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 • Bar
Council to look into land protest
• Bar
Council to look into Orang Asli claims
You think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
Now can there be so much that you don't know?
You don't know ...
You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name
You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew
Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth
The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends
How high will the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind
You can own the Earth and still
All you'll own is Earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind 
Waterfall located at the settlement.
The lyrics of Vanessa William’s “Colours of the Wind” never meant much to me
until last Saturday, April 21,2007. How true the lyrics are when compared to
the lives of the Orang Asli of Kampung Chang Sungai Gepai, Bidor. Their
ancestral lands now have to make way to the State Government’s National
Botanical Garden Project.
Once completed, the Project will occupy an estimated land area of approximately
500 acres where around 200 acres will be used as an arboretum.
The Perak Bar Human Rights Sub-Committee organised a fact-finding mission to the
settlement to see how the Project has and will affect the lives of the Orang
Asli. The report on the Malaysian Bar website on 23 March 2007 created a furore
with the Perak State Government and since then, there has been substantial media
coverage on the issue.
The second fact-finding mission on 21 April 2007 was led by the President of the
Malaysian Bar Council, Ambiga Sreenevasan with the Chairperson of the Perak Bar,
Ngan Siong Hin, Chairperson of the Bar Council Human Rights Committee, Edmund
Bon, Chairperson of the Perak Bar Human Rights Sub-Committee, Dara Waheda Mohd
Rufin, Chairperson of the Perak Bar Continuing Legal Education Sub-Committee,
Rashpal Singh, legal officer of the Perak Bar Legal Aid Centre, M. Gokoolaram
Naidu, and myself as Deputy Chairperson of the National Young Lawyers Committee.
The team arrived at Kampung Chang Sg Gepai around 9am in the morning and was
welcomed by the spokespersons of the Orang Asli, Tijah Yok Chopil and Rizuan
Tempek. Present were also representatives from other neighbouring Orang Asli
villages to lend support such as Kampung Bukit Terang, Kampar, Kampung Tisung
Sungkai, Kampung Sungai Ras RPS Jernang, Kampung Kemoh, Tapah, Kampung Sandin,
Bidor, Kampung Kejau, Kampung Ulu Geroh, Gopeng and Kampung Sat, Jernang.
We were then treated with breakfast while listening to Tijah who gave us a brief
introduction on the Semai community and their system of administration and
governance. The community consists of more than 1000 people where 600 are still
living in the settlement. The other 400 are living either at their husband’s or
wife’s settlements. All of them consult the “Mairakna” (Council of Elders) for
advice and guidance on problems and matters which arise and affect their
community. Contrary to some news reports, the Project is opposed by the Council.
Tijah, who is one of the co-authors of “Orang Asli Women and the Forest: The
Impact of Resources Depletion on Gender Relations among the Semai” with Colin
Nicholas and Tiah Sabak, further enlightened us with their system of division of
the forest. They divide the forest into three categories. The first is the
secondary jungle. The secondary jungle is flexible in use. The second category
is the “jeres” (virgin) jungle where they leave the jungle in its virgin state
and only go there to take petai, fruits and vegetables. The third category is
“tejego” and the most sacred of them all. This is the place they go when they
call up the spirits of their ancestors to aid them in times of need. Each of
this division has its own identity and as the Project covers a substantial area
of the place, the Orang Asli are afraid that they will lose the area due to
commercialism.
The divisions set out their forms of preservation of the jungle and their
culture for the next generation. While explaining to us on the workings of her
community, Tijah repeatedly said that they are not against development but it
must be done after consultation with the Orang Asli taking their wishes into
account. It should not be executed by force as is happening now.
Currently, sporadic and intermittent works on the Project continue even though
there are reports stating that the Project has been stopped temporarily. No
consultation with the Orang Asli peoples was conducted by the authorities.
Whilst the State Government has promised that the Project will bring great
benefit to the Orang Asli, this will definitely be at the expense of them losing
their ancestral lands and livelihood. It was also said that allowing tourists to
roam the settlements to capture pictures of the Orang Asli for a token sum would
be a spin-off from the Project. This is ridiculous! Not only is it an invasion
of their privacy, it is akin to treating the Orang Asli as animals in a zoo for
the viewing pleasure of tourists.
After the preliminary briefing, we went on motorbikes, hiked, walked through
muddy grounds, climbed hills and walked across rivers in an attempt to
understand the complaints. It was truly wonderful experience of nature yet to be
spoilt which will soon be in the name of development for tourists.
The ancestors of the Orang Asli have been here “dari tanah lembik, batu lembik
sehingga tanah keras, batu keras”, and their souls and spirits guard the lands.
The State Government will be destroying the heritage and identity of the Orang
Asli who are specially protected under the Constitution. Right now, not only
that their lands will be taken away, but their rights to livelihood will be
affected. To make matters worse, they are completely kept in the dark about the
Project. The purported solution by the State Government to give them other plots
of land is unacceptable - it is not the same land!
The community does not seek monetary compensation no matter how large, but wants
the State Government to recognise their rights and allow them to develop their
lands as they wish. How will the Project affect the community? After a tiring
hike through to the affected areas, here are some answers:
• The burial lands of their ancestors will be destroyed, denigrated and be the
subject of trespass by un-welcomed tourists.
• Their sacred places to pay reverence to their ancestors
will be destroyed. Unlike other religions, these are specific places identified
within the forest without the erection of monuments.
• Their commercial crops will be directly affected. They are
already instructed to count big trees while the small ones were asked to be
uprooted and planted elsewhere.
• As the main area of the Project is at the “mouth” of their
customary land, access to the forest would be obstructed.
• They lose their hunting grounds and the collection of
forest produce.
• The water at their well-kept streams will be polluted.
The Malaysian Bar urges the Government to halt all the work on the Project until
all issues have been resolved. Basic rights to preserve the Orang Asli’s
customary land should not be ignored. It appears there has been a lack of
understanding on the part of the authorities regarding the way of lives of the
Orang Asli. Unfortunately, the department set up to assist the Orang Asli has
again been silent on the matter and this resonates the well-known complaint that
the department is ineffective.
Just as we left, we voiced our support for the Orang Asli communities who
gathered, and promised that we would do all we can to assist them in the matter.
We headed back home to Kuala Lumpur while those from Perak to Ipoh in the
afternoon. It is hoped that the State Government will be more sensitive to the
lives of the Orang Asli on the issue. They are independent and capable people
whose voices should not be ignored.
The Bar team with the Orang Asli
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This reminds me of the numerically-decimated Maori of New Zealand. No more than 150 pure Maori are left in the land that was colonised first by New South Wales in 1840 soon after the Canadian uprising in 1838 and then "ratified" by the British Government later on.
The Maori at pre-contact depended on their land for their livelihood and their lifestyle. They had their various tribes, but the British "operators" sold them guns and instigated inter-tribal warfare.
At pre-contact, they had their own system of land use. Land was never, ever a commodity to be bought and sold. The concept of buying and selling land was alien to the Maori who had always viewed the land for the free use of the entire community.
This led to the Maori Wars in the 1860s - later termed the Land Wars - when the British used their superb organisational skills to bring in battle-tested troops from India and China to annihilate the Maori.
Using the law, the victorious British colonisers appropriated Maori land by using all kinds of legal means, even extending local council boundaries so that the Maori had to pay rates. Since they were never in the monied economy, they could never pay and so the land was "lawfully" expropriated from them.
Up till today, the case continues, with compensation in the millions, but with pure Maori population after nearly 170 years reduced to no more than 150 in number, although their way of calculating 1/8th of Maori blood meant that they have about 15 per cnet of the population.
Is this what we in Malaysia are trying to do today to the Semai people or whatever is left of them? Is not Malaysia big enough to let them roam their ancestral land? Have we not learnt anything from history?
Having taken an army helicopter ride over the vast terrain spreading from Perak, Pahang, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu, I am sure that there are other plots of land that can be identified and turned into our proposed National Arboterum without uprooting these Semai from the land of their forefathers.
I am sure their affinity to the land is not just ancestral but also sacred. We in Malaysia, especially the authority charged with looking after the Orang Asli, must be more alive and responsive to their sensitivities. We must show we care.
Let us work out a schedule to work on the grievances of these Semai people, our definitive people, and see whether their problems can be resolved. If these cannot, let us look at other places which can be converted into our National Botanical Gardens. We must never do something that we cannot reverse, however commercially tempting these may be.
For all we know, in these tribes who have lived with the jungles and who can paint with all the colours of the wind may lie the answer to some of the diseases that defy a simple cure.
Can we go back to ther drawing board? And can we assess the grievances of our definitive peoples and evaluate whether there is basis for these?