Annuar Musa urges PAS state govt to resolve Orang Asli issue

KEPALA BATAS: Tan Sri Annuar Musa has urged the PAS-led Kelantan government to take a proactive approach in resolving the issue involving the Orang Asli in Gua Musang.
The Ketereh MP said the stand-off between the Orang Asli and the authorities over logging activities in their ancestral land has affected the livelihood of the community.
"All this comes under the jurisdiction and power of the state government who should offer them some other alternatives to resolve the issue," he told reporters after the Perjuangan For All dialogue forum organised by Umno at Pinang Tunggal here on Wednesday night.
theSun reported last week on 500 Orang Asli of the Temiar ethnic group who erected blockades in three locations to prevent loggers and miners from entering the areas in Gua Musang.
The Temiar tribe pledged to continue the blockade until their ancestral rights over the land was recognised, with all logging and mining activities in the area to be banned.
Meanwhile, in a press statement today, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) urged the Kelantan state government to respect the rights of the Orang Asli.
Its president S.M. Mohamed Idris said SAM is disappointed that the Kelantan state authorities are still approving logging activities, monoculture plantation projects, land-use conversion to agriculture and mining in the Permanent Reserved Forests (PRF) in Kelantan without respecting the customary rights of the Orang Asli.
He said the land conversion in PRF does not only destroy the original forest cover (natural forest) through the clear-felling harvesting method, which affects forest biodiversity, it also affected the rights and lives of the Orang Asli in particular.
"SAM is disappointed with the Kelantan state authorities who did not consider the recommendations that SAM and the Orang Asli community had submitted in the past," he said.