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> Indigenous peoples movements

In the eyes of the government, developers and investors, the Orang Asli (Malaysiasindigenous peoples) are in the wrong time and place. Seen as lacking a sense of time, placeor history, they are deemed backward peoples in need of assistance. In other words, theyshould be modernised. Their purported nomadism is unsettling to the government, whichadvocates their sedentarisation to resolve the problem of their frequent mobility.

By A lberto G. Gomes

Orang Asli land is coveted by pow-erful interests: for its timber andminerals, for conversion into oil palmor rubber plantations, golf courses,hydroelectric power installations, theKuala Lumpur International Airport anddevelopment projects to benefit theMalay majority population. The reasonsbehind Orang Asli relocation or dis-placement are often concealed from thepublic eye. Instead, for the Orang Asli,displacement is called development.Government policies aim to draw theminto the mainstream of society, into theright place and time.

LabelsThe ethnic label Orang Asli, meaningnatural people in Malay, replaced theterm aborigines used by the Britishcolonial administration. Orang Aslirefers to the indigenous peoples ofPeninsular Malaysia who are not MalayMuslims, Malaysias main ethnic group.The Orang Asli, together with the Malaysand indigenous peoples of Sabah andSarawak, form the category ofMalaysians known as bumiputera (sonsof the soil) who make up 65.1 per centof the population; the rest is of Chineseor Indian descent (http://www.statis-tics.gov.my/English/pressdemo.htm).The Orang Asli comprise 0.5 per cent ofthe population (Nicholas 2000:3) andare conventionally divided into eighteenethno-linguistic subgroups.

Both ethno-labels bumiputera andOrang Asli imply indigeneity; Malaysare classified as bumiputera but not asOrang Asli. In the eyes of non-Malay cit-izens, recognition of an aboriginal peo-ple weakens the Malay claim to indige-nous status. Such views are notexpressed openly, however; Malaysianlaw prohibits public discussion of theissue of indigenous status, which is con-sidered seditious. Occasionally, opposi-tion politicians raise questions aboutindigeneity and rights of indigenous

minorities but these are quickly stifledby the ruling party, the United MalaysNational Organisation (UMNO). Whenquestioned by the media, Malaysias firstPrime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahmanreplied, there is no doubt that the Malayswere the indigenous peoples of this landbecause the original inhabitants did nothave any form of civilisation comparedwith the Malaysand instead lived likeprimitives in mountains and thick jun-gle (Nicholas 2000: 90).

There is no doubt that Orang Asli ances-tors settled on the Malay Peninsulalong before the predecessors of con-temporary Malays. However, prior set-tlement does not accord the descendantspolitical privileges. The musings of theformer Prime Minister, Dr MahathirMohamad, are revealing: Aborigines arefound in Australia, Taiwan andJapanbut nowhere are they regardedas the definitive people of the countryconcerned. The definitive people arethose who set up the first govern-ments. In Malaya, the Malays withoutdoubt formed the first effective govern-ments. The Orang Melayu or Malayshave always been the definitive peopleof the Malay Peninsula. (Dentan et al1997: 21-22) While the argument mayexplain Malay rule, it does not resolvethe problem of the existence of a groupof people who can be considered moreindigenous than the Malays.

AssimilationTo solve this problem, the governmenthas pursued a policy of assimilation toturn Orang Asli into Malay Muslimsand, in the process, eradicate the cate-gory of aboriginal peoples in Malaysia.In a recent policy statement, the gov-ernment announced its strategy toincrease efforts at introducing a valuesystem based on Islam for the integra-tion of the Orang Asli with the widersociety in general and Malays in partic-ular (Nicholas 2000: 98). Such a poli-cy was tacitly adhered to in earlier daysof government intervention; since 1993

it has been in the open. The policy notonly facilitates Islamic conversion; italso prevents Orang Asli from convert-ing to other religions, thus curtailingtheir religious freedoms. Islamic con-version would mean the Orang Asliwould no longer have the wrong statusas indigenous peoples. However, forresource managers, particularly forestrymanagers, many Orang Asli are still inthe wrong place.

Forest dwellersEvidence suggests that, in the first mil-lenium AD, the Orang Asli were the pri-mary suppliers of forest products such asrattan, bamboo, resins, ivory, and otheranimal parts in the maritime trade thatlinked Southeast Asia to markets inChina, India and the Middle East (Gomes2004: 2). Due to the settlement andencroachment of other peoples and inter-ests onto their territories, Orang Asli peo-

ples are losing control of the forests. Inthe contest for resources, they are oftenon the losing side (Nicholas 2000).

During the opening up of the countryin the late nineteenth and early twenti-eth centuries, forests were treated as ifthey were weeds to be cleared, and trans-formed into plantations and tin mines.After the Second World War, the OrangAsli and their forest abodes becamestrategically important in the fightagainst communist insurgents, whomostly operated from jungle camps. Thepush for economic development accel-erated the conversion of forests intoplantations, mines and land develop-ments. The construction of roads anddams destroyed large tracts of forestand, with them, Orang Asli livelihoods.Timber became an important exportbankrolling Malaysias development.

Between logging andpreservationParadoxically, the growing middle classproduced by Malaysias economic suc-cess began to clamour for the protectionof forests and the creation of forest parksfor recreation. The Orang Asli became anobstacle to two conflicting interests: com-mercial logging and forest preservation.Their shifting cultivation was deemed

wasteful and damaging to forests andresources. This perception was not new;in 1958, the Chief Forester blamed OrangAsli shifting cultivation for the destruc-tion of valuable forest resources and rec-ommended that it would be foolhardy tojeopardise the future of a nation by pre-serving a way of life for 50,000 peoplewhen an opportunity, as a result of theEmergency, exists today to start settlingthem permanently. Such sentimentshave spurred the governments push to

resettle Orang Asli away from their forestbases and to open the land for exploita-tion.

The Aboriginal Peoples Act (1974) per-mits the Orang Asli to collect minor for-est products but, under the Forestry Actof 1935, the Forestry Department hasregulatory rights. The Act requirestraders to obtain licences to purchase ortrade forest products and to pay leviesand taxes on commodities. By suchmeans the Department can regulatetrading and control Orang Asli access tothe forests. While Orang Asli are not per-mitted to collect forest products fromnational parks, this restriction is notalways enforced. As Colin Nicholas(2000: 134), Director of the NGO Cen-tre of Orang Asli Concerns has observed,personnel of the Department of Wildlifeand National Parks even act as middle-men in the trading of minor forest prod-ucts gathered by Orang Asli from TamanNegara National Park.

It is more than the contest for resourcesthat concerns government officials. In anattempt to ban tourists from visiting anOrang Asli community in Taman Negara,a government minister in 1997remarked, Although it is natural forwomen of the tribe to live half naked in

the village, their photographs may give awrong impression that Malays here aredressed in that manner (Nicholas, 2000,p.134). One may conclude that the OrangAsli are not only in the wrong place andtime, they are, in their marginal position,also a wrong people in Malaysia. Malaysia

The Orang Asli of Malaysia

Orang Asli Groups

and Locations

the government has pursued a policy of assimilationto turn Orang Asli into Malay Muslims and, in the

process, eradicate the category of aboriginal peoples inMalaysia

A Semai village locat-

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Cameron Highlands

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