The ongoing debacle hurting the natives of Malaysia must be addressed by the government under Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak; and the global community of responsible leaders and investors alike, must now champion decisively what they preach to humanity.

The indigenous citizens of Malaysia who have called the virgin forests their home for centuries, simply put, are being robbed of their pristine habitat because of greedy lumbering.

Hence the blockade episode by the natives.

Greedy politicians will on the contrary vouch that they are saviors who bring economic development for the good of Malaysians.

But the natives, unable to take the punishment any more, were willing to risk their lives to put a stop to this uncivilised robbery that was taking away everything from them.

The authorities strategically lump the blockades by the Orang Asli (native inhabitants in Malaysia’s equatorial forests) as instigation by ‘activists’. Conveniently it justified the arresting, detaining and marching of the protesting natives out from the jungle into the corridors of court.

Why are we so indifferent and brutal to these natives who live in the jungles?

Please do not justify, as always has been the case, with arguments that we need the timber and the timber money to grow a ‘high-income nation’ and to rise above our middle and low income bars.

Where are all the pious leaders of the various religions who never fail to make their presence felt and their voices heard when it comes to their followers’ needs in the cities, townships, villages?

Where are all the politicians who take it upon themselves to be the vanguards and custodians of religious tenets preaching to develop whole ethnic communities?

What is this civilisation of urbanites who do not seem to care for the indigenous people who have the same rights to live a life handed down to them down the centuries?

Why can the government and elected leaders not see that they are robbing the very natives who lived here long before the Malays, Chinese and Indians landed on this land and claimed it as their homeland?

No, this assault on Malaysia’s indigenous citizens must stop if we want to walk tall in the eyes of the global community of ethical nations.

This robbing of the natives must stop if we truly live by our religious teachings.

Will Prime Minister Najib take this matter with priority as a leader of a nation or will he abdicate that moral, political, social, and religious obligation expected of ethical leaders to his irresponsible Lilliputians?