ORANG Asli blockades against planters and loggers will be torn down next week by the Kelantanese authorities, said Temiar tribe activists in Gua Musang.

The order comes barely a month after the federal government announced that it will start talks with the state to solve land rights conflicts that have broken out between the Temiar community and agri-businesses in Gua Musang.

Kelantan Indigenous Peoples Network (JKOAK) chief Mustafa Along said the order was communicated through Gua Musang police personnel, who visited two of the blockades this morning.

They had visited both the Cawas and Kaleg blockades at about 10am to convey these instructions. Mustafa is in charge of the Cawas barricade, which stops loggers going to the Perias forest reserve.

The kaleg blockade is against planters operating in the Balah forest, while the kegeeg barricade blocks access to the Gunung Stong reserve.

“I wasn’t at my post this morning as I had other affairs. But activists at Cawas told me that Gua Musang police visited them and told them that state government will demolish the blockade next week. Either on the 27th or 28th,” Mustafa said when contacted.

“We were given time to either vacate the blockade and remove it ourselves or the authorities will do it.

“But we are unsure which agency will do it since the police said the orders came from state government,” he said.

Mustafa said that the activists will not resist and the police did not say whether anyone will be arrested.

In 2016, some 41 JKOAK activists were detained for putting up a blockade near where the one in kaleq is now located. The activists were later released without charge.

“Regardless of whether they tear down our blockades or not, we will just up new ones,” said Mustafa.

The activists are embroiled in a conflict with loggers and planters over land rights to forests the community claims as their customary land.

The stand-offs have led to blockades and tense confrontations between activists, and loggers and planters for access to the rich forests of Ulu Kelantan.

JKOAK said loggers and plantation companies have destroyed their communal land, which is their source of food, clean water, medicine and is critical to their identity and religion.

The problem lies in the fact that the Kelantan government does not recognise the Temiar’s claims on customary land in Gua Musang, thus allowing it to be encroached by outsiders.

The blockades also do not have support of all Temiar in Gua Musang as some say the community depends on the plantations for income.

The federal government has pledged to begin talks with Kelantan and the Orang Asli to resolve competing claims between the planters, the state government and the community. – August 25, 2018.