On a prime slice of Malaysia's Selangor coast, an Orang Asli tribe fights to hold onto its ancestral land - CNA

The Federal Constitution protects the rights of the indigenous people of Malaysia, including proprietary interest in their land itself.

But the National Land Code 1965 deems that all land is state land unless it has one of three things: A documentary land title, gazetted as a government reserve for a public purpose, or a mining permit and gazetted under a forestry-­related law.

“Orang Asli customary territories that are without any form of documentary land title or a reservation status are deemed as state land,” said a 2016 report about encroachment on Orang Asli land, published by Friends of the Earth Malaysia and the Orang Asli Network of Peninsular Malaysia, both non-governmental organisations (NGO).

This means that states can use the National Land Code to issue private documentary land titles – potentially to private developers or individuals – for any Orang Asli customary land.

GAZETTING ORANG ASLI LAND

Mr Amani Williams-Hunt Abdullah, an Orang Asli lawyer and activist, told CNA that parties intending to acquire state land should rightfully visit the area to first check for existing inhabitants and activities.

“If there are any Orang Asli there, by right the land shouldn’t be alienated, but many times it does not happen this way,” said Mr Amani, widely known as Bah Tony in the Orang Asli community.

This is what happened in a legal case he handled in 2015, when land in Kampung Senta, home to the Semai tribe of Perak, was leased to a private corporation despite the clear existence of a government school there, he said.

The company served an eviction notice to Semai villagers before taking legal action against them, claiming to have obtained title to part of their customary land and considering them “trespassers”.

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2024-05-26 22:00:00Z
CBMiZmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vYXNpYS9tYWxheXNpYS1vcmFuZy1hc2xpLWluZGlnZW5vdXMtbGFuZC1yaWdodHMtc2VsYW5nb3ItcGVyYWstNDM1OTgwNtIBAA

South Korea, China agree to launch diplomatic and security dialogue - CNA

Li told Yoon their countries should oppose turning economic and trade issues into political or security ones, and should work to maintain stable supply chains, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.

Li said China was ready to strengthen cooperation in high-end manufacturing, new energy, artificial intelligence, biomedicine and other fields.

China will further expand market access, strengthen guarantees for foreign investment and welcomes more South Korean companies do business in the country, he said. In a separate meeting with Samsung Chairman Jay Y. Lee, Li encouraged the Korean tech giant to boost its investment in China.

In recent years, Chinese leaders and diplomats have frequently condemned the US and its allies over export controls targeting its semiconductor industry by calling on these countries to stop "overstretching the concept of national security".

Since 2021, Chinese companies and state entities have been increasingly cut off from ready access to the world's most advanced chips, many of them produced by South Korean tech giants, such as Samsung and SK Hynix.

Li expressed hopes for continuing efforts to "build consensus and resolve differences" through "equal dialogue and sincere communications."

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2024-05-26 12:15:00Z
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Taiwan President Lai Ching-te says he wants to work with China - CNA

Communications between China and Taiwan were severed in 2016 after former president Tsai Ing-wen took office, pledging to defend Taiwan's sovereignty.

Lai, who comes from the same Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has vowed to maintain Tsai's policies of building up Taiwan's defence capabilities, while remaining open to dialogue with China and strengthening relations with the island's partners - particularly the United States.

But China said Lai's inaugural speech on Monday amounted to calls for independence, "pushing our compatriots in Taiwan into a perilous situation of war and danger".

"Every time 'Taiwan independence' provokes us, we will push our countermeasures one step further, until the complete reunification of the motherland is achieved," defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian said on Friday.

Wen-Ti Sung, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub, told AFP that Lai would "hold firm to project resolve" after this first interaction between his administration and Beijing.

"However, he will no doubt be looking to leverage other international partners and friends to help facilitate more back-channel communications with Beijing," Sung said.

INTIMIDATION TACTICS

Since 2016, Chia has upped military and political pressures on Taiwan, and its naval vessels, drones and warplanes maintain a near-daily presence around the island.

The dispute has long made the Taiwan Strait one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints.

