TRAGEDIES that befall Orang Asli tribes will eventually affect other Malaysians, as seen in natural disasters across the country over the past few years, said environmental groups.    

This is because indigenous groups live in pristine jungles that provide critical ecosystems, such as for fresh water and natural flood mitigation that villages, towns and cities rely on.

The destruction of forests in Sarawak, Sabah, Kelantan and Kedah from logging and mining has led to catastrophic flooding and water shortages, not only in these regions, but neighbouring areas as well.

The latest case of “mysterious deaths” among the Bateq tribe of Gua Musang in Kelantan is another example of this interaction between man and nature at work, said Peka president Sharifah Sabrina Syed Akil.  

Environmental groups such as Peka and Kuasa said samples taken from a river, a main source of their water supply, showed it was contaminated by arsenic and cyanide.

Since the river is also a source of raw water for Kelantan, other residents will also be affected, said Sharifah Sabrina.

“The Orang Asli are just the beginning. Disaster first hits them and then it happens to all of us,” she said.

This is why Malaysians and the federal government must change their attitude towards issues concerning the Orang Asli, as the community is connected to the rest of the country in more ways than many realise, said Kuasa president Hafizuddin Narazudin.

The popular perception is that the Orang Asli are “backward”, clinging to a rustic way of life in the jungles that is out of touch with the norms of 21st-century modernity, he said.

State governments and the business community see them as obstacles to profitable industries, such as logging, plantations and mining, as the tribes occupy land where these activities can take place, he said.

The problem, however, is that this leads to the devaluing of forests and the work needed to ensure these ecosystems remain healthy, said Hafizuddin.

Since the Orang Asli depend on pristine jungles for food, water, medicine, shelter and religious rituals, he said a healthy tribe signals a healthy forest.

And, a healthy forest is able to provide clean sources of raw water, mitigate floods during the rainy season and trap greenhouse gases causing the current climate emergency, said Hafizuddin.

“We support letting the Orang Asli live out their ancient ways because they are guardians of the forest. Guarding the forests, they also guard the interests of the rest of us who live in cities,” he said.

Little revenue at great cost

The deaths of 14 members of the Bateq tribe in Gua Musang come just weeks after a different community in Perak grabbed headlines for blockading a forest in Gerik.

At about the same time last year, the Temuan tribe in Gua Musang made the news for their attempts to stop loggers and planters from entering and destroying their communal hunting grounds.

In all three cases, the Orang Asli were protesting against the clearing of forests.

During the 2014-2015 monsoon season, severe flooding in Kelantan destroyed 2,660 homes and displaced 151,000 people, and caused an estimated RM1 billion in damages.

Witnesses recounted how swollen rivers, which had turned shallow from siltation, were clogged with timber from logging sites in Gua Musang.

According to the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC), the environmental destruction that caused the massive floods in Kelantan mirrored the situation in Sarawak a decade earlier.

In Sarawak, collusion between the local government and timber and plantation companies stripped the state of much of its forest cover and drove its indigenous tribes off their communal lands, said COAC coordinator Colin Nicholas.

“So today, log jams are a frequent occurrence in Sarawak’s rivers and floods are yearly affairs for towns and cities along the rivers,” said Nicholas.

As Sarawak, Sabah, Kelantan and Pahang top the list for the most deforestation from logging, land-clearing for plantations and mining, it is no wonder that these states are also home to the most distressed Orang Asli communities, he said.  

“Yet, for all the talk about how much wealth logging and mining have brought these states, they also have the highest number of poor people,” said Nicholas.

According to a 2018 Khazanah Research Institute study, Kelantan has the highest percentage of households earning below RM2,000 per month, followed by Kedah, Sabah and Sarawak.

Nicholas said logging was an inefficient source of income for state governments due to leakages in the supply chain.

“In 2016, the Kelantan government said it earned RM187 million in logging revenue per year. Yet, when the Orang Asli blockade against loggers happened, loggers claimed RM50 million was being lost in two weeks.

“This tells you that it’s not the state that is getting the most revenue from logging. It’s the people who have to pay for the consequences due to homes destroyed by floods,” said Nicholas. – June 12, 2019.