The goverments reason for Deforestation

Deforestation seems to be one of the biggest issues in the Sarawak region for the Penan tribe. Here are some of the reason said by the government for deforestation.
1) Emergence of new diseases - In 1997, approximately 5 million hectares of tropical forest in Malaysia were slashed and burned to make room for pig farms, and the widespread burning caused a severe haze that blanketed much of the region. The haze coincided with a drought -- a combination of factors believed to have reduced the number of flowering and fruiting trees that the local fruit bat population relied on for survival. With their food sources diminished, the bats sought nourishment in orchards near the pig farms; the pigs in turn ate fruit contaminated with bat urine and saliva, transmitting the virus to the livestock. The Malaysian government was unprepared for this new disease and subsequently bore high costs from the outbreak, including more than 100 human lives lost as well as an economically devastating collapse of its pig-farming industry. Eventually, the new scourge was identified and named: the Nipah virus.
2) Illegal palm oil Development -  The Forestry Department statement noted that oil palm companies spent million of ringgit "to develop the illegal oil palm including the recruitment of illegal workers to destroy forests and intimidate Forestry Department staff on the ground." It said that 202 people were arrested in the reserves between 2003 and 2006. Statewide, 732 were apprehended for illegal encroachment. 471 of these were illegal immigrants. 
3) A quicker approach to attain the Malaysia 2020 and 1 Malaysia - The main focus for the Malaysian government is to attain he Malaysian 2020 perspective which calls for a close to developed Malaysia as possible, thus which mean an increase in the economic social and political factors that cause for the development of the country. Thus to increase the exports of the country , the products development should also be increased and thus the procurement of the raw materials must  be increased leading to a larger scale deforestation for wood, oil and other forest related products.