“I have been here for many years, even before the independence day of Malaysia. I don’t even remember when my birthday is but I know I was born when the Japanese was here. When was that? Ah in 1942 or 1943 right? So I must be about 75 years old now.”

“They say you are the oldest Temiar tribe elderly here?”

“Yes I am, I have lived long here, longer than many. I am still strong and I work hard. Also I have three wives and 19 children.”

“So what do you think about life here today?”

“It’s not good as before, mainly with our heritage. It’s been stolen by modern people. By the government mainly, they lie to us, ignore us and control us. They even beat and bully our children in school. It’s difficult to see our people are not taken cared off. Mainly our children.”

“What’s the main issues here?”

“We don’t have enough clean water to drink, the pipes get dried up. They (the local government office) send us water tanks and no water supply inside. They put up electric poles and cables with no electricity, the poles are here since last year, it took about 50 years to start putting up poles. We don’t even have a school nearby or a medical clinic, we can’t even get medication when we are sick. Our children have to walk two hours to school in the other town. It’s all empty promises, they never tell us the whole truth. Each time there is an election, they come with gifts and promises, they just want our votes and our lands. Then once they are elected they never come back. All these things here are for a showcase to the media, but nothing works. There is nothing been done here. So they cheat the media, the public and us. This has been going on for over 50 years now.”

(Pak Abai – 75)

For the last 50 years, there has been no real effort from the local government to improve the lives of the Temiar tribe in Gua Musang. During my trip there last week, road access is still bad, some villages have no water access, all the villages in the Pos Gob areas and surroundings have no electricity. That is for about 16 villages with a population of more than 1500 orang asli about 2-3 hours further inside. I noticed the front (showcase) villages that was build by the authorities, brick walls and zink roof, fit for farm animals or low cost living. Authorities have moved many villagers into this controlled housing compounds away from the forest.

So why are the tribes still been abused and mistreated? Locals say mainly for control, to keep the tribes dependant, to have more control over the deforestation and for illegal logging to go on. Small and medium corporations working with corrupted local authorities to use the lands to make a profit. The forest here is rich, trees grow tall, animals roam free, even elephants, it’s the rainforest of Malaysia, a heritage of the Temiar people. So why still destroyed it? A simple answer is – Money.

(Pos Gob, Kampung Gawin, Gua Musang – Malaysia)