RECOLONIZING THE NATIVES (revisited)

I UNDERSTAND the colonial mind extremely well. That's because the memory of having been a series of megalomaniacal empire-builders remains vividly imprinted in my deep psyche and prompts me to do everything in my power to warn the present generation against the insidious dangers of attempting to impose a rigid control grid over forces beyond our comprehension.

Perhaps this explains my visceral rejection of all forms of bureaucratic arrogance and misguided efforts to "civilize and domesticate" the natural world. Much as I love my sister, daughter #1, son-in-law, granddaughters, and all my beautiful nieces, nephews, cousins and grandnieces in Singapore - I'm always loath to visit the so-called Merlion City with all its infamous restrictions (no smoking in public places except where specially designated; and, in the old days, no longhaired men which necessitated my buying a shorthair wig just to gain entry).

In November 2009 I had a close encounter with bureaucratic heavyhandedness which left a slightly sour taste in my mouth. It all arose over the hoo-ha a local businessman raised about the illegal road upgrading project in Pertak Village. This guy happens to be a member of PPP (People's Progressive Party) and a close friend of Dato' T. Murugiah (left), deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department who oversees the Public Complaints Bureau.

I was surprised to receive a phonecall from T. Murugiah's personal assistant, a very pleasant lady named Shamini Bhaskaran, asking me for some background to the situation. So I wrote her a long email detailing the scenario and, before I knew what was happening, was informed that Dato' T. Murugiah was planning a visit to Pertak Village to see for himself what was going on. But before he could do so, he required a formal complaint to be lodged with his department, so I accepted the role - since Murugiah's businessman friend was unwilling to expose himself to the risk of losing the support of local bureaucrats who largely remain loyal to the Barisan Nasional.

On 15 September I had been visited by three Special Branch officers who informed me they were investigating a police report lodged against me by one Rapi Bata Abdullah - an Orang Asli Muslim convert and Umno member who had written a letter to Kuala Kubu Bharu state assemblyman Wong Koon Mun (right) requesting that the old logging trail through the Pertak forest reserve be asphalted.

To legitimize his request, Rapi had persuaded Bidar Chik, Batin of Pertak, to sign the letter. According to the SB officers, Rapi Bata had accused me of "obstructing" his road upgrading project (and thereby opposing "development" for the marginalized Orang Asli). He also alleged I was an agent of Western environmentalists and was harboring "Mat Salleh" activists - that's right, who are all jealous of Malaysia's success (yup, Mahathir has certainly left his indelible mamark... oops, I mean, mark on an entire generation of civil servants)!

This was followed by a visit from several high-ranking officers from the Selangor JHEOA (Orang Asli Affairs Department) who gently reproached me for bypassing them and going straight to the Public Complaints Bureau. I told them to their face that if it were up to me I would shut down their department without hesitation. Of course, I'd ensure that the people who worked in JHEOA would either be reassigned to other departments - or be given a generous payout so they could start their own businesses or acquire some useful skills.

Murugiah is crowned King of PPP in a party coup staged in May 2009

Dato' T. Murugiah's visit, originally scheduled for 30 October, was postponed for a week (his p.a. called up at the last minute and apologized on behalf of her boss, saying he was under the weather). My cellphone began ringing non-stop on the morning of 6 November. Reporters from the national news agency Bernama and Utusan Malaysia (Umno's much-maligned mouthpiece, famous for its acute ethnocentric halitosis) called up asking directions to Pertak Village.

It was amusing to see the media circus surrounding Dato' T. Murugiah's official visit. YB Wong Koon Mun was there accompanied by a cadre of MCA flunkeys in their North Korea-style paramilitary uniforms, along with reporters from Sin Chew Jit Poh and possibly Nanyang Siang Pau too. The New Straits Times was represented by a friendly but understandably jaded hack, while NTV7 sent a mobile unit and a very gung-ho crew to cover Murugiah's historic visit.

