Political party urges Perak govt to respect rights of Orang Asli

IPOH: The Minority Rights Action Party (Mira) has called on the Perak government to respect the rights of the Orang Asli in the state.

Its secretary-general R. Kanna said the state must respect the Orang Asli's customs and ancestral land as recognised by the United Nations' Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) and UN Declaration of Minorities Rights 1992.

"According to Section 6 of the Orang Asli Act 1954, a state can gazette any area occupied mostly or solely by the Orang Asli that has not been declared as a reserve land for Orang Asli yet.

"This is clearly against what Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu said, " he said in a statement Wednesday (July 31).

He said the state government must acknowledge the laws that safeguard the interest of the Orang Asli community instead of ignoring them in the name of development.

"Perhaps he has forgotten about the Perak Man, the skeletal remains of a man thought to have lived about 15, 000 years ago, or that of the Perak Woman, thought to have lived some 8, 000 years ago.

"Both were found in Lenggong. This proves that the Orang Asli have been here for a long time, " he added.

Ahmad Faizal had on Sunday (July 28) said that there was no such thing as Orang Asli ancestral land in Perak as the term was not recognised in the state constitution.

Kanna said he was appalled by the statement and was shocked that neither the Attorney General nor the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) had responded on the issue.

"The state government is doing it worst with such infringement and discrimination against the Orang Asli.

"We seek immediate intervention from the Prime Minister and Attorney General to fix the situation, " he added.