By Mariam Mokhtar

With hours to go before Mahiaddin Yassin's resignation was formally announced, the MP for Cameron Highlands, Ramli Mohd Nor, blamed him for failing to help the Orang Asli (OA) community.

Ramli is being disingenuous and is just another self-serving, opportunistic politician.

For 18 months, he enjoyed being part of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition, and said nothing about OA issues.

He revealed his allegations on the cusp of Mahiaddin being ousted and PN on the brink of collapse.

As the only Orang Asli MP since Merdeka, Ramli then urged the 200,000 strong OA community from 18 tribes in Semenanjung Malaysia to vote BN/Umno-Baru at GE15.

Why?

In 1875, British Resident James W.W. Birch was murdered in Pasir Salak for stopping the enslavement of the OA by the élite Malays.

Debt bondage was common at the time, and whole families of OA were enslaved by élite Malays.

Fast forward to the 21st century, the OA are still in the firm grip of the Malays, in the form of Umno-Baru.

Ramli was right to blame PN for politicking, but he was wrong to suggest that Pakatan Harapan (PH) did nothing to help the OA.

Either he was asleep or is deliberately spreading misinformation to make the OA turn against Pakatan,

In 2019, Putrajaya under the Harapan administration sued the Kelantan state government for violating the land rights of the Temiar community in Gua Musang.

The then Attorney-General Tommy Thomas said the Kelantan state government and its agencies had granted logging rights to private companies without consulting the Temiar community. They also failed to offer compensation.

Can Ramli not recall how the then Minister in the Prime Minister's department P Waytha Moorthy held discussions with different sections of the OA community to find ways to solve their problems?

If Pakatan had not been kicked out in the Sheraton Move, some of these solutions could have been implemented.

Several NGOs, human rights lawyer like Siti Kassim and individual OA leaders have been more effective in providing aid or highlighting OA issues than the various agencies or any BN politician during decades of Umno-Baru/BN rule.

The clueless Ramli was full of praise for BN/Umno-Baru but failed to mention how they had managed to uplift OA lives.

He said very little about the subtle conversion of the OA. Those who refuse to be converted are alleged to be deprived of a supply of electricity and clean piped water to their homes.

The general allegation is that the full aid package is exchanged only after conversion.

Is Ramli aware that when OA are converted, the authorities consider them to have "masuk Melayu". Roughly speaking, this means that the OA are slowly being deprived of their previous way of life.

Consuming wild boar and keeping dogs will be frowned upon. All their tribal rituals will soon be consigned to the history books.

Does Ramli realize that this slow drip-drip effect of Malay-nization will eventually mean the loss of the specific languages and tribal customs of the OA.

It is already alleged that many women in the OA communities are encouraged to wear the tudung, and many parents in outlying areas fear that if their children attend the boarding schools, they may return home as Muslims.

Umno and Umno-Baru have always maintained that they protect the Malays. However, they cannot even help uplift the lives of the poorer, less privileged or not well connected Malays. So, how on earth does Ramli think Umno-Baru can help the OA?

Where was Ramli when the former Perak Mentri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu sent the police to remove the barricades which the OA of Kampung Cunex had erected to prevent timber barons from entering their ancestral lands and cutting the trees?

Instead of protecting the OA, the police arrested many of them and they were taken to Grik to be held on remand and charged.

Did Ramli discuss OA issues with Mahiaddin? What has he done to ensure that the PN administration respects the OA rights to ancestral land and infrastructure? Did he urge PN to improve connectivity to the more remote OA villages, improve health care, provide adequate primary schools and more scholarships for OA children? Did he arrange apprenticeships for OA children who are less academic?

It's not just the OA community which Ramli failed to represent. As the MP for Cameron Highlands, how did he fight for the vegetable farming community which lost several millions of ringgits worth of produce during the various lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic?

Did Ramli come to the rescue of the Pos Woh community who were trying their best to retain the services of voluntary Russian aid worker Valerie Azure?

She made learning fun for the children and adults of Pos Woh. In a few months, Azure successfully persuaded the expatriate community and other Malaysians to provide books, educational aids and furniture for a learning center in Pos Woh.

Her achievements infuriated the senior officials at Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli (JAKOA) and especially the Rural Affairs Minister, because she exposed their many shortcomings.

Ramli could have proven his usefulness and engaged with both Azure and JAKOA to help the OA.

He failed to do this.

Ramli has been an ineffective and a largely invisible MP for the OA. He should be kicked out in GE15 and the OA should field their own representative who will advocate for their best interests.

Source:

1. Malaysiakini: Muhyiddin 'failed' to protect Orang Asli, should resign: Cameron Highlands MP

2. Free Malaysia Today: Let collection centers open until 10pm, say Cameron's vege growers

3. Malaysiakini: Harapan finding ways to solve Orang Asli woes: Waythamoorthy

4. Malaysiakini: Cameron Highlands farmers fear 'wilting' industry amid Covid-19

5. Wikipedia: James W. W. Birch

(Mariam Mokhtar is a Freelance Writer.)