The Council condemned the arrests and detention of the Orang Asli. “It was an act of atrocity,” it said in a statement.
Council head, Adrian Banie Lasimbang, further demanded in the statement that the Kelantan Government halt all timber activities in the Orang Asli’s ancestral domain.
“It should gazette such land as Orang Asli reserve,” he said. “It’s long overdue.”
Lasimbang described the arrests as testament of a failed government. “The Orang Asli are merely protecting their homeland,” he said.
The action by the state government and the authorities were akin to “ethnic cleansing” of the Orang Asli, he added. “The state is denying the Orang Asli their rights to the forest and ancestral land.”
He pointed out that land was life for the indigenous peoples.
“Denying the indigenous peoples their land was denying their right to life,” said Lasimbang. “This is a clear violation of the rights of the Orang Asal.”
It shows the failure of both the state and federal governments in discharging their fiduciary duties. “They are supposed to protect the Orang Asal, the most vulnerable segment of society,” he said.
He referred to the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). It has explicitly laid down the fundamentals on indigenous peoples’ rights and standards.
Malaysia has obligations, having made commitments, under the UN Human rights charter.
The DAP Sabah leader disclosed he visited the Orang Asli flashpoint in Kelantan several years ago.
“The Orang Asli were already grief-stricken over rapid destruction of the forest,” he recalled. “There was rampant logging and massive conversion of forest to oil palm plantations.”
The Orang Asli warned about flash floods but nobody cared. “Soon enough the big Kelantan floods happened,” said Lasimbang. “Yet after all that happened, the state government doesn’t seem to care about environment degradation.”
He believes the Orang Asli were trying “to tell them to stop”. “But instead they are arrested,” he said. “They are not terrorists.”
The arrest of 47 Temiar Orang Asli in Gua Musang, Kelantan has sparked widespread anger in the country.
The arrests came after a notice from the Forestry Department on a blockade the Orang Asli erected to stop loggers from destroying their forest homes.
The blockade was reportedly the last resort “to save their homeland from destruction”.
Earlier, the Orang Asli lodged their complaints with the state government on logging activities.
They also sent a memorandum to the state government.