Copyright 2001 Reuters
August 28, 2001
Story by Marty Logan

BUKIT TAMPOI, Malaysia - Sagong Tasi sits barefoot and cross-legged on a thatch-roofed platform remembering the days when British colonial officials on Norton motorbikes would cruise into his village.

Today, a four-lane highway bisecting Bukit Tampoi, carries speeding travellers past Sagong and his neighbours to one of modern Malaysia's most majestic developments - the gleaming Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

But now the 1996 land deal that made way for the highway is at the heart of a legal challenge focusing on the right of the country's native peoples to own the land they live on - without title.

Sagong, 69, and his fellow aboriginal or "orang asli" neighbours say they were shortchanged by officials offering cash for the 38 acres (15 hectares) of village land needed for the road.

"If they win... development on orang asli lands will have to treat the orang asli and the developers on equal terms," says rights activist Colin Nicholas, author of "The Orang Asli and the Contest for Resources".

Bukit Tampoi is 50 km (30 miles) from the capital Kuala Lumpur. The airport is a further 30 km (20 miles) down the highway.

A LEGAL FIRST

The orang asli decision to fight the proposed deal is the first time that the issue of native land ownership and legal title has been argued in court in the southeast Asian nation.

Malaysia's orang asli community numbers 116,000, less than one percent of its 23 million people.

Only aboriginals in Peninsular or West Malaysia are known as "orang asli" or original people. They come under central government control and as a group, have no legal land rights.

Those in East Malaysia, on Borneo island, go by the name of specific groups, such as Iban and Penan, and have traditional land rights spelled out in law.

More than three-quarters of orang asli live in rural areas - farming, fishing or gathering forest products to earn a living.

While they have gained from the country's rapid development since independence in 1957, aboriginals still trail the main ethnic groups - Malay, Indian and Chinese - by most measures.

Female life expectancy at birth is 20 years lower than the national average, literacy rates are below half and more than four in five live under the poverty line - 175 ringgit ($46) monthly income - compared with less than 10 percent nationally.

Despite such deficiencies, orang asli are increasingly focused on another issue - the compensation offered when they are ordered to make way for the roads, dams and other mega-projects underpinning much of Malaysia's development.

"The government has seen that the orang asli can fight - even if we don't get the compensation and (don't) win the case," says Ilam Senin, a leader of Sagong's village, standing in the shade of a cocoa tree and leafing through court documents.

Villagers filed their case after Malaysia refused to raise its compensation offer. The state paid $6,579 for each house affected by the highway but the orang asli sought an additional $7,895 per acre of land.

FEAR OF PRECEDENT

Experts say the government refused for fear the move might be read as an acknowledgement of orang asli land rights.

A decision on the challenge is expected within two months.

Nicholas says the case is significant no matter what its outcome.

"If they lose, it becomes a clear statement to the orang asli that the law says 'you have no rights'. That can be a real strong motivating factor for the orang asli."

Natives here rarely have title to land though they may have lived on it for hundreds of years. Malaysian states, which have jurisdiction on land issues, have declared some areas "orang asli reserve", giving them at least nominal protection.

But Nicholas says that that designation can be removed at a state government's whim, something happening more frequently.

Between 1990 and 1999, reserve areas in Selangor - one of the smallest but fastest-developing of Malaysia's 13 states - fell by over half or 8,400 ha (21,000 acres), he says.

Orang asli Senator Long Jidin says natives have been treated unfairly in the past, but compensation is improving.

"Before, some state governments just ignored land rights. Now in Pahang they are given titles to the land," said the appointed senator from his office in central Pahang state.

Nicholas says the change is really a government ploy, with states swapping large pieces of land rich in enough trees and other resources to sustain entire communities for much smaller areas where natives can only farm or work at menial jobs.

Activists and orang asli say that's the case at Kuala Kubu Baru, where a dam on the Selangor River is slated to provide power for the Kuala Lumpur area by 2003.

The state offered orang asli families individual title to land totalling a fifth of the area they have traditionally called home. They rejected the offer.

Nicholas says the issue is not just a numbers game.

"When you put them on the new piece of land, they don't know it. The social system breaks down because the elders are no longer respected for their knowledge, which is based on the land," Nicholas says.

But Senator Long says his people must leave old ways behind.

"In our world now there is no more jungle, no more land. Numbers are increasing and the development is very fast. Orang asli can no longer live like animals inside the jungle." Error: Unable to read footer file.