Malaysia Court Allows Tribes to Fight Land Claim

Jakarta Globe, March 01, 2011

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Malaysia’s highest court on Tuesday allowed indigenous tribespeople from Borneo the right to challenge the acquisition of their ancestral land, in what campaigners hailed as a historic test case.

Their legal battle for native title began 12 years ago after the state government of Sarawak on Malaysian Borneo requisitioned land for the controversial Bakun dam and a timber pulpmill.

“Since we know that there are a lot of native lands which had been acquired and cases relating to such acquisition are pending in the court which are likely to be raised, we therefore decided to grant leave,” Chief Justice Zaki Azmi said.

The Federal Court said it will begin hearing the arguments on April 28. Two separate cases, dealing with each of the Borneo projects, are being heard in tandem.

Lawyer and human rights activist Baru Bian, one of the campaigners who have propelled the case to the apex of Malaysia’s justice system, welcomed the court’s decision as “an initial victory”.

“The decision to allow leave is indeed historic,” he said.

“This is the first time the power of the state government extinguishing native customary rights over land in Sarawak is challenged -- whether it is valid and constitutional.”

The test case has been brought by members of tribes including the Iban, Kayan, Kenyah and Ukit peoples, some of the many ethnic groups living on Borneo, which is split between Malaysia, Indonesia and the sultanate of Brunei.

Baru Bian said the outcome would have major implications for around 200 cases currently lodged with lower courts, where indigenous people are fighting against the state for allegedly grabbing their ancestral land.

Eight of the claimants held a silent protest outside the court to demand justice and compensation for their land, which has been flooded by the vast Bakun dam and earmarked for the pulpmill that was planned but never built.

To reach the court, they had to walk from their jungle homes in the Borneo interior, then make a three-hour boat journey and a four-hour road trip before reaching the coastal town of Bintulu and then flying to Kuala Lumpur.

“I am angry. They took away my ancestral land. It is flooded now. I was not paid any compensation,” said Ngajang Midin, 50, who held a poster reading “Where is justice.”

Ngajang has moved his family to another remote area of Sarawak state, but says he lives in constant fear that he could be displaced again at any time.

Transparency International has labelled Bakun a “monument of corruption” in Sarawak, which has been ruled for three decades by the formidable chief minister Taib Mahmud.

There has been fierce criticism over the botched relocation of 15,000 indigenous people who were forced to make way for the dam, and who have made an unhappy transition to life in drab resettlement areas.

Another claimant, 75-year-old Bato Bagi, had to abandon his land, his fruit trees and family graves. He said he prays that the spirits of his parents and ancestors will curse the Bakun project and its owners.

Bato said he had not received any compensation and opposed settling down in the settlement village because the land is not fertile and there are no wild animals and fish which they can hunt.

“I want my rights. I want my land back. I want compensation for my land they took,” he said.

Agence France-Presse