The Bar Council's Committee on Orang Asli Rights (COAR) will hold its annual seminar next month, this time to recruit volunteers to help indigenous people in the peninsula and in East Malaysia to protect their ancestral lands.

NONE "We want to raise an army of volunteer lawyers who will be willing to step up and stand in the gap for the indigenous people," COAR co-chairperson Steven Thiru ( right ) said today.

To be held at the Grand Seasons Hotel on Jalan Pahang, Kuala Lumpur, on Dec 7 and 8 , the seminar also aims to raise awareness on the struggles of the Orang Asli and for the first time too, it will be open to the public.

COAR, together with the Bar Council's Human Rights Committee and the National Human Rights Society (Hakam) announced the seminar at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Join in the efforts, people urged

Thiru called on the people to attend, saying the Bar hoped Malaysians would join in the efforts to help the Orang Asli sustain their way of life and to get the government to recognise and respect their rights to their land.

"It is very important for the people to be there to meet the Orang Asli and and to hear from them what is actually happening on the ground.

"We, as members of the public, can play an important role by pushing the government to do the right thing," Thiru said.

NONE This year's seminar will be different as the organisers have widened the scope to include the plight of the indigenous people in Sabah and Sarawak and have invited local and foreign speakers as well.

Hakam president Abdul Rashid Ismail ( right ) said the seminar would also have a special session on the right of the Orang Asli children to education.

"This is an important right that needs to be recognised by the authorities," Rashid said, adding that this right was embodied in the federal constitution, the Aboriginal People's Act 1954, and the Education Act 1996.

"Education can assist them to lift themselves out of the poverty track and with education; they can make their own informed decisions about life."