1.6 WHAT DO THE ORANG ASLI WANT? Orang Asli today essentially seek recognition, by the Government, of their (special) existence, of their problems, and of their perspectives. They seek recognition that their ancestral lands are essential for their economic, social and spiritual development; and they also want their lands secured in their hands. They seek recognition that they have been marginalised and discriminated; and they now want to be able to develop their own cultures, languages and customs; and to be able to transmit them to future generations. They seek recognition that they possess complex, flexible and appropriate social institutions; and they now want the right to practise them. In a broad sense, therefore, the Orang Asli today want to be able to develop and progress as individuals and as a people, based on a social order that they themselves determine. That is: the Orang Asli want to reclaim their right to self‑determination. 1.7 SUMMARY The Orang Asli in Peninsula Malaysia enjoy certain rights by virtue of their primal presence in this peninsula. This is recognised in the Federal Constitution, provided for in the Aboriginal Peoples Act (if read in the spirit in which it was tabled) and fleshed out in the 1961 Policy Statement. All of these rights are consistent with the provisions in various international documents including that of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples. It appears that even the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development—the current Ministry responsible for the ‘administration’ of the Orang Asli—is ORANG ASLI – RIGHTS, PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS 17