THE  indigenous people will fight a losing battle on native customary rights (NCR) as long as their cases are brought to the civil court, said Chief Justice Richard Malanjum. 

He said this is largely due to the civil court’s lack of expertise in indigenous laws. 

Until the native courts are raised to be the equal of the civil and shariah courts, there will never be a fair NCR hearing, he said.

“If you read the law reports on NCR, maybe out of 10 cases, one case will succeed in the civil court. 

At present, he said the civil court views the indigenous court as a mere tribunal with lesser judiciary powers.

“I have been complaining about this to our civil judges, telling them that they should first understand the native land system, instead of judging it from the prism of a civil law judge. It’s not right,” he said in his plenary address at the Borneo Rainforest Law Conference, today. 

“Not many are interested in this; only a handful. They keep on saying the law is primitive.”

He said Malaysia is lagging far behind when it comes to indigenous laws, compared to a country like the Philippines, where the legal system on rights is so comprehensive that even the “dolphins in the Manila Bay” could have their day in court.  

He said the indigenous court or native court in Malaysia must be empowered and updated or restructured to suit present needs, and they should be served by well-trained lawyers and judges instead of native chiefs appointed as judges. 

He said the Malaysian indigenous people are not heard and have been left behind and “we, the lawyers are to be blamed for it.”

To demonstrate his point, he asked his audience how many of them had taken on public interest litigation work pro bono.  

“This is why many of the indigenous people are saying we are not doing enough for them or they feel that the system has failed them.” – January 17, 2019.