On the eve of Merdeka, so we are told, the Malay Rulers issued a "wasiat". Although the term "wasiat" means (literally) "a will", that document is more a statement of declarations or royal advice.
In that 7 Wasiat Raja-Raja Melayu, the relevant portion for the purpose of this article is the second wasiat which states –
Kedua: Kami isytiharkan dan kami simpan untuk kamu dan kami benarkan kamu isytihar dan simpan untuk anak cucu kamu, selain gunung-ganang, tasik dan hutan simpan, tanah simpanan Melayu sehingga nisbah 50 peratus, selebihnya kamu rebutlah bersama-sama kaum lain.
Freely translated to mean - "We do hereby declare and keep for you, and we permit you to declare and keep for your children and grandchildren, other than the mountains, lakes and reserve forests, Malay reserve land up to 50 per cent in size, the rest being available for you to seek and obtain together with the other communities."
The emphasis is the directive or exhortation to keep safe our highlands, lakes and reserve forests. I will focus only on the reserve forests.
As of 2007, approximately 60 per cent of the total land area of Malaysia (45 per cent of Peninsular Malaysia) is still forested, of which 14.3 million hectares are permanent reserved forests. The remaining 40 per cent of the country is covered by agricultural crops, rubber plantations, oil palm plantations, urban areas.
On February 5, 2020, the Selangor State Forestry Department declared publicly its intention to degazette Kuala Langat North Forest Reserve (KLNFR) and called stakeholders in the Kuala Langat district to voice objections to the proposal within 30 days.
The KLNFR area was gazetted in 1927 as a permanent forest reserve covering 7,246.96 hectares.
On February 20, 2020, Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari held a media briefing. In defending the proposal, he said that 40 per cent of the forest has "degraded" due to forest fires and the forest now poses a fire hazard to nearby areas .
Some quarters asked whether "a history of fires" and the risk of future forest fires justify destroying a 8,000 year old forest reserve?
Consisting mainly of peatland swamps, the area is reportedly home to several endangered species, both flora (meranti bunga and meranti bakau) and fauna (Malayan sunbear, panther and clouded leopard). It is also home to endemic species such as the Selangor pygmy flying squirrel and the Langat red fighting fish.
Several NGOs claim that the peat swamp forest still serves as a valuable "carbon sink" (capable of storing more than 1.5 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere), one of the last of its kind in southern Selangor.
In September 2020 an official of the Forestry Department's Wetlands Forest Management was quoted as saying that the proposed degazettement was a "waste of public funds" as an estimated RM2.2 million had been spent to build fire prevention infrastructure in the forest reserve.
The proposed degazettement will affect 2,000 Orang Asli of the Temuan tribe in several villages on the fringes of the forest reserve – namely Kampung Orang Asli Busut Baru, Kampung Pulau Kempas, Kampung Bukit Cheeding and Kampung Bukit Kemandol.
In late October 2020, several NGOs urged MPs and State Assemblymen to oppose the proposed action by the state government. On April 12, 2021, despite protest by these quarters, the state government stated that the degazettement proposal was still on the table.
Recently on September 2, 2021, Energy and Natural Resources Miniter, Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan, reiterated his objection to the proposed degazettement. He said, his ministry had objected to the Selangor government in 2020.
Sadly, at its recent sitting on August 30, the Selangor Legislative Assembly proceeded to approve the degazettement of 536.7 hectares of the forest area under Section 12 of Selangor's National Forestry Act (Adoption) Enactment 1985.
The affected area is less than 45 per cent of the 991.90 hectares initially proposed.
On September 5, the Raja Muda of Selangor, Tengku Amir Shah Ibni Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah Alhaj denied having any links to a developer or any development project in the area.
Then, on September 8, the Selangor government cancelled the proposed development and regazetted the forest reserve.
If the people had not voiced their opposition, yet another portion of forest would have ceased to exist.
* The writer was a federal counsel at the Attorney-General's Chambers and visiting professor at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. He is now a full-time consultant, trainer and author
