Describing the authorities’s action as “strong arm tactics”, C4 director Cynthia Gabriel said this action was taken despite Kelantan Deputy Menteri Besar Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah promising he will personally head to the blockade to discuss the issue further with the Orang Asli Community.

That meeting, however, never took place.

In a statement issued today, Gabriel said C4 had worked with these communities closely and made efforts to bring officals to Gua Musang and hear the concerns of the Orang Asli.

There were pledges to uphold good governance and protect the rights of these poor and marginalised people, and together find peaceful ways out of the impasse, she said.

“These lofty promises were broken yesterday, as the Kelantan Forestry Department and police sent approximately 100 officers with firearms to break down the three logging blockades,” Gabriel said.

She pointed out that the Kelantan menteri besar had said forest revenue is the biggest contributor with a total of RM172.96 million, or 29.12 per cent of the entire state revenue. The state had endorsed in its last sitting new forest areas to be logged and estimated a revenue of RM539.8mil in its 2016 budget.

Kelantan has 3,331 workers in timber industries in the state. It recorded 887,666 cubic metres in log production that year, second only to Pahang.

“So it is deeply troubling to know that Kelantan has chosen to be aggressive, to priotise profits before people and to rough up the Orang Asli this way, whose only “crime” is to protect their land and their homes in which they have lived for hundreds of years.

“We condemn the arrests . Targetting them like brutal criminals is a black mark for the Kelantan state government, who espouses Islam as its core principles in governance. Where do these values go when it comes to unbridled logging in the state?” she said.

Gabriel also demanded the Orang Asli be released immediately and that dialogue and conversations continue to find an amicable solution to the problem.