THE Orang Asli blockades received powerful backing when Rural and Regional Development Deputy Minister Sivarasa Rasiah said the community was within its rights to protect its land.

The show of support came at a critical moment for the Gua Musang Temiar tribe, who has faced threats from logging and plantation companies over its blockades in Kelantan.

The Kelantan government has also threatened to tear down the blockades.

“These blockades have been long in existence and it is their right to protect their land,” said Sivarasa.

Sivarasa said threats and intimidation against the activists manning the blockades would not be tolerated.

“(These threats) are unlawful. If they happen again and are brought to my attention, I will bring it up to the authorities so that action can be taken,” he said.

He said this after visiting two Orang Asli blockades in Kaleg and Chawas, deep in the Ulu Kelantan forest reserve, some two hours by dirt road from Gua Musang.

The deputy minister was responding to reports by Orang Asli activists that individuals linked to logging and plantation companies had threatened them with physical harm for putting up the barricades.

The blockades have been in place for the past five months against loggers and planters who the community claims have encroached on their customary lands and destroyed forests they depend on for food and clean water.

In the latest incident on July 26, a group of men blocked the only access road to six Orang Asli hamlets near Kaleg and prevented vehicles from reaching the villages.    

The men had blocked the road with a pick-up vehicle and a lorry, and stopped teachers from traveling to a school in the Pos Tohoi village. A van that was supposed to pick up an ailing resident was also stopped from going to the village.   

The men, suspected to be linked to a plantation company, had blocked the road in retaliation to the Orang Asli’s blockade – called the Kaleg blockade – of the firm’s durian estate.

The group ended their blockade after being told to do so by the Gua Musang district police.

On June 9 and 10, the same activists claimed that the plantation workers, who were armed with rifles, had attempted to run them down with a pick-up truck.

Another activist at another blockade in Kuala Wok told Sivarasa during his visit that loggers had even brandished and fired a pistol in the air when the community attempted to stop them. – August 2, 2018.