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Extracted from Malaysiakini
Logging
stops, uncertainty remains
Apr
25,
Having
stopped logging works on what they claim to be their ancestral land, the Orang
Asli communities of Kampung Bukit Rok and Kampung Ibam in Bera, Pahang, now
await the answer to a larger question: is the land in fact theirs?
The communities were granted a reprieve following a
meeting last Friday between their representatives and the state forestry and
land officials, the Department of Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA), the logging
contractor, Bera MP Ismail Sabri Yaakob and senior Bera police officers.
The
logging operations and alleged encroachment into their ancestral land - about
which they protested last week - will be
stopped pending the state forestry department’s identification of an
alternative logging site.
“All parties have agreed that logging will be stopped, and
that those trees that have already been felled can be brought out of the site,”
said Ismail Sabri when contacted.
“The department has been given a month to find an
alternative site, while the contractor has been asked to apply for their
logging site to be changed. If (action) fails, then further negotiations will
be held with the villagers on the possibility of logging in the same area but
with compensation.”
The one-month period was also to settle the larger
question of who owns the land, as different parties had produced conflicting
evidence to back their claims.
Malay Reserve land?
The villagers not only claimed that the 2,023.47 ha site
had been inhabited by countless generations of Orang Asli, but also produced
documents to prove that the state council had agreed in principle in 1984 for
it to be gazetted.
“The only question now is why, since 1984, the state
government has not taken the next step of gazetting the land,” said Bukit Rok
villager Bob Manolan Mohamad, who is also treasurer of the Peninsular Malaysia
Orang Asli Association.
Ismail, however, said that even if it were determined that
the land belongs to the villagers, the Aboriginal Peoples Act of 1954 provides
for the state, if it so wishes, to revoke or re-acquire Orang Asli land.
“Has the state in fact approved the gazetting of the land?
If it did, did it at one point in time cancel the status of the land? This has
to be determined,” he said.
In addition, representatives from the neighbouring
“This is what the Batu Papan villagers’ applications
(under the Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority) scheme were
based on, that it had been a Malay Reserve since 1923,” said Ismail.
Ismail noted that, while the Batu Papan villagers had
produced documents to back their claims, “Felcra has not announced its
(position) on the issue yet”.
As
such, land and forestry officials have been told to look at their documents and
reach a decision as to the status of the land.
At last week’s meeting, the Orang Asli villagers also
requested the state government to look into allegations that settlers from
Selangor have built five to six houses on their land.
“We told the officials that we had long pressed for the
land to be gazetted, but no approval has been forthcoming from the office of
the Pahang Menteri Besar. Yet, here is a case where people from outside the
state have been given authorisation to settle on our land,” claimed Bukit Rok
villager Romani Mohamad.
He said the officials denied giving any such approval and
promised to evict settlers and demolish their houses to prevent their return.