Orang Asli:- Will shoot your chickens and dogs..unless you move into jungle?

“They told us to remove all our belongings and move into the jungle, or they would push down our homes and shoot our chickens and dogs,”

The Indigenous people of Malaysia are not many - but it saddens me how they are being treated by our Barisan Nasional government.  We have been kept blind to their reality as seldom does the mainstream media report on their predicament.

As BN-type development encroaches their homes and the lands upon which many still survive on, they are forced to just move...and move deeper into the jungle. 

The indigenous people do not generally believe on 'private ownership of land' - land belongs to all, and they survive living off the land. Deforestation affects their livelihood. This BN-government solution have been to get them to relocate to 'housing projects' in town - but alas, they fail to consider their livelihood and their culture. A new beautiful house in town is just no good - because you have just removed them from the jungles from which they live on. The harvest jungle products like petai, etc and sell for monies which they use to buy some essential items of this modern world. They fish. They hunt. The survive on the goods that the jungle has to provide. They like living where they choose to live. It is the same for people living in a kampung environment - they really are not at all happy to be uprooted and forced to live in some Taman or housing estate.

What they want is ultimately their choice - but we need to be concerned that they are not simply 'exploited' by bad people ... or allowed to be exploited by a government that just does not care. 

Some years ago, in the Sungai Tua area, I was shocked that compensation being paid was a mere RM50 per household to move out. There really was no choice - move on your own or we will forcibly move you out.

It is now 2015, some 50 something years since we gained our Independence but the government still treats the Indigenous people with a serious lack of respect, dignity or justice as is seen in this Star report..

Published: Thursday June 4, 2015 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Thursday June 4, 2015 MYT 7:38:14 AM

Orang asli homes torn down

by loh foon fong AND kathleen ann kili

Broken homes: A child crying in the middle of the village houses that were torn down by the authorities in Gunung Arong, Mersing, Johor. — Photo is taken by Tolo Lee.

MERSING: A group of orang asli women were about to start cooking when a group of 100-odd enforcement officers moved in to tear down eight wooden homes in the Gunung Arong forest reserve in Kampung Batu 10 on Tuesday, leaving 50 Jakun homeless.

The seven families are now living in makeshift tents by the roadside after their homes were torn down.

Village representative Awang Rambai, 49, said the operation involved more than 100 people, including police and Forestry Department officers.

“They told us to remove all our belongings and move into the jungle, or they would push down our homes and shoot our chickens and dogs,” he said.

Awang said the community had lived there for six years and claimed the right to the land and forest produce.

“We wrote to the department, the Mentri Besar’s office and even the Prime Minister, but we never got a proper reply,” he added.

Several months ago, the authorities had told them to move to Kampung Kerpan in Rompin but they refused as there was no source of income there “while the forest has depleted”.

“Here, I can do some farming and the forest is accessible. The government gave part of the forest reserve to loggers and miners, but why can’t they let us stay?” Awang, who used to live in Kota Tinggi in Johor and Rompin, asked.

His wife Kamisah Alan, 43, said she was about to start cooking when she saw a team of officers coming. Holding back tears, the mother of six said she grabbed whatever she could before heading out to help the other families when the team ordered them to get out.

Siu Begani, 35, who lost his disabled person’s identification card in the incident, said the orang asli had no choice but to sleep on the ground.

Siu, who lost his right leg in a mishap at work six years ago, said most of their daily provisions and children’s items were damaged.

“We barely make ends meet, and now, most of our things are gone. How are we to survive?” he said in between sobs.

Centre for Orang Asli Concerns public policy researcher/volunteer Chung Yi Fan said the orang asli only occupied a 2ha plot, which was nothing compared to that given to loggers and miners.

“The concern now is on the 20 to 30 schoolchildren. What is going to happen to them?” he said.

He said the state and federal governments needed to step in as it was their responsibility.

“They may enforce the law but they can’t demolish the houses and leave them (orang asli) out in the cold,” he said.

Chung said the authorities should not have acted in that manner, as it was not customary for orang asli to set up base in a village they did not belong to.

He said the group was “dumped” at the Pahang border about three years ago. “Why are they treated like animals?” he said.

The Jakun have long been living along south Pahang, mainly in Rompin and Pekan districts and central to northern part of Johor.- Star, 4/6/2015