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Creating space for indigenous people in Malaysia
Background
There are 31 Orang Asli villages with a population of 10.960 people in Pekan.
Their residential areas are not in the forest. However, the majority of the
Orang Asli still depends on the forest and its resources for their income and
survival. This case represents an area where multi-stakeholders of peat swamp
forest have different views and power as well as conflicting interests. The
Orang Asli are somehow being remained in the fringe of the mainstream
development, their communities are identified as fringe communities. The
government Department of Orang Asli Affairs (Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli; JHEOA)
is responsible in taking care of the welfare of these communities. The LPF
project aims to create awareness among the local agencies in creating space for
Orang Asli communities to involve themselves in decision-making process on the
improving their quality of life as well as to produce model in approaches for
improving space availability for indigenous people in decision-making process.
The Orang Asli are divided into three main tribal groups: Negrito, Senoi and
Proto-Malay. The proto-Malay people are living in the southern part of the
peninsula in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Melaka and Johor. The community
LPF is working with in Pekan, belong to the Jakun sub-ethnic from the
Proto-Malay group.
>Map of the area<
The Stakeholders
The main stakeholders involved in this process are
- The Orang Asli communities
- The Palace
- District office
- Department of Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA)
- Heads of villages
- Regional planning units
- Forestry department
The key issues are:
- A need for space to involve the community itself in negotiation processes for
planning purposes in terms of their livelihood, participatory and empowerment in
achieving a socially acceptable, economically viable and sustainable future
development plan.
- A need for a more comprehensive baseline data which includes the community
historical background, community-forest interaction and conflicts and detailed
assessment on socio-economic aspects.
Challenge
The Orang Asli issues are national issues and related to forest sustainability.
The forests where the communities depend on belong to the state and also the
interest of many other stakeholders. At the same time, OA are encouraged to
participate in mainstream development. However, most of them remain at the
fringe of the development. In Pahang, OA are quite unique in the sense they have
close ties with the state royal family. The issues and reasons should be
uncovered through different perspectives in order to understand the actual
situation. Also, how the other agencies perceive the OA communities and their
capabilities in decision-making are main concerns of the project.
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