TENSION is still bristling in the jungles around Kg Tasik Cunex in Gerik, Perak, where Orang Asli and loggers are engaged in another face-off one week after the state government dismantled the Temiar tribesmen’s blockade.

On Thursday, Orang Asli residents, with a researcher from Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM), were engaged in a shouting match with three loggers from a logging company operating in the area, who came up to the village and began hurling accusations at them.

The Orang Asli said the visit was unprovoked and they were basically there to heckle the villagers.

SAM field researcher Meor Razak Meor Abdul Rahman said one of the loggers riled up the tribesmen by saying that they didn’t have a claim to ancestral land that they had been occupying for centuries. 

“There is no such thing as ancestral land,” the logger said, according to Meor Razak who related the incident to The Malaysian Insight.

The Orang Asli then shouted back but the logger merely said there is still plenty of trees.

“He told them to ‘look around, there’s so much of greenery’,” Meor Razak said.

The researcher then intervened and explained to the loggers that it is not about how much greenery is still visible but that Orang Asli relied on the land and jungle for food, building materials for their homes, and other resources for their daily needs, and that all these have been destroyed by logging.

“I told them, you in the city, you have an ATM where you can draw cash, the jungle is their ATM, they don’t have cash, what is there (in the jungle) is all they have,” Meor Razak said.

The logger then accused the villagers of posting lies on Facebook about loggers destroying the Orang Asli’s water supply. 

A tribesman retorted saying that this was the truth – that thee river water is murkier and its flow reduced.

Logging also damaged the pipes Orang Asli installed to channel water from the river to their homes.

The Orang Asli villagers then went into a shouting frenzy when the logger accused them of being liars.

“Go back to where you came from and leave our land alone! You are a liar, don’t touch our ancestral land, go back!” they shouted, according to Meor.

The Temiar Orang Asli at Kg Tasik Cunex have been protesting against logging which began in their area in December.

On May 16, a blockade they erected against loggers was dismantled with the support of the state government, which did not recognise their claims to customary land.

Perak Mentari Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu said checks showed that the land was state land and not gazetted as native customary land.

In Thursday’s incident, the loggers also tried to harass the village headman (tok matin) Roslan Itam. 

They told him that he didn’t have any certification to be village head.

“Where is your certification? Where is the government acknowledgement?”

Roslan replied that he was elected by the villagers and did not need any certification from the government.

A logger then called the headman a liar, which made Roslan angry. He then walked off shouting, “Go back! We don’t want you here! Leave this place”. 

The logger did not relent and continued, telling other villagers that they needed to follow the law and learn about the law, pointing out that they were uneducated as they had not gone to school.

“Go to the city and go to school, tell your children to go to school. Don’t sit here and be lazy,” the logger said, according to Meor Razak and the villagers.

The villagers shouted and told the man to leave. 

The whole episode lasted for about 20 minutes before the three men left the village. 

Roslan then told The Malaysian Insight that they are losing patience with the loggers. 

Even before the blockade was dismantled last week, other blockades were built since February to protect what they claim as their customary land.

Each time a blockade is torn down, the Orang Asli will build a new one. This goes on and on, repeatedly, they told The Malaysian Insight.

Recently, police appeared with the loggers to help the timber company workers tear down the blockades. 

The Orang Asli will continue to resist, Roslan said, as they always have. – May 25, 2019.