In Kg Kelaik Protecting The Forest Act Of Political Resistance

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 For decades, indigenous and non-indigenous advocates have repeatedly called out the country’s legal and governance framework for failing to protect the Orang Asli customary land rights.
In no other instance is this failure more apparent than the land rights encroachments and violations endured by the community in Kampung Kelaik, Gua Musang.
I witnessed this during a reporting journey with Malaysiakini last month, where my stay in Kampung Kelaik was interspersed with trips to various sites within the customary land that fully opened my eyes to the utter devastation caused by the encroachments of logging, plantation and mining activities.
These encroachments were not isolated events, but perpetuated by the state agencies which approved such activities.
However, the community is fighting back – taking up their fight for land rights in a lawsuit over what they say is encroachment by 10 companies, the state government and three government agencies.
It is a complex case to understand, especially for those unfamiliar with Orang Asli land rights issues.
In this essay, I will provide my interpretation of the Kampung Kelaik and Orang Asli political resistance, primarily through my on-the-ground observations.

Part 1: The Temiar’s relationship with water
Kampung Kelaik was recently in the news, after an exposé by Malaysiakini on feared heavy metals poisoning, linked to iron ore mining upstream from the village.
During the trip, we visited one of the iron ore mining sites in question. There, I learnt how the mining operations had contaminated the rivers that had once served as Kampung Kelaik’s source of clean water and food.
The author taking a photo of a mining tailing pond upstream from Kampung KelaikAyap Uda, a villager from a neighbouring Temiar community, joined the trip.
Standing in front of one of the tailing ponds at the site containing greenish toxic effluent that freely flowed into the rivers, he made an interesting observation of the difference in our relationships with water in modern urban societies and in rural indigenous communities such as his.
To him, there is a marked difference in the source and quality of the water that we in the cities, and they consume in day-to-day life.
Water flowing from taps in the cities may be clean, but Ayap pointed out it only became that through an artificial process reliant on heavy chemicals.
Why should he pay to bathe in such “clean” water, when he could bathe in the river of his ancestral land for free, he asked.
A reciprocal relationship
This question reveals a lot about the Orang Asli’s subsistent and self-sustaining nature. They are able to obtain clean water by relying upon the ecosystem services that the forest provides free of charge, unlike the water services in modern urban environments.
It is a reciprocal relationship. Orang Asli communities maintain healthy forests which in turn maintain a steady supply of clean water for the communities in the form of rivers and springs.
However, maintaining healthy forests and in turn, supply of clean water, is becoming a challenge for many Orang Asli communities, in the face of encroachments by logging, plantation and mining companies.
Nowhere is this challenge more prominent than in the water woes of the Kampung Kelaik community.
Seeing the damage with my own eyes
Malaysiakini’s three-part report on the Kampung Kelaik situation published last year gave me insights into the challenges they faced but witnessing it myself is a different story.
During the second day of our stay, I was able to perceive with my own eyes the extent of the damage – from the sediments of tailing along the river streams that flowed into Sungai Kelaik and Sungai Cenderoh to the colour of the river streams that had a similar greenish colour as the effluent in the tailing ponds at the mining sites.
A tailing pond at a mining site operated by Aqua OrionIt is because of these visible impacts on the water quality that the community now relies upon a system of mini-reservoirs that brings clean water from an unpolluted stream further away from the village.
Ahak Uda – a Kampung Kelaik elder and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit – explained during one of our discussions that one of the villages where we stayed, Kampung Cabil, was established as a direct result of these water issues.
Cautionary tale for other villages
This brings me to a main takeaway from this reporting journey which is the close link between the Temiar’s political resistance to land rights encroachments and violations and access to clean water.
While Kampung Kelaik’s lawsuit is a perfect example of this link, a sentiment shared by members of other affected Temiar communities during a discussion provides another example.
Breakfast with the villagersOn the first day of our stay, we spent the entire evening after arrival in a discussion of the ongoing land rights violations and encroachments of several neighbouring Temiar communities in Gua Musang.
One of the community representatives only known as Ramli, presented his documented evidence of the encroachments of logging and plantation activities and recounted a disruption of clean water supply for his community that lasted for two weeks.
