In Fight for Malaysian Forest, Can Activists Replicate a Win?

In February 2020, the Selangor State executive council proposed the degazettement of more than 931 hectares of the Kuala Langat North forest, with plans to licence the land to a local real estate developer. This would have excised 97% of the 958-hectare forest reserve, leaving only a tiny sliver of forest. In November 2020, the state legislature voted unanimously against the plan, opting to maintain KLNFR as a forest reserve.

Then, in August 2021, executive councillor Hee announced a new plan to degazette more than 500 hectares, or 45%, of the forest reserve. The decision, Hee said, was made by the state executive council in May. Hee framed the revised plan as a concession to the public and to the indigenous communities living in the forest, though it was not disclosed to the public or the state legislature. 

The concession was little comfort to the Defend North Kuala Langat Forest Reserve (PHSKLU) Coalition, who since October 2020 had been rallying the public to pressure state lawmakers to reject the degazettement. Public outrage on social media only increased as more information emerged about Gabungan Indah, the company that had received the licence to spearhead the development project. Gabungan Indah had only been incorporated in November 2020, and had only one ringgit (US$0.24) in capital, according to a company file from the Companies Commission of Malaysia. Vibrantscape, Gabungan Indah’s sole shareholder, is in turn owned by Perdana Parkcity, a prominent property developer. 

PHSKLU were not done fighting. On 8 September, 10 members of the coalition travelled to the Selangor State Secretariat to deliver a formal request for the state to revoke the degazettement. In the age of digital communications, coalition members believed hand-delivered documents would be less easy to ignore. 

“We never email or we never post it [by mail] because we believe in sending it and get the [document] stamped, to show that we did send this out,” says Suresh Kumar, a coordinator for the human rights group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) and PHSKLU member. 

“Climate change concerns have made more people aware of the urgent need to protect our remaining forests to mitigate the impacts of global temperature rise.”

However, about 20 police blocked the activists from entering the state secretariat. “This is the first time that we [have] been blocked from send[ing] a memorandum—that’s quite shocking for us,” says Shaq Koyok, a Temuan artist and coalition member who grew up in an Orang Asli village near KLNFR. 

Eventually, five members of the coalition were allowed to meet with an aide to Selangor chief minister Amirudin Shari. After the meeting, the coalition held a press conference outside the secretariat. A video from that day shows Shaq and Suresh speaking over the rumble of traffic on a road lined with police cars and vans.

The group were mulling their potential next steps, such as applying for a judicial review in the Malaysian High Court against the decision to degazette KLNFR. Later that day, though, before they could act, the chief minister unexpectedly announced that the forest would be re-gazetted—restored as a protected forest.

Shaq, who first witnessed deforestation inside KLNFR when he was 9 years old and has been part of various fights to defend indigenous land for 15 years, says a success like this is rare. 

“This is the biggest score for us,” he says.

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