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Central issues
This section highlights issues that are of importance to the indigenous peoples in Malaysia:
 Land rights
Oil palm plantations
Dams
Islamization Program |
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 People: Dusun
Photographer: Christian Erni |
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Land rights
As a country with a colonial past, Malaysia has also experienced - and continues to experience - a number of typical conflicts with indigenous communities over its land and resources. The conflicts can be traced back to the dual legal regimes for land that were followed prior to independence – a formal set of codified laws and another informal set of laws based on the customary practices of indigenous communities. At the same time, the latter was not allowed to function independently, complicating land tenure systems further. Such conflicting land tenure systems have largely affected the way development has taken place in countries such as Malaysia, along with the exploitation of indigenous communities and their resources. Despite laws protecting the right to land in Sabah and Sarawak, for example, in practice the State has been able to alienate large tracts of land for logging, development projects and commercial purposes.
Status of court cases on land rights
In 2005, the Court of Appeal affirmed the rights of the Orang Asli to their traditional lands, unanimously threw out an appeal (by the Selangor state government, United Engineers Malaysia, the Malaysian Highway Authority and the Federal Government) and held that the High Court was not misguided when it decided, in 2004, on the basis of substantial evidence and fact that was not challenged, to rule that the Temuans (an Orang Asli sub-group) did indeed have property rights over their customary lands.
In Sarawak, the Court of Appeal upheld an appeal by two companies - Borneo Pulp Plantation and Borneo Pulp and Paper - along with the Superintendent of Lands and Surveys of Sarawak, against the Iban of Rumah Nor, Bintulu on 8 July 2005. Even though the community of Rumah Nor lost the case due to insufficient evidence, this judgment is seen as a bittersweet victory for indigenous peoples in Sarawak because the appellate court re-affirmed the concept of native customary rights on temuda (cultivated land), pulau (communal reserve) and pemakai menoa (community's territorial domain). The community of Rumah Nor currently has its appeal filed with the highest court in Malaysia, the Federal Court, and this is still pending.
In Sabah, Rungus indigenous communities succeeded in getting their land removed from land vested to the Sabah Forestry Development Authority (SAFODA) in Kanibongan for the planting of Acacia Mangium in 1983. The Rungus indigenous communities were given verbal assurances that the land would be returned to the people after the trees had been harvested. However, the agreement was never fulfilled.
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 Photographer: Christian Erni |
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Oil palm plantations
The introduction of modern development to Malaysia, which mainly benefits the big corporations and local elites, has had grave negative impacts, particularly for the indigenous communities. One of the main causes of the widespread disruption of indigenous peoples' rights and livelihoods is currently that of the large monocrop plantations, notably of oil palm. The growth of the oil palm plantations can be traced back to the economic crisis of the 1990s, which crippled many Asian economies. In the case of Malaysia, it was the palm oil export business which came to the rescue and it has increasingly continued to play a leading role in the recovering economy.
As a result, most of the Country and Provisional leases issued to companies over the last few years have been for the purposes of establishing oil palm (and, to a lesser extent, acacia) plantations. In 2004, it was estimated that land use for oil palm plantations was increasing at 7 per cent per year and today Malaysia's oil palm plantations cover 40% of its cultivated land.
Earlier decades of intensive logging (during the 1990s it was estimated that Malaysia lost 13.4 per cent of the country's forest area), along with the establishment of oil palm and other types of commercial plantations, have severely affected the indigenous peoples in Malaysia. Vast tracts of their farm lands and forests have been destroyed, rendering them uncultivable. Crop harvests have been reduced and the rivers on which people depend for water have been muddied and polluted, causing health problems. Forest produce such as wild fruits, rattan and wild game which, in the past, were collected or hunted for food and for sale, have become scarce.
The indigenous communities of Malaysia are, however, not against oil palm plantations per se. Until recently, they constituted a major source of income for them. What they are unhappy about is the setting up of plantations owned by outside individuals, corporations or state authorities who do not respect the rights and sustainable land use patterns of the indigenous communities.
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 People: Dusun
Photographer: Christian Erni |
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Dams
Construction of dams has always been a controversial issue. Dams have many benefits; they are used to store water and are able to make up for variations in river flows, meeting the demands of water and energy more easily. However, there are also major environmental and socio-economic effects. In Sarawak, the first hydroelectric dam at Batang Ai was completed in 1985. Three thousand people from 33 longhouses were relocated and the communities lost large areas of customary lands. Food production was severely affected, and land ownership as well as compensation was given to male heads, thereby undermining the women’s position. Besides undermining the livelihood of the indigenous peoples, the resettled people also ended up in debt. While they were compensated RM 10,000 per longhouse, they were asked to pay RM 27,000 for a new apartment.
Despite the disastrous outcomes of previous dam projects, it appears that the same mistakes are being repeated. In 1999, with the planned construction of the Bakun Dam in Sarawak, 10,000 indigenous Kenyah and Kayan people were forcibly relocated from their ancestral homes to make way for the dam. People are now struggling to survive on resettlement sites, where unemployment and hunger are prevalent. The indigenous people displaced by the dam project have still not been resettled properly and continue to protest at the lack of transparency in the resettlement process, inadequate compensation for their lands and homes, and destruction of their traditional way of life. The state government has dismissed these complaints, however, claiming that only the older generation had reservations about the resettlement program.
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 People: Dusun
Photographer: Christian Erni |
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Islamization program
In 1961, the express policy of the government towards the Orang Asli was their integration into the wider society. Education programmes, as well as programmes to introduce cash crop agriculture, were introduced. In more recent times, the policy of integrating the Orang Asli has taken on a new dimension: converting them to Islam. Until the early 1990s, the Department for Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA) pursued the goal of Islamizing the Orang Asli more or less covertly, skirting Malaysian constitutional restrictions on religious proselytization, especially of children without their parents' free consent. JHEOA officials did not even publicly admit that the program existed. Its budget was buried in that of the Division of Research and Information. But, recently, the government has begun to publicize the program in Malay-language news media.
Source: Ethnocide Malaysian Style: Turning Aborigines into Malays, by Kirk Endicott and Robert Knox Dentan - www.magickriver.net/ethnocide.htm
The following article was published in Indigenous Rights Quarterly Vol. I, No. 01 2006 (www.aitpn.org/IRQ/vol1-1/story13.htm#_Toc145929116):
"Malaysia: Conversion by inducements
Kelantan is the only province in Malaysia ruled by the Islamic fundamentalists. The "Orang Aslis", first peoples, who traditionally do not follow mainstream Muslim religion, have been target of proselytization by the Islamists. Preachers who marry Orang Asli women will receive a lump sum of 10,000 ringgit (2,707 dollars) as well as free accommodation, a four-wheel drive vehicle and a monthly allowance of 1,000 ringgit. More than 12,000 Orang Asli reside in Kelantan and 2,902 have already converted to Islam. But the provincial government is unhappy and wants to complete the process of conversion by inducements."
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 People: Semelai Orang Asli
Photographer: Christian Erni |
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