It is outrageous that the construction of the Sungai Selangor Dam in Kuala Kubu Baru is proceeding at a rapid pace even though the Orang Asli at Peretak and Gerachi have not been properly resettled.

In the process, serious social and environmental considerations have been side-stepped by the developer, the Splash consortium, and the authorities who are supposed to be monitoring the situation. It is sickening to see the "original people" of this land being treated with contempt and being short-changed in the compensation due to them.

Firstly, the safety of the Orang Asli still living in their original settlements has been compromised. In Kampung Gerachi, in particular, a 10-metre earth wall (and a construction road) looms over the dwellings. With the onset of the rainy season, the threat of a calamity not unlike those of the Highland Towers and the Pos Dipang mudslide tragedies is not inconceivable. It is however certainly preventable.

One of the conditions in assigning the project to Splash is that the Orang Asli be resettled into their promised oil palm homesteads. The wisdom of forcing the Orang Asli into oil palm plantation work is highly questionable in the first place, but even so, this should have been done before construction on the dam was started.

The Orang Asli kampung of Gerachi sits at the base of a 10-metre high slope. Pix by COLIN NICHOLAS


The photographic evidence gathered by SOS Selangor amply reveals the utter contempt shown toward the Orang Asli still living at Peretak and Gerachi while the hill slopes all around them are being devastated by bulldozers.

When will the Orang Asli be resettled to their new sites? When will the houses and other amenities be constructed? And when will the oil palm plantations be established?

From the amount of silt in the Sungai Selangor after every downpour, it is evident that the Splash consortium is not adhering to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) conditions. One of the 45 conditions states that only the 600-hectare dam area can be logged. From the photographic evidence, it can be seen that silt traps are non-existent or inadequate to prevent erosion during downpours.

Secondly, according to the local press (May 27, 2000), a total of RM6.9m in compensation was paid to 84 families for "loss of livelihood". The amounts perfamily ranged from RM30,000 to RM600,000. The basis of the computation was not revealed.

It should be added that the compensation package is based on the assumption that the Orang Asli do not own the land they have traditionally owned and used. Thus, the compensation amount seems to take into account only "replacement costs" of crops to be inundated.

There is no computation for the cost of acquiring the Orang Asli land. (With the resettlement, the Orang Asli stand to lose more than 80 percent of their traditional lands as recognised by the government in 1965.)

Even so, the RM6.9m compensation amount for "loss of livelihood" pales in comparison to what has been granted, or awarded, to Orang Asli elsewhere who were forced to resettle.

In Bukit Lanjan, for example, the 158 families were promised RM61 million in compensation (i.e. four times that of what the Kuala Kubu Baru Orang Asli received).

And in Sungei Linggiu, Johor, where a dam (to supply water to Singapore) caused the Orang Asli there to lose their traditional lands, the court awarded the 225 Jakun in 45 families a total of RM26.5m (i.e. 6.5 times more than what the Orang Asli in KKB got) for "loss of livelihood".

Sungai Selangor a few months before construction work on the dam began. Pix by COLIN NICHOLAS


Logging activities are also under way in the traditional territories of Kampung Peretak and Kampung Gerachi. According to the Aboriginal Peoples Act (1954, revised 1974), and upheld by a court decision in Perak in 1991, all forest products in Orang Asli areas, even if they have not been formally gazetted as Orang Asli reserves, belong to the Orang Asli. Who, therefore, is enjoying the right to the current logging activities in the dam area?

Each (registered) household in Kampung Gerachi is promised a 0.4 hectare plot of land for their house and two hectares of oil palm (i.e. a total of 2.4 hectares per household). The Orang Asli in Kampung Peretak, however, will only receive the 0.4 hectare house plot, it being assumed that their orchards will not be inundated and they will continue to own, and have access to them.

Several potential issues arise from this arrangement, for example, are two hectares of oil palm sufficient to maintain a level of income to keep the households above the poverty line? Felda, for example, gives its settlers four hectares per family as official data suggests that at least 3.2 hectares of oil palm is needed to keep a family (of four) above the poverty line.

Then again, the resettlement package assumes that the size of the communities will be fixed at the surveyed level in perpetuity. It assumes that no new families has been, or will be established from the time the initial survey was done (assuming, also, that the survey was comprehensive in the first place).

Those who have married recently and those planning to set up families in the future are expected to find their own accommodation or squat with their relatives.

There appears to be no written agreement between the Orang Asli community and authorities regarding all the promises that have been made to the former. For example, what are the specifications of the houses promised; what happens in the event of non-delivery of the various promises?

Surely it is mandatory for the Orang Asli to have the benefit of legal counsel of their choice in all decisions. In the absence of such binding agreements, the Orang Asli are at risk of being short-changed with little legal recourse.

On the question of land titles, there is nothing in black-and-white to guarantee that land titles (individual or group) will be issued. Press statements by Splash seem to suggest that this is a matter for the state to decide.

And going by the Selangor State government's own record whereby, in the last decade 76 per cent of Orang Asli reserves have been de-gazetted, what assurance is there that the Temuans will actually be given titles to their land? In fact, thus far, the state has yet to issue land titles to the Orang Asli who have been displaced for one project or another (including the Kuala Lumpur International Airport).

Or for that matter, not a single individual land title has been issued to Orang Asli residing in their traditional lands thus far. In the absence of a binding agreement, we can only remain skeptical of this promise to grant land titles to the Temuans in KKB.

The Sungai Selangor river as it was last week, with uncovered slopes. Pix by COLIN NICHOLAS


The Temuans of Kampung Peretak will not receive the monthly subsistence allowance as their orchards will not be inundated and they will continue to have access to these lands. But does this imply that their right to these lands are being recognised, and will land titles then be issued for these lands?

What is to guarantee that these lands will not be acquired for some 'national interest' or 'economic development' purpose in the future especially when the catchment area is turned into a resort of sorts?

According to the local press of Jan 21, 1999, the compensation package promised RM250 per household for three years, "pending maturity of the oil palms". In another local press report of Jan 14, 2000, however, it was stated that the Temuans of Gerachi are to receive a subsistence allowance of RM250 per month for two years. Can the authorities clarify if this allowance is for two years or three years? And what if the oil palm is still not ready to be harvested after this period?

The federal government should stop the dam project while these vital issues affecting the Orang Asli and the environment have yet to be settled.



DR KUA KIA SOONG is a director of human rights group Suaram and a former member of Parliament. Photos by COLIN NICHOLAS.