Sarawak export more then twenty million cubic meters of logs. That doesn’t include processed logs, such as sawn timber, plywood, veneer and mouldings.’

  ‘There won’t be any forest left by the time they’re finished with it.’

  ‘And what about you John! That’s the pot calling the kettle black.’

  ‘We’re different; we’ll replant what we take out.’

  ‘Don’t pull my leg John.’

  ‘Okay, okay, go on with your story.’

  They walked through the exhibition area of the Congress, admiring the neatly laid out stands, designed by public relations compani
es to project an image of harmony between the forest industries, the governments of the different exhibitors and nature.

  ‘I know that illicit logging practices in East Malaysia are taking place, without the knowledge of all of the top state officials, but forestry and customs officials, particularly in Sabah, are involved and receive huge bribes from the loggers. The officials are too busy banking their kickbacks in Hongkong to worry about conservation, they’re not going to kill the golden goose.’

  ‘You won’t believe it, but this all goes back as far as 1914 John, then a government body was created to protect the states forests and to regulate forestry activities. It was also responsible for collecting revenue from such sources. Logging activities and timber exports started in Sabah in 1879.’

  ‘There’s never anything new!’ Ennis shrugged.

  ‘It’s the governments who are the prime instigators of most of the problems that exist, it’s their short term economic objectives and revenue needs.’

  ‘If you say so Lars,’ said Ennis a little wearily looking at his watch.

  ‘I haven’t finished yet John, hear me out, it concerns you as well as me.’

  Ennis nodded as they pushed on with their visit to the exhibition.

  ‘Just one last thing, a calculation! The cargo capacity of outgoing timber carrying ships in Sabah is between 4,500 and 8,000 cubic metres; it depends on the availability of chartering ships, buyer’s requirements and local log supplies. The total market value of the logs carried varies at any given time according to the species, quality and seasonal fluctuations in prices. Certain types of logs can fetch over one hundred and fifty dollars a cubic metre. The less commercial species are about sixty dollars a cubic metre.

  ‘Assuming that the prices per cubic metre of all timber exported from Sabah range from eighty to one hundred dollars, and that an average timber carrier has a capacity of six thousand cubic metres, each shipload of illegal timber exported is worth around half a million dollars. Fifteen ships of pirated timber leaving Sabah every thirty days, would amount to a monthly cargo value of as much as ten million dollars.’ He paused looking for a reaction. ‘By the time that timber reaches its final destination its estimated annual market value is several hundred million dollars.’

  ‘That’s big money, but please don’t presume they’re all my friends Lars!’ said Ennis glancing at his watch again. He had heard Olsson’s insinuations before.

  ‘It’s the same in Sarawak, in East Kalimantan, and in Sumatra. In all regions where enforcement of forestry regulations is not vigorously applied. The ability of loggers to keep their illegal activities going is solely due to collusion with government officials, a point that apparently has been used successfully to convince businessmen to cooperate with such operations.’

  ‘Look Lars, I’m sorry but I’ve got to be going, I’m having lunch with Hutan Industri and Danny Lau.’

  ‘Just you remember John, you’re a partner of the people I’ve just mentioned!’

  Ennis shrugged, he had become used to Ohlsson’s barbs. If Papcon and the other did not develop pulp mills in Indonesia then others would, he rationalised to himself.

  ‘Are you going to the cocktail this evening?’

  ‘I suppose so.’

  Ennis pushed his way through the crowd towards the buffet; he needed a glass of something to revive his forces and a sandwich. It had been a long day. The conference had attracted people from many backgrounds in addition to the specialists. It had become a media event presenting the good and the bad according to the journalist’s whims. It was hot under the lights, the crowd thronged around the tables laid out with food and drinks.

  He finally spotted Ohlsson talking to an attractive young woman Lars had introduced him to in Jakarta. Her family owned an old Sabah trading company. Her great-grandfather, half Chinese and half Kadzan, had established the family business at the end of the 19th century in Kota Kinabulu. Her name was Jenny.

  ‘Oh, there you are,’ he smiled to Jenny and nodded to Ohlsson who had started to stuff his pipe with fresh tobacco, pulled from an old leather pouch with his rough, tobacco stained, fingers.