I was struck by how the representative from other villagers referred to Kampung Kelaik as a cautionary tale, how taking various preemptive and proactive measures now is crucial to avoid the same water woes happening to them.
It cast a different light on my understanding of Kelantan Temiar’s political resistance against land encroachment. For them, it is also an act of claiming their water resources from past and future dispossession.
Community reps from various Orang Asli villages discussing their experience of land rights encroachments and violations into the late hours of the nightPart II: The Temiar’s relationship with the land
More importantly, the discussion reinforced my understanding that most cases of customary land rights encroachments and violations, at least in Peninsular Malaysia, are not isolated but rather systemic issues that arise from a legal and governance framework that is inadequate to protect their rights.
There were many testimonies – for example, of the threats and the lack of follow-up by the police as well as the unilateral decision-making and the lack of transparency by the state authorities – which corroborate similar points by grassroots organisations regarding the inadequacy of the governance framework to prevent and settle land rights disputes involving Orang Asli lands.
Kampung Kelaik villagers outside of the Kota Bharu court on the first day of their lawsuit hearingFurthermore, the legal facts of the case – for instance, the unilateral issuance of mining and plantation licences without the free, prior and informed consent of the Kampung Kelaik community – highlight the failure of the country’s legal framework and statutory laws to recognise the Orang Asli’s customary land rights as how they have traditionally been developed and maintained by their customs.
Lost heirlooms, desecrated graves
On the last day of our visit, I rode pillion on a villager’s motorcycle as we travelled across vast plantations in Kampung Kelaik. I was confused when we suddenly came to a stop.
There, the villagers showed us the remaining heirloom rubber trees and ancestral graves that were a testament to the Kampung Kelaik community’s historical and spiritual ties to the land.
The author (in orange T-shirt) during the trip to Kampung KelaikA villager explained that the plantation field was once a settlement of the community’s ancestors.
In the past, a village community would move out of a particular part of their customary territory when a community member died in accordance with Temiar customs – a practice forced to be left behind as a result of encroachment.
The remaining heirloom rubber trees atop a mound. Behind is the plantation field where the community had lived in the pastLooking at the vast field where only food crops could be seen growing, I could only imagine what the settlements could have looked like back in the day.
Although the field is no longer inhabited by the community, they still maintain a claim to this part of their customary territory through these rubber trees according to their customs.
However, due to the encroachment of plantation activities over the years, many of the heirloom trees have been bulldozed and logged down without their consent whereas the burial grounds have been desecrated.
Sadly, upon closer inspection, it was noticed that some of these rubber trees had been marked for logging – yet another grim reminder of their continuing struggle against encroachment.
A villager showing a grave. The Temiar also bury old knives in a bucket at the grave. Many burial grounds were encroached, they say.Resisting the loss of customs and culture
The Kampung Kelaik political resistance is not just about protecting and conserving their water resources; it is also about resisting the loss of important customs and aspects of their culture.
To this end, the full preservation of their customs can only be achieved through the community’s ownership of their customary territory, which will enable the reversal of the environmental damage that has impeded their ability to practise and maintain their customs.
The author (right) speaking to Ahak Uda (left)Sitting on the steps of the new rumah adat, Ahak explained this to us in simple terms.
Traditional plants that were used for construction and medicinal purposes in the past have now become rare as a result of logging and plantation activities.
The growing scarcity of certain traditional forest resources, like bamboo, rattan and bertam leaves, posed difficulties for the construction of the new rumah adat which was intentionally constructed in accordance with their customs to replace the old rumah adat.
This environmental and cultural erosion underlines the urgency of Kampung Kelaik’s legal action.
The Kampung Kelaik political resistance is a fight to conserve the forest that not only provides clean water and sustains the livelihoods of the community, but also serves as the backbone of their cultural identity.
Unfortunately, this political struggle continues to be necessary given the country’s governance and legal framework that fails to provide proper recognition of the Orang Asli customary land and cultural rights. - Mkini
WAN MUHAMMAD AKIF WAN MOHD NOR is an A-Levels student at Kolej Yayasan UEM.
He was among students and key opinion leaders selected to join Malaysiakini on a reporting trip to Kampung Kelaik, Gua Musang on Feb 7-9, 2025. The trip was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Reporting Grant.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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