'Kelantan will stop logging if it receives petroleum royalty'

The lack of petroleum royalty flowing into Kelantan from Putrajaya is among the reasons the state government has to resort to logging, Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah said today.

The Kelantan deputy menteri besar said the federal government should therefore hasten its petroleum royalty payouts if it "really cared about the plight of the Orang Asli" in the state.

"The federal government is supposed to make prompt royalty payments – the lack of it is among the reasons we have to resort to logging, due to limited state resources.

"If we get the royalty due to us, maybe we can stop logging," he told a press conference in Kota Bharu today.

Amar was responding to Putrajaya's lawsuit against the Kelantan government filed last week for violating the land rights of the Temiar community in Gua Musang.

In announcing the lawsuit, attorney-general Tommy Thomas said the state government and its agencies had granted logging rights in Pos Simpor to private companies without consulting the Temiar community or offering them compensation.

It seeks legal recognition of Temiar customary land in Pos Simpor, and injunctions to prevent private entities from encroaching on and destroying customary land for commercial profit.

'RM700m a year, and problem solved'

According to Amar, the petroleum royalties due to Kelantan are estimated to be between RM500 million and RM700 million annually, while logging only brings in a fraction of the amount, between RM100 million to RM120 million.

"If we received the royalty, we can cover this. Maybe we can stop logging altogether, because the matter is not political.

"If they (federal government) give Kelantan about RM700 million a year, then problem solved. The Orang Asli and their land will not be disturbed," he said.

At present, Amar noted, the Kelantan government does not allow logging to be carried out within settlement and cultivation areas.

"The Orang Asli are free to go in and out of the forest, and take the jungle produce any time they like. They don't need permits for that."

Amar added, however, that the state government does not recognise the concept of customary land.

"We recognise their rights to graze the forests and their cultivation areas, we just don't call it customary land.

"We had asked Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin to do research on the Temiar Orang Asli a few months ago, and the results submitted to the state government showed that the Orang Asli were just asking for their inherited land," he said.

"We do not call it customary land. It encompasses the land they built their settlements on and cultivated. We estimate that this amounts to about six acres per family.

"That is the state government policy. It is just that in some places, it has not been gazetted, hence the technical issues that have arisen." - Mkini