  ‘Look, I’ve got to be getting off, a meeting,’ Ohlsson announced with a sly smile. ‘I’ll leave you two young people together.’

  Ennis started to protest, but he’d already turned heels and disappeared into the crowd of fashionable Parisians, delegates from the poor African and Asian countries, the businessmen and functionaries.

  He turned to Jenny who seemed just as put out by his sudden departure. She pointed towards the buffet.

  ‘What’s your plans?’ Ennis asked as they struggle to get a refill. ‘Are you hungry?’

  ‘Well apart from being starving, I’d like to see a little of Paris.’

  ‘Then let’s get out of here or we’ll both starve to death. There’s a restaurant called the Entrecote around the corner, if we go now we should just make it before the crowd.’

  She smiled and nodded in agreement.

  ‘Then I’ll show you Paris.’

  She grabbed his arm and they made their way out into the bright September sunlight. The restaurant was just a five minute walk; a small queue had formed at its door, a curiosity in Paris, but it had been like that for as long as Ennis could remember. The food was good, unchanging and inexpensive.

  ‘Lars is a real eco-warrior,’ said Ennis.

  ‘Yes, but I’m afraid he’s right.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ said Ennis reluctantly.

  ‘Have you ever heard of Pramoedya Ananta Toer?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘He’s one of Indonsia’s most famous writers. He spent fourteen years in such a prison, a penal camp on the Island of Buru. Today he lives as a non-person since he was released in 1979. His books have been banned by the Suharto regime, only recently two young men got seven and eight years prison for possessing and selling his books.’

  ‘As yes. Now I remember. His book This Earth of Mankind,’ said Ennis ‘Sigit Budiman recommended it to me by, I found it in the bookshop at Singapore airport.’

  ‘Well he represents all that’s wrong in Indonesia, corruption, nepoptism and all the rest. The problem is Indonesians still feel that the Suharto regime was responsible for getting rid of communism, twenty five years after the attempted coup that led to Soekarno’s downfall. ‘

  ‘I’m not that too familiar with the story.’

  ‘In September 1965 when the Parti Komunist Indonesia tried to take over, more than half a million people died in the anti-communist witch hunt that followed, and was applauded by us in the West, who even went as far as encouraging the Indonesian military to do eliminate the communists and their sympathisers!’

  ‘Sigit told me a bit about it.’

  ‘You see the anti-communist sentiment in Indonesia is difficult for foreigners to understand. But even now the government is introducing legislation concerning communist sympathisers past and present. They reckon that even today there are eighteen million former Parti Kommunist Indonesia members at large in the country, and some think they have the potential to make a comeback.’

  The wine and salad was served as Jenny continued her story.

  ‘Believe it or not, there are still people in prison from that time-1965! Did you know there’s a prison south of Jakarta, where three of the persons involved in the attempted coup are still detained, including Soekarno’s former foreign minister, Subandrio. Hundreds of other less prominent PKI members are imprisoned in remote areas of the country.

  ‘What’s worse, from time to time, one of the many prisoners condemned to death after the attempted coup in 1965 is executed, as a kind of reminder, an example, the most recent was in 1989.’

  ‘Many Indonesians are hypocrites. They pay public lip service to the government, whilst they read banned literature and watch banned video films.’

  ‘Yes, the kind of stuff that circulates freely amongst the educated upper classes.’

  ‘Did you know Pramoed
ya is a specialist on the Chinese in Indonesia? His books have been translated and published all over the world,’ said Jenny. ‘He published a history of the Chinese in Indonesia in 1960. In 1965, he escaped the mobs, only to be picked up by a military dragnet, with some estimated ten thousand lawyers, artists, musicians and writers he was carted off to Buru.’

  ‘That’s awful.’

  ‘Let’s talk about Paris.’

  ‘I suppose it’s better than Indonesian politics,’ he said with a smile.

  They finished their meal and set off to enjoy the rest of the fine late summer’s evening with a tour of the Marais and the Latin Quarter.

  THRILLS AND SPILLS