Orang Asli set to play kingmaker in 6 Perak parliamentary seats

GE15 | Perak has the second highest Orang Asli population in the country after Pahang, consisting primarily of people from the Temiar, Semai, Jahai, Kintaq and Lanoh tribes.

According to the Election Commission's latest voter register for GE15, a total of 41,210 Orang Asli are eligible to vote in the state.

This is only approximately two percent of the total 2.036 million eligible Perak voters, but it is enough for the community to play kingmaker in six parliamentary seats.

A Malaysiakini survey found that the Orang Asli community may prove to be the deciding factor in the elections for the Gerik, Parit, Sungai Siput, Pasir Salak, Tapah and Tanjong Malim parliamentary seats.

This is due to the multi-cornered clashes in most of these seats which only have less than 10 percent of Orang Asli voters, except for Tapah and Gerik.

Tapah has the highest Orang Asli voters with 9,428 people (15 percent) and Gerik with 5,800 (13 percent).

A view of an Orang Asli village in Gerik

The others are in Sungai Siput (7,013 or 8 percent), Tanjong Malim (6,814 or 6 percent), Pasir Salak (2,349 or 3 percent) and Parit (1,068 or 3 percent).

Although the total percentage of Orang Asli voters is always less than 15 percent, the political scenario shows that attention needs to be paid to this group of voters.

The split among Malay voters, especially between BN and Perikatan Nasional (PN) and the support of the Chinese and Indians for Pakatan Harapan presents an interesting scenario as it is expected that the difference in winning votes between each competing party will be slimmer than before.

BN confident Orang Asli votes 'fixed deposit'

In GE14, BN obtained more than 90 percent support from Orang Asli voters in Perak.

Menteri Besar Saarani Mohamad recently said he was confident that Orang Asli voters would remain "fixed deposits" for BN this time around.

Perak Menteri Besar Saarani Mohamad officiating a bridge at Kampung Sungai Lah in Chenderiang, Tapah

He said that caring for the Orang Asli is in line with the initiatives in the Prosperous Perak 2030 plan.

"Since the time of (Perak chief minister 1999-2008) Tajol Rosli, we have approved an area of 19,000ha to be gazetted as Orang Asli reserve land.

"However, it is not approved immediately because it needs to go through certain processes before publishing.

"However, of the 19,000ha approved, 13,500ha have been gazetted and the remaining approximately 4,500ha are still in the process," Saarani told reporters at a meeting with the Orang Asli in Chenderiang, Tapah.

He explained that the purpose of the land grant was to safeguard the rights of the Orang Asli to farm for a living.

Enemies and friends

However, former state government exco member A Sivanesan thinks the situation has changed.

Sharing his personal experience with Orang Asli voters, the three-term Sungkai assemblyperson claimed that the Orang Asli are no longer die-hard voters for BN.

"The first time I competed in Sungkai was in 2004. At that time I couldn't get close to them. It was difficult to gather them.

"If we go to their house, they don't entertain us because the Orang Asli don't disobey Tok Batin's (village head) orders. But, the situation has changed a lot.

"In this GE, for the first time, the Tok Batin gave a speech on the DAP talk stage," Sivanesan said.

Orang Asli villagers showing their support for Pakatan Harapan in Kampung Chang Lama, Tanjong Malim

Sivanesan was the exco in charge of Orang Asli affairs for six months when Harapan established the Perak government in 2018.

He said the Orang Asli, even if they are from different tribes, will unite when their forests and sources of sustenance are threatened.

"If we touch the forest or the place where forest products are found, they will unite. The approval of logging on a large scale by the BN government has greatly affected their lives.

"This is what makes them angry with BN. Now they understand who is their enemy and who is their friend," Sivanesan added.

Big impact of 'pocket TV'

When interviewing some Orang Asli youth in Chenderiang, Bidor and Gerik, Malaysiakini was told that the use of smartphones is increasing among the community.

"It used to be different. Now we have the 'pocket TV' (smartphones). We have access to the outside world.

"We learn a lot through the pocket TV. We understand national politics," said a young person from the community who declined to be named.

Asked about their preferred candidate or party, several of the Orang Asli replied: "We vote for the government that brings development to the Orang Asli people."

Perak is one of the three states that will hold the general and state polls simultaneously.

A total of 24 parliamentary seats and 59 state assembly seats are being contested. The polling day is Nov 19. - Mkini