IN BREAKTHROUGH MOVE, MAHATHIR AGREES TO MEET LONG-SNUBBED ‘ORANG ASLI’ ACTIVISTS: ‘THIS IS A FIRST FOR ANY PRIME MINISTER’

IN a first for any Malaysian government, the prime minister has agreed to meet with Orang Asli activists who protested outside the office today against logging and plantation operations on their communal land.

Orang Asli civil society groups said previous prime ministers met the community in the past but only in formal, scheduled meetings, and never in a demonstration.

“This is a first for any prime minister,” said Centre for Orang Asli Concerns coordinator Dr Colin Nicholas.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad today surprised activists from the Temiar tribe from Gua Musang when he agreed to meet them at 3.30pm.

This was communicated to the activists via Dr Mahathir’s political secretary, Abu Bakar Yahya, when the latter met about 200 individuals at the front gates of the Prime Minister’s Department in Putrajaya.

The activists, from the Kelantan Indigenous Peoples Network (JKOAK), originally intended to only pass their memorandum to Abu Bakar.

The group was then scheduled to return to Gua Musang, Kelantan, at noon.

However, while receiving the memorandum, Abu Bakar told them that Dr Mahathir is willing to meet them after Friday prayers at 3.30pm.

Orang Asli from Gua Musang in Putrajaya today. The community want the government to settle the long-standing issue of encroachment on customary land in Kelantan. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Kamal Ariffin, August 10, 2018.

This announcement was welcomed by the activists.

“We drove here for six hours and this is an opportunity we’ve waited for, for so long. So, we’ll wait a little while more,”  JKOAK leader Mustafa Along told his colleagues.

Mustafa, JKOAK youth leader Nur Mohd Syafiq Dendi Abdullah and three Temiar community chiefs or tok batin will meet the prime minister.

Mustafa and the other JKOAK activists arrived this morning to submit a memorandum demanding that the new federal government step in to resolve long-standing conflicts between the community and logging and plantation companies.

The stand-offs have led to blockades and tense confrontations between activists, and loggers and planters for access to the rich jungles of Ulu Kelantan.

The Temiar in Gua Musang said loggers and plantation companies have destroyed their communal land, which is a source of food, clean water, medicine and critical to their identity and religion.

Mustafa and other JKOAK activists maintained a five-month blockade on a dirt road leading from Kuala Betis to the plantations to stop the estates from expanding.

The blockade was destroyed on Saturday by a group of chainsaw-wielding menbelieved to be casual workers for the plantations.

Kelantan, unlike other states, has not gazetted any land for its Orang Asli.

– https://www.themalaysianinsight.com