Even the district police chief, Supt Norel Azmi Affandi Yahya, was present with a platoon of senior officers (including the delectable Inspector Yusnita Samsudin who had "interviewed" me at the KKB police station at 11pm the night before, having sent a vanload of bullies-in-blue to summon me to her office).

When I was given the chance to speak, I voiced my indignation at the rude behavior of the policemen who had arrived at my residence at 10:30pm, demanding that I go down to the station to record a statement - and threatening me with arrest if I didn't comply.

They had clearly exceeded their authority in so doing, since I had commited no offence - and the urgency of the matter was entirely due to their dragging their feet on this case till the very last minute. They could have telephoned me anytime over the course of six or seven weeks, politely requesting that I come to the station at my own convenience to tell my side of the story.

In response, Supt Norel could only brag that the police in their zeal to perform their duties do not observe office hours. Such a smug and pompous old-school cop, he certainly would look the part better with a 19th-century-style handlebar mustache.

All in all, I estimate a total of 90 people were involved in this public relations exercise which was essentially an attempt to justify the RM200,000 roadworks through a forest reserve - and demonstrate how caring and generous the Barisan Nasional government was towards rural voters like the Temuan of Pertak Village.

My original complaint focused on the possibility of hanky-panky involving the misuse of public funds. YB Wong Koon Mun is, after all, a contractor and entrepreneur with fingers in many pies; and his Umno cronies have never been known to be overly concerned about how the Orang Asli are faring (indeed, the only thing that interests them is whether there are any logging concessions or resort projects they can apply for). Furthermore, Wong had instructed his contractor to start digging without obtaining the necessary permits from the District Office and Forestry Department.

When the Selangor state government learnt about this, a stop-work order had been issued through district councillor Chua Yee Ling - but, as to be expected, that only delayed MCA Wong for 3 or 4 days - the time it took for him to erect an official signboard announcing the road upgrading project.

This was clear proof that the Pakatan Rakyat state government is being undermined every step of the way by deadwood bureaucrats who haven't yet understood that Barisan Nasional wasn't appointed by Allah to forever misrule the country and enrich itself at public expense. It's a very serious issue that must be addressed. But how? Only a complete change of government at the federal level will resolve the problem.


Nevertheless, if an expensive "infrastructural upgrade" could be conjured out of thin air, these Barisan Nasional types become suddenly very anxious to help their indigenous brethren assimilate into the modern world (never mind lah that most of them remain stubbornly heathen) And, of course, what better emblems of modernity than asphalted roads (complete with speedbumps), cellphone towers, and - serunai fanfare plus a brief burst of kompang, please - STREETLIGHTS! Yes, the very things one requires to live comfortably at the edge of a forest. [Note: in 2016 the Orang Asli Affairs Department suggested that a toll-gate be constructed so that all visitors to the popular picnic area could be charged RM1. The Orang Asli seem quite happy to follow suit and become rent-seekers, albeit low-end ones, but making visitors pay a toll just to commune with nature has certainly degraded the magical feeling people used to experience upon arriving at this scenic spot.]

MCA Wong described my protest as Greenpeace-inspired activism. Thanks for the compliment, Wong!

Rapi Bata Abdullah was the featured guest star of the day - a showcase Orang Asli with all the correct-correct-correct attitudes. First he had become a Muslim (at least in name); next he had joined Umno and seen the light. He understood all about commissions and cost overruns and how to instigate environmentally ruinous projects. Above all, he was loyal to the Barisan Nasional government and was aware that "militant tree-huggers" like me are the Enemies of Progress (as measured in the shallowest and most superficial terms).

In his desire to be seen as "progressive" Rapi had unwittingly turned himself into the Orang Asli version of an Uncle Tom. For a few official favors (and some quick bucks by way of payoffs) he had severed his own ancestral connections to the sacredness and inviolability of the land and was proud to be paraded before the crony media as an Orang Asli ready to embrace "modern values" - as represented by physical trappings such as asphalted roads, piped water, electricity, satellite TV, mobile phones, streetlights, neatly-mown lawns, even a toll gate - and endless bills to pay.

