The destruction last week of an Orang Asli blockade that was set up to prevent logging in their forest land in Gua Musang, Kelantan, brings into focus the growing confrontation between indigenous peoples, who are being pushed to the brink of survival, on the one hand and extractive industries working together with public authorities to tap a depleting base of natural resources on the other.

The struggle epitomises the extinction of a way of life that revolves around the sacred nature of all creation in the face of a “civilisation” that is built upon the notion that creating wealth is an inherently sound motivation for action.

In the crackdown in Gua Musang on Nov 29, 47 Orang Asli protesters were arrested for trespassing on a permanent forest reserve.

The blockade had been reportedly set up on Sept 26 by over 200 Orang Asli to prevent timber from being taken out of the Balah Forest Reserve. The Orang Asli said that the logging was affecting their source of water.

At the root of the conflict between Orang Asli communities and various state administrations is the treatment of indigenous peoples as tenants on government property instead of the rightful owners of their customary lands.

This is despite a landmark ruling by the Court of Appeal, in the case of Sagong Tasi and 6 Ors v Kerajaan Negeri Selangor and 3 Ors on Sept 19, 2005, that the Temuans, an Orang Asli community, do indeed have proprietary rights over their customary lands.

For the record, in the Sagong Tasi case, the defendents — the Selangor and federal governments, United Engineers Malaysia and the Malaysian Highway Authority — withdrew their appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision in 2009 and 2010, to leave the historic judgment intact.

Nevertheless, as the precarious plight of the indigenous peoples demonstrates, all the legal safeguards of their rights are inadequate to protect them from the will of the authorities that are intent on accessing the resources that lie in the domain of the Orang Asli.

As tension was escalating in Gua Musang, Malaysian Bar president Steven Thiru reminded the authorities in a statement on Oct 14 of their constitutional and moral duties to promote the Orang Aslis’ interests.

In summing up the Bar’s position, he said: “…we call upon the Federal and State Governments to revise their land, resource and environmental policies in a manner that gives full effect to the legal pronouncements of the Malaysian superior courts recognising Orang Asli customary rights to their lands, territories and resources.”

Concerning the current situation in Kelantan, a Malaysiakini report noted that while the Kelantan government had gazetted the land where the Orang Asli community lives, it does not recognise the community’s customary land that it relies on for sustenance.

The news site said that the Kelantan government insisted that the logging activities were a legitimate source of state revenue while the Orang Asli community objected that this was destroying their livelihoods as they lived off the land.

Shocked at the irony of the official response to the blockade, some 67 civil society groups, representing a virtual who’s who of public interest groups, have called on the Kelantan government to resume talks with the Orang Asli community, recognise the indigenous people’s rights to customary land, and to leave the Balah and other forest reserves intact.

“Allowing logging in forest reserves is a mockery to the concept of forest reserves. Clearing the forest and depriving the Orang Asli of their land, on which they depend for their livelihood and cultural practices, is tantamount to cultural genocide,” the groups said in a joint statement.

On Dec 1, reports emerged of the remaining two blockades being demolished and seven new arrests made. At press time, however, all 54 Orang Asli had been released.

Halfway across the globe, another confrontation between indigenous peoples and the authorities, on a more epic scale, is making international headlines.

In North Dakota, protesters have spent at least seven months rallying against plans to route a petroleum pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, saying it poses a threat to water resources and sacred Native American sites, Reuters reported.

The protesters, who call themselves “water protectors”, include members of 90 Native American nations as well as environmentalists and even Hollywood actors. Thousands of Native American supporters have set up camps near the project site to try and block its passage through the Sioux reservation, the UK’s The Guardian newspaper has reported.

The Dakota Access pipeline is a US$3.7 billion project that would transport 470,000 barrels of crude oil per day from an oilfield in North Dakota over 1,886km to a refinery near Chicago.

Writing in The Guardian last week, the free-spirited singer-songwriter Neil Young and American actress Daryl Hannah called the Standing Rock protest a symbolic moment for all those who seek to protect the planet.

“We arrived at this unprecedented historical gathering of over 500 tribes and thousands of others standing on the frontlines to protect water, to state the most basic human truth, to say water is life,” they wrote.

“Standing together in prayer to protect water displays a deeply rooted awareness of life’s interconnected nature, and of the intrinsic value and import of traditional ways. This growing movement stems from love, it is the most human instinct to protect that which we love.”

This attitude of reverence for life makes all the difference between the conflict-generating business approach to accumulating wealth and the harmonious nature of a heart-centred community seeking to protect its relationship with nature.

The contrast was poignantly captured by Raul Garcia, an environmental lawyer from Washington, DC, in a blog post on his visit to the protest site.

“I saw that this assembly of indigenous tribes and supporters is among the most serene and peaceful groups of people I have been around. They are not unified by indignity. What unifies the thousands of water protectors who are bracing for the incoming winter is devotion and prayer. In fact, elders and tribal leaders told us repeatedly that tribal camps aren’t protests; these are ceremonies being held at a sacred place,” Garcia wrote on the EarthJustice website.

“The respect of the people overcame any thought of animosity, and the solemnity of the place and the need to protect nature inspired peaceful unity. This indigenous vision of sacred air, sacred water and sacred land was striking to me. I live in Washington, DC, where polarised rhetoric dominates the landscape, and where, since the presidential election season, distasteful attacks are rampant. Visiting the camps and understanding the spirituality driving this struggle against corporate profit was an eye-opening and humbling experience,” he said.

In this age of catastrophic environmental changes, it may be timely to rediscover our sacred relationship with nature.

R B Bhattacharjee is associate editor at The Edge Malaysia

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