Jakoa director-general Ajis Sitin, who is an Orang Asli himself, said allegations by environmentalist Shariffa Sabrina Syed Akil that the new government is not helping the Orang Asli are false.
“It does not show the real situation,” Ajis said, adding that since Pakatan Harapan took over in May this year, efforts to help resolve land issues, a prominent issue for Orang Asli, have “intensified”.
Ajis said the gazetting of Orang Asli land was a priority at meetings with Rural Development Minister Rina Harun, her deputy R Sivarasa and other menteris besar.
He said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department P Waytha Moorthy, whose portfolio includes national and social unity, had given his commitment to keeping this issue going with the various menteris besar.
“Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s directive to place Jakoa under his purview is also proof that the government of today cares about the problems faced by the Orang Asli.
“This is because whatever dealings and problems faced by the Orang Asli will be brought to the attention of him (Mahathir),” Ajis added in a statement to FMT today.
FMT recently quoted Shariffa Sabrina, who also heads the NGO, Pertubuhan Pelindung Khazanah Alam Malaysia (Peka), as saying that activists like herself had “failed tremendously” to help the Orang Asli.
“If you expect the federal government to help them, it’s not going to happen,” she said at a talk on customary land rights and environmental protection issues for the Orang Asli on Friday.
“I tried, you know. I brought five busloads of Orang Asli to meet Tun Dr Mahathir and it was so frustrating when he said: ‘Well, we can’t do anything because it’s a state matter.’
“To me, if there’s a will, there’s a way. Whether it’s a new government, to me it’s just a change of logos. The thinking, the way they work, is still same old, same old.”
For the past two years, a group of Orang Asli have been putting up blockades near their native settlements in Gua Musang, Kelantan, to keep timber loggers and planters out from their “customary land”.
Customary law protects Orang Asli native land against encroachment.
The PAS-led Kelantan administration, however, has long insisted that the land claimed by the Orang Asli belongs to the state government and it has since issued licences for logging activities.
In August, more than 200 Forestry Department and enforcement officers removed a blockade set up by the Temiar Orang Asli. A group of Orang Asli then met with Mahathir to seek federal intervention, to which he said a solution would be sought.
Shariffa Sabrina had also said the Orang Asli in Gua Musang and other parts of Kelantan were not the only ones who were “suffering” as those in Perak were still putting up blockades to stop “rampant logging” in the state.
Ajis said Jakoa had met several times with leaders of Orang Asli communities and activists in various states to discuss which Orang Asli land needed to be gazetted.
This matter of gazetting Orang Asli land remains a priority for Jakoa, he said.
When contacted, Shariffa Sabrina said if the government was sincere in helping the Orang Asli, then Putrajaya must quickly enforce a moratorium on logging. Otherwise, it would be just “empty talk”.
“Go to the ground and see how the Orang Asli are suffering due to contaminated rivers, shrinking forests. The forests, for them to roam around, have still not been gazetted.
“Remember the forests are the Orang Asli’s livelihood. The federal government must stop logging to save the Orang Asli,” she said, adding that some in government were dead set on continuing logging.
In its Buku Harapan for the 14th general election, PH had pledged to enforce strict logging quotas to conserve forests, and implement regulations to protect wildlife and marine life to address environmental issues.