Oct 5, 2008

The Forgotten People


ORANG ASLI POPULATION STATISTICS

Orang Asli are left out far from the mainstream development, strategies must be created and then implemented to help the the community to join with us ahead Vision 2020. I would say that they are the forgotten community of Malaysia. Agree with me? Untill today I never heard any serious steps taken to help this community.

I can still remember my primary school days in the small town called Tapah. I had a few Orang Asli schoolmates who come to school by Pasukan Polis Hutan Truck (PPH). Sadly they are quite poor in education and hardly can write a proper sentence. This is a result of negligence of their parents who are not educated at all and many of them whom still follow their ancestor’s tribal lifestyle. This Orang Asli students come to school for the sake of attending school only and not for acquiring knowledge.

After nearly almost 10 year since the 90’s, I’m very sad to hear that nothing much has been done to improve their situation and in fact it has gone from bad to worse. There are several cases in reality denying their “SPECIAL RIGHTS”. The demolishment of Orang Asli's church in Kelantan by Gua Musang District Land Office surely denying their freedom of religion. Last year, orang Asli primary and secondary school children that living along the Cameron Highland road have to skip schools for two weeks since Department of Orang Asli affairs (JHEOA) failed to settle bus fare for almost 7 months. The department should be given more power to ensure that even the state or federal government can’t take away their rights.

In the eyes of the government, developers and investors, the Orang Asli are in the wrong time and place. Seen as lacking a sense of time, place or history, they are deemed backward peoples in need of assistance. In other words, they should be modernised. Their purported nomadism is unsettling to the government, which advocates their sedentarisation to resolve the ‘problem’ of their frequent mobility.

A lot of initiatives must be taken if we seriously want Orang Asli to join the main stream development and I sincerely hope that the ruling government will look into their plight as soon as possible and not wait for another 50 years.


LOOK AT THEIR CONDITION AFTER 51 YEARS OF INDEPENDENT

6 comments:

Puravin said...

Well done vasan....these people are the real bumiputra's of malaysia....systematically left out from the mainstream development.

Sze Jia said...

the Sarawak government asking them to move out from their natives land existed since time immemorial to give way to the new dams project. well, the company is related to the chief minister's son. While the politicians put on a show in determining who is the real owner of malaysia, do their still remember who are the natives? who are the real owner of the land?

in sarawak, some of the natives are still staying deep in the borneo rainforest, they are not accessible to the outside world as well as latest information. without proper knowledge, that's one of the reason they will just simply vote for the bn. sad thing.

i hope one day they will unite and fight against all those politicians who screwed up their homeland.

Anonymous said...

Sarawak is my homeland.
I don't want it to be destroyed by BN, please save us

Anonymous said...

When I went to Cameron Highland, I pity on them...
I saw their condition are realy worrying.. poverty controls their lives very much

Anonymous said...

Sarawakian, Sabahan and Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia are the real natives here. Not Malay, Chinese or Indian! Mind it. But now we get nothing. Who we must blame?

Anonymous said...

No comment :(

JOIN BANGSA MALAYSIA: