KOMUNITIKINI They may have won a court case against government late last year, but their unprecedented legal triumph has made little change to the lives of the Orang Laut (sea settlers) in Kuala Masai, Johor.
Living east of the Straits of Johor, these indigenous people made headlines late last year when the court ruled that the authorities had unlawfully demolished their chapel back in 2005.
When the Orang Laut were evicted from their ancestral land, Stulang Laut, in 2002 for private property development and moved to Kuala Masai, they say the director of the Department of Orang Asli (JHEOA) had promised them water, electricity, houses and land.
They were also promised a church, and when that did not materialise, they had built their own in 2005. A year after the completion, the JHEOA and about 300 policemen tore down their house of worship.