The way the mid-level bureaucrats fawned and fussed over the visiting deputy minister, one would have imagined him to be at least a royal emissary, if not a king.

A century ago, T. Murugiah would probably have arrived on elephant back, with a full panoply of ceremonial guards and a bugle brigade. He would have been carried in a gilded palanquin to inspect the roadworks whilst being fed exotic tidbits by native girls bedecked with multicolored hibiscuses in their perfumed hair.

This is precisely what's wrong with the Barisan Nasional misgovernment. They're too enamored of pomp and circumstance. They love a splendid display of extravagance (city streets festooned with flashing lights and giant ketupats every Hari Raya) and, of course, the demonstrations of almighty grandeur and worldly power the Sultans have made their royal trademark.

(courtesy of SabriZain.org)

Can I blame the Brits for this, I wonder? After all, it was they who handpicked the most corruptible and compliant amongst the contending Malay chiefs to be crowned as Sultans (an honorific conveniently borrowed from the Turks). It was in their own interests to cultivate a narcissistic, self-serving species of native leader who would be so aloof and detached from their own subjects they would pose few problems for the colonial masters, who would then supplant the Sultans as the real government of the land.

When the Brits created a Malay political class to take over the lower echelons of bureaucracy, they taught them how to keep the hoi polloi at arm's length and present an unassailable façade of divinely ordained authority. Indeed, if you observe how Barisan Nasional ministers like to be fêted and fawned over wherever they go, you will certainly conclude that they all believe that being voted into public office gives them the divine right to be treated like pseudo-royalty. Hence, they view it as their religious duty to squirrel away massive amounts of non-declarable lucre in some offshore account whilst keeping just enough to set themselves up in palatial style.

And now, some 60 years after the Brits have returned to their swiftly shrinking, once-great imperial home, their political heirs, the Umno fat-cat bureaucrats, are faithfully maintaining the colonial legacy by recolonizing the original natives of this fair and bountiful land.

If the Orang Asli Affairs Department is allowed to continue existing, it wouldn't surprise me to find a future generation of Orang Asli behaving as corruptly, myopically, and arrogantly as their Malay mentors. By then they would willingly have exchanged their Orang Asli status for the dubious privilege of being lumped together with the Sumatran, Javanese and Bugis descendants of brigands, pirates and refugees from tribal wars.

As for Dato' T. Murugiah himself, I found him fairly intelligent and suave, oozing with effortless charm and self-confidence - but, alas, too typically a Barisan Nasional politician to be taken seriously as a human being. A few weeks after his visit to Pertak Village, I read in the news (online, of course) that Murugiah was in the process of being thrown out of the PPP. Should that happen, he would become a partyless deputy minister, and therefore vulnerable to vicious attacks from his cannibalistic colleagues in the increasingly irrelevant, insufferably arrogant and irredeemably corrupt Barisan Nasional.

Indeed, Murugiah might even lose his cabinet seat. Well, if that does occur, his p.a. has my phone number. I'd be happy to offer him some counseling on how to regain his human core and child-like spontaneity - and charge him ten times my usual fee.

[Originally posted 6 December 2009. Reposted 1 March 2018]

Road to Nowhere leads to Ecological Ruin

If the "road upgrading" was genuinely for the benefit of the Orang Asli, why make it wide enough for tour buses and lorries? Most of the villagers access their durian orchards on motorbike. Wouldn't the simplest, most cost effective solution be to present them with a small lorry?

The Selangor State government issued contractor Tan a stop-work order via the Ulu Selangor District Council on September 9th - and he did stop work for several days. But, as I expected, work soon recommenced on the instruction of Wong Koon Mun, the MCA state assemblyman for Kuala Kubu Bharu. Wong's story was that the Batin of Kg Pertak, Bidar Chik, had approached him to upgrade the access road to the Orang Asli's durian orchards and rubber plantations.

