KUALA LUMPUR – Signboards displaying health SOPs, concrete road barricades and sharing food are some of the efforts by the Orang Asli community to care for themselves since the Covid-19 outbreak.
Artist and activist Shahar Koyok of the Temuan tribe said roads to Orang Asli villages are barricaded to reduce the risk of outsiders infecting villagers.
“Self-quarantine is not a novel idea for the community. For years, Orang Asli would isolate themselves when sick.
“They know to distance themselves quickly. They will take the initiative to move to another area.”
He added the community has always been resourceful, trained to forage from nature and planting their own crops.
“We are able to catch fish, grow tapioca, vegetables and more. We only buy rice and cooking oil.”
Fallen through the cracks
During the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak, said Shahar, the Orang Asli community did not get sufficient help from the Department of Orang Asli Development (Jakoa) due to a lack of funding.
“Jakoa only managed to distribute resources to cover nearly half the Orang Asli population. Those who live deep in the jungles and remote areas are left out.”
With the help of public donations and non-governmental groups, Shahar organised trips to distribute food to remote Orang Asli villages during the movement control order (MCO).
He found it difficult to get approval letters from government agencies to allow him to travel to the interior.
“During MCO, we would get stopped by authorities on average seven times per trip, and we were trying to get to at least 12 villages in a day. So, what would take us an hour to get done usually became a five-hour job.
“The delay affected the freshness of the food we delivered. I hope measures will be taken to improve the logistics system should a similar outbreak take place in the future.”
SOP adherence post-Covid-19
Although known to be a tight-knit community, the Orang Asli still observe physical distancing during festivities.
“We have been limiting the number of guests during auspicious ceremonies. The villagers even have their temperature taken as advised in the government’s SOP,” said Shahar.
He said his tribe has not carried out any rituals to counter the pandemic, but generally, the community uses herbs foraged from the jungle.
“For now, we are relying on updates from the Health Ministry. The community is well aware of the dangers of Covid-19.”
Shahar said it is evident that the government was not prepared at the peak of the virus outbreak.
“The situation was made worse because we had a change of government during the outbreak.”
Keeping updated
Like most Malaysians, the Orang Asli get the latest news on the contagion from social media, and daily SMS updates from the National Security Council and Health Ministry.
“Almost everyone has a smartphone and a Facebook account,” said Shahar.
“I update my status on FB with new announcements daily, and those who haven’t received virus aid contact me right away.”
He said AsyikFM, the official Orang Asli radio station, is also an important source of information for the community, especially those who are not plugged in. – The Vibes, October 1, 2020
