Orang Asli Land Forests & The Law Towards Justice & Equality

Author: Izawati Wook
Publisher: UKM Press
ISBN:  9786297547879
Weight: 0.47
Pages: 309pp
Year: 2023
Price: RM50

This book is based on my PhD thesis entitled the Rights of the Orang Asli in Forests in Peninsular Malaysia: Towards Justice and Equality. completed in 2015 in the College of Justice and Law, Victoria University, Melbourne.

This book updates the developments of the laws and policies relevant to the issues discussed. It evaluates the legal rights of the Orang Asli communities who are indigenous and minority peoples of Peninsular Malaysia. It argues that the core ideals of justice, fairness, equality and non-discrimination are the basic principles that influenced the development of the laws relating to access to resources including by the Orang Asli. It thus advocates that the present laws should be interpreted, and their reform should be considered in light of these principles. These principles are derived from multiple perspectives: historical, legal, and philosophical. These are used to develop a framework to propose reform of the laws affecting access to land and resources by the Orang Asli, which comprises aspects of fairness in the allocation of resources; faimess in restitution for, or reparation of, wrongs; and fairness in processes and procedures.

The book project is supported by GMSN@KITA through the Virtual Post-Doctoral Fellowship Programme. GMSN or Global Malaysian Studies Network is a programme that encourages a richer and nuanced understanding of Malaysia with a positively balanced narrative at the local and international level. GMSN is currently based at the Institute of Ethnic Studies (KITA) in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). I am truly grateful for the opportunity to be able to participate in the programme, to work and to learn under the guidance of the team members at GMSN@ KITA, Emeritus Professor Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, Dato' Dr Anis Yusal Yusoff, Mr Fareen Ali and other staff members.