At a time when a vast majority of Malaysians still consider the Orang Asli as 'backward', a group of English-speaking, young Orang Asli are slowly emerging to try and change that negative perception.

 

In fighting for their right to education, a representative from the village of Jadir in the interior of Gua Musang, Kelantan said it was not easy to spread awareness with help from the government not forthcoming.

 

“Orang Asli need a good education. We hear many people say that we don't like to go to school and that we don't like to study. This is not true. We do want to go to school but are denied,” the English-speaking Dendi Johari told Malaysiakini in a recent interview.

 

He revealed that he was teased and ridiculed in school when attending classes with local children but was determined to take this negativity and turn it into something positive in order to prove that he, an Orang Asli, was capable of learning too.

 

“I learned my English from books and newspapers. I still do it every day. That way, I won't feel ashamed when I speak to other people.

 

“I was teased and ridiculed, so I wanted to prove them wrong,” he said, adding that many of his people do speak English, albeit in the broken form.

 

Orang Asli children, Dendi said, hunger for education because they know it is the only way they can break the vicious cycle of poverty and mistreatment haunting their community.

 

Department biased

 

Dendi, who is Kelantan Orang Asli Youth chairperson, also alleged the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) has not been helping them in realising their full potential.

 

“(The) Orang Asli know that education is very important to change both their mindsets and that of the nation's. We want to go to colleges and universities too. But (we) don't get a chance to do that.

 

“You know the Orang Asli Department? They are biased. Which is why the Orang Asli cannot grow up. (We) are controlled and we don't like it,” Dendi ( left ) lamented.

 

Giving the government study loan fund - Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional (PTPTN) - as an example, Dendi sadly noted that a majority of his people are not informed of its existence.

 

“We don't have anyone to sponsor us. (We) don't know how to find the money. Malaysia has the PTPTN but most Orang Asli don't know how to apply for assistance from there or from Jakoa,” he said.

 

Lambasting Jakoa's inattentiveness to the welfare of the very people they're supposed to be helping, Dendi charged the department has time and again failed to do its job.

 

“For instance, they have (failed) to tell us when the colleges or universities (open for admissions). They keep all this information from the Orang Asli,” he said.

 

Teacher-training

 

Although there are English classes available in villages closer to the urban areas, Dendi said priority should also be given to villages deep in the jungles as hundreds of children there have been denied basic education.

 

When met at Kg Tohoi primary school in Gua Musang, Senator Muhammad Olian Abdullah, who is an Orang Asli, said he has been trying to get the government to launch several education programmes for his people.

 

“We are trying to send the Orang Asli overseas to train our students to become teachers so that once they graduate, they can come back to their respective villages and become agents for change” he said.

 

Jakoa, meanwhile, could not be reached for comment on the matters highlighted by Dendi.