An Orang Asli villager from Kampung Sungai Cot has respectfully declined Tengku Ampuan Pahang Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah's offer of temporary resettlement.
In a video posted on TikTok, Juliana Jazlin Ismail, 34, explained that she must defend her community's customary land rights, adding that she would love to meet Her Highness to provide her with a handwoven gift.
Accompanied by four men, all wearing customary headgear, Juliana (above) said she would soon be meeting Pahang Menteri Besar Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail over the ongoing land dispute.
"I want my customary land rights, for Kampung Sungai Cot, for Orang Asli all over Malaysia - that's all I want," she said.
Earlier today, Her Highness had issued an invitation to Orang Asli families from Kampung Sungai Cot to relocate to her land in Kuala Wau, Maran.
Comptroller of the Royal Household for the Sultan of Pahang, Zahari Yahya, said Her Highness had also provided assurances that their welfare will be protected and that they will not be marginalised.
He said Her Highness' offer extended to any Orang Asli families in need of shelter or a new settlement, subject to her royal consent and existing laws.
Not a resolution to land issues
In a separate response, an environmental NGO said that Her Highness' offer of temporary resettlement does not equate to a resolution to land issues.
In a statement for the Organisation for the Preservation of National Heritage Malaysia (Peka), lawyers Rajesh Nagarajan and Sachpreetraj Singh conveyed their respect for Her Highness and her intentions, but noted various issues.
"The palace’s compassion is not in question. But compassion directed at relocation, rather than recognition, risks doing gently what bulldozers do brutally: removing the Orang Asli from the lands that are theirs by law, by history, and by right.
"The Orang Asli of Kampung Sungai Cot do not ask for a new place to live. They ask to keep the one they have," they said today.
Rajesh and Sachpreetraj pointed to legal provisions and court decisions that affirm the Orang Asli people's rights in their customary and ancestral lands.
"The persistent failure of state governments - including the Pahang government - to exercise these powers is the root cause of every dispute of this kind, from Kampung Sungai Baru to Kampung Kelaik to Rompin and now Kampung Sungai Cot," they asserted.
They stressed that the offer of relocation only strengthens these failures by converting rights-holding communities into tenants-at-will, which further signals to developers that the solution to land disputes with Orang Asli is to relocate them.
Instead, they called on the Pahang Royal Council to "lend Her Highness' considerable moral authority to the cause of gazetting and legal recognition of the community's existing lands, which would be a legacy far more enduring than any relocation".
They also urged the Pahang government to halt any demolition or eviction in Kampung Sungai Cot until the issue of the community's customary claim is resolved through gazettement under Sections 6 and 7 of the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954.
As for Putrajaya, they said it must implement reforms enhancing customary land rights.
Call for federal intervention
On July 17, Kampung Sungai Cot villagers, including Juliana and her seven-year-old daughter, arrived at Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's residence in Kajang after two days of walking.
According to the New Straits Times, the villagers were joined by NGOs in calling for federal intervention in a land dispute that has been ongoing since 2015, when villagers claimed that the Pahang government sold their ancestral land to a developer.
Rajesh claimed that a few homes in the village had been demolished amid land clearing and logging activities.
Affected families were not provided with temporary shelter after the destruction of their homes, he alleged. - Mkini
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