2.3.1 Seeking Recognition What does self-determination entail for the Orang Asli? Essentially, Orang Asli today seek recognition—by the Government and the national community—of their special rights, 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 want to secure these lands. They seek recognition that they have been marginalised and discriminated against by the colonial and national governments; and they now want redress. They seek recognition that they possess complex, flexible and appropriate social institutions; and they now want the right to practise them. Orang Asli also want recognition of their right to develop their own cultures, languages and customs; and to be able to transmit them to future generations. In a broad sense, therefore, Orang Asli want to exercise their right to be able to develop and progress as individuals and as a people, based on a social order that they themselves determine. It is not as if the Orang Asli never exercised these elements of selfdetermination before. On the contrary, autonomous self-governing Orang Asli communities, especially in Southern Peninsular Malaysia, were well established before the establishment of the Malay sultanates, with Orang Laut groups even providing crucial military and economic support during the formation of the Johore and Malacca Sultanates. That the Orang Asli were part of the emerging Malay states can also be gleaned from the customary practices in some states, as in Negeri Sembilan and Pahang, where it was necessary to assert genealogical links with Orang Asli ancestry to legitimise local rule. Today, however, the once politically autonomous and independent people are but a pale likeness of their ancestors. Much of this has to do with the fact that the Malaysian nation state does not recognise the Orang Asli as 64 ORANG ASLI – RIGHTS, PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS