I confess that I was not aware of the truly miserable, atrocious and inhumane plight of the Orang Asli sixty years after Merdeka until in the last three weeks in my several visits to the Orang Asli Posts and kampongs in Cameron Highlands.
I dare say that 99 per cent Malaysians are not aware of the miserable plight of the Orang Asli – as all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, culure or region, would have felt ashamed and outraged of the true condition of the Orang Asli sixty years after Merdeka.
It is the responsibility, not only of the Federal and state governments, to put right the injustices suffered by the Orang Asli for sixty years, where they remain poor, backward, marginalized – deprived of the most basic infrastructures of proper access road, clean water, electricity and the provision of the most elementary needs with regard to education, health, medical, housing, economic opportunities, and most important of all, denied of their traditional land rights, but the responsibility of the 32 million Malaysians as well.
The time has come for Orang Asli in Malaysia to adopt the slogan “Orang Asli Bangkit” to launch a democratic struggle to demand a New Deal for Orang Asli in New Malaysia starting with the Cameron Highlands by-election on January 26.
In this “Orang Asli Bangkit” democratic campaign, all Malaysians must be told of the present plight of the Orang Asli, so that where the JAKOA had failed in sixty years to uplift the citizenship position of the Orang Asli to be at par with Malaysians of other ethnic groups, whether Malays, Chinese or Indians, “Orang Asli Bangkit” democratic struggle campaign can succeed in thirty years by 2050.
But we must start now. We must recognize and admit the failures of the past sixty years to achieve the objectives of JAKOA and begin to think of new strategies and approaches to make Orang Asli full citizens of Malaysia latest by 2050.
(Speech by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Orang Asli Kampong Lenjang, Pos Lenjang, Jelai on Monday 21st January 2019 at 8 pm)