CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE From December 2010 to June 2012, The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) conducted a National Inquiry into the Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Malaysia in response to numerous and persistent complaints received by the Commission over many years from the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia and the natives of the States of Sabah and Sarawak, or collectively called Indigenous Peoples or Orang Asal of Malaysia. In deciding to conduct this National Inquiry -- the first-ever undertaken by SUHAKAM -- the members of the Commission were of the view that this long-standing and systemic issue affecting the indigenous peoples of the country could best be dealt with in a comprehensive and in-depth fashion with a view to having a better understanding of the issue, or issues, their underlying causes, effects on the indigenous communities, and how best to resolve the issue in the interest of promoting and protecting the human rights of an important segment of the population of the nation. Aside from the Malays -- also indigenous to Malaysia, but not included in the National Inquiry as they constitute the mainstream, not minority population of the country -- the indigenous peoples of Malaysia, the Orang Asli of the Peninsular Malaysia and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak comprise some 13.8 % of the national population -- not an insignificant number. Their story is that of rural communities adjusting to life in a country that is fast becoming a developed and modernised nation, yet wishing to preserve, as much as possible, their own way of life, with their customs, traditions, and beliefs, even if over time these would also be affected by the changes around them. While some of them are adjusting to the mainstream life of the nation and living in or near urban centres, due to economic factors, others choose to reside in their traditional habitats, while a smaller group prefers to lead the wandering life of their ancestors in the interior of the country. Their story is also one of coping with the effects or onslaught of the rapid modernisation of the country that has increasingly impinged on their own communal way of life, and which they feel powerless to resist, yet resist they must in order to preserve their own sense of identity and dignity as a people, inasmuch as they realise that they are, inescapably, an integral part of a modern and dynamic nation called Malaysia. With the benefit of hindsight, much of this problem might not have arisen, and it would have reflected so much better on us as a nation, if the drafters of the Federal Constitution had incorporated specific provisions to safeguard the Orang Asli as the indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia in Article 153 of the Constitution, including a specific mention of land reservation for them, as it has done for the Malays and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak. Ideally, the National Inquiry should have dealt with the subject of the indigenous peoples of Malaysia holistically, encompassing a whole gamut of issues faced by them, but due to time and other constraints, the Inquiry that was undertaken (over a period of 18 months) deals essentially with the issue of their land rights, specifically, the increasing and incessant infringements or violations of these rights in the wake of the country’s rapid transformation from an agricultural country upon independence to a middle-income nation that is rapidly becoming a high-income one in the not-too-distant future. However, since land is central to the life of the indigenous peoples, an examination into the land problem had given the Inquiry important insights into other social and cultural aspects of their life. Report SUHAKAM i-xx_a4.indd 5 7/5/13 6:39 PM