THE DISCOURSE OF PROTECTION AND THE ORANG ASLI IN MALAYSIA

The Aboriginal Peoples Act of 1954 is arguably the most important piece of legislation governing the lives of the Orang Asli in Malaysia today. This law governs all aspects of the Orang Asli s lives, including land rights, education and who can be defined as Orang Asli. This law effectively sets up the Orang Asli as wards of the state and thus limits their rights as full citizens. In this paper, I trace the formulation of this law over time, highlight how the discourse of protection has been a central theme in the law and how it frames the Orang Asli-state relationship. The discourse of protection provides justification for state policy regarding the Orang Asli and becomes a stand-in for control and power over the community. The Aboriginal Act was first drafted to protect the Orang Asli from exploitation and cultural contact with outsiders who were perceived as detrimental to the community. In this framing, the Orang Asli were labelled as primitives and simple people who needed protection. Later, during the communist insurgency (1948–1960), the government viewed the Orang Asli as a potential security threat in need of protection from the subversive ideology of communist guerrillas. In the post-independence era (1960s-present), the focus has shifted from one of protection to advancement of the community. The Orang Asli are now framed as backward , anti-development , and needing to be brought in line with the nation s ambitious economic development agenda and aspirations of modernity. I argue that the Orang Asli are trapped between a protectionist law, which positions them as wards of the state with limited autonomy, rights and control over their resources, on the one hand, and the post-independence policy of hyper-development, under which they are deemed to be failed subjects, on the other hand.