Petubuhan Pelindung Khazanah Alam Malaysia (Peka) president Shariffa Sabrina Syed Akil said the allocation was meaningless if logging continues as it will diminish their livelihood, although she added that improving education and health standards for the community was good.

“To me, I can see that this government allocated the money just to make the Orang Asli happy, but in the long term, the Orang Asli don’t really benefit because they still lose their forests.

“There are Orang Asli who depend on the forests for their livelihood. That’s their culture, their religion and their heritage.

“Give them their livelihood, give them their forests and stop logging,” Sabrina urged the government.

Sabrina told FMT that Putrajaya seemed uninterested in preserving forests, although the Orang Asli fully depended on them, emphasising that the community’s culture and traditions are very different from most Malaysians.

“Their culture is different. If you want to modernise them and turn them into Malays and make them change their religion, that means there won’t be Orang Asli any more.

“In that case, don’t talk about Orang Asli any more. Just consider them as Malaysians or Malays, which is something a lot of Orang Asli don’t want. They still want to hold on to their culture.”

This 2020 Budget today saw a drop in allocations for the Orang Asli, with RM83 million allocated to develop the community’s economy, education and infrastructure, compared with RM100 million in the previous budget.

While the drop in the amount of funds was significant, Centre for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC) coordinator Colin Nicholas stressed that it was more important to ensure that the allocation actually reaches the community.

“Whatever that has been allocated now should be directed at adding value for the Orang Asli; that there would be actual development and improvement for the community.

“It’s not a case of numbers. It’s a case of ensuring targets are met and that funds are utilised properly,” Colin told FMT, adding that despite larger allocations in the past, the status of the Orang Asli’s healthcare and education had not improved.

Colin urged Putrajaya to release audits on projects and programmes for the Orang Asli to ensure that the funds are being used efficiently and effectively.

“I’d like to see audits on all the Orang Asli projects, whether development or infrastructure or health projects. Not just audits on where the money went but to show whether or not these projects are useful to develop the Orang Asli community.”