A group of 60 frustrated Orang Asli villagers in Johor are demanding that the state government rectify the inadequacies in a pioneering resettlement housing scheme which has left them without proper basic amenities.

The Peninsular Malaysia Orang Asli Association chairperson, Jali Yusuf, said the villagers were handed over the keys to their houses without water or electricity supply, and without proper sewerage and drainage systems.

The project is Johor's first privatisation project for the re-settlement of 188 residents from six Orang Asli villages in Bekok, Segamat.

Almost all of them practise animism and live by traditional methods of hunting and harvesting forest produce.

The 60 affected residents live in Kampung Lenek, Kampung Kemidak and Kampung Selai located within the 2,500-acre Orang Asli reserve. People from the other three villages have been relocated to an adjacent 1,000 acres.

Health hazard

Jali said YPJ Plantation Management Sdn Bhd, the developer for the privatisation project, had promised villagers nine acres each, including a low-cost house, a fruit orchard and palm oil land.

He said the deal, entered into between the Orang Asli Affairs Department and the Johor government, was for the logging of 500 acres of land in exchange for development.

"But Kemidak and Selai still has no electricity. Lenek has no water supply and all three have no proper drainage and toilet facilities," he told malaysiakini when met in Kuala Lumpur recently.

"At night, we have to sit in the dark using candles and carbide lamps. What is the difference then between living in a modern house and a wooden one, like our people used to, in the jungle?"

He said the absence of a proper sewerage system was also a health and environmental hazard.

"Sewage flows out from the pipes laying exposed above the ground behind the houses, and when the toilet is flushed, the bowl is totally emptied. Then, you get the stench wafting through the empty hole and filling the whole house," he said.

Jali said when the villagers complained about the shortcomings, their letters were totally ignored by YPJ, the department and the state government.

Contacted yesterday, Johor Orang Asli Affairs Department director Mohamad Bahtior said the latest information he received showed that only two villages were still without water and electricity supply.

"It is more of an administrative and jurisdictional problem. I will try to resolve it as soon as possible this year," he said in a telephone interview, citing a briefing by YPJ on Jan 9.

Compensation settled

He said the basic amenities for four of the six villages - Lenek, Seri Temboyan, Kudung and Tamuk - have been completed.

"Selai and Kemidak have yet to get water and electricity supply due to its remote location, which leads to very high costs," he said.

"The good thing is that we have settled the other matters, including the compensation of RM1.2 million by YPJ from palm oil revenue which was channelled into the housing project.

"By right, the villagers are required to pay deposit for utilities but since they have refused to do so, the Rural Development Ministry has approved the funds for that and it is pending implementation."

Citing the example of the Bukit Lanjan resettlement scheme in Selangor, Mohamad said that project was smooth because the cost was borne by both the developer and the participants.

Last week, Mohamad said, he sent an officer to visit the Bekok Orang Asli re-settlement scheme and talk to village headmen.

"We wanted them to know that we only have their best interest at heart and that we are doing everything possible to resolve the outstanding issues.

"We know the participants are very unhappy about the basic amenities, but we are trying to work out the problem. Furthermore, it is always impossible to please everyone."

Details of the project could not be confirmed as YPJ officials did not return calls and voice messages left by malaysiakini since Tuesday.

The state executive councillor in charge of Orang Asli affairs, Halimah Mohamed Sadique, who handed the house keys to the villagers last March, was also unavailable for comments.