The Federal Constitution protects the rights of the indigenous people of Malaysia, including proprietary interest in their land itself.
But the National Land Code 1965 deems that all land is state land unless it has one of three things: A documentary land title, gazetted as a government reserve for a public purpose, or a mining permit and gazetted under a forestry-related law.
“Orang Asli customary territories that are without any form of documentary land title or a reservation status are deemed as state land,” said a 2016 report about encroachment on Orang Asli land, published by Friends of the Earth Malaysia and the Orang Asli Network of Peninsular Malaysia, both non-governmental organisations (NGO).
This means that states can use the National Land Code to issue private documentary land titles – potentially to private developers or individuals – for any Orang Asli customary land.
GAZETTING ORANG ASLI LAND
Mr Amani Williams-Hunt Abdullah, an Orang Asli lawyer and activist, told CNA that parties intending to acquire state land should rightfully visit the area to first check for existing inhabitants and activities.
“If there are any Orang Asli there, by right the land shouldn’t be alienated, but many times it does not happen this way,” said Mr Amani, widely known as Bah Tony in the Orang Asli community.
This is what happened in a legal case he handled in 2015, when land in Kampung Senta, home to the Semai tribe of Perak, was leased to a private corporation despite the clear existence of a government school there, he said.
The company served an eviction notice to Semai villagers before taking legal action against them, claiming to have obtained title to part of their customary land and considering them “trespassers”.
