Orang Asli oppose ECRL cutting through village, Kuala Langat Forest Reserve

The proposed alignment for the East Coast Railway Link (ECRL) is set to cut through an Orang Asli village as well as the Kuala Langat (North) Forest Reserve.

This is the same 930-hectare protected forest that the Selangor Forestry Department plans to degazette for development.

According to a map exhibited at an ECRL public inspection booth, the portion of the train line after the Jenjarom station will pass through a section of the protected enclosure.

The map also showed that the proposed track will be located 1.5km from Kampung Busut Baru and 1.2km from Kampung Bukit Cheeding - two Temuan Orang Asli villages.

This portion of the ECRL - dubbed Section C - connects Temerloh to Port Klang.

Orang Asli

Kampung Busut Baru Tok Batin (village chief) Sari Senin recounted the rude shock he had upon visiting an ECRL public inspection booth recently.

Not only did the megaproject cut through the protected forest, he observed that the track was also located on roaming areas and farming plots of his village.

“We were not informed about this by the state government,” he said when contacted.

After Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) officials verbally informed them of the project and land surveyors came by his village, Sari wrote a letter to Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari on Feb 11 indicating his village’s opposition to the move.

Sighted by Malaysiakini, it cautioned that the ECRL development will destroy the livelihoods of the Orang Asli.

“The villagers’ main source of income is as oil palm smallholders. This project will affect and destroy our lives and we will lose our income, culture, heritage and traditional way of life,” it read.

He has yet to receive a response.

“We are considering our next course of action,” Sari said.

Back in 1993, the village had relocated from its original location in Sepang after the area was developed into the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

As compensation, the government had given them a 1,000-acre plot at the present location, some 40km away.

Twenty seven years on, Kampung Busut Baru is now home to 85 Temuan families and 600 people. A total of 2,000 Orang Asli villagers live in or near the Kuala Langat (North) grounds.

Section C of the ECRL is up for public scrutiny from now until April 14.

ECRL public inspection booths are located at the Transport Ministry headquarters in Putrajaya; Land Public Transport Agency head office in Kuala Lumpur; and Land District Offices in Temerloh, Jelebu, Seremban, Sepang and Kuala Langat.

Opposition mounts

On Feb 5, the Selangor Forestry Department published a notice in several newspapers that it wanted to convert the forest reserve into a “mixed-development project” and invited stakeholders to offer their feedback within 30 days.

There was no mention of the ECRL project.

The forest reserve was gazetted in 1927.

Since then, a “Save Kuala Langat Forest Reserve” online petition has emerged.

At the time of publication, 7,550 signatures were recorded.

Environmental groups like the Malaysian Nature Society and Global Environment Centre have also opposed the move.

Cabinet ministers like Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Dr Xavier Jayakumar have objected to destroying the green lung and urged the Selangor government to reconsider the move.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department P Waythamoorthy, who oversees Jakoa, has also confirmed that de-gazetting the forest reserve for development will affect three other Orang Asli villages - Kampung Bukit Kecil, Kampung Bukit Cheeding and Kampung Bukit Kempas. - Mkini