I've known Batin Bidar Chik (right) for nearly 18 years and I can't imagine him doing such a thing. First of all, Bidar isn't really all that concerned about "improving the lot" of his anak buah (community) ; he's only interested in two things, alcohol and money. And secondly, Bidar Chik is a wily old fox and he gave up on the authorities a long time ago. His cynicism is perfectly justified as I have never once in the 18 years I've resided in the area observed the Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli (Orang Asli Affairs Department) do anything positive for the community. They are only interested in two things: making a bit of money on the side from facilitating logging concessions, and converting as many Orang Asli as possible to Islam. In short, I seriously doubt that Bidar Chik would have had the initiative to approach Wong Koon Mun and ask that the road be upgraded. I'm told that Wong Koon Mun is trying to persuade Bidar Chik to appear at a press conference and claim that the road upgrading initiative was his idea. Contractor Tan has already handed Bidar a generous angpow (red packet stuffed with cash).

MCA Wong (pictured left) is apparently feeling a bit pressured. Various influential people have been calling the District Officer and asking about the illegal roadworks going on in Kg Pertak. No permit was applied for and no signboard was put up before the heavy equipment moved in. I am reliably informed - by the Special Branch, no less - that the person who lodged a police report against me was in fact Rapi - an Orang Asli from Kg Tun Abdul Razak (near Kuala Kubu Bharu). Rapi accuses me of conspiring with "foreigners" to block "development" for the Orang Asli. That's right, I'm channeling Bruno Manser - and that's a very serious crime in post-Mahathir Malaysia!

In fact, it was Rapi who first announced, about six months ago or more, that plans were afoot to widen the old logging trail that runs parallel to the Luit River. Rapi happens to be an Umno member and has been known to serve as middleman for many questionable schemes involving Orang Asli land. Rapi doesn't live in Kg Pertak. So why should he be so enthusiastic about "upgrading" the access road to the durian orchards? In any case, Wong Koon Mun's claim that Batin Bidar Chik of Kg Pertak requested his help to facilitate the roadworks must be taken with a very large pinch of salt.

Truth is, word has trickled to my ears that MCA Wong has been eyeing the area for some years. A local resident informed me that Wong had once attempted, unsuccessfully, to alienate several acres of forest reserve for himself. I haven't met Wong Koon Mun and have had no opportunity to ask him to his face if this rumor is indeed true - and even if I did, I'm quite sure he would vehemently deny it. After all, he's a Barisan Nasional stalwart - and everybody with even half a functioning brain cell knows that nobody joins the MCA except to enrich themselves at the public's expense. They are most definitely NOT in the MCA "to serve the Chinese community" - what more the Orang Asli!

Last week the entire village was abuzz with the maddening din of bushcutters. Some sort of massive gotong-royong (community project) had been initiated by the Orang Asli Affairs Department. It culminated with the erection of a bamboo arch near the village entrance. I asked my sister-in-law what the hubbub was in aid of, and she shyly told me that Najib was planning to visit Kg Pertak on October 14th.

What? The crime minister himself? What could possibly inspire him to make an official visit to my neck of the woods? Could he be a secret follower of my blog - and this "official visit" was merely an excuse to catch a glimpse of his hero?

I subsequently learnt that the bamboo arch wasn't intended to welcome Najib to Kg Pertak, after all. Some other bigwig - possibly Noh Omar, entrepreneur and cooperative development minister - was scheduled to make a grand tour of Ulu Selangor and ensure that the Orang Asli continue to vote BN.*

Whoever shows up, it's bad news for Mother Nature, especially if they're from Umno.

(Pertak pics courtesy of Ecowarriorz)

NEWSFLASH! NO SHOW FROM BN!
At 11:30AM, Friday, 2 October, Wong Koon Mun had planned a press conference in Kg Pertak to establish that the Orang Asli are in favor of the road upgrade (of course they are, since most people would like a smoother ride, but most people don't live in a densely forested catchment area!) The press would be present, and also T. Murugiah, minister in the PM's department in charge of the Public Complaints Bureau.

