KUALA LUMPUR – After years of back and forth, the Selangor government has backed down and promised to regazette the Kuala Langat North Forest Reserve (KLNFR) before Hari Raya Aidilfitri in early May.
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari was quoted as saying by The Star that 3% of the regazetted area will be marked for Orang Asli villages, while the 97% will remain as a forest reserve.
“A few hundred acres will go towards building Orang Asli villages,” he told a press conference yesterday.
Previously, the KLNFR controversy drew public outcry after it was reported that more than half of it had been degazetted by the state government since May.
Some 54% of the land, or about 536.7ha of the total 991.9ha, had been degazetted, with three other parcels of land gazetted in replacement.
The decision, according to state Tourism, Environment and Green Technology exco Hee Loy Sian last August, was a unanimous one by the state exco.
This was revealed during a state assembly sitting.
Bukit Lanjan assemblyman Elizabeth Wong, however, had said the assembly decided in November 2020 to not degazette the forest.
Among the objections to the degazetting was that the proposal affects the Orang Asli communities living there, as the forest is a source of livelihood for them and preserves their culture and heritage.
Last September, PKR leadership had ordered Amirudin to resolve the KLNFR degazettement as it went against the wishes of both the Selangor assembly and party leadership.
A week after, the Selangor government decided to degazette only 42ha of the KLNFR instead of 536ha.
Amirudin had said in a statement that the decision was to complete the handover of land ownership to residents of Kg Orang Asli Busut Baru and resolve their issues that first arose in 2006.
“They were relocated from their original settlement in 1994 for the purpose of the construction of Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
“The state government will consider allowing a smaller parcel of land to remain degazetted in view of the upcoming East Coast Rail Link alignment.”
He assured that his administration will put a stop to plans for development beyond the stated areas, and said it had cancelled the handover of the land to the company involved.
The degazettement of the entire KLNFR for a mixed-development project was mooted in 2019.
A public hearing on the matter was conducted in September 2020, and saw great objection by locals, including Orang Asli and environmentalists. – The Vibes, March 26, 2022
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