Divers Paths to Justice - English - Forest Peoples Programme

Divers Paths to Justice: Legal pluralism and the rights of indigenous peoples inSoutheast AsiaApparently not only will the Human Rights Commission turn away fromsolving native land rights, but so too will the State and federal governmentswho seem unlikely to pursue the problem in any depth. Instead they suggestrelocation and new development schemes, two initiatives that havehistorically failed to produce any tangible benefits for small-scaleagriculturalists. For politicians to make such disingenuous statements ofsurprise and passivity suggests that there is no intention at multiple levels ofgovernment to take the steps necessary to correct over a century ofinequality in land matters. In fact, this attitude towards the violation of landrights suggests that politicians have no desire to intervene in a land titlesystem that has worked in the State’s favour since the 1880s.We come a full circle: renewal of communal titles to protect nativesThe ongoing conflict over native land titles is not the only relic of thecolonial era. Legal pluralism in land matters continues to be motivated by afaçade of paternalism, instead of a respectful co-existence of different legalnorms and customs. This weak form of legal pluralism diminishes andconstrains native peoples’ rights rather than empowering them. The recentdecision of the Sabah government to amend the land code, allowing for theissuance of communal titles to groups of native peoples on State land, ratherthan settling individual native titles based on customary rights, provides afruitful example for exploring this modern form of paternalism thatcontinues to support weak legal pluralism.At the time of writing, the only source of information on this change in theland titling process was newspaper articles and press releases. There wereno annual reports available from the Land and Survey Office to provide uswith more insight. Furthermore, Chief Minister Musa Aman’s public callsfor a “Land Task Force” in 2004 46 , a “Land Tribunal” in 2005 47 , and “fullresearch and study” on all aspects of native customary rights 48 have not46 Liusin 200447 Maskilone 200548 The Star 201199