If still alive, Basel born
Bruno Manser (
or better known as Robin Hood, Lone Wolf or Wild Man of Borneo ) would be
54 today. Following a brief stint in a Lucerne prison for refusing to “ l
earn to shoot at human beings “, he left for abroad and made a
name for himself as an environmental activist – and at one time if found dead or alive, one might get to claim the Malaysian government bounty of US$50,000 for being Enemy of the State No. 1.
It was in Melbourne late in the evening of 15th June 1990 that I saw him in person address a crowd of 500 about the plight of the
Penans – tribal nomadic folk from East Malaysia bordering with Indonesia. He was earlier arrested in 1987 but managed to escape from police custody (
jumped off a police Land Rover and dived away ) and had shots fired at.
He had just padded about the rainforest in a loincloth wearing his John Lennon glasses and spent six years since 1984 with them, leaving only in 1990 when the Malaysian government declared him
persona non grata for his role as an ambassador for the Penans and sent a commando unit out to get him.
After several futile attempts to enter Sarawak, Malaysia, he finally managed to in late May of 2000 but soon disappeared without a trace.
A search party from his non-profit
BMF using a ground team as well as a helicopter visited around his favourite spot Batu Lawi, Sarawak, Malaysia (
a 2000m limestone pinnacle ) towards Christmas of 2000 but failed to trace anything including his 30kg rucksack and he was then declared legally dead by a civil court in Basel on 10th March, 2005.
Vanished but not forgotten – Happy Birthday
Laki Penan! Bruno Manser Fonds ( BMF ) have consented to linking to their archive of
pictures and
maps 
Part 2
Part 3