A conversation that shocked my friends here in Europe.
“How are the tribes in Malaysia? Can we visit them?”
I said.. “Err…No.”
“What? But we did, we went to a tribe tourist village.”
“Those are showcase villages just for tourist like you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let me explain..”
“Tribes in Malaysia are not really free, they are kind of imprisoned. They are controlled by the government and local authorities. You cannot visit the real tribe villages located far in the forest as they are been blocked or monitored.
To visit the homes and villages of tribes, even to help them or learn about them, you need to register with the nearest police station or get approval first. Tourist can’t just wander around sight seeing, unless you travel with an NGO’s, or someone who know their way around. There are no proper roads, tourist facilities or street signs.”
“Can we just go visit them, like go to their villages with friends?”
“You can but it’s not that easy access. This is because our government and local authorities who suppose to protect them are corrupted, they control the lands and the forest where the tribes live. Main reason is for the logging. For the trees and wood. They give away the lands of the tribes to logging companies, via corruption and deceit. Today tribes like the Jakun and Temiar tribe are abused, beaten, mistreated, children die due to starvation, skin diseases, no water, no electricity, no education, do you think this is how tribes are free?”
“Wow, that’s horrible! Tribes around Asia are unique, beautiful and like in Vietnam, we saw amazing tribes in the hills (Hmong tribes), showing their cultures, tribal markets and we even got to live with them, via tribal home-stays.”
“That doesn’t exist in Malaysia, the tribes are forsaken and loosing their culture. There is one more main reason to this. The government is a religious based political agency, the tribes that are seem to be free have been converted to Islam, some by force, they enforce that by giving them facilities like basic needs, water and power, mainly during elections. That’s how the Malaysian government operates for the last 50 years. Tribes have to choose a side, Islam or Christianity. Tribe originally have no religion, they are pagans.”
“How can they do that, no one protested?”
“Malaysians are too comfortable to protest. Imagine that you were been control to choose a side, a religious side, and imagine that if you were Chinese, Indian or Malay and you were told that your friends or visitors need to register with the police, go through a blockade, a checkpoint, just to visit you.
Do you think you are living free? There is no real freedom here for tribes, like the Temiar or Jakun tribes, who are also human beings. So tribal issues are unknown to the world, visitors cannot see their beautiful heritage and many like the photo are going to disappear or die due to diseases.”
Please share this conversation to the world, so the truth will get out there. Many of my traveling friends never heard of this happening in Malaysia.
