COMMENT Tasik Chini is within the parliamentary constituency of Pekan, the political base of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. Tasik Chini was once a magnificent natural treasure protected and conserved by the Orang Asli who have lived there for centuries. It’s the only Unesco Biosphere Reserve in Malaysia.

Today, Tasik Chini is dying and the Orang Asli are now left to face the challenges of eking out an existence in an area of depleted resources. Logging, mining and plantations have seriously degraded the Chini ecosystem. As a result of wanton mismanagement of its catchment, Lake Chini is choking from sediment, chemicals, noxious weeds and oxygen depletion.

Orang Asli lands and crops have been bulldozed to make way for mining and plantations. To the Orang Asli, like all indigenous people, forests are part and parcel of their life support system. They depend on the forests for life and forests depend on them for their preservation and sustenance.

The Orang Asli community of Tasik Chini have not remained passive. They had initially put their faith on their politicians. They have voted for them to be returned to power for 55 years. At each election these powerful decision makers promised them rights to their lands, improved socioeconomic opportunities and provision of basic needs.

After 55 years some of the villages do not have access to piped water and electricity. The Orang Asli of Tasik Chini are among the poorest communities in Malaysia.

Since the end of 2011, in anticipation of the 13th general election (GE), the Tasik Chini community together with civil society have initiated numerous actions to bring to the attention of the prime minister and the Pahang state government, to halt the mining and logging activities, and for the Orang Asli to be given permanent land titles.

A memorandum to reverse the decline of Tasik Chini was submitted to the PM and their Member of Parliament on April 10, 2012. The prime minister then instructed the Pahang state government to act on the memorandum.

NONE However, the mining and logging continues unabated. The local community found themselves increasingly excluded from their traditional resource base and had to travel longer distances to collect rattan and other non-timber forest products.

On April 12, 2012, two days after the submission of the Memorandum to the Prime Minister, the batin (headman of the community) received a letter from the Department of Orang Asli, stating they were not permitted to enter the forest reserves!

To add salt to the wound, more worrying was the statement from the Orang Asli Senator Mohd Olian Abdullah who said that “the community cannot expect to stay on the land forever, as there will be a time when they need to accept development”.

Mining firms bulldoze 4,000 rubber trees

Disappointed, the Orang Asli Community launched a national campaign to Save Tasik Chini. In the midst of the campaign, mining companies bulldozed 4,000 rubber trees at Kg Melai, one of the villages at Tasik Chini. The affected Orang Asli confronted the representatives of the mining companies for answers to the wanton destruction of rubber trees - their source of an income - and lodged police reports.

A compensation of RM3 was offered per tree and after 10 months of negotiations, it was increased to RM7.

The sound of bulldozers and trucks go on into the wee hours of the morning. Requests to the state government to name the companies who are responsible and are involved in the clearing of forests, and to hold off the mining concessionaires, have not been responded to.

Political and academic agendas have worsened the conditions of the lake and the surrounding areas, taking a toll on the health of the community. In Kampung Melai the lake is the only source of water.

The menteri besar of Pahang continues with his denials, backed by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, that the lake is polluted. Such denials have hurt the community, which has warned the menteri besar that if no attempts are made to save the lake it would cost BN their votes in the coming GE13

If the authorities had enforced the rules related to governance, integrity, transparency and accountability in the issuing of mining and logging permits this situation would not have arisen.

NONE A sense of betrayal and frustration has set in for the community. On Oct 17, 2012, Orang Asli representatives from six villages of Tasik Chini demonstrated at the office of the Pahang menteri besar, demanding immediate actions to save the second largest fresh water lake in the country.

On Nov 17, 2013 at the launch of the documentary Hacking at harmony: Tasik Chini An Ecosystem on the Brink , Ismail Muhammad (Kampung Gumum Umno branch chairperson for 17 years) said, “As long as the power to govern is left in the hands of the politicians, I do not see an end to logging and mining activities which negatively affect our livelihoods. We can scream and shout to the heavens but as long as there is no law which gives us power, nothing will change.”

On April 11 2013, the prime minister visited Tasik Chini. He spent some time at the home of Ismail and presented him with a cheque for RM5,000 from Felda for the repair of his home. Additionally, Ismail’s daughter Juliana received RM800 for her outstanding results in her SPM exam.

The community took this opportunity to resubmit the memorandum to reverse the decline of Tasik Chini to the PM, who handed over the documents to the MB of Pahang. During the PM’s visit, it was announced that electricity would finally be supplied to Ulu Kampung Gumum, 55 years after independence.

I spoke to Ismail after the prime minister’s visit to his home. He was disappointed that the PM had handed the memorandum to the MB for his follow-up, as the MB had not shown any political will to address the concerns of the Orang Asli since the Save the Tasik Chini campaign began.

In another development, the Orang Asli of Tasik Chini have rejected the BN Manifesto for Pahang released recently. Joye Ismail, committee member of the Save Tasik Chini Campaign said relocating them to low-cost housing schemes is denying them their rights to their ancestral land.

“The state is reducing Orang Ali ancestral lands and is violating the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. Our rights to our ancestral land cannot be extinguished and access to natural resources denied,” said Joye.

Corruption and abuse of power continue to impact the lives of the Orang Asli and the lake ecosystem. As long as drivers of corruption remain untouched , the community faces greater perils. Is Tasik Chini, in the prime minister’s constituency, a microcosm of Malaysia?  

JOSIE M FERNANDEZ is an Asian Public Intellectual Fellow who has been actively involved in the Save Tasik Chini campaign.