The Department of Orang Asli Affairs, Malaysia: An Agency for Assimilation
The ‘Orang Asli’ are the indigenous minority peoples of Peninsular Malaysia. ‘Orang Asli’ is a Malay term which means ‘original peoples’ or ‘first peoples’. It is a collective term introduced by anthropologists and administrators. Orang Asli comprise at least nineteen culturally and linguistically distinct groups. The largest groups are the Semai, Temiar, Jakun (Orang Hulu), and Temuan. In 1999, their population was 105,000 persons representing less than 0.5 per cent of the national population. According to the records of the Department of Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA), a total of 147,412 Orang Aslis or mere 0.6% of the national population were living in 869 villages in 2004.
Most of them descended from the Hoabinhians, stone tool-using hunter-gatherers who occupied the peninsula as early as 11,000 B.C.
Orang Asli were once thinly scattered throughout the peninsula. But, as the majority Malay population grew on the coastal plains and major river valleys most of the Orang Asli were pushed back into the interior montane forests. Majority of Orang Asli still lives in rural and remote areas. Until recently they lived by various combinations of hunting, fishing, gathering, swidden farming, aboriculture, and trading forest products. Land development projects and government programs have turned many into rural peasants or day labourers.
The Orang Aslis, literally meaning first peoples have been treated as second class Bhumiputras, sons of the soil. The Special Provision made under Article 153 of the Constitution of Malaysia ensures “the special position of the Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak” and makes no reference to the Orang Aslis. The references to the Orang Aslis under Article 8(5) (c), Article 45(2), Article 160(2) and Article 89 of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia failed to address discrimination against the Orang Aslis.
The Department of Orang Asli Affairs
A. Historical background Colonial period
After the surrender of the Japanese in 1945, the Orang Asli people suddenly became crucial players to determine as to who controls the country after independence. The British colonial rulers did not want the communists, mostly Chinese, in the government that would be formed in independent Malaysia. On their part, the communists wanted to stake claims in the anticipated post-independence government. Subsequently in 1947, the communists returned to the forests and started an armed insurrection, the “Emergency” which would last from 1948-1960. To prevent the communist guerrillas from winning the support of the Orang Asli people inside the deep forests, the British authorities decided to resettle the Orang Asli like the Chinese squatters. The authorities forced the Orang Asli people residing at accessible villages into camps which were surrounded by barbed wire and constantly guarded but the authorities did not provide basic requirements like proper shelters, sanitary facilities, or nutritionally adequate food. Denial of basic services in the camps resulted in death of large numbers of Orang Asli and some of them who escaped from the camps passed on their experiences of ill treatment in the camps back to their relatives still in the forest. This led to increasing antagonism toward the authorities and virtually all the Orang Asli of the central highlands, mostly Temiar and Semai, had turned to the communists for protection against the government by 1953.
Experienced with the setback, the authorities drew the lesson that the cooperation of the Orang Asli people could be won only by being kind to them and not by intimidation or force. This prompted the colonial authorities to allow all camp inmates to go home. Then, the authorities set up “jungle forts” in the areas of Orang Asli which had larger number of communists. Security forces patrolled the Orang Asli villages at regular intervals to provide protection to them and male nurses at the forts delivered basic health care services. The security forces also sold salt, tobacco, and metal tools for small shops they had opened at the forts. Preceding the setting up of the Department of Orang Asli Affairs, the colonial government established the Department of Aborigines primarily to win the loyalty of Orang Asli. In 1954, the government dramatically expanded the Department of Aborigines and made it responsible primarily for enlisting Orang Asli in the government cause against the communists. Under the Aboriginal Peoples Act of 1954, the Department has been given the control over all matters concerning Orang Asli and henceforth it came to known as Department of Orang Asli Affairs, also known as JHEOA. Field assistants— mostly Malays with some police or military experience—were posted at the jungle forts. They were given the responsibility for medical care while some of them offered informal classes in reading and writing Malay to Orang Asli children.
The efforts of the authorities fructified. They were able to win the support of the Orang Asli to the government side. By the late 1950s the security forces had even formed an antiguerrilla unit composed mostly of Orang Asli, the Senoi Praak (Fighting Aborigines).
