ABOUT half an hour from an Orang Asli village near Jerantut in Pahang is an orchard of durian trees – some of it the prized Musang King variety – that has been carved out of the forest.

But the orchard and most of the income from the trees do not go to the local Temiar tribe despite the fact that the land the orchard sits on is being claimed in court by the Orang Asli.

“In 2016, we filed a court claim for our ancestral land which includes the land the orchard is on,” said Kg Sg Mai spokesman Yusri Ahon.

“But even while the status of the land is being disputed in court, the orchard’s owners somehow managed to get a title. The question is how can the land office give away titles on land that is being disputed?”

Kg Sg Mai’s experience is not the exception as Orang Asli settlements across the peninsula have seen their ancestral and customary lands being slowly taken away for agricultural plantations.

Orang Asli activists claim that conflicts between villages and planters are growing, with the most famous being the months-long blockade near Kuala Betis in Gua Musang, Kelantan in 2018.

However, the blockades at Kaleg are only the tip of the iceberg as there are many smaller cases of tribes such as that in Kg Sg Mai losing their ancestral land to durian planters. These are not made known to the public.

Activists told The Malaysian Insight the main reason this occurs is because state governments, like in Pahang and Kelantan, do not recognise Orang Asli claims to their ancestral, customary land or “tanah adat”.

This is despite the fact that the federal constitution recognises the right of the community to claim such lands.

As demand for durians, especially Musang King, surges in China, planters are eating away at land claimed by Orang Asli tribes to grow the thorny fruit.

“First came the loggers, then palm oil and rubber planters. Next came vegetable and fruit farmers. Today the popular crop is Musang King,” said Yusri who heads the Peninsula Orang Asli Network (JOAS).

Besides Sg Mai and Pos Tohoi, the villagers of Kg Kelaik, also in Gua Musang, have been fighting off Musang King planters, said the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC).

On the Pahang side of Fraser’s Hill, near Raub and Bentong, there are orchards close to Orang Asli settlements, said COAC executive director Colin Nicholas.

“Those orchards have legal land titles. But the origin of the land is that it has historically been used by the Orang Asli as their customary land,” said Nicholas, referring to the English term for “tanah adat”.

But because the state government does not recognise the concept of “tanah adat”, those lands can be sold to private individuals, said JOAS’ Yusri.

A land grab by another name

Tanah adat is a swathe of land surrounding an Orang Asli settlement that provides its families with food, medicine, water and religious sites.

Yusri compares the concept of “tanah adat” with that of a town for urban folk.

“You live in a house, but you have to go to town for groceries, to the clinic and to your houses of worship,” he said.

The conflicts between Orang Asli, the state governments and private companies are almost always over tanah adat, he added.

Because states do not recognise tanah adat claims, the land looks empty and unoccupied on official maps.

“So a planter can go to the district office and buy a title of that land even though it is actually the tanah adat of a nearby Orang Asli village,” said Yusri.

This is how orchard owners, such as the one near Kg Sg Mai, managed to get a land title even though its status is being disputed in court, said Yusri.

The tanah adat surrounding Kg Sg Mai has also been occupied by other plantations growing palm oil, rubber, bananas and vegetables, he said.

COAC’s Nicholas said the rush to plant Musang King is only the latest excuse in a decades-old “land grab” issue that has deprived the community of their rights.

The Malaysian Human Rights Council found that the loss of tanah adat has led to declining standards of living and health for Orang Asli communities.

“The agricultural reason is only an excuse to get land for cheap to create a land bank. Eventually some of these areas will turn into towns and these lands will be expensive.

“If they really just wanted to grow Musang King, you could rent the land and treat the Orang Asli as a landowner.

“Then you’d also get workers who will stay near your orchard and look after your trees. But it’s not about the Musang King, it’s about wanting the land.” – June 27, 2020.