Bill Kayong, 43, a Dayak who was a secretary for the local branch of the opposition People’s Justice Party (PKR) and who recently ran for a seat in the Sarawak state assembly, was shot dead in Miri city as he was driving to work, according to police. Indigenous leaders in Sarawak – a timber-rich and largely undeveloped state on Borneo island, whose population is dominated by tribal communities – joined civil society leaders across Malaysia in condemning Kayong’s killing. He had also served as secretary for Pedas, an NGO advocating rights for Dayaks in Sarawak. Five months later, in November 2016, three Miri men were in the city’s magistrates’ court charged with Kayong’s murder: a nightclub bouncer, a karaoke bar operator, and a man described as the personal assistant of Stephen Lee, the head of a Malaysian palm oil company called Tung Huat. Kayong had come into increasing conflict with the company, owned by Lee and his father, who are members of the large, ethnically Chinese business community in the city.