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Extracted from Malaysiakini
Orang Asli want traditional land reserved for them
Athi Veeranggan
| Jan 25,
Some 500 impoverished Orang Asli villagers in Kampung Pos Bersih in Ulu Slim, Perak want the state government to reserve their
traditional settlement land solely for them.
They also want the authorities to allow them to cultivate their own
agricultural crops in the surrounding vicinity to earn a decent living.
"Historically this is our traditional native homeland for hundreds of
years.
"But the settlement land still does not belong to us,"
said Kampung Pos Bersih Orang Asli village head Syani Yeok Kim (right), 48, when Malaysiakini visited the place
recently.
Kampung Pos Bersih, comprises Kampung Pos Bersih Atas (north) and Bawah (south), and Kampung Gesau.
The natives here are mostly Christians, Bahais and
believers in the traditional Orang Asli spirit faith that venerates nature as the heart and
soul of all living beings.
Due to lack of employment and business opportunities, their life depends very
much on the jungle environment that surrounds their village.
The jungle's natural gifts such as rattan, bamboo, fish, birds and small
animals are the main sources of income and food for the 50-odd native
households here.
They also cultivate food crops such as tapioca, yam, sweet potato, and
commercial crops like palm oil in small scales.
The Orang Asli's economic
activities, which are carried out collectively, are both to earn a decent
living and feed their families.
They sell these crops and other natural findings to earn some money, estimated
to be between RM100 and RM150 per household per month, to sustain their family
expenses.
Below the hardcore poor mark
Non-government
organisation, Perak Orang Asli Village Network (POAVN) secretary Tijah
Yok Chopil (left) expressed
surprise with the government's repeated claim that the Orang
Asli were living in good condition.
"The Orang Asli people
here are living far below the RM400-monthly income mark for the hard core poor
category," she said.
The Orang Asli community
lives on work per meal basis where the men work around the clock daily to feed
their families and sustain their expenses.
Homes in Kampung Pos Bersih,
which is close to the Perak - Pahang
border, lack decent living facilities, amenities and conditions.
Although the settlement receives water and electricity supplies, the Orang Asli only enjoyed such
basic amenities in the last couple of years.
"They built the electricity posts some 10 years ago and connected the
cables about five years later. And, only recently the settlement was able to
use electricity and clean water," said Tijah,
who is among the few Orang Asli
to have received tertiary education.
Lack of communications infrastructure has cut off the villagers from others.
The only school in the village, which caters to the needs of Orang Asli children, hardly
boasts facilities.
'We're worse than the foreigners'
The Orang Asli people in Kampung Pos Bersih are working
out their own source of income virtually without any help from the government
authorities.
The land they used to cultivate their crops does not belong to them.
"We
are frequently told by the authorities that this land belongs to the government
or some private entities, when in truth we are the historically rightful owners
of this land," said Kampung Gesau
village head Bah Geharai Kadek
(photo), 62.
In recent years, sand-digging and logging projects have began to destroy the
natural environment of their homes, causing sand sludge on the banks of Slim
River, soil erosion, air pollution and murky river water, which is the main
source of water for the settlement.
From a main road in
The logging activities, carried out by a company under a government statutory
body, are depleting the natural gifts.
Mansor Yok Perangin, 38, –
a village committee member, almost broke into tears when he narrated the
feelings of the Orang Asli
of being marginalised and isolated by the government from the country's
mainstream development.
"Many claim that we are the pribumis and have
privileges. But until today we have not been treated as one. We are in much
worse condition than foreign workers like Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and
Indonesians," he told Malaysiakini.
Inform us about projects
Bah Geharai, whose mother Han Laleh
Gadal, 91, is the oldest living Orang
Asli in the settlement, has used his own savings,
about RM40,000, to cultivate a small piece of land
with palm oil as the main livelihood for Gesau folks.
"Proceeds from the sale of palm oil products feeds the Gesau villagers
now," he said, adding 
that the
authorities have yet to respond to his application to have the palm oil land
reserved for the village settlement.
The Kampung Pos Bersih
villagers now demand that the Pakatan Rakyat Perak government gazette the settlement as theirs and also set aside a
vast piece of land in the surrounding vicinity for the Orang
Asli to carry out their agricultural activities.
During a special meeting with the Perak government's Orang Asli task force in mid-last
year, the POAVN had submitted a memorandum to the state administration
demanding this.
They also want the government to keep them informed on all future economic and
development projects in the area, unlike now.
"The government hardly discussed or informed us about those projects (sand
digging and logging)," said Syani.
