Lim Kit Siang says the Orang Asli Development Department is a failure and should be replaced by an Orang Asli Endowment Board.
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KUALA LUMPUR: Expressing disappointment over the status of the Orang Asli, Lim Kit Siang says DAP will push for the replacement of the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) with a body headed by an Orang Asli.
The DAP parliamentary leader said his party would also propose that an Orang Asli be appointed as a deputy minister if Pakatan Harapan (PH) comes to power in the 14th general election (GE14).
The Gelang Patah MP said this at a dialogue with Orang Asli at Kampong Ranau, Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands, yesterday.
His commitment was voiced following a request from the Orang Asli community at Pos Menson that if PH took power, it would dismantle Jakoa and replace it with an Orang Asli Endowment Board made up of Orang Asli.
The community said Jakoa was ineffective and did not guard the interests of the Orang Asli in its activities.
“Let me declare my full support for the demand for the abolition of Jakoa and its replacement by a body, headed by an Orang Ali, to spearhead Orang Asli upliftment to be in the mainstream of Malaysian development,” Lim said.
He said Jakoa and the government had failed to boost the Orang Asli community, adding that there were very few Orang Asli holding senior positions in Jakoa or even the entire civil service.
“According to a recent parliamentary reply, out of a total 998 staff in Jakoa, only 111 are Orang Asli. Only one is in the ‘management and professional’ rank. The rest are all supporting/lower rank staff.
“This is most disgraceful and shows the utter failure of Jakoa to represent a vibrant Orang Asli community.”
Lim said after six decades of independence, at least three quarters of the Jakoa staff should be Orang Asli, not just a “puny 11%” as at present.
In the entire civil service, he added, there were 1,352 Orang Asli, but only 172 of them were in the management/professional rank, mostly in the teaching service. Only one is in a top management position.
“This is why DAP will go one step further. We will propose to PH, if we can capture Putrajaya in GE14, to appoint an Orang Asli as deputy minister who, with the Orang Asli head of the new board which will replace Jakoa, will be jointly responsible for spearheading the mainstream development of the Orang Asli community.”
Lim added that at Gua Musang on Monday, 230 Orang Asli had applied to become DAP members at a new DAP branch in Kampong Parit, Kuala Betis.
He said he had visited the blockade erected by the Orang Asli Temiar people in the area to protest against logging activities that were harming their livelihood.
He called on the federal government and the Kelantan government to set up a joint commission of inquiry to find an equitable solution to the anti-logging grievances of the Orang Asli in Gua Musang.
“The Orang Asli Temiar community must not be regarded or treated as criminals or bad people when they are only peacefully protecting their legitimate rights as Malaysian citizens.
“Both the federal and state governments should not forget that the Orang Asli, in particular the Temiars, played a pivotal role in the war against communist insurgents.”
Lim said hundreds of Temiars were recruited by the British and later the Malayan government to form the Senoi Praaq force, a special unit in the Malaysian police tasked with tracking down communist guerrillas in the forest along the Thai-Malaysia border.
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