THE Bar Council will set up a le-gal team to look into the recent protest by
almost 1,000 orang asli in Bidor, Perak, against the construction of a national
botanical garden project on their “ancestral land”.
Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan said that the team, to consist of about
eight members from both the national and the Perak Bar, would study the legal
issues surrounding the matter, especially from the hu-man rights perspective.
“They (orang asli) have grounds to protest. This concerns the preservation of
their heritage and their basic rights,” she said.
Ambiga, Perak Bar chairman Ngan Siong Hing and several council members yesterday
held a dialogue session with the villagers of Kampung Chang Sungai Gepai.
They also visited the much-dispu-ted site where clearing works in March on part
of the proposed 196ha garden project had instigated the verbal war between the
state government and the villagers.
The state had earmarked the site, including the Bukit Tapah Forest Re-serve, for
the RM50mil project to build an arboretum to serve as a seed bank for Malaysian
forest plants.
“It is clear that the villagers have put in effort to preserve the forest. They
do not chop the trees and even clear the rubbish outsiders leave be-hind,” said
Ambiga.
She added that she was surprised that the villagers were not consulted first
before works on the project be-gan.
“We will monitor the legal aspects of the situation. If need be, we may raise
the matter in court,” said Am-biga.
She said that the council would work as mediators between the state government
and the villagers.
During the dialogue, village representative Tijah Yok Chopil, 39, told council
members that they neither wanted money nor a substitute piece of land at a
different site.
“We want our ancestral home. We have been on this land since its sand turned to
stone,” she said.
Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Tajol Rosli Ghazali had recently offered
substitute land to the villagers, provided that it was outside the project site.
Tijah also recounted a legend about the Semai villager’s earliest ancestors, a
pair of ubai baleh or two sisters, whose running footsteps are still imprinted
on the stepping stones of a waterfall where the clea-ring works were.
She said the sisters were running from the ghost of a maggot-infested headless
deer that chased them all the way to Sungkai because they had neglected to eat
it, although it had been killed for some time.
“We do not want our history des-troyed. It is not because we are against
development,” said Tijah.
She suggested that the state in-stead allow the villagers to develop the said
land themselves.
“Teach us and we will learn. Work with us, not against us. We want development
too but let us do it in a way that allows us to preserve our heritage,” said
Tijah.
Orang Asli struggle is also our struggle written by Chee Swee Yoke,
Monday, April 23 2007 10:27 pm
Dear all,
It is good that the Bar Council is throwing its weight behind the Bidor orang asli in their fight to preserve their ancestral land heritage. By doing so, the Bar is actually fighting one of the scourges of so-called development: the destruction of life-preserving forests.
I ask members to remember that recent reports (in particular the Stern Report in the UK which came out in late 2006) state that deforestation is responsible for 90% of the global warming which now threatens the very survival of Planet Earth and therefore our own survival.
According to "Six Steps to Hell" by Mark Lynas of the Guardian Newspaper of 23 April 2007, at the rate that forests are being destroyed all over the world, it is estimated that by the turn of the century, the Earth could be more than 6C hotter than it is today. Just to give you an idea what this translates into in ecological effects, At 1C warmer temperature Mount Kilimanjaro n Africa will be losing the last of its snow and ice, leaving the entire continent ice-free for the 1st time in 11,000 years. The Alps, too, will be melting, releasing deadly giant landslides as thawing permafrost removes the "glue" that holds the peaks together. The temperature rise may wipe out the majority of the owrld's tropical coral reefs, devastating marine biodiversity. Most of the Great Barrier Reef will be dead.
3C degree higher alone would see increasing areas of the planet being rendered uninhabitable by drought and heat. Has it begun in Australia you wonder? Today we read in the papers of parts of Australia (the farm land) suffering from drought for 10 years. Farmers in Australia are committing suicide because of the financial misery caused by the current drought on their land.
The picture becomes worse as temperatures rise 6C higher. Is it any wonder that the rest of the world outside Malaysia is so alarmed that they are legislating to arrest the causes of global warming?
And what are our government officials doing here? In the name of establishing a "National Arboretum" (ha, ha) for the cultivation of the forest for scientific, educational and ornamental purposes (gobbledegook for you know what) the State Govt will bring in new "custodians" of the land to displace the Bidor orang asli who have been the custodians since its sand turned to stone, as Tijah Yok Chopil says.
Everyone of us has a duty to stand up behind the fight of the orang asli. Because they are fighting not only for themselves but also for the preservation of Planet Earth and mankind.
Regards, Chew Swee Yoke
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Dear all,
It is good that the Bar Council is throwing its weight behind the Bidor orang asli in their fight to preserve their ancestral land heritage. By doing so, the Bar is actually fighting one of the scourges of so-called development: the destruction of life-preserving forests.
I ask members to remember that recent reports (in particular the Stern Report in the UK which came out in late 2006) state that deforestation is responsible for 90% of the global warming which now threatens the very survival of Planet Earth and therefore our own survival.
According to "Six Steps to Hell" by Mark Lynas of the Guardian Newspaper of 23 April 2007, at the rate that forests are being destroyed all over the world, it is estimated that by the turn of the century, the Earth could be more than 6C hotter than it is today. Just to give you an idea what this translates into in ecological effects, At 1C warmer temperature Mount Kilimanjaro n Africa will be losing the last of its snow and ice, leaving the entire continent ice-free for the 1st time in 11,000 years. The Alps, too, will be melting, releasing deadly giant landslides as thawing permafrost removes the "glue" that holds the peaks together. The temperature rise may wipe out the majority of the owrld's tropical coral reefs, devastating marine biodiversity. Most of the Great Barrier Reef will be dead.
3C degree higher alone would see increasing areas of the planet being rendered uninhabitable by drought and heat. Has it begun in Australia you wonder? Today we read in the papers of parts of Australia (the farm land) suffering from drought for 10 years. Farmers in Australia are committing suicide because of the financial misery caused by the current drought on their land.
The picture becomes worse as temperatures rise 6C higher. Is it any wonder that the rest of the world outside Malaysia is so alarmed that they are legislating to arrest the causes of global warming?
And what are our government officials doing here? In the name of establishing a "National Arboretum" (ha, ha) for the cultivation of the forest for scientific, educational and ornamental purposes (gobbledegook for you know what) the State Govt will bring in new "custodians" of the land to displace the Bidor orang asli who have been the custodians since its sand turned to stone, as Tijah Yok Chopil says.
Everyone of us has a duty to stand up behind the fight of the orang asli. Because they are fighting not only for themselves but also for the preservation of Planet Earth and mankind.
Regards,
Chew Swee Yoke