The Malaysian Insight

MUSTAFA Along was offered RM200,000 to get his tribe to lift a blockade to prevent logging in the rainforests of Guan Musang.

But Mustafa will not sell out, not even if he were offered  RM1 million, as the jungle of Ulu Kelantan is the Temiar’s lifeblood, serving as the tribe’s supermarket, medicine dispensary, water supply plant, and temple.

The Orang Asli blockades at the entry points into three forest reserves, which are also important water catchment areas for Kelantan, have led to confrontations with timber and plantation companies and the Forestry Department and Kelantan government, which supports the planters and loggers.

The clearing of jungle to make way for oil palm plantations has made it hard for the Orang Asli to grow food and get clean water.

As the animistic rituals they practised called for the use of rare plants and wildlife from the forest, the destruction of the surrounding ecosystem violated their constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion, said Mustafa, whose tribe is part of the network of Kelantan Orang Asli villages.

The Temiar tribe have been fighting deforestation since 2012. They have been arrested for protesting and their blockades are regularly torn down by the authorities.

Still, the Orang Asli will not be moved by either threat, bribe or blandishment

“I cannot sell the forests as they are for my children and grandchildren. If I take RM200,000, I will spend it after a short time. But my tribe will suffer in the future.,: says Mustafa. – March 10, 2018.