During this week's drills, fighter jets loaded with live ammunition scrambled towards targets and bombers formed formations to combine with warships to simulate "strikes against important targets", China's state broadcaster CCTV said.

Tong Zhen, from China's Academy of Military Sciences, told state news agency Xinhua that the drills "mainly targeted the ringleaders and political centre of 'Taiwan independence', and involved simulated precision strikes on key political and military targets".

Meng Xiangqing, a professor from Beijing-based National Defense University, told Xinhua that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) vessels "were getting closer to the island than ever before" and had included the island's east - considered by the PLA the most likely direction from which external intervention could come.

"The drills have shown that we can control that eastern area," Meng said.

The United States, which does not diplomatically recognise Taiwan but is its biggest ally and arms supplier, on Saturday urged China to "act with restraint".

Experts say Beijing is seeking to intimidate and exhaust Taiwan's military.

On Sunday, two days after the drills ended, Taiwan's defence ministry reported that seven Chinese aircraft, 14 naval vessels and four coast guard ships were "operating around" the island in a 24-hour period ending at 6am (2200 GMT).

The ministry also said in a separate statement that it had found a cardboard box containing political slogans that it said was left by Beijing on a dock in Erdan, an islet part of Taiwan-controlled Kinmen next to China's Xiamen.

The defence ministry shrugged off the incident, saying it suspected it was intended to create online chatter.

"MAJOR TEST"

Lai's first week in office also saw tens of thousands of people take to the streets of Taipei to protest bills proposed by the opposition Kuomintang - regarded as pro-Beijing - and the Taiwan People's Party.

DPP lawmakers have been accusing the opposition of fast-tracking the bills - which expand parliament's powers - without proper consultation.

With Lai's DPP no longer holding the majority in parliament, his party will likely face challenges in passing his administration's policies, such as bolstering the defence budget.

"The pressures are coming fast and early for the Lai administration," Amanda Hsiao of the International Crisis Group told AFP.

"This is going to be a major test of their ability to manage multiple challenges, domestic and external, at the same time."

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2024-05-26 09:16:00Z
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China's Li Qiang lands in Seoul for trilateral summit with South Korea, Japan - CNA

SEOUL: Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived in Seoul on Sunday (May 26) for a trilateral summit with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, their first three-way talks in more than four years.

The neighbours had agreed to hold a summit every year starting in 2008 to boost regional cooperation, but the initiative has been disrupted by bilateral feuds and the COVID-19 pandemic. Their last trilateral summit was in late 2019.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Li will adopt a joint statement on six areas including the economy and trade, science and technology, people-to-people exchanges and health and the ageing population, Seoul officials said.

Yoon is set to hold bilateral talks with Li and Kishida on Sunday, ahead of their three-way gathering on Monday.

Kishida is also expected to meet Li separately on Sunday, during which he will raise a Chinese ban of Japanese seafood imports and Taiwan, NHK reported, citing the Japanese government.

The summit comes as South Korea and Japan have been working to mend ties frayed by historical disputes while deepening a trilateral security partnership with the United States amid intensifying Sino-US rivalry.

China has previously warned that US efforts to further elevate relations with South Korea and Japan could fan regional tension and confrontation.

Seoul and Tokyo have warned against any attempts to forcibly change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, while Beijing on Tuesday criticised a decision by South Korean and Japanese lawmakers to attend Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te's inauguration.

The summit might not bring a major breakthrough on sensitive issues but could make progress in areas of practical cooperation like people-to-people exchanges and consular matters, officials and diplomats said.

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2024-05-26 03:40:00Z
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World Court's order on Rafah does not rule out entire offensive, Israel says - CNA

JERUSALEM: Israel considers that an order by the World Court to halt its military offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza allows room for some military action there, Israeli officials said.

In an emergency ruling in South Africa's case accusing Israel of genocide, judges at the International Court of Justice ordered Israel on Friday to immediately halt its assault on Rafah, where Israel says it is rooting out Hamas fighters.

"What they are asking us, is not to commit genocide in Rafah. We did not commit genocide and we will not commit genocide," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, told Israel's N12 TV on Saturday (May 25).

