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Helping Orang Asal speak with one voice

While the Peninsula commemorated its independence day on August 31, the Government’s testy relationship with the Orang Asal community was in full display in front of the Keningau district office in Sabah.

The government had barred representatives from Sabah’s tribes to perform a blessing ritual on the historical Oath Stone which is in the office compound.

The monument had been put there 50 years ago on August 31, to symbolise the pledge of loyalty between the tribes and the fledging Malaysian government.

To Jaringan Orang Asal Se-Malaysia (JOAS), an umbrella group for the country’s indigenous communities, the ban sums up how the government can suppress their rights while simultaneously claiming they’re looking out for them.

And it’s usually the JOAS that calls out the government on its doublespeak.

JOAS, which is a network of 21 smaller Orang Asal groups throughout Malaysia ensures that the different tribes speak with one voice, whether it is about their education, economy, customs, or land rights.

The challenges are steep. Collectively the Orang Asal make up only about 10% of the population while the wider public are either ignorant or insensitive to their plight.

But as Adrian Lasimbang of the JOAS explained, the tribes are quickly waking up to the fact that, like every other marginalised group in Malaysia, their destiny is in their hands.

National network with global reach

According to Lasimbang, JOAS started as an ad-hoc network in 1995 before becoming a formal group in 2000.

It is now an umbrella organisation to 21-community based Orang Asal groups in the Peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak.

Organising the different groups to speak with one voice is critical, he said, because true Orang Asal concerns are often misrepresented by political parties.

This is not just with East Malaysian political parties that claim to speak for a particular tribe. In the Peninsula, there are political parties that also claim to represent them by using the phrase “Bumiputera”.

Collating and managing the views of different tribes into one voice is critical when lobbying the government or setting a strategy of fighting for land rights in court.

“We also do lots of grassroots organising and technical support for smaller community-based groups,” Lasimbang told The Malaysian Insider.

This includes teaching a village community mapping, a tool used to demarcate a village’s ancestral land holdings to translate into actual documents that can be presented in court.

Lasimbang said JOAS is also in touch with a pool of indigenous or non-indigenous lawyers who can do pro-bono work when a community has to take the government or developers to court over land disputes.

Another important task was helping to bring the struggle for indigenous peoples’ rights to the United Nations.

Malaysia has signed on to the UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples – an international pledge that sets out the government’s responsibilities to its indigenous groups.

“Our representative helps the UN monitor the government’s commitment to the convention, so that it cannot claim to have done something, such as recognise land rights, when it has not,” said Lasimbang.

However, he explained that JOAS was not anti-government even though it is critical of it.

“We want to help the government realise their commitments so we give our input to ensure they successfully implement the declaration.”

Persistent obstacles

The community as a whole has scored notable wins in their struggles, but condescending attitudes towards the Orang Asal still remain huge obstacles.

Even though they have won cases for their land rights, the government still does not recognise those precedents. It continues to fight Orang Asal claims despite these precedents, said Lasimbang.

“In court, some judges do not understand customary land rights so we have to repeat the same arguments again and again.

“Which is why we’ve been lobbying the government for a tribunal just for Orang Asal land disputes. It saves both the community and the government time and money,” said Lasimbang.

And then there’s the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa). The agency claims it is a protector of Peninsula Orang Asal by managing their communities, their territories and their welfare.

But many Orang Asal activists, including JOAS, claim that Jakoa does the opposite.

The agency, whose original role was to prevent the community from being used by Communist insurgents, has morphed into one that attempts to cripple Orang Asal independence, said Lasimbang.

“If they really cared about Orang Asal land rights, then they should protect those rights from being taken away. But often we have seen them persuade Orang Asal to give up their land rights."

There is a wide belief among activists that Orang Asal territory is the “last frontier” of development.

“There’s no more land that has been unaccounted for. What remains is that which is claimed by Orang Asal but which the government refuses to gazette,” said Lasimbang.

And land that’s not gazetted is for the taking.

Growing empowerment

However, Lasimbang is optimistic of the future. Though there’s still much apathy, there is a growing public awareness of Orang Asal rights.

Every day, there are more and more villagers who are staking their claims via community mapping or organising.

Another important achievement is JOAS’s role in the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) inquiry into Orang Asal land rights.

The commission has come out with an authoritative document that details incursions into indigenous lands and sets out steps for the government to prevent them from occurring.

The report has not been tabled in Parliament despite numerous calls for the Cabinet to do so, said Lasimbang.

JOAS is also expanding its grassroots programmes to uplift and educate Orang Asal women. It also has initiatives to help Orang Asal youth deal with the challenges of working and living in cities.

“We’re not confrontational. If there is an obstacle in front of us, we’ll find a new way around it. One day the government will recognise us and work with us on anything affecting Orang Asal,” said Lasimbang.

That approach was also clear in Sunday’s event. When the government banned them from blessing the original Oath Stone, the group put up a new one outside the compound and blessed it.

“The old one was put up by our forefathers. The new one was put up by the new generation and symbolises our commitment and aspirations to ensure the government also fulfils its pledge”. – September 2, 2014.