Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Betwen the Pioneers and Pendatangs (Immigrants)

Who are the early settlers of the Peninsula before the arrival of Malay Sultanate from Palembang, traders from India, China, Acheh, Java and then the colonialization by the west?

With economic and mighty strength, we push the early settlers much deeper into the woods and taken as slaves by the "slave raiders". The slave-raiders were mainly Malays and Bataks (as stated here), who considered the Orang Asli (Malay term which transliterates as 'original peoples' or 'first peoples') as 'kafirs', 'non-humans', 'savages' and 'jungle-beasts.'

In 2003, they account for 0.6% of the country's population! They also are classified as hardcore poor, high illiteracy levels, high school drop-out rate, high mortality rate (including infants) and more importantly, the disposession of their homeland. More can be found here.

The Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954 provides for the setting up and establishment of the Orang Asli Reserve Land which also includes the power accorded to the Director-General of the JHEOA to order Orang Asli out of such reserved land at its discretion, and award compensation to affected people, also at its discretion.

The question here who are the pendatang and the pioneer marginalized into obscurity?

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