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Extracted from
Malaysiakini
Logging 'legal', land status in dispute
Apr
18,
Behind reports of ‘illegal’ logging on land inhabited by the Orang
Asli in Bera, Pahang, is a more chronic problem that
haunts the indigenous community - the state’s alleged failure to recognise and
protect their ancestral land.
Press reports yesterday highlighted a protest
on Sunday by the Semelai communities of Kampung Bukit Rok and Kampung Ibam,
about 300 of whom had camped at the only entry point leading to the site where
nearly 400 tonnes of timber have allegedly been logged.
Claiming to have lived off their ancestral land - recorded by the Department of
Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA) to measure 2,023.47 ha - for countless generations,
they alleged that loggers had encroached on at least 69.8 ha of the area.
Trees and
other resources on which they had traditionally depended, as well as graveyards
and other sacred sites, were infringed upon and violated, they claimed.
Inquiries led to the discovery that the logging contractor has been issued
permits by the state forestry department to log an estimated 1,000 tonnes of
timber from the site.
According to the New Straits Times
report, the company denied any wrongdoing and said checks could be made on the
validity of its licence at the department as well as the state land office.
Villager Bob Manolan, however, alleged that
202 ha of the land had actually been granted by the state authorities to
‘outsiders’ - villagers from neighbouring Bukit Papan - who in turn
sub-contracted the logging work to the company.
These villagers have been given the land for settlement under the Federal Land
Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority scheme, claimed Bob who is also
treasurer of the Peninsular Malaysia Orang Asli Association.
The Semelai have approached the office of the Pahang Menteri
Besar, JHEOA and Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, in addition to filing two
police reports at the Bera district police station in order to halt the logging
activities and resolve the 
land
dispute.
More than a year has passed without any action, claimed Bob.
“Without any other avenue, the villagers had to resort to this,” he said when
explaining Sunday’s demonstration.
“We know that the state government and JHEOA are entitled to issue land titles,
even when it concerns Orang Asli land. But they’ve done this without even
consulting the Orang Asli, without even knowing what is on the land (that the
Orang Asli depend on),” he added.
Core issue
Centre for
Orang Asli Concerns director Colin Nicholas said the issue at Bera, triggered
by the logging, remains that of dispute over land.
“Land would be lost eventually. Logging is only the first sign of it,” he said.
The victimisation of Orang Asli, said Nicholas, whether by state or private
entities, derives from the authorities’ failure to protect the ancestral land.
“Because their land rights are not recognised, (the state authorities) are
allowing logs to be taken from the area. The government is not seeing it as Orang
Asli ancestral land even though the areas are marked,” he added.
“It’s the
responsibility of the state government to protect the land by gazetting it,
titling it or securing the area. Instead of doing that, they treat the land as
state possession and give it to other people.
“It’s negligence on the part of the state not to gazette or protect Orang Asli
land. In the end, the state makes the Orang Asli victims of its negligence.”
Last year, the Rural and Rural and Regional Development Ministry revealed
that more than half of the 50,008 ha of land in Peninsular Malaysia approved as
Orang Asli reserve land has yet to be gazetted.
While many
applications for gazetting have been shelved - some for over three decades -
Orang Asli land can and has been de-gazetted for state and commercial purposes.
Photos courtesy of
Colin Nicholas