ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia, who fare poorly in almost every social, political and economic indicator relative to the national average. Most Orang Asli engage in a combination of economic activities, including hunting and gathering, fishing, swidden farming, arboriculture, and small-scale trading of forest products such as rattan, bamboo and gaharu. Government policies in respect to Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia were formulated and passed as a statute, the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954, by the colonial administration during the height of the anti-communist Emergency. In 1955, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs was set up primarily as a tool of the security forces, concerned with preventing Orang Asli from falling under the influence of communist insurgents hiding in the dense forests. Government-sponsored development for the Orang Asli has mostly been implemented through resettlement projects in which Orang Asli have been enticed to leave their forest or forest-fringe homelands and settle in patterned villages resembling Malay kampung.
