Johor ruler wants state Orang Asli reserves converted to 'sultanate land'

 

Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar has urged the Johor state government to classify all Orang Asli settlements and reserves in the state as sultanate land.

He said this is to avoid the land being misused.

However, the sultanate land classification has also been the subject of scrutiny in the past.

Speaking at the opening of the first session of the Johor state legislative assembly of the year, Sultan Ibrahim said the Johor government has always been committed to improving the living conditions of the Orang Asli.

However, he said there have been disappointing cases where some Orang Asli had turned state forest reserves into large-scale oil palm and rubber plantations.

He believed this to be the work of outsiders who tried to take advantage of Orang Asli rights - some of whom allegedly made unreasonable kawasan rayau (roaming area) claims.

"I wish to remind that even though the Orang Asli's position is constitutionally protected, they are also required to obey existing laws. Forest trespassing is wrong, and Orang Asli are not exempted.

"The (state) government must be stern in taking action and carry out continuous monitoring to protect the forests' treasures and wildlife.

"I urge the (state) government to place all Orang Asli areas and reserves under the sultanate land so that no one can do as they please," he said.

He added that the state should avoid a repeat of past mistakes as was the case with the Orang Asli in Bekok.

It is unclear what case the monarch was referring to.

Sultan's written permission

Orang Asli areas and reserves are both protected under the Aboriginal Peoples Act, 1954 - which, among others, states that such land cannot be alienated or disposed of except to Orang Asli who live on such land.

State governments, however, are empowered to revoke such land status.

Meanwhile, under Section 2 of Johor's Sultanate Lands Enactment, anything classified as sultanate lands belongs to the state monarch and is not considered state property.

The enactment also provides that no part of the sultanate land can be sold, leased, or disposed of except with the sultan's written permission.

In regard to Orang Asli land, the Johor government had apparently agreed in 2017 that future request for Orang Asli reserve classification would be gazetted as sultanate land instead.

This is according to a written reply in the state legislative assembly on Dec 9, 2018. by then menteri besar Osman Sapian.

Osman had also claimed in a separate press conference that day that development was not allowed on sultanate land.

However, checks on the enactment found no such prohibition.

Under scrutiny

In late 2018, there was an attempt to convert Pulau Kukup - one of three Johor wetlands recognised by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance - into sultanate land.

This is after Pulau Kukup's status as a national park was degazetted.

The Johor royalty had assured that Pulau Kukup would remain as a park, but met resistance from Putrajaya, including then-home minister Muhyiddin Yassin who opined that Pulau Kukup should remain gazetted as a national park instead of sultanate land.

In 2019 the wetland's status as a national park reserve was restored.

Sultanate lands also came under scrutiny when part of the Sungai Pulai forest reserve - another Ramsar wetland - was converted into a golf course.

Turned down

Malaysiakini had commissioned a law firm to conduct the necessary land searches into who owned the land where the golf course was being built on.

However, despite legal requirements to respond to such queries, the Johor land office had at the time turned down the query applications.

A lawyer who specialises on land matters said that the land office's rejection would not have violated the National Land Code if the lands were sultanate lands, which are not subject to the code.

Meanwhile, on a separate matter, Sultan Ibrahim in his speech called on Johoreans to practise an eco-friendly lifestyle in order to save the environment.

He said climate change was one of the factors which caused the devastating floods which have hammered the state since early this month. - Mkini