In June 2016 I revisited this tribe community deep in the rainforest. After the major East Coast Floods in Kelantan, Malaysia in 2014/15. More than 200,000 people were affected, it was the worse flood ever recorded. Mainly areas affected were tribes in Kelantan and Terengganu also some major cities, they were left in hunger with no food for weeks before help arrived via private relief aid teams. Some of the tribe leaders remembered me from my last trip here and they asked me to join them early the next day to see something they are planning.
“So why do you have this blockade?”
“We have been here for a long time, these are our tribal lands. We are trying to protect our land, our heritage and our home here. Mainly to block the trucks from going further into the village and forest. These are the logging trucks, from rich logging companies. They want to get into our forest and cut down all the trees, by ruining the lands which are causing floods and landslides. We have even made a police report to stop them from coming in.”
“Why the need to protect your heritage?”
“Us Temiar people our heritage is what we value most, that’s our identity, our culture. In the forest we have our ancestral graves, the spirits are there, rivers have life, nature with herbs and the land for food. Our land is life to us. The ancient graves are of our family, ancestors and they have been there since the Japanese times, it’s part of our history.”
The forest is also our only income, we collect herbs, we farm and even the rivers are important for fish. Did you see the rivers today? Some are gone, you only see brown water today with no fish. The fish are all gone now and some just small once. So if we have no food or income, how do we survive? The loggers come in and destroy our rivers to make way for their trucks, they destroy the forest and our lands.
“How about the government or the local authorities, did you get assistance from them?”
“No nothing from them yet, they are sitting on their lazy asses, they don’t care about us, this has been our issue with them for the last 50 years now, still nothing is done to protect us. Most of them are corrupt. The land office gives licenses to this loggers without acknowledging us or checking with us on the lands, this was our agreement before. Licenses can be bought too.
We have already made an official police report and we have sent letters to the Land Office and JAKOA (Department of Tribes Development) in Kelantan. We have pleaded with them and send many letters, three times now but still no action has been taken. We are simple people sir, we don’t know much about the modern society or technicalities, so we took our own actions! We are tired waiting. So we put up this blockade. And this is just the beginning, there will be more blocks coming, we will gather more of our people to support us in this.”
“Don’t they know that this is the cause of floods and landslides?”
“Yes of course they do, but they do nothing about it. Most of the Land Officers in Kelantan are corrupted. They still give out logging licences to any private company with money. You see, the trees here are the best wood in Malaysia, the Meranti, and Merbau are very expensive, mainly as an export, so it’s all for the money, this is big business for them, the wood go to many countries in Asia.”
“What will happen after all the trees are gone? Remember how the floods destroyed so many homes here? We are not the only one affected, even the city folks are. Deforestation caused the floods. It’s a big government cover-up today saying the floods were due to the rain alone, no it was due to the deforestation. They lie to the media and the people.”
“Yes I remember, I was here, it was a very bad time after the floods, so much destruction and it was difficult to see. So how about today, did the logging reduce since then?”
“Haha sir, it doubled, more trucks after the flood! Since last year there are many more trucks and hills getting bald. They come in with big trucks now, put machines everywhere, tearing everything apart, dirt roads and carving hills, the foreign workers disrespect us, drive over the graves, destroy rivers and leave their filth everywhere.”
“When the monsoon comes it will flood again with worse landslides, the loggers just work during summer season and leave, during the monsoon season we have to suffer the effects, with mudslides, dirt and floods. This is our home sir, this forest is the only thing we have, we have no other place to go. Can anyone come to your homes and do the same?”
“How can the public help?”
“We will put more blockades soon for the other villages and main road where the trucks are passing. And we are going to the high court to fight for our rights. Not just for us, but for all Malaysians. The forest, the rivers, mountains and lakes belong to all of us. We need your support, let everyone know what’s really happening here. Let them hear the truth on how we are being discriminated and bullied. Let the city people know that we are Malaysian too, we need you to be our voices. We need to stand together to protect our heritage.”
I left understanding one thing, tribes are high spirited folks, kind and honest. They speak their mind. This is not just their issue, not just their fight. This is everybody’s problem. The monsoon season is coming soon, the deforestation has doubled since the last floods. So what do you think will happen to the closest cities when it’s monsoon again? Who will suffer the most?
Corruption in Malaysia is destroying the forest, killing nature, cultures are disappearing, directly affecting lives and homes. Over 200,000 fellow Malaysians were displaced last year, killing some. How many this year?
Share this post as they have no internet access or even a phone network there. No electricity or clean water still. Only you can help give them a voice. Share.
(Pos Gob, Gua Musang – Malaysia)
New update 1/10/16 –
I posted this a few months ago with an inside interview of what’s happening in Pos Gob, Kelantan. Today their worse fears has come through, the government thugs and logging companies are bullying the Orang Asli over land disputes. A few days ago they came in with chainsaws and guns to break down the blocked, shots were fired, they arrested one of the tribe activist and brought alleged police to scare the locals. No government officials have come in to assist the tribes yet.
These are Malaysians too, not squatters, immigrants or outsiders. We all have a duty to stand up for them and help be a voice together. Don’t let corrupted government officials, money hungry corporations and thugs take your freedom and nature away.
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Join their fight and head to the villages if you can.
Google Map and areas of deforestation: (Use satellite map mode. Zoom in to see just a few of the affected places)
