THE Temiar tribe in Gerik, Perak, have vowed to defend their native land by continuing to put up barricades to stop loggers from intrusion.

And if that fails, there are plans to drag the logging companies to court to safeguard their native land.

Secretary for the Jaringan Orang Asal Semalaysia Semenanjung (JOAS) in Gerik, Ajang Aleuj said there seem to be no end to the dispute over the intrusions and illegal logging.

“They have been making attempts to intrude into our land since February. We managed to stop the first attempt.

“We had a meeting with the loggers before lodging a police report on the attempted intrusion.

“They retreated initially but then came back with a vengeance.

“A signboard we erected to warn them against intruding into our land was discarded and last Tuesday one of our barricades was burned,” Ajang of Kg Sg Papan told The Malaysian Insight.

He said that to stop further destruction, 84 Orang Asli from Kg Sg Papan, including women, youth and children, are manning a re-erected barricade.

“We are prepared for them. We will man this barricade 24 hours. All of us will spend our nights here. Even if we are arrested by the police, we will not let the loggers in,” Ajang said.

The community claimed 68,097ha as their native land registered under the name of Kg Ong Kansel.

However, Ajang said their land had now shrunk to just 1,000ha, the bulk of it taken by Felda.

“We are also fighting Felda because they had acquired our land for oil palm plantations without any discussion.

“These Felda officials only came to see us after taking over our land.

“We got nothing for the loss of our land as the Felda officials did not offer compensation.”

Ajang believed the loggers are working for the same company that intruded the nearby Kg Tasik Cunex in May.

Last December, the Orang Asli at Kg Tasik Cunex protested against the logging on their native land.

On May 16, their barricades were dismantled on the directive of the state government.

“For every community like Kg Sg Papan, Kg Leyef and Kg Tasik Cunex, we have mapped out their native land and would present these maps to all government departments.

“We want both the federal and state governments to tackle and resolve the issue together. More importantly, we want to know who gave these loggers the right over our land.”

Ajang said he was disappointed that a large swathe of the Orang Asli’s native land had been intruded upon and this has affected their way of live.

“The logging has polluted the source of our clean water. We use to draw our fresh water from Sg Laba but now, the river has become too shallow to even fish in.

“We are forced to look for water elsewhere.”

He said the Orang Asli are not only defending their land but also the jungle, which is important for their survival.

“When the forest is destroyed, it will have a big impact on the lives of the Orang Asli.

“The animals would be forced out of the forest and enter the villages to look for food.

“We can’t even work on our handicraft because many tree species that we need for our handicraft are felled.” – July 19, 2019.