By M.Gokoolaram Naidu
Once again I had the great opportunity to venture to one of the Malaysia’s remote corners, with two Bar Council Orang Asli Rights Committee members who need no introduction at all , Augustine Anthony and Bah Tony at my side.
Our destination is the small town of Raub in the state of Pahang , the celebrated land of gold mine, to conduct a talk on Orang Asli land rights and other basic constitutional rights of the citizens through Bar Council’s now popularly known “MyConsti Program”. To be able to reach our destination, on time, we had to leave Ipoh at 5.00 a.m. Though geographically in Pahang, the journey to Raub which we took was via the Simpang Pulai – Cameron Highland Highway bordering Cameron Highlands and bounded by two of the state’s well known mountains, Gunong Irau and Gunong Brinchang.
At Raub, we crossed through a narrow pass, choked with debris from the previous day’s rain before getting on to clear open road which led us to the venue, a multi-purpose hall nestled among serene environment. We were greeted and welcomed by the organizer of the program and more than 200 Orang Asli of the Semai and Temiar ethnic groups.
We shared various issues that are of great interest and currently prevalent among Orang Asli villagers namely their rights in terms of quality education, health and the much anticipated Orang Asli customary communal land rights. Our talk was aimed at empowering the Orang Asli by providing necessary motivating and inspiring factors so that they would organize themselves as a cohesive unit and work together to help achieve their goals and overcome problems by themselves before seeking any further assistance from others.
Some Orang Asli parents voiced concern that whilst most students in our country are great achievers of academic excellence in their school, unfortunately that does not seem to be the case in the Orang Asli school here. Here many of them particularly the young are going into the real world unprepared, for they hardly know how to read, write and count. We received complaints about their children not been taught according to syllabus and often neglected by their teachers during school hours.
Overall the day ended with many Orang Asli participants showing eagerness to be part of a community that will be equipped with the needed knowledge in order for them to be competitive in the future and had requested our presence in the future for more sharing of similar programs and we had assured them that as long as there is request from the Orang Asli community in that area, we will certainly make further return visits.
