Orang
Asal Seleta turn to PKR for
hope
Top: Chua (seated 2nd right)
listening to Iskandar’s briefing on the woes of Seletas. Bottom: Chua
addressing the Seletas.
NUSAJAYA (Feb 2, 2013): What’s it like
to have your land slowly being acquired without compensation and your more than
1,000-year-old ancestral burial grounds desecrated?
If
that’s not cruel enough, throw in with the poisoning of the fishing grounds to
deprive you of your only source of earning.
This
is all happening here in Kampung Simpang Arang.
Go
see and ask the 300 odd Orang Asal Seleta
(or Orang Asli) or original settlers of the land.
The
kampong was once closed or inaccessible to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Opposition
leaders because they had been staunch Barisan Nasional (BN) supporters.
They
did not welcome the Opposition but today it is the complete opposite.
Today,
the Seleta villagers welcomed a PKR entourage led by Johor PKR chairman Chua
Jui Meng.
Chua,
in a brief ceramah, told the Orang
Asal that BN had been slowly “robbing” Orang Asal of the land in Sarawak, Sabah
and the peninsula the past 55 years.
“The
only difference now is that the lands grabs are as blatant as it can get, and
legalised by the unjust Land Acquisition Act,” he said.
He
said the PR-led Selangor and Perak (for 11 months) governments had proven that
“we genuinely serve the interest of the rakyat
when elected to govern”.
“Land
was given to the rakyat according to
their rights, especially the Orang Asal, unlike the BN who only look after the
interest of their families and cronies.
“They
use the Act to ‘rob’ the rakyat of
their land by paying measly compensation and then selling off the land to
developers at rocket high prices,” he said, adding the interest of the Orang
Asal were spelt out in PR’s Buku Jingga
(Orange Book).
Top: Seleta children queuing up to receive their mandarin oranges from Chua. Bottom: Seletas donning PKR caps and tee-shirts
show their support for PKR.
“There are also other people-centric measures
that will also benefit Orang Asal, like aid to the aged, children, poor and
women,” he added.
“Today,
it is clear for all to see how much the majority of Malay land owners who were
evicted had lost in Nusajaya, Danga Bay, Tebrau, Tanjung Piai and many other
areas.
“The
thousands of Pengerang villagers are next. They are being evicted to make way
for the non-sustainable Petronas Refinery
and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) project. Rapid needs only
about 6,000 acres. Why is the Ghani Othman-led BN state government acquiring
22,500 acres?”
Seleta
welfare chief Iskandar Roki said: “We are the Orang Asal. We occupied this land
long before (First Prime Minister) Tunku Abdul Rahman. Even before the Johor Sultan
or Sultan Abu Bakar. We have had enough of BN bullying us and its empty
promises. We will defend our rights.
Top: Seletas using motor boats to ferry
the PKR entourage to the 1,000-year-old desecrated graves of Seletas. Bottom:
Chua taking notes of a briefing by a Seleta who had earlier performed prayers
to obtain permission to enter the mangrove burial ground believed to have been
in existence before the time of Sultan Abu Bakar. (Note: Sultan
Sir Abu Bakar ibni Daing Ibrahim, also known as Albert Baker, was proclaimed the
21st Sultan of Johor in 1881. He was also informally known as "The Father
of Modern Johor" by many historians.)
“Our
mangrove land have been slowly reclaimed and occupied by others over the years
with unfulfilled promises of compensation the past years.
“Now,
even property developers are allowed to steal our ancestral grounds by covering
them up with soil, burying the tombstones. One of the mangrove burial grounds
is more than 1,000 years old,” he lamented.
“Our
only source of living and income is fishing. That too is being threatened by
polluting factories poisoning the sea waters.
“The
river mouth and sea used to be rich in marine life, especially fish and prawns.
We used to be able to bananas as bait to
catch fish weighing one or two-kilogramme each with ease.
“Today
we may return after a day with nothing,” Iskandar said.
Top: Part of the world’s biggest
mangrove swamp is now being destroyed by coastal development approved by the
Johor Barisan Nasional government. Bottom: Chua using his notebook to record
visuals of the woes of the Seletas.
Chua
said it was a shame that the state was allowing factories and developers to
reclaim some 15km of mangrove reserve coastal land for development.
“A
shame because we have the biggest mangrove in the world here and greed is
allowed to consume nature,” he added.
Chua
said he promised to return to help resolve their woes and needs when PR “is
given the mandate to govern after the 13th General Election”. This
sparked a round of applause and cheers from the Seletas.
He
also assured that the state PKR would provide free legal aid to the Orang Asal
to defend their rights and that a lawyer would be contacting them soon.
Chua
asked the Seletas to have whatever documents available ready for legal
assistance.
A sign board indicating an ancestral
mangrove burial ground of the Orang Asal Seleta.
The
PKR entourage then distributed Mandarin oranges to the community who also
enthusiastically donned PKR caps and tee-shirts given to them.
They
then organised 15 motor boats to take the PKR delegation out to the sea and
mangrove swamps to show the desecrated graves and the sources of sea pollution.
Chua
also instructed the state PKR secretariat to charter two buses to ferry 80
Seletas to a forum on land grab issues on Feb 12.
Selangor
Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim and former Perak Mentri Besar Nizar Jamaluddin are slated
to present keynote addresses in the forum to be held at 3pm in Lee Garden Hotel
in Masai.
Chua (second right) returning from an
hour-long boat ride inspection of the mangrove swamps with the Seletas.
