AN OVERVIEW OF THE LAND DEVELOPMENT ISSUES RELATED TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

Given that the way of life of indigenous peoples is usually associated with low living standards, the government has an important role to play in ensuring that the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous communities is narrowed. Unfortunately, as the program to improve the quality of life of indigenous communities has been widely implemented across the country, tension has begun to escalate among the indigenous community on the real motive of the program. Government policy objectives to assimilate indigenous communities into mainstream society leave little scope for indigenous groups to pursue their own life projects. Several studies have reported that the development of the government within traditional indigenous lands has caused conflict between the developer and the indigenous community. This situation has caused the indigenous people to bear the consequences of losing their traditional land, which is very important to reflect their identity. The aim of this paper is therefore to examine the current issues related to the land development initiative on the way of life of indigenous peoples in Malaysia. Documents search from published and unpublished material is used for this paper and a guide with a set of settings five years prior. The findings of this paper show that the development of the government in indigenous traditional lands has disrupted the traditional way of life, leading to multiple adverse effects on the community and the environment. In other words, the core of the indigenous people's struggle to this date is therefore concentrated in their involvement in making decisions in any development proposed to enhance their quality of life. Apart from that, the perspective of land development between the government and the indigenous peoples is quite different from one another. In conclusion, it is important to elicit knowledge and opinion from both indigenous peoples and government agencies to ensure the impact of land development activities can be minimized and implemented appropriately.