Malaysian government sues the state of Kelantan over indigenous tribe’s land rights
- Lawsuit says opposition-run state had handed logging licences to private companies
Malaysia has filed a lawsuit against an opposition-run state for infringing on an indigenous tribe’s land rights by handing out licences to plantation companies to cut down timber, the first such action by a sitting government.
Deforestation over the decades has displaced some of the dozens of indigenous groups in Malaysia from their customary land. Property development and palm oil, rubber and more recently durian plantations have also encroached on their land.
Activists have criticised consecutive Malaysian administrations for failing to protect the indigenous groups.
In a statement on Friday, Attorney General Tommy Thomas said a civil lawsuit was filed against the state of Kelantan after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his cabinet decided to act on behalf of the Temiar tribe in the state.
Thomas said that the Kelantan government had granted logging licences to private companies, and that these companies had entered the native land “with heavy vehicles, clearing out truckloads of timber and vast areas of the forest to set up durian and rubber tree plantations”.