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02

NAJJUA ZULKEFLI

GALLERY

THE VANISHING BATEQ TRIBE

After lost two children following a measles outbreak in Kampung Kuala Koh, Gua Musang, Lesung Binti Langsat is now raising her grandchild while maintain the Bateq semi-nomadic way of life and build their shelter close to the rivers and streams on which they depend for water.

Jong, like many other Orang Asli people who have lived in the jungle for generations, believes the scarcity of food to the effects of deforestation has left his people malnourished and vulnerable to even common infections.

About 80km away from the nearest hospital, Ani Ong finds it difficult to give her four children proper healthcare in Kampung Kuala Koh, where the infant mortality rate is significantly higher than the national average.

Like other Orang Asli teenagers, 18-year-old Zam prefers to eke out a living in the forest, where agarwood, rattan, damar and honey may be harvested for sale. According to the Orang Asli Development Department, the Bateq tribe had not produced a high-achieving pupil in primary or secondary school, a university graduate or a civil servant in 20 years.

Without a school in the village of Kampung Kuala Koh, Soi Adidas spends most of her time helping her family at home. The Education Ministry says 700 Orang Asli dropped out of primary and secondary schools last year.

The only member of the family to prove impervious to measles, Zul Johari, 3, is in the care of his grandmother since his parents and siblings were hospitalised for suspected measles.

Kuntum Keladi, 60, who learned traditional medicine from her parents, gets the herbs for her concoctions in the forest, which the ‘tongkat ali, kacip fatimah, rempah gunung, ubi careng, gajah beranak and tengkuk biawak’ can be found to cure or alleviate a variety of ills.

As the surrounding forest is slowly cut down to make a way for oil palm plantations, Johan, 56, is forced to grow banana, corn and tapioca for food on the little land the village is left with.

While Kampung Kuala Koh is no longer a red zone for measles, the village remains deserted with only 30 people at home and the rest of the 155 residents who have been infected sequestered in temporary shelters in Gua Musang.

Orang Asli Bateq children like Peri, 10, are taught foraging skills at a young age to prepare them for life in the forest – a life that is now in danger of being snuffed out by deforestation.

Orang Asli have little access to health, education and economic opportunities even as their traditional way of life is destroyed by progress and development in the villages where they live.

Neglected by the state government and their livelihoods threatened by modernisation, the future looks bleak for the Orang Asli Bateq of Kg Kuala Koh.

Copyright © 2018 Najjua Zulkefli | All Right Reserved | najjuazulkefli@gmail.com | Tel: +6010 408 2210

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