The 2011 Budget announced by the Prime Minsiter just now shows that he has not read the Memorandum sent to him in March or else he has chosen to ignore the discontent of the Orang Asli to the new Orang Asli Land Policy.
A total of RM100m has been allocated for 2011 to aimed at “resolving Orang Asli land rights and border settlement issues as well as formulating a new development model for the Orang Asli”. This clearly indicates that the government is going ahead with its plan to ‘give’ Orang Asli individual land titles while denying them rights to huge tracts of customary lands.
Furthermore, the PM has also agreed to “restructure and strengthen” the JHEOA into a statutory body – Badan Kemajuan Orang Asli (BKOA). This will make it easy for the new JHEOA to further exploit the Orang Asli, especially in the way their newly acquired lands can be managed.