Protecting Orang Asli rights to their customary land

Legal duty: Filepic of an Orang Asli village along the Simpang Pulai-Cameron Highlands route. The move to amend the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954 would put right decades of legal and policy shortcomings in protecting Orang Asli land.

THE government’s plan to amend the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954 (APA) is a rare opportunity to put right decades of legal and policy shortcomings in protecting Orang Asli land.

But for the reform to mean anything, it must do more than tweak procedures. It must also lock in the principles our courts have already recognised.