DAP’s former Teluk Intan MP Manogaran Marimuthu claimed it was actually the Orang Asli who found the tourist who went missing for four days in the jungle near the resort.
He said the Orang Asli rescuers involved should have been given due recognition and rewards for their assistance.
“Why did the police lie to everyone that they found Kim when in fact they did not? It was the Orang Asli who found them,” he told FMT.
He was referring to a report by The Malaysian Insight yesterday, where Kampung Tual A’s Tok Batin (headman) Harun Siden had asked the authorities to acknowledge what they had done and respect the Semais’ knowledge of the forests.
Harun said the authorities at Berjaya Hills Resort did not seem to think much about their skills but he said the Orang Asli were definitely more knowledgeable about the forests than the authorities.
He expressed disappointment that far from being thanked for their efforts, the Orang Asli were treated with little respect.
Raman Yok Di, 25, one of the Orang Asli volunteers, said certain officials promised them monetary rewards but they had yet to receive any.
He told the news portal the Orang Asli involved in the search for the Korean had to fork out their own money to pay for their petrol home.
Manoharan was the DAP parliamentary candidate in the 2013 general election for Cameron Highlands, which has a large population of Orang Asli.
He said the Orang Asli community are not second-class citizens and should be treated with dignity.
“The Orang Asli community found Kim in an area where police told them not to search. They nevertheless went ahead to search on their own without the police or the aid of the dog unit.
“There are video clips to prove that several Orang Asli volunteers found Kim. There was no sign of police or dogs in these clips.
“So the truth is while the police and rescue teams were searching a different area, it was the Orang Asli who found him alive and brought him out of the jungle to the police in a hand-made improvised stretcher.”
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