Taiping High Court upholds Orang Asli land rights in Gerik, limits claims to core settlement area

TAIPING, Oct 29 — The Taiping High Court has ruled in favour of the Orang Asli Temiar tribe from Kampung Tasik Asal Cunex, recognising their customary community rights to land in Gerik based on their long-standing occupation.

Free Malaysia Today (FMT) reported that Judicial Commissioner Noor Ruwena Nurdin clarified that the tribe’s claim cannot cover all areas where they have previously planted, foraged, or hunted. Instead, the claimable land must be specifically marked and limited to the area that forms their actual settlement.

Ruwena stated that the defendants — the Perak government, Hulu Perak district and land administrator, the state land and mines department director, and the state forestry department director — have a duty to protect the plaintiffs' customary land rights.

She noted that the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954 allows the Orang Asli to remain on their land within a reservation, even if other laws suggest otherwise.

“This provision is a ‘red-flag’ of sorts that should indicate to the government agencies that the Orang Asli have a right to remain in such reserves, although these are not Orang Asli reserves,” she told FMT in her 44-page judgement released last week.

Ruwena noted that Orang Asli living in reserves have a legitimate expectation for the state and its agencies to recognise and respect their way of life, customs, and traditions.

In 2019, Pam Yeek and 127 others from Kampung Tasik Asal Cunex in Perak filed a suit against four state authorities and Sediavisi Jaya Sdn Bhd, a company licensed to log in the disputed area. They argued that the state authorities had a duty to protect their interests and claimed the company had trespassed on roughly 12,000 hectares, suing it for trespass.

The company contended that the 80 hectares approved by the state was not Orang Asli land, as it was under the forestry department's control.

Ruwena ultimately ruled that while the plaintiffs have customary rights to the land, no trespass was committed, as the logging sites were located 8km from the plaintiffs' settlement.

In their defense, the first four defendants argued that the land claimed as "tanah adat" had never been officially designated or marked as an Orang Asli reserve. Ruwena noted that the state had already allocated and gazetted land as an Orang Asli reserve at the RPS Dala settlement, near another settlement where the plaintiffs later relocated.

According to FMT, in conclusion, Ruwena had said that the state authorities did not breach their duties by not designating Kampung Asal Tasik Cunex as an Orang Asli reserve and by allowing logging to proceed. All defendants, except Sediavisi Jaya, have appealed to the Court of Appeal.

Lawyers G. Nadaraja and Hanita Ramachandran represented the Orang Asli, while federal counsel Sharifah Izura Syed Mansor acted for the state authorities, and Fitri Asmuni and Nur Adnen Yahya appeared for the company.