We don't want Kuala Koh to happen to us - Gerik Orang Asli
A group of 40 Orang Asli from Gerik will hand a memorandum to the government in Parliament tomorrow to urge them to prevent what happened in Kuala Koh, Gua Musang from happening to them.
"Many people, including the Orang Asli themselves, believe the reason why the Kuala Koh tragedy happened is because of the degradation of the environment there," Center for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC) representative Lili Li told Malaysiakini today...
A group of 40 Orang Asli from Gerik will hand a memorandum to the government in Parliament tomorrow to urge them to prevent what happened in Kuala Koh, Gua Musang from happening to them.
"Many people, including the Orang Asli themselves, believe the reason why the Kuala Koh tragedy happened is because of the degradation of the environment there," Center for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC) representative Lili Li told Malaysiakini today.
"For them (the Gerik Orang Asli), all this hits close to home because those are the exact issues they are facing. Kuala Koh could be their future if the logging doesn't stop."
Recently, 15 people from a Bateq village in Kuala Koh died in the space of a month, with three of the deaths confirmed as being caused by measles. The postmortems conducted on the remaining 12 bodies were inconclusive.
The Health Ministry later found that the villagers were suffering from malnourishment and had not been vaccinated.
According to Li, the Parliament visit, which was organised by Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (Joas), will see a delegation of Orang Asli aged 16 to 60 from Kampung Tasek Cunex, Kampung Sg Papan, Kampung Leyef, Kampung Ong Jelmol and Pos Piah.
The group was initially scheduled to meet Minister in the Prime Minister's Department P Waythamoorthy, but he will be unavailable and will send his special officer in his stead.
Li added that the Orang Asli Development Department director-general Juli Edo will also be present at the meeting.
She said the group they will take the opportunity to highlight the issues plaguing them, such as logging, mining, health and forced religious conversions.
For instance, she noted that the people of Kampung Tasek Cunex have been manning a blockade this year against logging activities on their ancestral land.
The visit is jointly coordinated by COAC and JOAS.
