MAY 28 — With the birth of a new Malaysia and a government that focuses on the needs of the people, many have been offering suggestions on areas that require change. The government faces an enormous, uphill task to “heal Malaysia” and move us forwards.
Much needs to be done; some urgently and short term but more that requires long term change for sustainability. We are refreshed by the openness of the government and the encouragement to speak the truth about problems that the people are facing.
Some of our people have a limited voice. One of the groups in most desperate need for help are our Orang Asli children. We are delighted that our Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has announced the setting up of a special task force to safeguard the interests of the Orang Asli. While this is being set up and gets into action can I share a need that has to be met urgently.
The Orang Asli people, our people, have experienced much hardship and a deterioration in their status over the last 30-40 years. In the past we rarely saw malnutrition among the children and they would die predominantly from malaria. In the past 20 years the vast majority of Orang Asli children die as a result of underlying nutrition.
They are not able to cope with a simple diarrhoea or pneumonia infection due to chronic malnutrition. The Orang Asli people have lost their natural supermarket protein sources (the forest and rivers) as their forests have been logged and rivers polluted. The resettlement programmes for the Orang Asli is a death trap for many.
From numerous studies we know that 40 per cent of Orang Asli children are malnourished by the age of two years. 70-80 per cent are underweight or stunted in height by school going age. The true mortality for Orang Asli children is not easy to determine as we are not able to document all those that live in the interior. But available data suggests that the death rate in these children is five times that of the national average (the true difference is probably higher).
While we work to develop long-term economic socio-economic mechanisms to support our Orang Asli sisters and brothers, that are sustained and culturally acceptable, we urgently need to rescue the children.
Over the years some of us have advocated for the healthcare needs of the Orang Asli to be moved from Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli (JAKOA) to the Ministry of Health so that we can support these children. Once we had this access, we developed hospital based re-feeding and community-based feeding programmes to identify decompensated (malnourished) Orang Asli children and reduce its impact.
This has led to a 90 per cent reduction in their childhood mortality in areas where we can implement it. The key is to give every Orang Asli children, under the age of five years, one protein-energy meal every day. There is no point just waiting for these children to become malnourished and then rescue them; this is often too late. We need to prevent the malnutrition from happening.
In Perak we have been able to extend this programme to approximately 60 per cent of villages but are plagued by continual interruptions in funding. If we were to feed all the Orang Asli children under the age of five years with one protein-energy meal each day in all of Malaysia the cost would not exceed 15 million a year. Not a large sum to save a dying people group in our country.
We appeal to the new ministers of Health, Women & Family Development and Rural Development to kindly look into this urgently. The community-based feeding programme initiative needs to be urgently extended to as many regions as we can reach to save lives.
A lot more can be said on the needs and plight of this people group but it is perhaps best left to the special task force set up by our PM. However one very important action must be the total re-vamp of the Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli. They are an “orphan” department with a poor track record and not always trusted by some of the Orang Asli. JAKOA is best placed under the PM’s department.
Many of the changes we make in our country will take time and some can afford to wait.
The Orang Asli Children cannot wait.
Today is their Day or we may lose more of them.
* Datuk Dr Amar-Singh HSS is a senior consultant paediatrician
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
