DR COLIN NICHOLAS

Coordinator, Centre for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC)

REFLECTIONS

It’s difficult to assess how far the Orang Asli have advanced or progressed in 2019. If anything, it has been a year of contradictory signals from the political leadership. The Federal Government taking the (oppositioncontrolled) Kelantan State Government to court, in acknowledgement of the rights of the Temiar in Pos Simpor to their customary lands, was a pleasant surprise. Yet, in the state of Perak, the ruling coalition justifies similar logging and plantation activities on Orang Asli customary territories on the grounds that “there is no such thing as ancestral lands in Perak”.

The Selangor State Government recently established a permanent committee to look in to the development and welfare of the Orang Asli in the state. A total of RM500,000 was allocated for, among other things, infrastructure development, health improvement, education, and house renovation in 2020. For the 20,000 Orang Asli in the state, this works out to RM25 for each Orang Asli! Another case of well-placed intentions not backed up with realistic commitments.

This year also saw the Department of Orang Asli Advancement, JAKOA, taking proactive steps to consult Orang Asli and other concerned parties, including NGOs and academics, on the design of an National Orang Asli Action Plan. But without the budget and personnel to see the plan through, this plan too is likely to go the way of such plans in the past.

HOPES

My hope for 2020, is that our top national leaders, and the heads of the respective states, pronounce unequivocally that the traditional territories of the Orang Asli are recognised as their right and entitlement, and that all legal and administrative measures to secure those lands (and their environments) must be effected for the Orang Asli .

This would be an important first step towards preventing tragedies such as the deaths of 16 Bateq-Orang Asli in Kuala Koh, Kelantan. While the authorities may try to assign the blame for the deaths on the nomadic and unhygienic lifestyle of the Bateqs, to me the tragedy was a direct consequence of the destruction and degradation of the Orang Asli customary lands. The logging of their resource base, the allowing of external plantations right up to their doorstep, the granting of licenses to operate mines above their water sources — all these a consequence of the state’s non-recognition of their rights to their customary lands — resulted in the conditions that brought about the pathological causes of the deaths.

It has become evident that only with recognition, will we begin to reduce Orang Asli marginalisation.