Court strikes out 137 Orang Asli’s lawsuit over alleged mass conversion

The Kuantan High Court has struck out a lawsuit by 137 Orang Asli from the Bateq Mayah ethnic group to nullify their Islamic status following an alleged unlawful mass conversion 30 years ago.

Civil court judge Zainal Azman Ab Aziz earlier today allowed an application by five of the six defendants, namely the federal government, the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa), its director and officer, the Pahang Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MUIP).

The other defendant, the Pahang state government, did not file the striking-out bid but supported the other five defendants’ nullification bids, resulting in the entire writ of summons being struck out without it being subjected to full trial.

When contacted by Malaysiakini tonight, the federal government’s counsel from the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), senior federal counsel Sallehudin Md Ali, confirmed the ruling by Zainal during proceedings earlier this afternoon.

The AGC legal officer said that the civil court ordered the Orang Asli plaintiffs to pay RM10,000 in costs to MUIP, as well as RM10,000 in costs to be paid collectively to the federal government, Jakoa, and its director as well as officer.

Malaysiakini is attempting to reach out to the Orang Asli’s legal team for a response over the matter and whether it would be appealing to the Court of Appeal.

Not civil court’s purview

Previously, it was reported that the five defendants filed to strike out the legal action on multiple grounds, among them that the civil action was filed 29 years after the alleged mass conversion, and thus filed out of time per Section 2 of the Public Authorities Protection Act 1948 and Section 6 of the Limitations Act 1953.

Another reason cited was that the issues raised in the civil action come under the jurisdiction of the Pahang Syariah Court and not that of the Kuantan civil court.

Previously filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Sept 28 last year, the matter was later transferred to the Kuantan High Court on May 30 this year.

The lawsuit alleged that the wrongful and illegal conversion was carried out at the Orang Asli’s home at Kampung Benchah Kelubi, Merapoh, Kuala Lipis, Pahang, in April 1993.

The cause papers claimed that 57 of the plaintiffs were converted during the incident and that the remainder of the plaintiffs are children who were born later and also have the word Islam on their identity cards due to their descendency.

The plaintiffs claimed that in early 1993, two village leaders were asked by a Jakoa representative to not only convert to Islam but also get the other villagers to do so.

They alleged that when the villagers refused to do so, an officer from the department visited the village and issued several threats to ensure their conversion.

Among these threats are that the villagers would not be allowed to live in the village anymore, their houses and crops would be destroyed, and the villagers would be chased down and tortured if they ran to the mountains.

The plaintiffs claimed that the villagers were not informed of the legal implications of embracing Islam, namely that they would be subject to Pahang’s Islamic legal framework and that children born to them would automatically be Muslims too.

The plaintiffs claimed that they did not profess or practise Islam following the alleged mass conversion and continued to profess and practise the cultural and religious beliefs of the Bateq Mayah.

They alleged that after 2000 when more of the villagers learnt how to speak basic Bahasa Malaysia, they then realised that the word “Islam” was stated on their identity cards.

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