Orang asli hope state will resolve compensation issue

JOHOR BARU: An orang asli community which won a suit against the Johor government and agencies eight years ago is hoping that the new state government will help settle the compensation due to them.

The 70 orang asli families from Kuala Masai, comprising about 320 folk, have been waiting since 2010 for compensation for their land in Stulang Laut and land titles in Kuala Masai.

Relating their ordeal, the group’s community leader Khalip Bachik said they were told to relocate from Kampung Orang Asli Stulang Laut to Kampung Orang Asli Kuala Masai in 1993.

“We were told that if we leave this place (Stulang Laut), we will be given another piece of land in Kuala Masai.

“But until now, we still do not have the rights to the land. This means we can be told to leave again anytime.

“It has been a long and challenging wait for us and we want the issue to be resolved immediately,” he told reporters during a meeting at the Johor Baru Land Office yesterday.

Khalip said he feared that if the issue was unresolved, his children and grandchildren could be evicted in the future.

“We were also sad that our chapel in Kuala Masai was demolished back in 2005, just before Christmas,” he recalled.

The orang asli community had filed the suit after the destruction of the chapel and won the case at the High Court in September 2010.

Named as defendants were the state Lands and Mines Department director, Johor Baru City Council and Department of Orang Asli Affairs.

Khalip hoped that the support they received from the new state government would help in getting the stalemate resolved.

“We have been through a lot already.” Counsel Tan Poh Lai said the three main orders of the High Court was to pay compensation for the chapel that was demolished, give the orang asli rights to the land in Kuala Masai and to assess the value of the land in Stulang Laut for compensation purposes.