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I am here with Mr Raymond Tan, a concerned citizen
who have been helping out the Orang Asli of Mukim Tanjung 12 here in Kuala Langat
particularly the people who are residing in Pulau Kempas, they have a lot of issues
one is obviously the land that they now reside which has been gazzetted as as their reserve
by the British colonial government, doesn't seem to have recognition by the independent Government of Malaysia
Mr Tan, what exactly are the issues concerning the Orang Asli of Mukim Tanjung 12 at the moment
The mining of earth is just part of the problem, how the excavations and sand issues
the red earth, it simply boils down to the recognition of the status of the Orang Asli
or the natives over land rights. Now we have a Gazette. The Gazette actually covers 17900 acres
and it falls under a forest reserve and in that Gazette, in this particular Gazette
it is stated very clearly that Orang Asli have got a special privilege,a special rights over the land
Now when it comes to this special privilege of the Orang Asli
it has been widely misinterpreted what are their special privilege
Now to our understanding and our research, my personal research
The special privilege meaning, it simply spells out that they own the land
and of course it boils down to Tanah Adat and so on and so forth and whichever adat
that was created previously. Now the problem why this red earth has been stolen or
excavated all over and around this Mukim Tanjung 12 which has got more than 10 excavation sites
It has been ongoing for more than 3 years actually but recently because of certain
projects around Klang Valley, and the only place for these contractors or developers
to get access to this red earth is from Pulau Kempas, from Mukim Tanjung 12
because these are the only place left with red earth. So recently
the District Officer or the Penguatkuasa has came up with an excuse that
they have been trying to arrest all these people, investigated into all these issues
on the excavation but they don't seem to be able catch hold of any of the culprits
Do you have a letter from the authorities stating that they have been trying to investigate the people
who have been mining this and presumably the mining or excavation of this earth
has been done illegally.
Oh, yes we, I think about 3 weeks ago we did receive a letter from Penguatkuasa Pejabat Tanah
Kuala Langat, saying that they have done the investigation
and they did say very clearly in the letter that the excavation was done
illegallly and they are holes everywhere and they have given summons to the company
but when we receive the letter it was very much questionable
because what we complain about is about a kilang batu bata, a brick factory
they claim that they own this land with the status of perindustrian
Now this particular lot is right in the middle of the forest reserve
now I cannot find any part of the land code or constitution or any law
that say that you can convert a land right in the middle of the jungle
Have you made a police report regarding this ?
We have made many many police reports but the excavations have been taking place
in whole of this forest reserve
Pertaining to the brickworks that you were mentioning, how do you know that
the area that is now part of the industrial or semi industrial area where the brickworks is
now situated, how do you know that they have not been given a permit
or that have been demarcated for light industry by the State government. How do you know for sure ?
The State government has every right or the District Officer has got every right
to convert the land. But then again, there are protocols, there are guidelines
what type of land you can convert, what you can't do, so this particular lot
I personally am very sure that this is a forest reserve and has been wrongfully converted
because on the left or on the right, whichever direction you go
it is either Malay Reserve or forest reserve or plantation land.
You can't just have an industrial land right, in the middle, you know of this
different type of categories
How do you know that this property being operated by the brickworks have not been
legally converted and leased to them.
First of all, I personally made phone call to PTD, many phone calls in fact
and to the Penguatkuasa as well, the Officer told me that there is no such permit
being out for red earth in the whole of Kuala Langat District for whatever reason
why they did not come out with this permit we do not know
but for sure that is what that has been claimed by PTD, that was why
we follow up with a letter asking how come that there are people excavating red earth.
The excavations, it's like people from this particular plantation
that has been clearing out the hills, there are housing developments
by the developers clearing up the hills for the purpose of red earth to
rebuild their house and all these projects and also other industrial lots
has been producing bricks. Now bricks are made out of red earth
or any other minerals, but since there is no permit out so how can they operate
under this land. It doesn't matter what category they hold on that lot.
