An Orang Asli community in Lembah Linggiu is living in deplorable conditions despite being awarded RM38 million by the Johor Baru High Court in June 2000.

A spokesperson for the community today claimed that of this figure RM22 million is kept in a trust fund while the remaining RM16 million is unaccounted for.

"The situation we're living in now does not reflect the court's decision on our award as we're still finding it hard to make ends meet," Saling Lau Bee Ching told a press conference at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala Lumpur.

"Even our village headmen still have to work in places like a scrap-metal yard and while another is a security guard in a chicken farm.

"First we were victims of a government project that robbed us of our traditional land and source of livelihood, now we're victims to mismanagement of our funds," he added.

The Johor state government had acquired the land at the Sungai Linggui catchment area for the construction of a dam in the early 1990s. The land was used by the Orang Asli from surrounding villages for cultivation.

Insufficient payment

A lawyer was introduced to the village heads by a middle man, Hamzah Mohamed Tahir, who agreed to help them seek compensation for their loss to the source of their livelihood. A suit was subsequently filed with the Johor Baru High Court.

In December 1995, the court ruled in favour of the 52 plaintiffs and ordered RM26.5 million plus an additional RM11.5 million in accumulated interest (from Nov 1994 - May 2000) be paid to them. From the total RM38 million, the High Court ordered RM22 million to be placed in a trust fund.

From this trust fund, RM900 was supposed to have been paid to each plaintiff per month. All the above was recorded in the court's judgment and a trust deed approved by the court.

The balance RM16 million was supposed to have been paid to the legal firm Khana and Co handling the case and after deducting legal fees and other costs, the remainder monies were supposed to have been distributed to the plaintiffs.

"We have to date only received an initial payout of RM2,500 for each villager (total of 401 persons) in the year 2000. Later each villager was given RM100 for nine months contrary to the court's decision." said Saling.

Unhappy with the insufficient payments the, the plaintiffs complained to their lawyer S Kanawagi and Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli (JHEOA). The JHEOA, the lawyer and two village heads are named as trustees in the deed.

"After that, the 52 plaintiffs started receiving RM900 per month from the trust fund to date but we have yet to see any of the balance form the RM16million.

"We then made another complaint to because we were unhappy that our lawyer had not disclosed how the money was being utilised and had not revealed detailed accounts of the monies," Saling added.

During a meeting in June 2004, he claimed the lawyer stated that RM22 million was in the trust fund but did not reveal accounts concerning the interest from the trust fund and what had happened to the balance from the RM16 million.

Police report

Saling later lodged a police report in Johor on July 5 on behalf of 36 other plaintiffs, in which they claimed the lawyer was to receive a fee of RM500, 000 only and that the plaintiffs did not make any prior agreements for other deductions to the award money.

"We (the plaintiffs) believe there was fraud and embezzlement of our award money. The RM16 million is not accounted for," he added in the report, copies of which were distributed to the press today.

The villagers also claimed that when they pursued the matter with the middle-man, Hamzah, he had allegedly threatened to kill them.

The group is scheduled to file a complaint with the Bar Council's disciplinary board against Kanawagi on Monday.

The press conference was organised by the National Human Rights Society of Malaysia (Hakam) and Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) Johor branch.

Hakam coordinator K Shan said the judgment in the case of Lembah Linggiu set a strong precedent in upholding the rights of the Orang Asli in this country.

He added that non-governmental organisations along with numerous parties around the world had welcomed and applauded the decision by the court.

"However we were appalled after seeing the conditions that the villagers are living in today which does not reflect the outcome of the case," he said.

Meanwhile, Kanawagi when met at his office later, denied any wrongdoing while Hamzah could not be reached for comment.