Dato Omar - Bekas EXCO Orang Asli Pahang

Di Universiti Malaysia pada 19 Nov 2008 didalam "Persidangan Kebangsaan Orang Asli Selepas 50 Tahun Kemerdekaan Malaysia" Bila dah pencen dalam politik baru nak berkokok. Semasa memegang jawatan exco banyak pokok tumbang dikawasan Orang Asli. Perkampungan di Dun Jelai tempat dia makan sampai sekarang tak ada jalan darat yang boleh dilalui kenderaan. Orang Semai di sana masih guna sungai sebagai pengangkutan utama. Kesian OA kena tipu setiap lima tahun.

Perasmian PKR Cawangan Kg Bukit Rok/Ibam, Bahagian Bera

Bera, 22.11.08: PKR Bahagian Bera melangkah maju setapak lagi apabila penduduk perkampongan Orang Asli Kg Bukit Rok/Ibam berjaya menubuhkan sebuah cawangan PKR dikampong tersebut.

Pelancaran perasmian PKR tersebut disempurnakan oleh Sdr Ram Ponnusamy, Timbalan Pengerusi PKR Negeri Pahang berlangsung di Kg Ibam, Bera jam 4.30 petang.

Turut hadir dan berucap di Majlis Perasmian itu adalah Haji Suhaimi Said, Ketua Penerangan PKR Pahang, Sdr Sarawanan, Ahli Exco AMK PKR Pusat, Sdr Hj Abas Awang, Ketua PKR Bahagian Bera dengan dipengerusikan leh Bob Manolan, ahli Exco AMK PKR Pusat.

Haji Suhaimi Said membimbing Majlis untuk melaungkan REFORMASI dan buat kali pertama laungan keramat itu didengar secara bergemuruh oleh penduduk Kg Bukit Ro/Ibam. Ketua Penerangan Negeri Pahang itu menekankan betapa pentingnya perjuangan Orang Asli bersama PKR untuk menuntut keadilan bagi kaum mereka. "Menjadi perjuangan PKR bahawa apabila kita memerintah Negeri Pahang agenda utama yang kita akan sempurnakan ialah meluluskan geran tanah kampong dan ladang secara individu kepada Orang Asli. Sudah lebih 50 tahun UMNO/BN memerintah, Orang Asli masih tidak memilikki tanah, dan tanah-tanah hutan yang dikatakan Rezab Orang Asli sebenarnya tidak digazet dan kini diteroka oleh orang-orang lain," tegas Haji Suhaimi.

Beliau memberi contoh tanah-tanah Orang Asli di Kuala Krau dan Jerantut yang satu demi satu telah diberi hak milik kepada Orang Melayu, dan Orang Cina dan yang dituntut oleh Perhilitan walaupun tanah-tanah itu dikatakan Tanah Rezab Orang Asli. Beliau juga memberi contoh bahawa sebidang tanah yang luas yang dulunya dikatakan Rezab Orang Asli sudah bertukar menjadi Padang Glf di Jerantut.

Ketua Penerangan PKR Pahang itu menegaskan bahawa tanah-tanah orang Asli tidak lagi selamat dibawah pemerintahan Barisan Nasional dan menyeru semua Orang Asli di Negeri Pahang menyertai perjuangan yang besar didalam PKR untuk kepentingan dan masa depan Orang Asli.

Sdr Haji Abas menyatakan bahawa selama ini UMNO memperbodohkan Orang Asli, mereka gula-gulakan Orang Asli dan Orang Asli memberi sokongan kepada UMNO.

Sebagai bekas Pegawai Pelajaran, beliau menyatakan bahawa golongan miskin adalah tertinggal dibawah sistem pendidikan BN, setiap pelajar tak kira kaya atau miskin dikenakan yuran, berbagai yuran yang sama, dan sangat membebankan orang miskin. Sepatutnya orang miskin terutama dari pedalaman dilayan dengan diberikan keutamaan dan keistimewaan.

