As flood recedes, Orang Asli still out of aid

 

As the country reels from the country's worst flood in decades, the Orang Asli community living in the interiors of Kelantan, Pahang and Perak found themselves to be the last to get much needed aid.

However, much needed aid arrived by air yesterday after NGO United Sikhs dropped some 2,350kg of supplies to 278 families to the Temiar community in the interiors of Gua Musang, Kelantan.


In a Facebook posting, the NGO said it flew six sorties from its Kuala Betis base camp to eight locations with 11 orang asli settlements.

It said some 1,000 of the local population had been cut off due to landslides.

"The flood in the last 10 days also devastated their tapioca, hill paddy and vegetable crops," it said.

Some villages have also been cut off for up to three months as roads collapsed at the beginning of the monsoon season.

The aid delivery by air was a collaboration between United Sikhs and the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns.

Prior to the delivery, Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (Joas) had made a desperate appeal for help for the indigenous community in the area.

"More than 20 Orang Asli villages in the interior Kelantan have been cut off for almost 10 days since the floods.

"They remain unreachable and uncontactable and we do not have much information on their current condition.

"Army helicopters delivered food but it was some time ago and not all areas were reached," it said.

Police alerted, but still no help

Some say they received an aid drop off once by the Orang Asli Affairs Department (Jakoa) but the supplies have run out.

Volunteer Firdaus Nisha Muhammad Faizal said in Kuala Koh the river broke its banks and submerged Orang Asli home within two hours.

Firdaus and six friends spent four days on an ad hoc relief mission delivering food and other supplies through their NGO friends.

"The villagers were quick and resourceful enough to make a large raft to ferry people from one end of the river to the other side where later they would head to higher ground," he wrote on Facebook.

These villagers, whose homes were surrounded by oil palm plantations received help from the estate manager but not all were as fortunate.

In Temerloh, 140 families in Kampung Paya Pelong have been trapped since Dec 26 even though flood waters have receded in other parts of the district, said Joas representative Shafie Dris said.

He said the village chief Harun Sok managed to report the situation to the Kerdau police station but hardly any help arrived.

"Nothing has arrived since then except for 30 bags of rice from the Kuala Krau elected representative and a few kilos of rice from NGOs and church for 140 families,” he wrote on Facebook.

Supplies hijacked

Meanwhile, in Dabong, Kelantan, aid workers complained their supplies were “hijacked” by some villagers.

Aid worker Mohd Zulkifli Daud said supplies in seven Toyota Hilux intended for Kampung Mahligai was offloaded by a nearby village.

"The aid mission was stopped, they overran it, open up (the vehicles) and took the food for themselves," he said.

He added that a villager had tricked them by telling them that the bridge ahead to Kampung Mahligai had collapsed.

A video of Zulkifli relating his experience was posted on Facebook by Siti Kasim, a Bar Council human rights committee member who also assisted in the United Sikhs mission.