It is now 1:30PM. Reporters from Nanyang Siang Pau and The Star did show up, along with a group of concerned citizens who cherish the beauty of this area. District councillor Chua Yee Ling also made an appearance to brief the journalists. She said that the stand of the Selangor state government remains very clear and simple: no matter who initiated and funded the roadworks, they must abide by council regulations and ensure that the standard procedures are adhered to. Unfortunately, T. Murugiah canceled out at the last minute and Wong Koon Mun decided to stay put in his KKB office. The Star is now interviewing Batin Bidar Chik. The saga continues with no definite resolution...

ROAD TO NOWHERE ~ UPDATE

*As it turns out the bigwig in whose honor the bamboo arch was erected was not all that big - it was only Mohd Sani Mistam, director-general of the Orang Asli Affairs Department (JHEOA), who came to launch a 2-day "Rancangan Mesra Minda" which generated a kampong fun-fair atmosphere and a hideous amount of noise and rubbish in Kg Pertak.

Investigate the Whistleblower, of course!

This is how I ended my post of 5 September:

I'm half expecting a visit from the Special Twig any moment now. Indeed, they might even assign an entire Branch to this case.

Prophetic words! Tuesday afternoon, 15 September, three Special Branch officers paid me a surprise visit. Somebody had lodged a police report against me, alleging that I was conspiring with environmental activists to block Umno's illegal roadworks project in Kg Pertak. Foreign interference, no less - since the police report stated that three "Mat Sallehs" had been harassing the excavator and tractor operators, demanding to see their permit.

Déjà vu. When loggers encroached in 1996 the same sort of shit had happened. The loggers, working through the Orang Asli Affairs Department (JHEOA) had persuaded the batin (headman) to put his signature to a petition for my eviction from Kg Pertak as I was deemed "a security threat." As a result the matter was raised at the Selangor state exco level and the Special Branch were instructed to investigate.

Fortunately, the SB in KKB appear to be fairly exemplary in that they dealt courteously and very reasonably with the situation. After interviewing me for about 20 minutes, the SB chief decided I was perfectly in my right to continue living in Kg Pertak. I remember him as an urbane, intelligent man who didn't resemble a cop at all.

Well, the three officers who dropped in on me were pleasant and attentive as I explained why those who love this area do not favor "the road to nowhere" (as ecowarrior Mary Maguire calls it). The most positive outcome of this incident was that I felt a certain rapport with these SB officers - they were entirely human and likeable. In fact, one of them had recently been transferred to KKB and he revealed that he occasionally plays guitar in a band.

If only the rest of the PDRM was as polite and professional as these three...

That was the good news. The bad news is that work started in earnest again early Monday morning. When I heard the heavy equipment going down the road I had assumed it was a JKR crew assigned to clear the fallen tree and reinforce the collapsed slope. It wasn't till the afternoon that I found out it was Mr Tan Mok Seng's workers again, eager to finish what they started and collect the balance of payment from YB Wong Koon Mun. As I suspected, some Umno members were behind the whole scheme to gain access to the goodies while justifying the environmentally ruinous project as "bringing development to the Orang Asli."

The Selangor state government, in effect, had been completely bypassed in the initiation of this ad hoc project, which threatens to seriously mar the peace and tranquility of this recovering forest - once regarded as sacred (hutan keramat) to the Temuan tribe since it lies within easy reach of Gunung Raja, the Temuan's pusat negri (spiritual umbilicus).

I guess old habits die hard. Read all about it here!

NEWSFLASH!
This morning (16 Sept) district councillor Chua Yee Ling showed up with Majlis Daerah Hulu Selangor enforcement officers and instructed the workers to stop work until they obtain a KM (Kebenaran Merancangan or Project Approval). Obviously, the federal government is channeling unknown amounts of money through its agents on the ground, facilitating all sorts of spurious "development projects" to maintain the corrupt status quo and show their utter contempt for the Pakatan Rakyat state government. After so many years under Mahathir and Khir Toyo, unaccountability and squandering of public funds to enrich cronies is the only modus operandi they understand.

Another assault on our fragile ecosystem!

