Orang Asli in two Temerloh villages are crying foul over Felda taking over their native customary land, and demand that the government issues communal grants to stop the encroachment.

Orang Asli rights activist Shafie Dris ( left ) said the grants should be issued immediately as a plantation company has encroached on their native customary land to cultivate bananas.

Shafie said the 350 acres of land encroached into include an old cemetery and the community's ancestral graves.

According to Shafie, a meeting between the tok batin (village chief), the Land and Mines Department and Temerloh District Office revealed that the land now belongs to the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda).

He said this explained why the plantation company claimed it had obtained the land from Felda.

“(We) demand that the state and federal governments acknowledge our customary land and gazette it according to our community plan, based on the evidence provided.

“The acknowledgement must be in the form of a communal grant for the Orang Asli of Kampung Paya Pelong and Paya Rekoh, so as to stop encroachment by irresponsible quarters,” Shafie said in a statement.

Photographs on Shafie’s Facebook show heavy machinery conducting groundworks on the land.

Shafie, who is a documentary filmmaker, also uploaded a picture of a document purportedly showing Felda had transferred the land to the company, and of PTG enforcement officers at the land.

He also expressed regret that Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob has brushed aside the villagers’ claims as “baseless”.

Adnan reportedly said this in October 2012, after the community handed over a memorandum to him urging for recognition of their customary land.

 

 

NADIA OTHMAN is a trainee journalist at Malaysiakini .