1Malaysia: Orang Asli denied water and electricity!

High Court rules against Orang Asli Christians over village church

By Debra Chong

Lawyer Annou Xavier (right) explains the High Court decision to the Orang Asli petitioners. — Pictures by Choo Choy May

TEMERLOH, Jan 5 — A group of Orang Asli Christians here today lost a two-year court battle against local and state authorities, seeking basic amenities at their village church.

The High Court here struck out the 2007 suit by a group of Jahut Christians from Kampung Pasu against the Temerloh Land and District Office and the Pahang state government for disconnecting power and water supplies to their village church in Kampung Pasu here.

“The application for a judicial review was dismissed with cost,” Pahang state legal adviser Kamal Azira told The Malaysian Insider.

The amount for cost will be determined by the court later, he said.

Kamal, who was acting for the state and local authorities, said the judge, Datuk Akhtar Tahir, had only given a summary decision in chambers and will supply the written grounds of judgment later.

A view of the church's interior.

The government lawyer added that the judge also made a brief reference to Sections 6 and 7 of the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954, which supposedly gives the state authorities the power to gazette an area as “Aboriginal Land.”

Pressed to explain the implication of the court ruling, Kamal, who asked not to be photographed, repeated that the law says “the state authorities are the ones to gazette if an area is [an] Orang Asli area.”

Lawyers for the Jahut Christians told The Malaysian Insider they plan to file an appeal with the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya next week.

Controversy over the village church, which follows the popular East Malaysian Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) denomination first erupted in 2003, Annou explained.

Some 70 Christians in Kampung Pasu had pooled together their money to build a small church in the backyard of village elder, Wet bin Ket — with his permission — in July of that year.

But within the same month, the Temerloh Land and District Office, better known by its Malay initials PTD, issued a letter warning that it regarded the church as encroaching on government land and demolished it three years later.

The Christian villagers complained to then Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi who subsequently compensated them RM35,000 to rebuild the church.

But their bid for water and electricity to be supplied to the rebuilt church was rejected by the PTD.

A child in the settlement looks on with the church in the foreground.

In a letter dated October 8, 2007, the PTD explained that the church should not be given water and electricity because it is an illegal structure built on ungazetted land and the church had no approval from the state government to be built, as is required under state law for non-Muslim places of worship.

Wet, who embraced Christianity in 2000, then tried to challenge the local and state authorities in the Temerloh High Court in 2007, but was also blocked.

Last August, a three-man bench in the Court of Appeal led by Datuk Zainun Ali, unanimously ruled to allow the Jahut Christians the right to challenge the PTD’s refusal.

The appeals court also ordered the PTD to pay RM5,000 in costs to Wet, 59, and his 33-year-old son, Yaman.

Counsel for the Christian villagers, Annou Xavier stressed that they will “fight” the decision all the way to the Federal Court, if needed.

“These people are only asking for the basics of livelihood, water and electricity, why deprive these people?” quizzed Annou’s co-counsel, Kenny Ng.

“They are the orang asal of this country. We may have the Twin Towers but if we can’t take care of these people, it’s an utter disgrace, a sad day for 1 Malaysia,” he added, making pointed references to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s unity slogan.