Orang Asli landmark legal battle with K'tan gov't soon

After over a year of memorandums, protests and blockades for recognition of Orang Asli lands in Gua Musang failed to get a response, the community is now preparing to take their woes to court in what could be a landmark legal battle in Kelantan.

This, local villager Awer Awi (left) said, was after Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat shut the door on them by declaring that it was outsiders who incited the lobbying and the lands belonged to the state so long as titles are not issued.

"We are very angry, sometimes we weep that our state government would treat us like this, so we have resorted to this," he said when met in Gua Musang, pointing to a large hand drawn map of the traditional territory claimed by Kampung Depak, under the Kuala Betis Regroupment Plan cluster of villages.

'We are documenting our history, our territorial borders and then we will use this evidence in court, the answer is now in court", adding that they are also conducting GPS mapping with the aid of Bar Council researchers.

Awer, 24, conceded that going against the establishment comes across as alien for the Orang Asli community, especially for the elderly.

"When we started this, many of our elders said we were outsiders attempting to incite the community, but we tried to convince them that Orang Asli really do have rights, that this is spelled out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, only then did they start believing us," he said.

Similarly, on Damak Angah's office wall, the village chief of Kampung Angek which is in the same cluster, was a map pinpointing nearby villages, their water reservoir and various streams, complete with coordinates.

"We have already mapped out everything, we have even done our GPS mapping," said Damak.

'Cases to be filed soon'

When contacted, Bar Council Committee on Orang Asli Rights member Siti Zabedah Kasim said it will be assisting the Gua Musang Orang Asli community file a series of lawsuits against the Kelantan government with a target of early this year.

"Pos Belatim, Pos Hau, Pos Gob, Pos Bihai, Pos Tohoi, all these clusters of villages are all interested in taking their case to court," she said, adding that Kampung Depak will be the first to file its case.

She added that the series of lawsuits will be the first of its kind in Kelantan.

"There have been two previous cases involving Orang Asli land in Kelantan, one involving a church demolition and another to stop a plantation, but I believe there has never been a full claim of Orang Asli territory in the state before," she said.

Local villagers from Pos Belatim had in 2011 field a judicial review application to stop a Ladang Rakyat project, a large scale state government programme meant to eradicate poverty through commercial plantations but has encroached into Orang Asli territory.

The case involves some 4,000 acres of land and is still ongoing.

Siti said the mooted cases for a full claim of customary lands were taking time because other than mapping out Orang Asli territory, the locals must also take on the arduous task of gathering evidence to prove their claim.

"If they say somewhere is their ancestral land, they must document the folk story about the area of the elder people living there.

"For example, the ancient names of the rivers there, old graveyard sites or where they roam for herbs," he said.

The Malaysian Courts had in several rulings recognised the customary lands of the Orang Asli with the most recent coming from the Temerloh High Court last month, which declared plantations in the customary land of a Semelai community illegal and the land be returned to them.

However, Kelantan exco member Nik Amar Nik Abdullah had reportedly said this right only applied to Sabah and Sarawak and the state government was prepared to face any legal action.

The Gua Musang Orang Asli had almost exactly a year ago, launched a blockade against logging trucks entering their territory, a first in peninsula Malaysia.

This was followed by another blockade in the same month as well at a protest at Nik Aziz's residence in April for recognition of their lands, but to no avail.