"Kita mahu parti yang baik, ketua-ketua yang baik supaya pemerintahan dan pentadbiran Negara menjadi baik. Tetapi apa yang berlaku sekarang ini, Negara kita kaya, tetapi rakyat tida terbela!" katanya.

Sdr Sarawanan pula menegaskan bahawa PKR terbuka untuk semua kaum. "Kita ada orang Melayu, Cina, India, Orang Asli, dan Bumiputra Sabah/Sarawak menjadi ahli. Kita bersama dan tidak perkauman, dan perjuangan kita adalah keadilan untuk semua khususnya untuk golongan majoriti rakyat", katanya.

Beliau menyatakan bahawa PKR mengutamakan Orang Miskin, dan perjuangan yang menguntungkan rakyat yang ramai.

Selepas perasmian cawangan itu, kain baju bundle diedarkan kepada semua hadirin dan majlis bersurai jam 5.45 petang.

Posted by Suhaimi Said at http://lubokkawah.blogspot.com/

Orang Asli didalam Parlimen Dato Seri Najib

Orang Asli harus sedar dan menyedarkan sesama kita supaya kita tidak diperdaya oleh UMNO bila dekat pilihanraya. Ini adalah keadaan perkampungan Jakun di dalam daerah Pekan Pahang. Wakil perlimen mereka adalah mungkin bakal perdana menteri pada bulan Mac 2009. Sekiranya beginilah keadaan Orang Jakun ditempat Parlimen Timbalan Perdana Menteri Dato Seri Najib, apakah warasnya kita berduyun memangkah UMNO? Masa telah berubah, dunia semakin mencabar. Maka Orang Asli perlu bijak. Dun Bebar dalam kawasan Parlimen Pekan pengundi Orang Asli hampir 30%. Lakukan perubahan untuk bangsa dan negara kita.

Orang Asli Mahu Nikmati Pembangunan Selangor Maju

Respon Kepada Ketua Pengarah JHEOA

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE: Respect rights of Orang Asli

By : COLIN NICHOLAS, Coordinator Centre for Orang Asli Concerns, Subang Jaya

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THE report "20,000ha gazetted for Orang Asli reserve" (New Sunday Times, Sept 21) and the accompanying stories suggest that the Department of Orang Asli Affairs is going on a campaign to promote itself as the godfather of the Orang Asli.

