Not all Orang Asli households receiving food aid despite minister's assurances - NGO

CORONAVIRUS | Despite Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s assurance today that the government is supplying food to the Orang Asli during the movement control order (MCO) period, aid did not reach all groups within the community, claimed the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC).

The NGO was responding to Ismail Sabri’s reported statement over the matter today, which the group said contrasted with a report by online news portal Malaysian Insight that the Department of Orang Asli Development (Jakoa) faced restrictions in trying to channel aid to the community nationwide during the MCO.

Through a posting titled “Who are we to believe?” on its official Facebook page today, COAC said: “It is clear that not all Orang Asli have been reached.”

The posting also includes excerpts of a Malaysiakini news article reporting on Ismail Sabri’s assurance as well as an article by online news portal Malay Mail which quoted the Malaysian Insight report over Jakoa’s restricted access to the Orang Asli to deliver aid.

“From the information we are getting, it is clear that even if the aid is given by the government, not every household gets to receive it. It is not unusual for a community of 30 to 50 families to just get 15 or 20 food aid sets.

“Just yesterday, we were told by a community rep in Kampung Ulu Tual in Pahang that Jakoa delivered 65 food aid packages to them. But there are 136 families there.

“Part of the problem is in the homogenisation and individualisation of the community needing the aid. Where it is assumed that all the individual families are of the same size and composition, and have the same standard needs across the community, and in all communities. Taking this approach will get you into a number of issues,” COAC said in its Facebook posting.

'By the community to the community'

The NGO said that based on their experience from the Tabung Covid-19 OA (Orang Asli) campaign, the most effective way to channel aid to the Orang Asli is to assume that the community themselves have the leadership and capacity to handle the aid.

COAC said that all the community needs are outside support, invariably in the form of cash, especially during the current financially dry times.

The NGO said the process involved a third party receiving the public donations, and the NGO communicates directly with the Orang Asli community via reliable local coordinators, through whom the NGO processes requests for food and other aid.

COAC said that it would take into account several criteria and specific information on the requesting community’s size and the number of families in it; other special needs; whether the community has received any aid fully or partially; and whether the community has the capacity to receive funds and utilise as well as account for it among others; and only then can the community’s requests be decided on within a day.

“The funds are then transferred directly to the account of the local coordinator. He or she then purchases the items (which they have decided on themselves) from the local store or supermarket. The items are then transported back by their own means and distributed by the community to the community.

“This way, no one is left out, no matter how little the food aid is. The community is always in control of the aid process. And the overall workload of the whole process is not burdened on any single person, group or agency,” the NGO said. - Mkini