KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 ― The federal and state governments must do more to fully recognise the indigeneous Orang Asli’s legal rights to their ancestral lands and safeguard their welfare, the Malaysian Bar reiterated today.
Following Malay Mail’s report of a group of Orang Asli living beside a landfill in Pahang, Malaysian Bar president Abdul Fareed Abdul Gafoor said Article 5 of the Federal Constitution provides that “no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty save in accordance with law”.
He added that both federal and state governments also owed a duty to the Orang Asli to protect their welfare.
“Once again, the predicament of this Orang Asli community can be partly attributed to the refusal of the federal and state governments to recognise the rights of the Orang Asli to live on and off their ancestral lands, and to provide all Orang Asli communities with basic infrastructure like water and electricity.
“Given the special position of the Orang Asli under the Federal Constitution, the continued failure of the Federal and State Governments to protect and provide for marginalised Orang Asli can only be described as deplorable,” he said in a statement here.
Abdul Fareed also expressed regret that the problem still persisted when the press have reported for more than a decade about the plight of the Orang Asli community residing near the landfill.
Last week, Malay Mail carried a news report on an Orang Asli community from the Jakun tribe in Bandar Muadzam Shah, Pahang who were forced to scavenge at a landfill for a living in the 21st-century, bereft of basic amenities like piped water and electricity.
The article was also made possible with the support of the ECM Libra Foundation, which funds and undertakes charitable work, particularly in education, with indigenous communities, in both east Malaysia and the peninsula, in particular the Orang Asli.
A tribe’s spokesman later denied the portrayal, saying they had been only looking for recyclables in the area to supplement their income.
