GUA MUSANG, Sept 18 — Alarmed by the rampant land clearing near their settlement to make way for agricultural activites, the Orang Asli residents of the Temiar tribe in Kampung Kelaik, Pos Blau, here are urging the state government to gazette their native customary land.

A resident, Uda Busu, 42, claimed that only 100 settlers are left at the settlement from the initial 200 because most of them had to move to the nearby iron ore mining areas as food and forest products were becoming scarce.

According to him, the settlement which had been inhabited by his ancestors for years, is now surrounded by various agricultural projects such as durian and oil palm estates as well as vegetable farms.

"Recently, the residents’ rambutan, rubber and durian farms in Kuala Cenroi (Pos Blau) were destroyed by the company and we were not given compensation. We do not know who to approach to claim for compensation.

"If the land is gazetted as our land, we will not have this problem but now we are treated like outsiders. We are also Malaysians, the authorities should meet us to discuss before giving permission to the company involved,” he said when met by reporters in Kampung Kelaik, Pos Blau recently.

Another resident, Billy Ibrahim, 39, said he was very worried over the fate of the people living at the settlement and urged that the gazetting of the customary land be resolved immediately.

"We appeal for the cooperation of those in authority in the country to declare that the Orang Asli of Kampung Kelaik hold customary rights to the land.

"Now we are tightly squeezed and maybe after this we will soon be forced to live on trees, under bridges or by the roadside,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kelantan Orang Asli Villages Network (JKOAK) deputy chairman Nasir Dollah, 36, said the gazetting of Orang Asli land would guarantee that the community’s settlement area would not be encroached.

"If there is no black and white, of course the area that we consider to be Orang Asli land could be taken away any time. In other states the land have been gazetted but not our settement here,” he said. — Bernama