It is just that the permit does not exist, by right you should stop the operations
and the Penguatkuasa should shut them down since they already claim and made
a siasatan or report saying that they are illegally excavating it,
so why don't they come out with a stop work order.
This brick factory and some of the mining or some of the situations that has been
happening here lie very near to the village, what are the concerns of the
Orang Asli in that village.
It is not a matter about royalty, it is not about the money in fact it is now even about
ownership of the land, it is about people operating all these excavation, and lorries, there are
hundreds of lorries coming in and out of the kampung and the roads have been badly damaged
There are, many holes have been created, new holes all over around this kampung
and environmentally it is very badly damaged and when we complain
when we fail to get a decision from Pejabat Tanah Kuala Langat
We try different approach, we went to JPS, Alam Sekitar, Environment
and all these departments deny they are involved or one way or other
they are just , they do not have power over the State of Selangor, that was what they claim
by Alam Sekitar and JPS
Mr Tan, when was this area Mukim Tanjung 12 gazetted as an asli reserve
and has that been mapped where this area is clearly shown as a reserve
and you mentioned that special privileges of the Orang Asli
is there documentation to say that there are special priviliges for the Orang Asli
Under the Gazette there are special privileges for the Orang Asli, now it was done in 1927
by the British Government then, and it all started about a century back
which the fact is whole of Kuala Langat District has been constituted as a sakai reserve.
meaning it is a sakai country. So when you look at the 17900 acres forest reserve
of course, 90 years ago, the Orang Asli do not live in the bandar, they live in the jungle
that was why the forest reserve was attached to the Gazette was attached with a special privilege
the asli are there to use under their so called special privilege to use whatever they have above the land.
meaning they own, they memang own the land.
Is there a map to show that this 17900 acres is clearly asli reserve?
Yes, we recently found all the relevant documents saying that the whole Kuala Langat District has been
constituted, just not that we have all the boundaries, all the gazettes
all the residential gazettes and it has been properly documented.
Previously the government says that it was not mapped before
but i think that is wrong, its all wrong, its been properly documented
the whole of Kuala Langat, in fact the whole of Selangor
When we were driving in, I saw alot of palm oil plantations,
apart from the one area that has been excavated for earth, I presume
and then the brickworks, those plantations who do it belong to
The plantation has been taken over by this koporasi called Kampung Bukit Sri Chidi,
its a koporasi, they put up a big signboard and they are basically
the agents to deal with lands they lease out land, land conversion
This Koporasi, who are the members of this Koporasi?
Are the Orang Asli here members of the Koporasi?
No, none of the Orang Asli have anything to do with the Koporasi.
Ok, so how do the Orang Asli here manage a livelihood ?
They work as planters, some of them get about 800 ringgit a month
some, a few of them, maybe get about thousand odd a month but the main issue here,
the problem is the production, the productivity, the actual income of the plantation,
the profit have been held or the Government buys this so called Koporasi
and by certain people that run this Koporasi. Asli do not have a share
they are just like the Felda settlers, they are just workers
standard equivalent is you were to compare they are equivalent to the so called foreign workers
The houses that the Orang Asli are living in now, that plot of land who owns that ?
Oh, that is a very good question. Actually we have requested PTD, State Exco
quite a few authorities to certify or at least let the asli know where
are their land, where their houses, what is the status of the land, what happen to the gazette.
Where are the boundaries? The Pejabat Tanah don't seem to be able
to produce this document. They are saying, all they are saying you live there
you are illegal, illegally staying there. Anyway all these houses have been built
by the Orang Asli themselves.
For a community of people who have been here longer than any other
communities in Malaysia, they seem to be the most marginalised section of the population.
They don't own the land that they have been living in
for hundreds of years from their great great grand parents and
until now they don't seem to have any status as to their properties
or the area they claim to be their reserve, that is Mukim Tanjung 12 of Kuala Langat
Mr Tan, thank you very much for sharing with us your thoughts
on the Orang Asli of Mukim Tanjung 12. Although it is a bit of a far fetch call
we hope that things will work out for them after so many years.