Work with us instead of creating confrontation, NGO tells Jakoa

An Orang Asli activist organisation questions if Department of Orang Asli Development (Jakoa) director-general Sapiah Mohd Nor intended to cause friction between the government agency and indigenous NGOs.

This comes after Sapiah alleged that there were indigenous NGOs being “paid” by external parties to deliberately trigger land issues involving the community.

Jaringan Perkampungan Orang Asli Johor (JPOAJ) chairperson Dolah Tekoi called on the Jakoa director to back her allegations by revealing the NGOs involved.

“The Jakoa director’s statement seemingly intends to create a confrontation between NGOs and Jakoa, when both parties can instead work together in channelling information and preparing a proper land development action plan for the Orang Asli.

“Jakoa should be on the Orang Asli’s side to work together in channelling suggestions and demands that NGOs put forward to the government.

“We at JPOAJ are very disappointed at the Jakoa director’s statement and urge her to clearly state which NGOs were sponsored and paid to trigger Orang Asli land claim issues, instead of accusing at random,” Dolah said in a statement today.

Without naming any NGOs or the external parties, Sapiah told Utusan Malaysia that the NGOs in her claim admitted they would lose funds if they did not trigger land issues.

“We do not deny there are often honest NGOs who meet Jakoa to discuss various issues, but certain parties are hired to create hot issues,” she alleged.

Dolah denied Sapiah’s claim, stating that the NGOs' struggles were to claim their sacred land for the indigenous community, and not their personal gains.

Sapiah Mohd Nor

“This struggle is based on the awareness of every individual in the Orang Asli grassroots, where we joined together to create an NGO as a platform to speak about the issue, not for the purpose of payments from outside parties.

“So far, we have never been paid or sponsored by anyone to speak out because the struggle to claim this land was done for the sake of the survival of our culture which was neglected by the government since Malaysia's independence,” he added.

Several other Orang Asli activist organisations across the country have also denied the claim.

Land issues are among the most commonly cited problems by the indigenous community and on Sept 30, Orang Asli villagers from three settlements lodged a police report claiming land encroachment activities have been rampant near their settlements.

They represent about 1,000 Orang Asli in Kelantan of the Temiar tribe from Pos Ber - who live in Kampung Cedal, Kampung Ber, and Kampung Kerbok - as well as Kampung Mendrod and Kampung Head of Pos Brooke.

Orang Asli legal expert Bah Tony (Amani Williams-Hunt) told Malaysiakini last year that the basic problem was no proper recognition of Orang Asli land rights, resulting in numerous legal disputes. - Mkini