That the JHEOA, through its local officers, have been ‘active’ in the matter of
logging in some districts is not a closely guarded secret. In fact, some time
ago, the Johor Menteri Besar had accused the state JHEOA of carrying out
illegal activities and wanted the federal government to help investigate the
matter. He said the Department had been giving out logging concessions
without consulting the state government. In one case, he added, the
Department gave out a 10-year logging contract to one Goh Ah Seng
without referring the matter to the state (New Straits Times 12.9.1996).
More recently in Selangor, a JHEOA officer sanctioned the logging of an
Orang Asli area in Semenyih on the contention that Orang Asli were to be
resettled there.
Apart from outright logging activities, Orang Asli now face ‘selective
harvesting’ of their traditional resources. Illegal loggers now go for their
high-valued durian and tualang trees (the latter being used by honey bees
to build their hives on). Others harvest the petai trees belonging to the
Orang Asli on the grounds that the trees were “planted by the bears and
the tigers and so are free-for-all to anyone”.
Perhaps a direct denial to Orang Asli rights to their traditional resource
rights can be seen in the Forest Department’s practice of tendering our
annual licences or ‘bunds’ for the collection and trade in petai and rattan. The
presumption is that all forest resources belong to the Forest Department,
which has the right to sell the rights for their extraction to the highest bidder,
and the Orang Asli who harvest them are regarded as mere labourers of the
license-holders. Clearly, therefore, there are state authorities that refuse to
acknowledge Orang Asli rights to their traditional resources.
2.1.6
Problems related to Land Titling
In the past 15 years there have been many pronunciations in the press by
politicians and government leaders that all Orang Asli will be titled ‘soon’.
In fact, in 1996 the JHEOA, through its then Director-General Haji Ikram
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ORANG ASLI – RIGHTS, PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS