Ramli Mohd Nor, the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate in the Cameron Highlands parliamentary by-election, hopes to become the first Orang Asli to be elected a Member of Parliament.

The retired police officer is not the first Orang Asli to be fielded as a candidate. In the last general election, three Orang Asli stood under the opposition banner for state seats but all of them lost.

I am happy for the long-neglected and suffering Orang Asli community that one from among them is standing for a parliamentary seat.

But my happiness is tinged with sadness for I know the BN is not fielding him because it really cares for the Orang Asli. No, it is fielding him because 6,896 of the 32,008 voters are Orang Asli and it wants to capitalise on Orang Asli sentiments.

If the BN had cared for the Orang Asli, the latter would not be still putting up stockades and risking arrest, as in Kelantan recently, to fight for their land rights.

We know that Ramli was not originally on the mind of the BN leadership. Last Dec 12, BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi confirmed that the seat would be contested by the MIC again.

Ramli, who is not a member of any BN coalition partner, told the media “the majority of Orang Asli are my relatives”. The BN is hoping that the votes of the Malays (33.5%) and the Orang Asli (21.56%) will be enough to give it victory.

The PH, too, is trying to capitalise on the situation. On Jan 11, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department P Waytha Moorthy said a roundtable meeting had been held between the Department of Orang Asli Development, Orang Asli group representatives and activists the previous week and that the feedback would be discussed at a National Orang Asli Conference on Jan 18.

I pray this “caring” attitude will not be confined to the by-election campaign period and that whoever wins, the government will implement strategies to help the Orang Asli enjoy a better life.

Although I am not very optimistic, I do hope that at the very least the government will recognise their land rights and not allow anyone to boot them out of the land upon which they live and upon which their ancestors roamed.

It speaks volumes about the attitude of our governments since independence, and us too, that the Orang Asli remain marginalised after all these years. Is it because we don’t see them as fellow Malaysians? Is it because we have an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality?

Who are the Orang Asli anyway? According to Minority Rights Group International: “Orang Asli is a collective term (which means original or first peoples in Malay) for some 18 ethnic groups of less than 150,000 in total who are widely regarded as comprising peninsular Malaysia’s original inhabitants (in the sense that they pre-date the arrival of Malays).”

They are, therefore, the first Malayans.

Let’s remember that they were here roaming these lands long before any law was codified and long before the coming of the British or the birth of the nation. Those who want to talk about “pendatang” (migrants) should take note that the Orang Asli are the original “pendatang” to this land now known as Peninsular Malaysia.

Most of us think of them as indigenous people eking out a living somewhere in the jungle and don’t realise the significant role the Orang Asli played in the life of the land in pre-British days.

Let me quote some excerpts from a 2001 paper by scholars Shuichi Nagata and Csilla Dallos on the Orang Asli:

“Just like the United States, Canada, and Australia, Malaysia is a ‘settler’ colony, where non-Orang Asli, including the now politically dominant Malays, are ‘settlers’ and not indigenous.

“Unlike the United States or Canada, however, there was no acknowledgement in Malaya of the indigenous peoples as either a ‘domestic sovereign nation’ or one capable of contracting treaties. They were not recognised as a ‘people’ but were treated as ‘wards of the state’. Government policy for the Orang Asli was largely paternalistic.”

This is what the duo says about the role the Orang Asli played:

“It bears noting, however, that the economic and political role of the Orang Asli in pre-colonial Malaya was crucial in the formation of the early peninsular states. Exports of forest products, prized in the royal courts of Asia, were collected by Orang Asli and then transferred to middlemen of various ethnicity. The leaders of such pre-Islamic states as Johore, Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, and Perak were legitimised and supported by the Orang Asli, through either intermarriage or covenants.”

“…As the Malay polity became firmly established, however, the position of the Orang Asli was reversed from the legitimators of Malay political order to that of ‘subjects’ under its protection. While the original Malay settlers of the plains and valleys sought permission from the Orang Asli to live in their territory, now it was the Orang Asli who resided at the sufferance of Malay authorities. The oppression by the plains people, epitomised in slavery, was marked in the names, such as Semang and Sakai, used to identify Orang Asli groups.

“These hardships for the indigenous peoples were intensified by Britain’s interference between the rajahs and the aborigines, while also welcoming immigrant labour from China and India so as to exploit Malaya profitably. In contrast to the previous era when the aborigines were part of the societal make-up, the new era of colonialism and economic development, with its stratified, multi-ethnic society, alienated them. They retreated to the interior and remained more or less incognito to those outside. Their later emergence in the world was triggered by the collapse of high colonialism and by the nationalist struggle that followed it.”

If the PH government is serious about helping the Orang Asli, it should study the many reports issued by the government-appointed Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, or Suhakam, which has clearly stated the problems of the community and suggested some solutions.

Suhakam says the Federal Constitution has provisions which can be used to help this marginalised community. For instance, Article 8(5)(c) enables the government to provide: “… for the protection, well-being or advancement of the aboriginal peoples of the Malay Peninsula (including the reservation of land) or the reservation to aborigines of a reasonable proportion of suitable positions in the public service”.

Article 83 (1) of the Federal Constitution provides for the acquisition of land for federal purposes, including for use of the Orang Asli.

According to Suhakam, among other things, the Orang Asli want the government to recognise their special existence, their problems, and their perspectives. They not only want recognition that their ancestral lands are essential for their economic, social and spiritual development, they also seek legal surety so that no one will chase them off their land.

So, with the Cameron Highlands by-election drawing attention to the Orang Asli, this is an opportune time for the government to help this original and marginalised community. Yes, it is really, really time to help the Orang Asli – the first Malaysians.

A.Kathirasen is executive editor at FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.