Orang Asli Want Back Rubber Trees

KUALA LUMPUR: A group of 40 Orang Asli from Perak came to the Human Rights Commission yesterday to ask for help to regain the rights to their rubber trees.

Represented by Pasir Pinji state assemblyman Su Keong Siong, the villagers from Kampung Ulu Gerantum, 4km from Gopeng, said an agreement signed by the village development and security committee (JKKK) in 2005 to allow a company to tap the rubber trees on their ancestral land was made without their knowledge or consent.

Furthermore, they said the company had stopped paying them the promised compensation of 25 sen per tree a few months ago. Ten sen of the money was supposed to go to the JKKK.

Village action committee chairman Bah Ya Ngah @ Bah Ching Teng said most of the villagers were unaware of the agreement.

According to the Aboriginal Peoples Act, the Orang Asli cannot sign any agreement pertaining to their land without the consent of the director-general for Orang Asli Affairs. If consent has not been given, the agreement is void.

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