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Four villages inhabited by a Semai community of Orang Asli in Sungkai,
Perak, are taking proactive measures to prevent loggers from entering their
ancestral land to carry out any further work, which they say has polluted
the environment and harmed their sources of livelihood.
The villagers also alleged that their religious and cultural beliefs have
been trampled on by loggers who have not spared sacred sites such as “graves
and holy rocks”.
In a report submitted on Nov 12 to the Sungkai police chief, 330 villagers
of Kampung Rancangan Pengumpulan Semula in Jernang (RPS Jernang) said that
“as long as the party involved in this issue does not give a response in
black and white (to our grievances), we will not allow the loggers to
enter.”
“We request your cooperation in monitoring the activities of the loggers as
one way of preventing any untoward incidents, such as a clash, from occuring
should the loggers remain adamant in entering our ancestral land despite
being forbidden from doing so,” they added.
Mat Epen Yoksenggah, one of RPS Jernang’s leaders, said the villagers
confronted the loggers as they entered their land and this has on occassion
led to heated exchanges.
Despite the risks that such confrontations pose, Epen said the villagers
have been forced to such measures because letters sent earlier to several
federal and state agencies had not produced any efforts to protect their
interests.
“Even the Sungkai police chief who had met with us three days after we had
filed the report said he could not do anything as the loggers are licensed
to carry out their operations.
“We told him that if that was his position, then the villagers will continue
to stand their ground to prevent any more logging, because this is our land
and the land of our ancestors,” he said when contacted today.
“Do they think we are so stupid as to stand idly by while these loggers
carry away the products of the forests and mountains, as they push aside our
graves and crush our sacred stones. From the 26 years of logging, we’ve
gotten nothing but sicknesses (from the polluted rivers),” he added.
Verbal directive
In a discussion between villagers, the police and the loggers, on Nov 15,
the police gave a verbal directive that the loggers must complete their
operations within three months.
“We don’t know if that is merely an empty promise or not,” said Epen.
He said residents of Tidong, Ras, Kejau, and Sat villages who signed the
police report had earlier written a ‘protest letter’ listing their
grievances to the Orang Asli Affairs Department (JHEOA) head Nordin Mie and
chief district officer of the state’s forestry department overlooking
southern Perak Salim Ali.
Copies of the letters were also sent to the state environmental department,
state forestry department, the Rural Development Ministry, the state
government’s executive council, and various other non-governmental agencies.
Health problems
According to activist Rizuan Tempek of Orang Asli advocacy group Sinuai Pai
Nanek Sengik, “officials, such as from the forestry department who came with
a representative from the logging company to meet with the villagers, seem
to side with the loggers and speak on their behalf.”
“The villagers say the logging activities, which began in 1978, have
affected their health and livelihood as the rivers of RPS Jernang, which
used to be clean and abundant in fish, frogs and turtles and other sources
of food, are now polluted and uninhabitable except for small fishes,” he
said.
“There aren’t many fishes, frogs and turtles any more. The small fishes that
are caught exude a ‘muddy’ smell,” he added.
The rivers, water from which the villagers used for drinking, bathing and
washing purposes, have become so muddy and polluted that it was no longer
suitable for everyday use, alleged Rizuan.
“Continual use of water from the river has led to many villagers
experiencing health problems such as skin irritations and eyesight problems.
At least one villager has been said to have lost his ability to see
completely as a result of the polluted river.”
Rizuan said that wood and plant resources on which the Semai villagers had
long depended on for everyday needs, for housing, traditional and ceremonial
purposes, as well as cash commodities, were also becoming sparse as a result
of the logging.
Last year, another community of Semai Orang Asli in Perak were threatened
with eviction following moves by the state government and a plantation
company led by former minister Megat Junid Megat Ayub to plant fruit trees
on the Orang Asli’s ancestral land.
As a result of protests from the Kampung Chang Sungai Gepai community,
however, the state government announced that the development plans were
shelved and have since
been placed in cold storage.
Is logging on Orang Asli land against licence regulations?
Fauwaz Abdul Aziz
Malaysiakini.com Nov 20, 04 1:21pm
Are loggers in Sungkai, Perak, meeting and fulfilling standards and
conditions required by their licence and stipulated by the Malaysian Timber
Certification Council (MTCC)?
If not, buyers in foreign countries convinced that the timber logged from
the area is coming from sustainably managed forests are being duped, as
assertions by residents of four villages in Kampung Rancangan Pengumpulan
Semula in Jernang (RPS Jernang) seem to suggest.
This was among the questions raised by the Center for Orang Asli Concerns
director Colin Nicholas recently when commenting on allegations by 330 residents of
four Semai villages that logging operations on their ancestral land has
harmed the environment and depleted their sources of livelihood.
The villagers also alleged that their religious and cultural beliefs have
been trampled on by loggers who have not spared their sacred sites such as
"graves and holy rocks"
According to documents acquired by malaysiakini, the licence held by the
contractor to extract logs from 27ha of Jernang’s Bukit Slim required the
licensee to fulfill the “Criteria, Indicators and Activities for Sustainable
Forest Management” as specified by MTCC.
A check on MTCC’s website revealed that under Principle #3 (Indigenous
People’s Rights) of the council’s Criteria and Indicators for Forest
Management Certification, timber extraction activities “shall not threaten
or diminish, either directly or indirectly, the resources or tenure rights
of indigenous people. ”
Under Principle #6 (Environmental Impact), furthermore, forest authorities
are urged to “conserve biological diversity and its associated values, water
resources, soils and unique and fragile ecosystems and landscapes, and, by
so doing, maintain the ecological functions and the integrity of the
forest.”
Elsewhere, MTCC stipulates that “sites of cultural, ecological, economic, or
religious significance to indigenous people shall be clearly identified with
the cooperation of such peoples and clearly recognised and protected...”
Not complied with
Commenting on the apparent disparities between the requirements of MTCC and
the actual realities on the ground, Nicholas said it was “obvious that the
requirements are not being complied with and the supervising or overseeing
of the logging process is not being done.”
“If the loggers have been licensed (by the state forestry department) to
carry out their logging operations, then why are so many people protesting
against it? The fact that people are getting sick from a river polluted by
the logging exercise is reason enough to stop it,” he said when contacted.
If river water and other forest resources could not be accessed for their
own sustenance, as the villagers claim, it also indicated that “the
supervising and overseeing of the logging operations was not being done” by
the state forestry department, said Nicholas.
Nicholas also added that the law in Malaysia as set out in the Aboriginal
Peoples’ Act (1954) also guaranteed Orang Asli communities’ right to their
own resources.
The villagers had on Nov 12 lodged a police report on the matter
highlighting their plight, stating that their intention to continue blocking
the entry of logging workers into their ancestral land “as long as the party
involved in this issue does not give a response in black and white (to our
grievances).”
“We request your cooperation in monitoring the activities of the loggers as
one way of preventing any untoward incidents, such as a clash, from occuring
should the loggers remain adamant in entering our ancestral land despite
being forbidden from doing so,” they told the police chief of Sungkai
district.
One village leader, Mat Epen Yonsenggang, said the villagers were forced to
take such measures because letters sent to several federal and state
agencies had not produced any efforts to protect their interests. |
