Orang Asli chief under pressure to deny report, says Kalimullah

Members of several Jakun families in Pahang are reported to be scavenging off a landfill. (Tina z Twitter pic)

PETALING JAYA: Businessman and former newspaper chief Kalimullah Hassan has backed a report about an Orang Asli community in Pahang which has been scavenging at a landfill to make a living.

Kalimullah, who is chairman of ECRM Libra Foundation, said in a statement that he had personally visited the community and witnessed the deplorable living conditions of the Jakun community in Bandar Muadzam Shah.

He suggested that a community leader who made a denial of the report might have been under pressure from the Orang Asli Development Department.

Photojournalist SC Shekar whose article and photographs were published by the Malay Mail, said he had video and photographic evidence to support the report.

“I have been documenting the community for the past 10 months. I saw children working on the landfill, collecting rubbish,” he was quoted as saying.

Bernama had reported 55-year-old Mahmud Dom as representing a group of people who had been photographed at the dumpsite, and saying they were there only to look for recyclable items for resale to supplement their income.

Kalimullah said he knew the Orang Asli headman. “I can understand why the headman is backtracking from what he told us. Poor people under pressure have little choice,” he was quoted as saying.

He accused the Orang Asli department of not doing its work, and said his foundation would continue providing welfare aid to other Orang Asli settlements that he said had been forgotten by the department. - FMT