come by. The case of RPS Banun in northern Perak illustrates this assertion. The 13 Jahai communities in the Banun area were resettled at the Pulau Tujuh Resettlement Scheme in the mid-1970s—at the recommendation of the National Security Council that saw resettlement of the Orang Asli as a military strategy to isolate the villagers from the communist insurgents. In 1979, when it became obvious that the original Pulau Tujuh site would be inundated by the Temenggor dam being constructed then, the resettlement project was moved to the present site at RPS Banun. However, just a few months after the Orang Asli were regrouped at RPS Banun, some scheme participants began to withdraw. Traditional food resources within the new area were quickly depleted as a result of the much higher population density. The government rations—and, later, the cash subsidies (RM50.00 per family per month)—were insufficient to sustain them, and the Orang Asli had to place greater reliance on fishing in the lake, which was two kilometres away, and on the sale of rattan for cash incomes, to subsist. The death of 18 Jahais within a short span also prompted many groups to leave the scheme. Withdrawal from the scheme also grew as a result of conflicts over land. Officially, at least 13 distinct communities, each led by its own penghulu or village-head, were technically under the RPS Banun scheme in 1988. However, by 1993, only the group who claimed traditional territorial rights to this part of the Belum area was residing within the 2,529.2 hectares allotted to the Banun scheme. Furthermore, despite being promised agricultural projects such as rubber and fruit gardens, none were forthcoming, either upon their acceptance of the scheme—not an unusual expectation given that the Jahai’s socioeconomic system is based on immediate-return activities—or even 20 years after the scheme was established. Apart from unsuitable soils, the JHEOA also recruited incompetent contractors who did not finish their jobs. Another grouse of the Orang Asli of RPS Banun was that as of 1993, only eighteen houses had been built for the 176 households—and of these eighteen, 28 ORANG ASLI – RIGHTS, PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS