RM6.5m landmark settlement for Orang Asli: Pakatan Rakyat set the stage

RM6.5m landmark settlement for Orang Asli
By Tan Yi Liang

End of a 14-year legal battle ... some of the orang asli families outside the Federal Court today.

PUTRAJAYA (May 26, 2010): Twenty-six orang asli households of the Temuan tribe will receive RM6.5 million from the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) -- the culmination of a 14-year legal battle that began when their native land were taken away from them in 1996 to build a highway to KL International Airport.

This follows a landmark settlement reached yesterday between the orang asli, led by 79-year- old Sagong Tasi, and the defendants -- the highway authority, federal government and United Engineers Malaysia Bhd (UEM).

According to the terms of the settlement, recorded by a quorum comprising Justices Tan Sri Arifin Zakaria, Chief Justice of Borneo Tan Sri Richard Malanjum and Datuk Seri James Foong, the RM6.5 million is to be deposited by UEM at the Shah Alam High Court within one month beginning today.

The households will be eligible to claim from the sum for the land taken from them, totalling 15.38 ha (38 acres), in Bukit Tampoi, Dengkil without compensation to build the Banting-Nilai Highway.

The lawyers for the orang asli, led by Datuk Cyrus Das, will waive all costs granted by the court.

Sagong, who filed the suit along with six others -- Kachut Tunchit, Dabat Chabat, Kepal Kepong, Sani Saken, Illas Senin and Tukas Siam -- had named the federal government, the then BN-led Selangor government, the highway authority and UEM, the contractor, as the defendants.

The families, who were represented by a pro bono team led by Das, first won their case in the Shah Alam High Court in 2002, when Justice Mohd Noor Ahmad ruled that they enjoyed native title rights over their traditional land and should be compensated according to the Land Acquisition Act 1960.

The judge had directed that the compensation be assessed according to act and ordered UEM and the highway authority to pay damages for trespass.

His decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal in September 2005, and an appeal was made to the Federal Court, which granted leave in 2006.

In April 2009, the Pakatan Rakyat-led Selangor government pulled out of the suit to honour its pledge to support orang asli land rights, which set the stage for negotiations with the Attorney-General's Chambers.

Sagong ... 'my heart now contented'

Today's settlement was the result.

Speaking outside the courtroom, Sagong said he was satisfied with the decision and his heart "was now contented".

"My body is old. My eyes can't see, I can't really walk and I can only eat a bit. I can't work. I am so thin," he said when asked what he would do with his share of the money.

"I could build a new house, maybe I could get married again," he said, adding that some of his friends, including plaintiffs Kachut Tunchit and Tukas Siam, had since passed away.

Selangor tourism, consumer afairs and the Environment chairman Elizabeth Wong said any proposed amendments to the Orang Asli Act should take this decision into account.

"There is an effort to amend the act which would limit the kind of quantum that would be made and the size of land that would be given out as compensation" she said.

"So any decision of the federal government to amend the Orang Asli Act should not go against the decision of the court in this case." -- theSun