VIDEO CREDITS

Shot by Mary Maguire
Edited by Antares
Soundtrack: "Overflowing" by Sheldon Blackman & The Love Circle

Early on the morning of 4 September, the residents of Kampong Pertak, Ulu Selangor, were treated to the ominous sound of heavy equipment arriving in the village. A tractor-dozer and excavator had been sent up to begin widening the old logging trail that leads to Bukit Kutu and beyond.

What was this all about? I questioned the excavator operator and he asked me to have a word with Mr Tan, the contractor, who responded vaguely that they had been instructed to "upgrade" the logging trail by the member of parliament for Kuala Kubu Bharu, YB Wong Koon Mun from the MCA.

That was a bit of a surprise. In all the years I've been residing in these parts I've never known the MCA to take any interest in the Orang Asli. I felt sure there was more to this project than merely "improving" the logging trail for the benefit of the villagers.

About six months ago I recall bumping into an overweight Orang Asli named Rapi from Kg Tun Abdul Razak who seemed to be waiting for someone to show up. We chatted a bit and he mentioned something about a plan to tar the logging trail for easier access to the deep jungle. I told him it was the worst idea I had heard in a long time.

He asked me what prompted me to say that and I explained that a tarred road running through the jungle would lead to increased vehicular traffic... and inevitably the destruction of the natural beauty and tranquility of this popular recreational spot. Busloads of daytrippers will start coming up and leaving behind tons of garbage. Soon there will be greedy developers eyeing the prospects of creating luxury resorts and perhaps even a theme park like Mimaland! No way, I said emphatically. Rapi just shrugged.

Colin Nicholas

I subsequently discovered that Rapi was an Umno member and had set himself up as some sort of spokesman for the Temuan community in Selangor. I shuddered at the thought. Yup, that's all the Orang Asli need: some sleazy Umno opportunist representing their interests!

Putting two and two together, it appeared that this encroachment could be yet another attempted rape on the ecosystem by the Barisan Nasional, just about the least environmentally friendly political party you will find anywhere.

I contacted Elizabeth Wong, Selangor state government exco member in charge of the tourism, consumer affairs and the environment, and she called me back shortly to say she had spoken with the District Officer and the Forestry Department and nobody knew anything about a "road upgrading" project in Pertak. She suggested I lodge a police report at once.

Now you'd probably understand my aversion to lodging police reports. Every time I've had to do something like that it takes up to two hours just to go through the bureaucratic rigmarole. Invariably, little action, if any, is taken - unless, of course, it involves honest citizens lighting candles in public places or parading in black clothes, in which event the police are likely to spring into swift response mode with teargas, water cannons and mass arrests.

As luck would have it, the very next morning some well-connected CEO-type nature-loving friends showed up who were incensed when informed of the presence of earthmoving machinery in the jungle. They reported this encroachment to the Splash office at the Selangor Dam and got to speak with the manager by phone. The man assured my friends he would despatch his men to investigate.

As it so happens, my ecowarrior friends are particularly fond of rivers and the great outdoors. They wasted no time walking up the trail to confront the workers, who had managed to make a hideous mess within the space of a few hours, scraping raw the already unstable embankment and leaving piles of loose earth on the steep slope facing the river.

This is the rainy season. In a matter of days the earth will pollute the normally crystalline waters - and within months, if not weeks, landslides may occur as the heavy machinery will put tremendous pressure on the highly erosive soil.

As my friends rightly pointed out, the contractor hadn't even bothered putting up a sign identifying the project. However, Mr Tan had done the necessary and given the headman a handsome bribe to secure his assent. To his credit, he amicably agreed to stop work and ordered the the withdrawal of the earthmoving equipment. I'm certain he has reported our objection to his employer, YB Wong (I mean Koon Mun, not Eli) - who will, in turn, complain to his Umno bosses that those goddam "militant tree-huggers" are interfering with "progress and development" and need to be investigated.

I'm half expecting a visit from the Special Twig any moment now. Indeed, they might even assign an entire Branch to this case.