As degazettement looms large, Temuan honour forest deities

KUALA LANGAT – After reciting a lengthy prayer in the Temuan tongue for his tribe’s guardian deities, Kg Busut Baru’s resident medium, Asih Anak Jehat, suddenly let out a spine-chilling groan.

His back hunched. His face grimaced. His prayer form broke as he stretched an arm forward, as if begging for a time out from an unseen attacker.

Asih’s cry swiftly halted the liveliness in the compound of the village’s community hall, where two shrines to the tribe’s most revered spirits, which villagers address as Moyang, sit.

Only the rhythmic, almost hypnotic, knocks of the wooden percussion instrument known as “kanggok” continued. The smoke and aroma of burnt incense accentuated the mysticism.

Asih made another noise, this time a short, sharp grunt. His body started to tremble.

The chatter of three Temuan girls weaving nipah fronds into ketupat casings at the entrance of the hall stopped, and they inched closer to one another while stealing worried glances at Asih.

The tribal elders were equally quiet, but none of them shared the anxiousness felt by the youth. Instead, they appeared confident, assured that Asih would be fine.

“I was suffocating,” said Asih after the ceremony ended.

“Out of breath. Still lacking in experience. The Moyang wanted to enter me. But my body could not handle it. Not enough training.”

Asih is the successor to the village medium, and the only one to undergo training to summon, and be possessed by, the tribe’s guardian spirits on Hari Moyang.

Had the summoning succeeded, the Moyang that Asih was praying to – Panglima Galang – would have possessed him and feasted on the delicacies laid out as offerings in front of its shrine, a light-brown boulder with a heap of black cloth on top.

Hari Moyang is a day when the Orang Asli express gratitude to their guardian spirits for the protection given throughout the year.

Each tribe has its own Hari Moyang date and traditions, which are usually closely associated with the elements near where the tribe lives.

For example, the Moyang of the Mah Meri tribe on Pulau Carey, usually celebrated in January, are coastal and sea spirits.

The Moyang of the Temuan tribe, meanwhile, are forest spirits said to dwell in the Kuala Langat North Forest Reserve (KLNFR), which is adjacent to Kg Busut Baru.

Temuan’s last Hari Moyang?

Around 3pm, village chief Sari Anak Senin arrived at the community hall to pray to Panglima Galang and the other Moyang, Angkop.

Thanking the two deities, he also prayed for the village’s well-being and prosperity, and pleaded to the spirits to keep misfortune at bay.

Whatever restlessness Sari felt was not without merit, as this could be the Temuan’s last Hari Moyang.

“I don’t want to say much. The assemblymen have decided, haven’t they?” 

He was referring to a motion to protect every forest reserve in Selangor that was unilaterally passed in the state assembly in November last year.

The motion was tabled to safeguard KLNFR after it was earmarked for a massive mixed-development project that led to the need for its status to be degazetted, and the forest razed down.

After a deluge of 45,000 written objections since February last year, followed by a rowdy town hall in September, state authorities have kept relatively silent on KLNFR’s fate.

The forest reserve may be state land, but a 1927 gazette notice of the Selangor Forest Reserve Enactment confers on nearby Orang Asli tribes special rights to use it to maintain their way of life.

But on Tuesday, Sari’s heart sank.

News broke that the state Forestry Department had finished presenting a report on the degazettement proposal to Hee Loy Sian, the exco overseeing the matter.

Customary land disputes concerning the Orang Asli, particularly the intrusion into and encroachment on their ancestral land, are not uncommon.

It is a long-standing issue arising from their often-ignored land rights, despite landmark court rulings recognising the legality of their ancestral land.

Former Perak menteri besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu infamously said “there is no such thing as ancestral land” when Orang Asli communities set up blockades in Gerik to prevent logging in the nearby forest, which they claim as the said land.

In its latest annual report, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) said the government has been too slow to improve the Orang Asli’s lot.

“Suhakam believes that the government is too slow to implement the national inquiry’s recommendation submitted almost six years ago, and has not changed the status of the community as the most vulnerable and marginalised group.”

In the case of KLNFR, the Temuan residents of Kg Busut Baru have had to keep up the fight to save the forest on their own, as the seven other Orang Asli settlements in Kuala Langat found themselves in a bind.

The circumstances forced the chiefs of the seven settlements to choose between objecting to the plan to degazette the forest reserve and being on the authorities’ “good side” so that their settlements can be gazetted as official villages.

Once gazetted, they will get access to paved roads, and water and electricity infrastructure, among other basic needs.

“We love the forest. There is not a single Orang Asli who does not love the forest,” said Kg Pulau Kempas chief Raman Pahat.

“But how can I protect it when I cannot even protect my village from uncertainty?”

Also on Tuesday, Hee announced that about 60% of the 74 Orang Asli villages in Selangor have been gazetted, and gave an assurance that the same will be done for the remainder within three years.

“We need to immediately gazette the Orang Asli villages to prevent others from taking over and managing the land arbitrarily.” – The Vibes, January 2, 2021