After a two-year wait, the Semelai-Orang Asli have obtained leave to pursue their claim to ownership of ‘ancestral land’ in Kampung Bukit Rok and Kampung Ibam in Bera, Pahang.

The Temerloh High Court decided today that there is merit in their application for a review of the state government’s refusal to gazette the land as theirs. The court also extended the ‘stop order’ granted in 2007 to prevent development of the site.

The villagers are claiming that the 2,023.47 ha site had been inhabited for generations of the Semelai, and have produced documents to prove that the state had agreed in principle in 1984 to gazette the land as belonging to them.

Although the land had been approved to be gazetted no formal move was made by the state to place the gazette.

This has enabled the state government to lease it out for logging, followed by planting of oil palm by a statutory body.

In their application for judicial review, the six plaintiffs named the state government, federal government and Department of Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA).

When contacted, Centre for Orang Asli Concerns coordinator Colin Nicholas said the decision has given the villagers a glimmer of hope that they may now be able to establish ownership over the land.

The case is set to be heard on Aug 27 in the High Court.

‘Matter of formality’

Nicholas noted that the state government should have gazetted the land, as this was only a matter of formality once the decision had been made.

“We have three precedents (where land ownership was established) without a gazette,” he said.

“The facts are clear. Why do we have to go through all this trouble?… It makes life difficult for the Orang Asli and further marginalises them.”

illegal deforestation logging penerokaan haram The problem began in 2005 when villagers from Kampung Ibam and Kampung Bukit Rok claimed that loggers had ‘encroached’ into at least 69.8 ha of their land.

In April 20006, a meeting was held between the villagers’ representatives and officials of the state forestry and land departments, JHEOA, the logging contractor, Bera MP Ismail Sabri Yaakob and senior police officers.

Logging activities were then stopped . However, uncertainty has remained for the villagers who had heard of plans for a development project in the area, prompting them to pursue their claim through the courts.