I give full support to the Cameron Highlands Member of Parliament Ramli Mohd Nor that the director-general of the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) must be an Orang Asli.
Ramli claimed that officers in the Rural Development Ministry are trying to put a non-Orang Asli in charge of the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa).
This is going backwards and clearly a retrograde step.
In fact, JAKOA should be abolished and replaced by a body, headed by an Orang Ali, to spearhead Orang Asli upliftment to be in the mainstream of Malaysian development.
JAKOA has become the symbol of the failure of the UMNO/BN government to uplift the Orang Asli communities to be in the mainstream of development.
To date, there are too few Orang Asli holding senior positions in JAKOA and indeed in the entire civil service.
According to a 2018 parliamentary reply, out of a total 998 staffs in JAKOA, only 111 are Orang Aslis. Only One is in the “Management and Professional” rank, the rest are all supporting/lower rank staffs.
This is most disgraceful and shows the utter failure of JAKOA to represent a vibrant Orang Asli community.
After six decades of the country’s nationhood, at least three quarters of the JOKOA staff should be Orang Aslis, and not just a puny 11% as at present, and an Orang Asli must head JOKOA and not just one in the management and professional rank of JAKOA
In the entire civil service, there are 1,352 Orang Asli, but only 172 of them are in the Management/Professional rank (mostly in the teaching service). Only one is in the Top Management position.
We talked for six decades about the upliftment and development of the Orang Asli with very little to show.
After six decades, we don’t even have a Orang Asli as a Minister or Deputy Minister. This is most disgraceful, and the latest suggestion that a non-Orang Asli should be appointed as JAKOA director-general should not be entertained and dismissed out of hand.
(Media Statement (2) by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, 19th May 2021)
