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Support for Bar Council’s call for the government to protect Orang Asli customary land rights

  • Publication Date | February 28, 2019
  • Document Type | Media Statement
  • Programmes | Forests & Biodiversity
  • Issues | Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights
  • Tags | Bar Council, customary territory, JAKOA, native customary rights, Orang Asli
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SAM would like to voice our support for the statement from the Malaysian Bar Council on February 26 for federal and state governments to take all the necessary actions to protect the Orang Asli customary land rights.

The statement illustrates the need for our policymakers to look at the law in its entirety. The law does not only comprise statutory law, it also includes common law, customs and usage having the force of law and judicial decisions. The fiduciary duty of states to protect the indigenous customary land rights is in fact trite law. Therefore, compliance to statutory laws does not negate the state’s duty to sufficiently examine any possible overlapping common law land rights of the Orang Asli community.

The reported argument of the Perak chief minister that logging activities in Kampung Tasik Cunex were in compliance with the relevant laws is one that civil society groups like us have heard too many times, at the state, federal and international levels. We have also heard senior executive officers in Peninsular Malaysia ignorantly repeating that indigenous customary land rights do not exist in their states. This sadly only demonstrates the woeful state of their understanding of the law.

Further, the usage of phrases like kawasan rayau, which is offensive to many indigenous peoples, seems to continue in the new Malaysia. Such outsider-imposed terms erroneously paint a picture as if our indigenous peoples merely engage in ‘foraging’ activities in forested areas, without any sense of rights, planning and strategy. In truth, territoriality is a very important concept in the exercise of indigenous customary land rights. Indigenous territorial boundaries are strictly adhered to bythe different adjacent communities while hunting, gathering and agricultural activities are sustainably planned and strategised.

In 2016, we published the report Encroachment on Orang Asli Customary Land in Peninsular Malaysia, which contains 12 case studies of logging and plantation impacted Orang Asli communities, available on our website. This publication discusses the inability of statutory law tofully protect the Orang Asli customary land rights. It explains how licensed logging, plantation and other resource extractive activities conducted in accordance with statutory laws must not be simply presumed to have obtained legal impeccability. ‘Legal’ logging may still encroach on forests customarily owned by the Orang Asli community, whoserights have been obtained legally through their customary laws, protected bythe Federal Constitution and recognised by the judiciary. ‘Legal’ logging can still be destructive logging, damaging the Orang Asli lawfully owned forests and natural resources.

It is time for our highest executive officers, appointed or elected, to equip themselves with the correct legal information in respect of the indigenous customary land rights. They must also stop using outdated legal fictions and culturally offensive terms of the old Malaysia. They must take the legally correct approaches and actions.

Therefore, we support the calls made by the Malaysian Bar Council. The Perak state government and JAKOA must take the correct course of actions to protect the land rights of the Kampung Orang Asli Tasik Cunex in Gerik, Perak. The federal and state governments must also endeavour to do the same. These include ensuring the implementation of the 18 recommendations of SUHAKAM’s Report on the National Inquiry into the Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples published in 2013and the fulfillment of the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

S. M. Mohamed Idris

President

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Sahabat Alam Malaysia adalah satu badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) yang telah sekian lama berjuang mempertahan kelestarian alam. Ia juga mendidik masyarakat tentang pentingnya kebersamaan dalam pemikiran dan tindakan agar alam ini dapat kita wariskan kepada generasi hadapan dalam keadaan yang elok dan terpelihara. Dalam pada itu juga SAM giat membantu golongan nelayan pantai dalam memperjuangkan hak-hak mereka sehinggalah tertubuhnya Persatuan Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING). Nelayan pantai sepenuh masa ini dididik oleh SAM sehingga mereka mampu memainkan peranan sebagai pemimpin nelayan yang meneruskan kesinambungan memperjuangkan hak-hak nelayan pantai lainnya. Sebagai contoh SAM telah berjaya menyedarkan masyarakat nelayan keperluan menjaga hutan paya bakau untuk kebaikan hasil tangkapan nelayan itu sendiri.
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During the 1980s, I used to read about the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) in the news. After retirement, some time in 2001, while lazing around, I read news about the construction of a carbon in leach plant using sodium cyanide to extract gold in Bukit Koman. My friends and I visited CAP and we were introduced to SAM and her legal team. We discussed the details of filing a case against the gold mining company and the department of environment with Ms Meenakshi Raman and her legal team. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between lawyers from SAM and many of us from Bukit Koman. We had many ups and downs in our struggle to shut down the gold mine that was causing a nuisance in our village. But, as a community we never gave up because SAM had our backs.
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Sahabat Alam Malaysia adalah sebuah NGO yang memperjuangkan nasib masyarakat luar bandar khasnya. SAM menerima aduan-aduan masyarakat dan menyelesaikan masalah yang dihadapi. SAM telah mewujudkan ramai aktivis-aktivis sosial dan alam sekitar. Pada era 1980 dan 90an SAM sangat dihormati oleh masyarakat dan agensi kerajaan. Apabila media sosial menguasai maklumat maka SAM pun terkesan dan masalah masyarakat terus disalurkan dengan pelbagai cara. SAM perlu mewujudkan aktivis-aktivis pelapis yang muda untuk terus membantu masyarakat. SAM juga perlu membuat perubahan supaya banyak turun kelapangan dan jangan mengharapkan laporan media sahaja. Tingkatkan prestasi sebagaimana pada zaman kegemilangan SAM di era 80-90an.
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No. 1, Jalan Joki, 11400 Penang,
Malaysia
Tel: +604 827 6930
Fax: +604 827 6932

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Marudi Office)
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Jalan Tuanku Taha,
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