ADUN Kapayan Jannie Lasimbang has come out to condemn PN’s lack of political will to improve the lives of the Indigenous communities in Malaysia.
As of 2017, the indigenous peoples of Malaysia were estimated to account for around 13.8% of the national population. They are collectively known as Orang Asal.
Jannie along with the DAP Sabah Native Affairs Council believes that Perikatan National has failed its fudiciary duty to protect the rights of the Orang Asal which are enshrined in the Federal constitution.
Yet till today the Orang Asal all over Malaysia continues to raise complaints of land dispossession and imposition of unwanted development, social discrimination, and non-recognition of indigenous culture and religion.
Janine says that basic infrastructures like roads, and clean water and electricity supply in many rural Orang Asal villages are in very poor or non-existent.
Orang Asli communities are doubtful whether all the RM12 million for food baskets allocated by the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government would actually reach them, many of them are starving and in dire need of help.
“Their children are losing out on education because the free internet and devices to connect to the internet which was promised by the PN government have not reached them.” added Jannie.
In Sabah, the recognition by the Warisan Plus government to Orang Asal was thrown out of the window after the GRS/PN government came into power.
The Ministry of Law and Native Affairs was abolished and the annual commemoration of the annual World Indigenous Peoples Day in August that was formally adopted is no longer allocated funds nor held.
The failure of the PN government at the national level and the GRS government in Sabah to recognise Orang Asal rights can be corrected through a genuine participation and partnership that fosters equal opportunities and respects the rights, dignity and freedom of the Orang Asal.
For too long the needs and rights of the Orang Asal have been ignored, we must take a firm stand and demand that these vulnerable communities are properly taken cared of
The Rocket
