High Court rules against Orang Asli Christians over village church

By Debra Chong - Tne Malaysian Insider

TEMERLOH, Jan 5 — A group of Orang Asli Christians here today lost a two-year court battle against local and state authorities, seeking basic amenities at their village church.

The High Court here struck out the 2007 suit by a group of Jahut Christians from Kampung Pasu against the Temerloh Land and District Office and the Pahang state government for disconnecting power and water supplies to their village church in Kampung Pasu here.

“The application for a judicial review was dismissed with cost,” Pahang state legal adviser Kamal Azira told The Malaysian Insider.

The amount for cost will be determined by the court later, he said.

Kamal, who was acting for the state and local authorities, said the judge, Datuk Akhtar Tahir, had only given a summary decision in chambers and will supply the written grounds of judgment later.

The government lawyer added that the judge also made a brief reference to Sections 6 and 7 of the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954, which supposedly gives the state authorities the power to gazette an area as “Aboriginal Land.”

Pressed to explain the implication of the court ruling, Kamal, who asked not to be photographed, repeated that the law says “the state authorities are the ones to gazette if an area is [an] Orang Asli area.”

Lawyers for the Jahut Christians told The Malaysian Insider they plan to file an appeal with the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya next week.