I can understand why it has to. The department has come under fire not just from the Orang Asli themselves but also from some government agencies whose attempts to help the Orang Asli have been frustrated by the department. But it is one thing to blow your own trumpet and quite another if in doing so you mislead the public. For example, the department proclaims that "almost 20,000ha of land -- twice the size of Kuala Lumpur International Airport and the vast land surrounding it -- had been gazetted as Orang Asli reserve in Peninsular Malaysia". The truth is that a decade ago, there was an additional 1,062 hectares of Orang Asli reserve which today has been lost. In fact, KLIA was the homeland of two Temuan settlements that were unwillingly resettled in swampland 40km away. The department also boasts that 31,000 hectares of land had been approved for gazetting but have yet to be formally gazetted by the states. In fact much of these approvals were done in the 1960s and 1970s, but the paperwork for putting out a gazette notice has not been completed in all these cases. As a result, due to the insecurity placed on their lands, the Orang Asli have lost 6,932ha of their traditional lands to others, often without them knowing it, let alone being consulted. This prompted one Court of Appeal judge in the landmark Sagong Tasi land rights case to chastise the department for making the Orang Asli victims of the department's negligence in not adequately gazetting or under-gazetting Orang Asli lands. The department admits that poverty and hardcore poverty remain a big problem for the Orang Asli. That a people making up only 0.6 per cent of the population should account for 20 per cent of the nation's hardcore poor (and 46 per cent of the nation's poor) should be a cause for concern, especially for a department responsible for the "protection, well-being and advancement" of the Orang Asli. Yet, the basic structures that keep Orang Asli families in poverty are still in place. A case in point is the agricultural development programmes that the department claims are a success. RM30 million in dividends for 2008 may sound like a lot of money. But when divided by 10,000 households, and into monthly payments, it works out to only RM500 per month -- not enough to keep the household above the official poverty line. But should it be so? Orang Asli who manage and sell their oil palm or rubber on their own smallholdings have been earning between RM2,000 and RM3,000 per month during the same period. It is no wonder then that several Orang Asli communities have asked for these department-supervised "agricultural development projects" to be given back to them to manage on their own. But they face resistance from the so-called management agencies who work on "we-do-everything-for-you-for-a-fat-fee" concept. The Jakun community in Bekok have been forced to go to court to assert their right to work their own fields, after the former management refused to honour the end of the agreement period. Others, as in Betau and Buluh Nipis in Pahang, have been detained for wanting to assert their agricultural independence. It is clear that the department is unable to see this fundamental flaw in the development programme of the Orang Asli and unable to see why many Orang Asli still live in poverty when they should not. It is no wonder then that many Orang Asli have begun to assert their right to land and economic justice. To accuse them of being easily influenced by outsiders working on private agendas or by non-governmental organisations only reflects the department's ignorance of the Orang Asli situation today. The Orang Asli and natives of Sabah and Sarawak (collectively referred to as the Orang Asal) are no longer timid people roaming the forest, waiting for official handouts. They have participated actively in national and international forums and have made their demands clear. Orang Asal leaders have also been active in deliberations such as the UN Convention of Biological Diversity and the Framework Convention on Climate Change as well as in several regional initiatives on issues involving indigenous peoples. In fact, Jannie Lasimbang, an Orang Asal from Sabah, is one of the five experts sitting on the Geneva-based Expert Mechanism on Indigenous Peoples Rights established under the UN Human Rights Council. If the department would open its eyes and ears, it would know that after 24 years of debate among indigenous peoples in the world, the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was finally adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Sept 13, 2007. Malaysia is a signatory to this convention. The articles of the Declaration -- which speak of self-determination, recognition of land rights, and the need to get free, prior and informed consent before any activity involving indigenous peoples is conducted -- is now international customary law, which the government is obliged to follow. International customary law also recognises native title, i.e. the right of the Orang Asli to own their traditional lands which they hold by custom. Our courts have also recognised native title based on common law. Thus, for the director-general to brush aside native customary rights as being the prerogative of the Borneo states only, frightens me into thinking that more and more Orang Asli lands are going to be lost. It is time for the Department of Orang Asli Affairs to raise its awareness to the level of the Orang Asli and to work towards justice.

Orang asli: Department should work with Orang Asal

NST Online » Letters

2008/10/03

Orang asli: Department should work with Orang Asal

By : SUE THOMAS, Kuala Lumpur

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Malaysia’s indigenous people have been active in international forums under the United Nations.

THANK you, Colin Nicholas. Your letter "Respect rights of Orang Asli" (NST, Sept 24) was indeed an eye-opener.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there is active participation by our indigenous people in national and international forums such as the UN Convention of Biological Diversity and the Framework Convention on Climate Change as well as in several regional initiatives on issues involving indigenous people. Sabahans must be proud to have Jannie Lasimbang, an Orang Asal from Sabah, as one of the five experts sitting on the Geneva-based Expert Mechanism on Indigenous Peoples Rights established under the UN Human Rights Council. Adrian Lasimbang, the president of Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS), in his letter, "Orang Asli had a lot to do with that march" (NST, Sept 25), states that their "continuing poverty is continued through bad policy and bad interpretation of our customary laws and international rights". If the Department of Orang Asli Affairs (which is supposed to be responsible for the "protection, well-being and advancement" of the Orang Asli) is really serious about improving the lot of our indigenous people, they should accept the invitation of the president of JOAS to engage with them for discussions and "learn about ways to justly ensure good governance" so that the Orang Asal will become a fully developed and secure community in Malaysia.