• • 2.1 Right to culture and identity; and Right to security. RIGHTS TO LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES It is clear that the legislators of our Federal Constitution and the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954 intended that the Orang Asli enjoy customary rights to their traditional lands and the resources found therein. Recent court decisions have also upheld these noble and just intentions. However, the situation today does not measure up to the expectations of our early legislators. 2.1.1 Insecure Land Tenure A review of the land-ownership status of the 149,000 Orang Asli living in 869 villages in the peninsula will immediately reveal not only the general non-recognition of Orang Asli rights to their customary lands but a worrying trend whereby whatever security the Orang Asli may have to some lands in the past, even this is being whittled away. The following table, with data from the JHEOA and the Ministry of Lands and Mines, demonstrate this phenomenon. From Table 1, we note that only 19,222.15 hectares have been gazetted as Orang Asli reserves in accordance with the Aboriginal Peoples Act. This represents only 15.1 per cent of the total land area (127,698.54 hectares) in 2003 that, in the eyes of the authorities, are Orang Asli inhabited places, Orang Asli areas or Orang Asli reserves as stipulated in the same Aboriginal Peoples Act. Orang Asli are also said to be occupying 9,873.04 hectares of land without authorisation while 644.17 hectares are said to be legally owned by Orang Asli by way of individual lands titles. That is to say, as of 31 December 2003, only 0.5 per cent of Orang Asli had titles to their lands (and most these Orang Asli have done so on their own accord). 22 ORANG ASLI – RIGHTS, PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS