{"id":64617,"date":"2026-05-11T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/?p=64617"},"modified":"2026-05-13T10:15:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T02:15:48","slug":"orang-asli-homes-demolished-in-pahang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/press\/64617\/orang-asli-homes-demolished-in-pahang\/","title":{"rendered":"Orang Asli homes demolished in Pahang"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On 4 May 2026, workers from SRS Makmur Sdn Bhd, accompanied by police, arrived at Kampung Sungai Baru, Pekan, Pahang, and demolished homes belonging to the Jakun Orang Asli community using backhoes and heavy machinery. No notice whatsoever was given. No consent was sought. No court order was produced.

Seven (7) of the settlement\u2019s 21 homes were destroyed, including the Rumah Adat the community hall used for weddings, funerals, gatherings and meetings  and, of the six residential homes demolished, one belonged to an OKU (person with disabilities). Approximately 60 to 70 people live in this settlement. Their grandfathers\u2019 grandfathers were born here. This is their ancestral land, occupied since time immemorial. The Pahang State Government leased it, 550 acres, to a palm oil company, despite knowing full well that the Orang Asli were living there, and without their knowledge or consent.<\/p>\n\n

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Six police reports have been filed in total by affected villagers, for the 7 homes including for one Rumah Adat.

The company responsible for the demolition is SRS Makmur Sdn Bhd, with a registered address in Jalan Bukit Sekilau, Kuantan, Pahang. The company holds a 30-year oil palm concession granted by PSK (Perbadanan Setiausaha Kerajaan Negeri Pahang), a Pahang state government entity. Its shareholders are: Ahmad Sabri bin Jafar, Ong Kai Tok Realty Sdn Bhd, Yap Lian Siong, and Tengku Hussein Shah bin Tengku Mustafa Kamal.

The police were present throughout the demolition, reportedly to \u201cmonitor.\u201d If the Pahang State Government disputes the Orang Asli\u2019s rights to the land, it must take the matter to court. It cannot simply lease indigenous land to a palm oil company and send in backhoes.

Article 13 of the Federal Constitution is clear: the government cannot simply take away someone\u2019s land. Article 8(5)(c) provides that when it comes to the Orang Asli, for their welfare and well-being, the government has a duty to ensure they are given more protection than usual. They are not merely equal before the law, they are supposed to be positively discriminated <\/em>in their favour. These are binding constitutional obligations, not aspirational provisions. The Orang Asli are Bumiputera. They must be treated as such.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

PEKA, Greenpeace Malaysia, and Lawyers for Liberty, together with the Orang Asli community of Kampung Sungai Baru, demand the following:<\/p>\n\n

    \n
  1. GAZETTE THE LAND. <\/strong>The Federal and Pahang State Governments must immediately gazette the customary ancestral lands of Kampung Sungai Baru and all surrounding Orang Asli settlements as protected Orang Asli reserve land. The solution is simple: gazette the land in their name.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. STOP ALL DEMOLITION AND DEVELOPMENT NOW. <\/strong>There must be an immediate halt on all development, logging, land clearing, demolition of houses, and palm oil development at Kampung Sungai Baru, pending resolution of this issue. SRS Makmur Sdn Bhd must stand down.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. REBUILD EVERY HOME. <\/strong>All seven (7) demolished homes, including the Rumah Adat and the home of the OKU resident must be fully rebuilt immediately at the expense of SRS Makmur Sdn Bhd and the Pahang State Government. Even the school books of the children were left in the rubble. Temporary shelter, food, and essential supplies must be provided to all displaced residents without further delay.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. COMPENSATE THE ORANG ASLI IN FULL. <\/strong>Every affected resident must be fully and fairly compensated for all damage and losses suffered, including the destruction of homes and all their belonging.  The Orang Asli have lost their homes. They are living in tents. They are struggling for food. They must be compensated.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. ZAHID HAMIDI – ACT NOW. <\/strong>As Minister of Rural and Regional Development, Dato\u2019 Sri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi bears direct ministerial responsibility for the Orang Asli. Under Zahid Hamidi, we have JAKOA, Jabatan Kebajikan Orang Asli. What is JAKOA doing? Its job is to protect the Orang Asli. Every single time land is taken away from the Orang Asli, JAKOA must stand as a bulwark to protect them.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. INVESTIGATE THE POLICE. <\/strong>Officers from Balai Polis Paloh Hinai were present throughout the demolition and did nothing to stop it. They stood and watched as constitutional rights were violated in plain sight. Furthermore, the police have claimed that the Orang Asli only occupied the land opportunistically since Covid, since 2020. This is absolutely untrue. The Orang Asli themselves can testify they have been there since time immemorial, their grandfathers\u2019 grandfathers were born there. The police must remain neutral. They cannot support governments, developers, or palm oil companies. The Inspector-General of Police and the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) must investigate the conduct of the officers present on 4 May 2026. The six police reports filed by affected villagers must be acted upon immediately and transparently.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. ESTABLISH A ROYAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY. <\/strong>A Commission of Inquiry under the Commissions of Enquiry Act 1950 must be established immediately to investigate the demolitions, the legality of the PSK\u2013SRS Makmur land concession, and the systemic failure to protect Orang Asli land rights across Malaysia. Zahid Hamidi himself must institute this inquiry. This is not a small matter, you are demolishing homes and stealing indigenous land.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. PROSECUTE THOSE RESPONSIBLE. <\/strong>The individuals and companies controlling SRS Makmur Sdn Bhd – Ahmad Sabri bin Jafar, Ong Kai Tok Realty Sdn Bhd, Yap Lian Siong, and Tengku Hussein Shah bin Tengku Mustafa Kamal, must be investigated and prosecuted for criminal trespass, destruction of property, and violations of the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. REVOKE THE LAND CONCESSION. <\/strong>The 30-year oil palm concession granted by PSK to SRS Makmur Sdn Bhd must be revoked. It was granted without the knowledge, consultation, or consent of the Orang Asli community whose ancestral land it covers. The Pahang state government must publicly disclose all details of this concession. This is land theft and it cannot stand.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. PROTECT ALL ORANG ASLI LAND – NATIONALLY. <\/strong>The Federal Government must gazette all Orang Asli customary land in their name and enact stronger legal protections against corporate and state encroachment. Unless this happens, state governments will continue taking Orang Asli land for logging, plantations, durian farms, and so-called development. What kind of development destroys forests and leaves barren land behind? Forests are disappearing everywhere. The animals have nowhere to go. The Orang Asli have nowhere to go. Kampung Sungai Baru must be the last time this ever happens.
    <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    PEKA, Greenpeace Malaysia, and Lawyers for Liberty stand in full solidarity with the Orang Asli community of Kampung Sungai Baru. We call on all Malaysians, civil society, media, parliamentarians, and the public to demand accountability.. This is not the first time this has happened, and unless urgent action is taken, it will not be the last.<\/p>\n\n

    Homes were demolished. Families were destroyed. Animals were killed. An OKU person lost their home. Police watched and did nothing.
    <\/strong>
    This is not a land dispute. This is a crime.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

    -ENDS-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Seven of the settlement\u2019s 21 homes were destroyed, including the Rumah Adat the community hall used for weddings, funerals, gatherings and meetings\u00a0 and, of the six residential homes demolished, one belonged to an OKU (person with disabilities). Approximately 60 to 70 people live in this settlement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":64618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[132,126],"tags":[19,109,77],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-64617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-and-activism","category-policy-and-justice","tag-forests","tag-indigenous-rights","tag-response","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64617"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64622,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64617\/revisions\/64622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64617"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=64617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}