Forgotten, Orang Asli in a Pahang town live off a landfill of toxic garbage | Malay Mail

Friday, 14 Feb 2020 06:53 AM MYTPak Long lives about 10 minutes away in another Orang Asli village called Kampung Teraling which has minimal electricity provided by a solar panel donated by an NGO. ― Picture by SC Shekar

But perhaps the one that tugged hardest at the heart strings was the lot of the Jakun in a landfill operated by a company whose board of directors are filled with Datuks, who did not respond to e-mails and letters to work with charitable groups willing to help the Orang Asli.Orang Asli children are seen playing in the landfill. ― Picture by SC Shekar

Pak Long lives about 10 minutes away in another Orang Asli village called Kampung Teraling which has minimal electricity provided by a solar panel donated by an NGO. His village, too, has no running water.Pak Long, perhaps one of the few in his community who can read, does not approve of the way these families in the landfill live. He says it robs them of their dignity when young and old alike rummage through decomposing and toxic waste just to feed themselves.

Prominent Malaysian photojournalist SC Shekar first chanced upon this community a year ago while researching the subject of water scarcity in the Muadzam Shah and Tasik Chini areas for his book on the Rivers of Malaysia. Both his wife, a lawyer, and he have since been helping the communities here supplying the families with food whenever they visit, and learning materials for the children.

For Shekar, the sight of children, including toddlers, rummaging through garbage together with their parents, is what drove him to keep returning to these villages every few weeks, bringing foodstuff, medicine and milk for the children to help them. The scene at the landfill is a hint of much larger and complex issues faced by the Orang Asli, particularly the Jakun tribe in Pahang.

Dr Teh Su Thye, who runs the NGO Global Peace Foundation Malaysia has worked with the Orang Asli for a long time and knows their situation well. His non-profit organisation has worked with various Orang Asli communities nationwide but he says the Jakun of Pahang are probably the most impoverished.

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