Asked whether the Rafah offensive would continue, Hanegbi said: "According to international law, we have the right to defend ourselves and the evidence is that the court is not preventing us from continuing to defend ourselves."

The ICJ, which is based in The Hague, did not immediately comment on Hanegbi's remarks. Hamas also did not immediately comment.

Another Israeli official pointed to the phrasing of the ruling by the ICJ, or World Court, depicting it as conditional.

"The order in regard to the Rafah operation is not a general order," the official said on condition of anonymity.

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2024-05-25 21:04:00Z
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Taiwan politicians urge China to stop political coercion of entertainers - Focus Taiwan

Taipei, May 25 (CNA) Politicians across party lines in Taiwan said Saturday that Beijing should stop pressuring Taiwanese entertainers into making political statements, after the popular rock band Mayday did so Friday in China.

China should honor freedom of performance and speech, allowing performing groups greater room for expression, rather than coercing them into taking a political stance, said Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Chen's remarks came after Mayday singer Ashin (阿信) said during a concert in Beijing, "We Chinese, when we come to Beijing, we must eat Peking duck."

Ashin's reference to the band as "Chinese" immediately began trending on the Chinese microblogging website Weibo and sparked discussions among Taiwanese netizens.

In a similar incident, Taiwanese pop diva Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) said during a concert in Nanchang City on Friday that "We, China's Nanchang , are the most passionate."

Other Taiwanese entertainers such as Cyndi Wang (王心凌), Janine Chang (張鈞甯) and Shin (信) have also expressed pro-unification views on their Weibo accounts on Friday.

Commenting on the issue, Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) said Saturday that Beijing's pressure on entertainers to make political statements does not help to build goodwill between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Those actions by Beijing, along with the reactions from Chinese netizens, were clearly in response to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te's (賴清德) inauguration address on May 20, Lee said, adding that the speech conveyed a pro-Taiwan independence ideology.

Meanwhile, Taiwan People's Party (TPP) issued a statement Saturday, condemning any actions that suppress freedom of music and culture, and it called on China to respect performing artists.

Such actions are not conducive to building goodwill between the two sides, but rather serve to further alienate the people on both sides of the strait, the opposition TPP said.

Taiwan's Ministry of Culture also issued a statement, saying it understood the plight of entertainers who were being forced to make political statements in China.

"Such (coercion) would not happen in Taiwan," the ministry said.

(By Liu Kuan-ting, Kuo Chien-shen, Chao Chin-yu and Lee Hsin-Yin)

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2024-05-25 12:54:00Z
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Israel strikes Rafah after top UN court orders it to halt offensive - CNA

"NOTHING LEFT HERE"

In spite of the ICJ ruling, Israel carried out strikes throughout the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning as fighting raged between the army and Hamas's armed wing.

Palestinian witnesses and AFP teams reported Israeli strikes or shelling in Rafah, the central city of Deir al-Balah, Gaza City, Jabalia refugee camp and elsewhere.

"We hope that the court's decision will put pressure on Israel to end this war of extermination because there is nothing left here," said Umm Mohammad Al-Ashqa, a Palestinian woman from Gaza City displaced to Deir al-Balah by the war.

Mohammed Saleh, also interviewed by AFP in the central Gazan city, said, "Israel is a state that considers itself above the law. Therefore, I do not believe that the shooting or the war will stop other than by force".

Yahya, a 34-year-old in Gaza who did not give his second name for security reasons, said: "Perhaps these decisions ... that Israel has not complied with, will make the Western world move more strongly (in favour) of our cause at popular and political levels, supporting the recognition of the state of Palestine and strengthening our rights".

The ICJ ruling came days after Ireland, Spain and Norway said they would formally recognise a Palestinian state and the International Criminal Court prosecutor requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top Hamas leaders on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In its ruling, the ICJ said Israel must "immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part".

The UN court ordered Israel to allow UN-mandated investigators "unimpeded access" to Gaza to look into the genocide allegations.

It also instructed Israel to open the Rafah crossing for the "unhindered provision at scale" of humanitarian aid and also called for the "immediate and unconditional release" of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

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2024-05-25 07:28:00Z
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