Stulang Laut community fears empty victory
Despite a nine-year-old legal victory and the assurances of the Johor menteri besar, a decades-long case could come to a fruitless end next week.
On Nov 13, the Johor High Court heard the application to strike out the judicial review suit which was filed to enforce the nine-year-old court order awarding the Orang Laut Seletar compensation after being evicted from their ancestral lands in Stulang Laut in 1993.
The land has now become prime land, encompassing a hotel, shopping mall and a ferry terminal...
Despite a nine-year-old legal victory and the assurances of the Johor menteri besar, a decades-long case could come to a fruitless end next week.
On Nov 13, the Johor High Court heard the application to strike out the judicial review suit which was filed to enforce the nine-year-old court order awarding the Orang Laut Seletar compensation after being evicted from their ancestral lands in Stulang Laut in 1993.
The land has now become prime land, encompassing a hotel, shopping mall and a ferry terminal.
On Dec 4, the Johor High Court will hear an application to strike out a long-running lawsuit between resettled villagers and state authorities.
According to lawyer Tan Poh Lai (photo, first from right) who is representing 51 Orang Asli families, the state is taking a hardline by looking for legal loopholes rather than being upfront about compensation and respecting the court order in their favour.
“On Nov 13, the director of the Land and Mines office applied to strike us out, saying that they were a different party from the Johor Baru District Land Administrator.
"We are waiting for a decision on Dec 4. If it is granted and our case is struck out, then it will be another round of tedious litigation as we appeal, but if the state's application to strike us out is not granted, then our Mandamus application will proceed and we will finally have our day in court,” she told Malaysiakini.
‘Our village is gone’
Kelah Lah, 38, is one of those who is feeling dejected over the ongoing battle which started in 1993, when the Orang Laut Seletar in Stulang Laut were forced to relocate from the land they had lived on for decades.
The plot of prime land in Stulang Laut, where the shopping centre The Zon now stands, was worth an estimated RM23 million in a 2005 valuation based on an estimated land prices in 1993, yet the compensation offered by the Johor government in 2018 was just RM255,000, or RM5,000 per family.
“To speak frankly, if you look at Stulang Laut, that was our customary land,” Kelah told Malaysiakini.
“If we look at the environment, there are tall buildings, flats have come up, there's a shopping mall that has come up. Our village is gone.”
Located in both southern Johor and Singapore, the Orang Laut Seletar is one of the smallest Orang Asli tribes, with an estimated population of just under 3,000 – leaving their language and culture under threat.
Read more: Orang Asli voices may go silent as languages face extinction
Despite winning a High Court battle against the director-general of the Johor Land and Mines Department in 2010, among others, the authorities refused to conduct an assessment of the compensation claims.
“There are improvements,” Kelah, however, said.
“We used to live in houses on stilts and now we are in PPRT houses. In terms of basic amenities that is definitely an improvement.
“In the past, Orang Asli did not have cars, motorcycles and brick houses, now yes, some things have become easier. But there are still questions about our future,” he added.
Harder to make a living
According to Kelah, his old home in Stulang Laut and the new area in Kuala Masai to which his people were relocated have their differences.
“In Stulang Laut it was easier to find ways to earn a living. During that time we did not have any anxieties about our future. We could easily find fish or prawns. I would just have to put up a net and within 10 minutes I could get 2-3 kg of prawns,” recalled Kelah, who married as a teenager and has four children and three grandchildren.
“Now in Kuala Masai we find that the environment has been corrupted. We have had to face sand pollution and oil pollution.
“We have seen in Pasir Gudang, the river there Sungai Kimkim - you can't catch fish and prawns there any more. So our source of income has been affected.
Finding a living is very different, much more difficult now,” he said.
Read more: Troubled waters: Why Pasir Gudang rivers are dying
Kelah (pictured below) feels that the dispensation of the compensation funds would make a big difference to his community.
“If they are really going to give us reparations it can be a big boost in helping us with our livelihood. Because our livelihood is affected, fishing is affected.
“If the 51 families together can have some funds, then we will pool it together for the community and not have to spend it all at once.”
He added: “We are thinking of the future. We thought of opening a restaurant promoting our food for the locals.”
The community is also aware that their small numbers and relocation make their language, cultural practices and very identity itself at risk of extinction. He points out that his people are proud to be barefooted, but feel the pressure to wear shoes.
“Our mother tongue is still there. When we meet one another from the same community we speak our mother tongue.
“But you know one thing we have lost, when outsiders see us, they ask, why don't you wear slippers and shoes, they don't understand it's cultural. Our people traditionally do not wear shoes.
“When my ancestors went into town they would still walk in their bare feet. That’s why we say – don’t use the term kaki ayam (bare feet – literally chicken feet) but kaki asal (original feet). That is part of our culture,” he revealed.
Changing times, fading hopes
Kelah says even though they are small, his community finds itself rapidly intermingling with other races and religions.
“In Kuala Masai, we have 76 families. 35 families are Christian, others follow the customary beliefs and there is a Muslim group (although) I am not sure (how large it is). I am a Christian. There are also those who have intermarried with Chinese and Indians,” he says.
While some have cited the changing of the guard in the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) under Juli Edo as cause for hope, Kelah says that no reforms have reached the ground.
“There is no difference really. I met two months ago with the Jakoa officer assigned to our case. I asked for help with housing for 21 Orang Asli families and he said Jakoa had no money.
“We thought with a new government there might be a change, but we are getting the same answers. There is not much difference,” he claimed.
He added, however, there have been differences in terms of the level of healthcare the community receives, whereas at Stulang Laut, “there was no one to look after us.”
Now in Kuala Masai, the government clinic comes by, checks on pregnant women, children and the old folks, he said.
“They give out medicines so that is much better nowadays,” he said.
Despite a statement on June 5 by Johor Menteri Besar Dr Sahruddin Jamal indicating a swift resolution to the case which dates back to 1993, the community is fast losing hope.
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
This action cannot be undone.