Post independence
In 1961, during the opening of Parliament, the King declared that the nation would not forget Orang Asli even though the Emergency was over. He said his government was adopting a “long-term policy for the administration and advancement of the aborigines” in order “to absorb these people into the stream of national life in a way, and at a pace, which will adopt and not destroy their traditional way of living and culture.” In November 1961, the Government of the Republic of Malaysia made the Department of Orang Asli Affairs permanent and made it responsible for all programs concerning the Orang Asli. One of the reasons for the single agency approach was that over 60% of Orang Asli still lived in isolated areas, far from normal government services like education and medical care.
Since the end of the Emergency, the established aim of the Government was to bring the Orang Asli into the national “mainstream” but official statements and documents on the issue had ambiguity as to what that meant. The Ministry of the Interior’s Statement of Policy of 1961 states that the goal is “their ultimate integration with the Malay section of the community,” while it also stated that it prefers “natural integration as opposed to artificial assimilation” and that “special measures should be adopted for the protection of the institutions, customs, mode of life, persons, property and labor of the aborigine people.” On the other hand, others advocated for complete assimilation of Orang Asli into the Malay community to the extent that they would cease to exist as a separate ethnic community. Throughout the 1970s, the officials of the Department of Orang Asli Affairs made ambiguous pronouncements about their ultimate goal. However, by the early 1980s, apparently under pressure from the Islamic Affairs Section of the Prime Minister’s Department, the Department of Orang Asli Affairs had decisively favoured assimilation of the Orang Asli as the ultimate goal. In 1990, then Director-General Jimin Bin Idris stated that he hoped the Orang Asli would fully integrate into Malaysian society, “preferably as an Islamized subgroup of the Malays.”
The policy of assimilation of the Orang Asli into the majority Malay communities cropped up from Malaysia’s ethnic politics. The major ethnic groups in Malaysia, the Malays constituting 51% of the total population, Chinese constituting 30%, and Indians constituting 9% compete for power and wealth through a parliamentary political system and a market economy. Since independence in 1957, the majority Malays have dominated the political arena, while the Chinese have dominated business. One reason to assimilate Orang Asli into the Malay population is to increase the number of Malay voters and control the government.
B. Organisational set-up
The Department of Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA), a federal government body was established in 1954 under the Ministry of Interior of the colonial government. Depending upon the requirements of the Government, the Department of Orang Asli Affairs has been catapulted from one ministry to another ministry and so forth. The JHEOA had been under the Ministry of Home Affairs from 1955-1956; then under Ministry of Education from 1956-1959; then again under Ministry of Home Affairs from 1959-1964; then under the Ministry of Land and Mines from 1964-1970; then under the Ministry of Agriculture and Land from 1970-1971; then under Ministry of National and Rural Development from 1971-1974; then again under the Ministry of Home Affairs from 1974- 1990; then again under the Ministry of Rural Development from 1990-1993. Since 1994, Department of Orang Asli Affairs has been functioning under the Ministry of National Unity and Social Development.
The headquarters of the Department of Orang Asli Affairs is based in Kuala Lumpur. It has 6 state branch offices, 36 district offices and 133 post or project (projek) offices. The Director-General of the Department is assisted by three Deputy Director- Generals. The Department has various divisions like Administration and Personnel Division, Finance and Supply Division, Transport and Communication Division, Socio- Economic Development Division, Research and Information Division, Training Division, and Medical and Health Program. Each Division has a Director who remains under the control of the Deputy Director- Generals.
While the functions of the different divisions in the Department are selfexplanatory there is one exception with regard to one division viz. Research and Information Division. This division does not work on any kind of research of its own but collects research reports and publications produced by outside scholars. On the other hand, the Division gathers intelligence on threats to national security and it devotes and spends most of its energy in propagating Islam among Orang Asli.
C. Personnel of the Department of Orang Asli Affairs
Majority of the employees, particularly all in policy-making positions in the Department of Orang Asli Affairs are Malays. The Department seldom gives the exact figure of the Orang Asli employees in the Department and keeps on giving widely varying figures. The high-ranking officials of JHEOA reportedly make blatantly deceiving statements not only on TV but also in the Parliament. For example, in a TV Forum in April 1989 the former Director-General of the Department of Orang Asli Affairs, Jimin Bin Idris stated that 1,000 of total 1,700 staff in the Department are Orang Asli. On the other hand, one month prior to the statement, in a written reply to a Parliamentary question by Democratic Action Party parliamentarian Dr. Tan Seng Giaw, the JHEOA revealed that there were no more than 395 Orang Asli employed in the Department of Orang Asli Affairs and not 1,000 as claimed on national TV. In 1997, the Director-General said 30% of the staff in the Department was Orang Asli but none at management-level. Chinese or Indian Malaysians are not hired by the Department except occasionally as doctors.
As all senior personnel in the Department of Orang Asli Affairs are Malay, the policies of the Department are influenced and biased in favour of the majority Malays. The Orang Asli face discrimination as the Malays finds it difficult to consider the Orang Asli as their cultural equals. The Department refers to Orang Asli religions as “superstitions” (kepercayaan) rather than “religions” (ugama). Malays do not feel comfortable entering the homes of Orang Asli and usually will not eat with them because of Muslim dietary prohibitions. Malay government employees working with rural Orang Asli generally prefer to live in Malay villages and commute.
Until about 1990, the staffs including the high ranking officials were taken from within the Department of Orang Asli Affairs. Because of this, high ranking officials had a chance to develop some expertise about Orang Asli and from 1961 to 1992 all Director-Generals of the Department had formal training in anthropology. But since 1992, the Public Services Department has been appointing top officers, usually from other government departments and ministries and therefore, recent Director-Generals have little, if any, prior knowledge of Orang Asli.
D. Mission Statement and objectives of the Department of Orang Asli Affairs
The primary Mission Statement of the Department of Orang Asli Affairs is to develop the socio-economic wellbeing of the Orang Asli community and to enable them to participate and compete actively in the mainstream economic, social and political development of the country, while at the same time preserving the Orang Asli identity and culture.
The main objectives of the Department are as under: -
- Eradicate poverty among the Orang Asli by the year 2020;
- Reduce the gap in income, education, health and access to the basic facilities between the Orang Asli and the other mainstream communities in Malaysia;
- Enhance the capability, confidence and self-esteem, courage and sense of discipline and eliminate all forms of negative stereotyping towards the Orang Asli; and
- Upgrade the health level of the Orang Asli and eradicate all kinds of contagious diseases.
But in the guise of accomplishing its objectives, the Department of Orang Asli Affairs has been pursuing its policy to assimilate the Orang Asli into the Malay community. Most of these strategies such as resettlement of Orang Asli population in accessible locations, destroying their political autonomy, transforming their economies into market-oriented peasant economies are directed towards its policy of assimilation and converting them to Islam and other features of Malay culture. The Constitution of the Republic of Malaysia has been indicative of the process of assimilation of the ethnic minorities by the majority. The Constitution defines a Malay person as a person who habitually speaks the Malay language, practices Malay customs, and is a Muslim (Malaysian Government 1982). Since most Malaysians can now speak Malay and Malay customs are variable and ever-changing, the definitive criterion is Islam.
The Aboriginal Peoples Act of 1954 has given broad range of powers to the JHEOA. Under section 19 (1) (a-k) of the Act, these includes the creation and regulation of Orang Asli settlements, control of entry into Orang Asli abodes, appointment and removal of Orang Asli headmen, prohibition of the planting of any specified plant in Orang Asli settlements, permitting and regulation of felling of forest within traditional Orang Asli areas, permitting and regulation of forest produce, birds and animals from Orang Asli areas, and even prescribing the terms upon which Orang Asli may be employed.
Effectively, all these provisions of the Aboriginal Peoples Act of 1954 are intended for destroying the autonomy of the Orang Asli. Fourteen years after the end of Emergency, in 1974, the Government of Malaysia has amended the Aboriginal Peoples Act of 1954 but these draconian clauses remain untouched although the security concerns of that time are not there any more.