Orang Asli (lit. "first people", "native people", "original people", "aborigines people" or "aboriginal people" in Malay) are a heterogeneous indigenous population forming a national minority in Malaysia. They are the oldest inhabitants of Peninsular Malaysia. As of 2017, the Orang Asli accounted for 0.7% of the population of Malaysia, numbering approximately 198,000. Although seldom mentioned in the country's demographics, the Orang Asli are a distinct group, alongside the Malays, Chinese, Indians, and the indigenous East Malaysians of Sabah and Sarawak. Their special status is enshrined in law. Orang Asli settlements are scattered among the mostly Malay population of the country, often in mountainous areas or the jungles of the rainforest. While outsiders often perceive them as a single group, there are many distinctive groups and tribes, each with its own language, culture and customary land. Each group considers itself independent and different from the other communities. What mainly unites the Orang Asli is their distinctiveness from the three major ethnic groups of Peninsular Malaysia and their historical sidelining in social, economic, and cultural matters. Like other indigenous peoples, Orang Asli strive to preserve their own distinctive culture and identity, which is linked by physical, economic, social, cultural, territorial, and spiritual ties to their immediate natural environment. Terminology Prior to the official use of the term "Orang Asli" beginning in the early 1960s, the common terms for the indigenous population of Peninsular Malaysia varied. Towards the end of British colonial rule on the Malay Peninsula, there were attempts to classify these disparate groups. Residents of the southern regions often called them Jakun, and those in the northern regions called them Sakai. Later on, all indigenous groups became known as Sakai, meaning Aborigines. The term "aborigines", as an official name, appeared in the English version of the Constitution of British Malaya and the laws of the country. Past colonial rule by European and Islamic powers gave both the Malay word Sakai and the English term Aborigines pejorative connotations, hinting at the supposed backwardness and primitivism of these people. During the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s Communist rebels, seeking the support of the indigenous tribes, began referring to them as Orang Asal, meaning "native people", from the Arabic word, `asali (أصلي meaning, "original", "well-born", or "aristocratic"). The Communists won the support of the Orang Asli, and the government, seeking to do the same, began adopting the same terminology. Thus, the new, slightly modified