of the 149,512 Orang Asli still live in poverty today.
It is also sad to note that more than a third of the Orang Asli community
(35.2 per cent) fall under the ‘hardcore poor’ category. This is 25 times the
national average of 1.4 per cent hardcore poor.
Other indicators also point to the poor quality of life that the Orang Asli
experience. For example, only 48.8 per cent of Orang Asli households had
some form of piped water, either indoors or outdoors, the others depending
on rivers, streams and wells for their water needs. The availability of toilet
facilities as a basic amenity was lacking in 43.7 per cent of the Orang Asli
housing units, compared to only 3 per cent at the Peninsular Malaysia level.
For lighting their homes, 51.2 per cent of Orang Asli households depend on
kerosene lamps or pelita (Department of Statistics 1997: 47, Zainal Abidin
2003).
Another indicator of wealth (or poverty) is the availability (or absence) of
selected household items that could provide an approximate measure of
material wellbeing.3 About a third of the households in the rural settlements
(35 per cent) own a motorcycle, confirming its place as an important means of
transportation. A fair proportion of both rural and urban Orang Asli households
also have access to a radio or television (this negates the presumption that
they are ‘isolated’, or that they are blissfully impervious to outside influences).
Significantly also almost a quarter (22.2 per cent) of all Orang Asli households
did not have any of the selected household items—indicating a “certain
lagging in economic development” (Department of Statistics 1997: 42).
All this is happening against a backdrop of substantial funding being
allocated in each annual budget for Orang Asli development. This hovered
around RM100 million per year for the first few years this decade, although
for 2005 it was reduced to RM77 million. (Even so, as some Orang Asli are
quick to point out, if all this money was given to the Orang Asli equally in
cash form, there would be no Orang Asli living below the poverty line!).
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ORANG ASLI – RIGHTS, PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS