On August 2015, seven Temiar orang asli (tribe) children went missing in the jungle after an issue in school near Pos Tohoi. The kids then ran away from getting punished by a teacher.The government had started rescue operation but was unable to rescue or locate the children in time. After 48 days in the jungle, only two survived, five others died of starvation and their decomposed bodies were found only a few hundred meters away from the village.
Locals complaint that the Malaysian authorities did not allow the parents to search for their own children for reasons unknown, some believed that it may be due to government officials covering up the issues of poor education in the village. This is an interview from a parent in Gua Musang, of the Temiar tribe village today.
“We don’t send our kids to school anymore, after the five students from our village died. No one is looking after our children welfare here, the government keeps giving us empty promises for months now and still nothing has been done. We are still very afraid. We always feel our lives are been controlled by authorities, we have no freedom today.”
“Why are you still so afraid?”
“You see this is not a recent issue, for years the government elected Malay teachers have been abusing our children. They hit them, kick them, slap them and at times beat them with wooden sticks. They do not understand our tribal cultures and when the child is unable to explain, reply or understand the teacher, they get punished. So our children are very afraid of school today. They get abused and beaten in school.”
“Why don’t you have your own Temiar tribe teachers, are they not qualified?”
“We do, we use to have our own Temiar teachers years ago, but since the government build a new modern school they only send Malay or local teachers. They don’t hire our teachers. We have asked and pleaded many times but they do not listen to us.
We use to be more educated years ago, even myself, we studied under trees and we learn much more compared to the modern so called schools today. At least our own Temiar teacher can work hand in hand with local teachers. Why do the city schools have mix teachers and ours don’t? Is our education less important?”
“Why do you think the Malaysian government elected only local teachers?”
“It’s simple, they want to keep us dependent and stupid, our children don’t learn much basic skills or our own culture in school, they don’t even learn proper English, Math or our own Temiar culture. They want to keep control on our heritage and culture. They don’t want us to get smart, as we can fight for our rights here, rights for our land and our forest.
Sadly the teachers don’t even care about our children, they hit them and now five are dead. There is no water or proper sanitary at times too. How can we send them to stay in a dirty campus/dorms with these strangers and then see our children die? Would you?
The children have to walk for two hours to get to school. Dorms and a campus the children live close to the school has no water, poor sanitary and no safety measures taken. This issue has been going on for years now and has not been reported by the local media and authorities.
Today the Temiar tribe living in the Pos Gob and Gua Musang areas still live with no electricity, no medical clinic, clean water, no proper education or even a proper road access. The areas have been long abused and raped by illegal deforestation by companies dealing with local authorities who are corrupted.
During my visit, the trucks carrying timber were still visible and road blocks put up by the tribes were removed.
“So how long will they not go to school then?”
“I don’t know. I want my kids to have a fulfilled life, to be safe not been abused and fear of death.”
(Pos Gob – Gua Musang, Kelantan, Malaysia)
