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YOURSAY | ‘How can you treat the Orang Asli as if they are a commodity to be traded?’
Hplooi: This "admission" by the Kelantan state government regarding logging is troubling by itself.
Firstly, land grabbing is wrong by itself, whatever the reasons proffered.
Secondly, revenue from indiscriminate forest logging does not generally benefit the general populace, only a small class of timber barons.
The worst is the lasting damage to the environment from indiscriminate and uncontrolled logging, of which the Kelantan state government is grievously guilty.
If revenue from timber has not benefited the state in general, how will oil revenue benefit the general populace? More madrasahs? A higher budget for the moral police and research into arcane and esoteric areas of knowledge in Islamic scholarship?
In the meantime, sexual diseases, substance abuse (not alcohol), childcare neglect and low job creation continue.
How will increasing oil revenue mitigate these perennial problems of the Kelantan caliphate, where you cannot find knowledge workers for Industry 4.0, and neither can you find a skill-based industry?
Perhaps the Kelantan government can start a fund to send more Kelantanese to work in Singapore.
Newday: Kelantan PAS, how can you use and abuse the Orang Asli in this way as if they are a commodity to be traded?
If you don't get your oil royalty, you will keep logging Orang Asli lands. Yet PAS spruiked their high and mighty principles to the Orang Asli in Cameron Highlands.
Anonymous_1538808416: I was shocked that a deputy menteri besar said this.
Basically, Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah is implying that PAS will sacrifice greenery due to a lack of petroleum royalty flowing into Kelantan, which means that they would rather let future generations choke with greenhouse gases due to logging and deforestation for money.
SSDhaliwal: Is Kelantan now resorting to blackmail? Shouldn't the welfare of the Orang Asli be the priority of the state and certainly from a party that wears religion on its sleeve?
Anonymous_b5d32dd2: This is equivalent of telling the government I will stop robbing banks if you give me free money.
What an incapable state government. The irony is that PAS has had 29 years of uninterrupted rule in Kelantan, and yet they don't have a workable economic plan for the state.
Jinhua: The Kelantan government must be joking, right? Because of some money allegedly owed by the federal government, they have the right to encroach on people’s land to take what they want?
In the court of law, this is called stealing. Sue them.
Hopeful123: What a stupid argument. Can't PAS think of developing the state by other means? What about other states which do not have oil royalties?
They are bankrupt of innovative ideas to develop the state.
Tembikai: Mohd Amar, you have never had the Orang Asli's interests at heart. If you care for them, you would never have allowed logging to take place to displace them.
You even have the audacity to use them to bargain for money. You are truly a hypocrite, and that is being kind to you.
AnonBastard: Although the debate was a small event by any standard, this is of huge historic significance.
For decades, politics in Malaysia has been suppressed under the guise of various sensitivities. Candidates or parties didn't have to face the people in the open.
Bersih has done a tremendous job by using this by-election to start a small step towards a great direction for the nation.
Meanwhile, BN continues to be BN, hiding from the people, perhaps doing what it's good at right now - buying votes using whatever means at its disposal. It may win this time, but its disease continues to spread and will eventually lead to its demise.
Keep up the good job, Bersih!
Proarte: I was most disappointed that the BN Orang Asli candidate did not partake in the televised debate. It was an opportunity for candidates to state their case for why they should be chosen to represent Cameron Highlands.
The three candidates (DAP M Manogaran, independents Wong Seng Yee and Sallehuddin Ab Talib) were civilised and each had a positive attitude and raised interesting and pertinent points.
However, I feel Pakatan Harapan’s Manogaran had a more comprehensive vision for Cameron Highlands and came across as sincere.
He seemed to have genuine sympathy for the Orang Asli. He committed himself to taking the state government to court over Orang Asli land rights, just like what the federal government is doing for Temiar land rights in Kelantan.
To my mind, the Orang Asli candidate Ramli Mohd Nor failed his community by not taking part in this debate. It could only be interpreted as arrogance, cowardice and presumption based on previous support.
BN, it would appear, has not changed despite being chucked out of office. Umno made a huge blunder by allowing former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak to play a big part in campaigning. He represents the 'dedak', racist and corrupt culture which the people already rejected.
The Orang Asli who may have voted for BN did so only due to vulnerability and poverty. Now that Harapan is in power, there is hope for more respect and development for the true bumiputera of Malaysia.
There is simply no reason for vulnerable groups to support BN. I am now convinced it will be a landslide victory for Harapan. - Mkini
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