THE Orang Asli of Kg Tasik Cunex in Gerik just want their land to be left alone, said village head Roslan Itam.

The villagers are up against loggers and Perak over what they claim to be their ancestral land.

“We just want our land. We don’t want it to be destroyed any more,” Roslan told The Malaysian Insight.

“Even if they (loggers) offer us millions of ringgit, we don’t want it. We just want the land to be untouched.”

Continued logging will undoubtedly lead to the destruction of the land and jungle of villagers’ ancestors, he said.

“Disaster will befall this land if logging continues.”

Villagers have been in a stand-off with loggers since February, erecting a blockade every evening to stop the latter from entering the jungle.

However, the blockade is removed each morning and the process repeats itself.

“We will keep building the blockade as long as they keep coming to carry out logging,” said Roslan.

He said loggers have offered bribes, but villagers cannot be bought.

“We don’t need their money, we have no use for it here. We just want our land to be left alone.”

The village’s 117 residents have seen their way of life threatened by incessant logging in the area.

Perak has sided with the loggers, reminding the Orang Asli that the land is state owned.

“Our way of life and culture are being threatened. We go into the jungle to forage for food and other things to survive but with the logging, there is no more jungle for us to survive on,” said Roslan.

Environmental impact

Since the logging began, said Roslan, Tasik Cunex, which is villagers’ main source of water, has reduced in volume and become murkier.

“The water was clear, but it is now murky. There is also no fish now. There used to be fish for us to catch.”

He said the kampung is currently facing food and water shortages.

“The area where we used to forage for food has been logged, and it’s not the same any more.”

The land that villagers hope to protect is about 5,058ha, he said.

Kg Tasik Cunex’s Orang Asli are direct descendants of the “Perak Man”, who lived 13,000 years ago.

Menteri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu has defended loggers’ repeated demolition of the blockade, saying they fulfilled all the requirements to carry out logging.

He also said Kg Tasik Cunex is a “splinter” of the Kg Sg Sarok Orang Asli settlement, which encroached on the state-owned Air Cepam forest reserve. – May 25, 2019.