SARAWAK politicians have dismissed Putrajaya’s move to sue the Kelantan government for legal recognition of the native land rights of the Orang Asli community as nothing more than a political gimmick to shore up Pakatan Harapan’s flagging chances in the Cameron Highlands by-election.

Deputy Chief Minister James Masing, former assemblyman state PKR chief Dominique Ng and STAR president Lina Soo were in agreement that the lawsuit filed by the attorney-general on behalf of the Orang Asli was “politically tainted”.

“Its just a gimmick led by DAP for the Cameron Highland by-election. If these guys are serious about Orang Asli, why didn’t they do anything in the last 61 years,” Masing said in response to a request for comment from The Malaysian Insight.

Ng said while the federal government has a duty to protect citizens who may be oppressed, matters of land are clearly the purview of the state governments.

“They are merely using the case for political purposes,” said Ng.

He said if the federal government is as caring about the people as it portrays itself to be, then it should return all the wealth it has “robbed Sarawak of” to the people of Sarawak.

Ng, a lawyer, said the chances of winning the case are remote, but it appears to him the outcome was secondary to the primary “political objective”.

Loo agreed the federal government’s legal suit was purely a gimmick to win the Orang Asli vote in the by-election.

The same gimmick could also be used to win the Dayak vote in the state elections in 2021, she said.

“But it is 60 years late as their constitution failed to safeguard the rights of the original people of Malaya.”

She said Putrajaya’s rejection of ratifying the United Nation’s International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ( ICERD) says so much about the government’s so-called recognition of Orang Asli rights. 

Soo is however, following the case “with great interest” as it is may be a prelude to establishing landmark decision in which gives the federal government the rights to intrude into a land matter which are the rights and prerogative of the state.

“This case may well show that a new legal precedent is in the offing to set federal authority on state land which is an exclusive jurisdiction of the state.”

The PH federal government attempt to champion the Orang Asli’s rights, she said, will also test the PAS Kelantan government’s authority.

Soo said the federal government is constitutionally duty bound to protect the indigenous population, she said such a duty must be confined within the laws of the country in pursuance of the Rule of Law as “advocated by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the concept of the New Malaysia”.

Soo however, believed should there be any precedent set by the courts, it would only apply to states in the peninsular and not Sabah and Sarawak.

“Sarawak is bound by its own Land Code which cannot be amended or repealed, except through the Sarawak state assembly.” – January 19, 2019.