Orang Asli Church Demolishment – A Chronological Narrative
This is a follow up of the post I put up yesterday. The building that was torn down was erected by the Orang Asli community of Kampung Jias in the district of Gua Musang, Kelantan. The community recently embraced Christianity and in February of this year, requested for help to erect a church building in their village through their Penghulu or headman, Pedik bin Busu (view scan of letter here).
March 2007
The Penghulu offered the use of his orchard as the site for the new building and upon consultation with local members of the Village Development and Security Committee (Jawatankuasa Kemajuan & Keselamatan Kampung or JKKK) and the Department of Orang Asli Affairs (Jabatan Hal-Ehwal Orang Asli or JHEOA), agreed to build a hall with concrete floors and wooden walls.
Work on the site began on early March to clear the site and by March 19, steel and concrete work was started on the ground beams and footings. On the same day, a person claiming to be an officer of the JHEOA arrived and demanded that work be stopped as permission was not granted to build a church building. Since conflicting signals were being given by the JHEOA, the community decided to build a brick and concrete building instead, as a structure like this was deemed to be more difficult to pull down.
Anecdotal accounts then reported that from that day onwards, many unknown groups of people, including what seemed to be from religious organisations, arrived uninvited and proceeded to document the construction work by taking unsolicited photographs of the work and the people involved in the work. Some people involved in the work perceived this to be acts of intimidation.
April 2007
On April 11, 3 officers from the Gua Musang district land office (Pejabat Tanah dan Jajahan Gua Musang) served a stop-work order demanding that work be halted and the structure demolished. The order also accused the Penghulu of erecting a building on state land without permission under Section 425 (1)(a) of the National Land Code 1965. A penalty of 1 year’s imprisonment or a fine of RM10,000 would be incurred if the Penghulu were to be found guilty (view scan of notice here).
The National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF) responded the following day with a letter disputing the legality of the stop-work order arguing that the property was native customary land by virtue of Section 2 (7)(1) and (8)(1) of the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954. With this in mind, the community proceeded to continue their work on the building (view scan of letter here).
On April 19, four officers from the Gua Musang District Council served another stop-work order; this time under Section 72 of the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974; demanding that work be halted and threatening a fine of RM250 per day for non compliance (view scan of notice here).
The pastor of the Christian community gave an account that he was stopped on April 24 by police officers and was asked to accompany the officers to the Police Station without reasonable cause. He declined and was tailed by the police officers until he picked up additional passengers on his way back to Kuala Lumpur. It was later learned that the police officers proceeded to the village to take down the identity card numbers of the volunteers who were there to help construct the church building.
May – June 2007
On 24 May, notice was served by the Gua Musang District Council informing the Penghulu that the building be demolished within 7 days (view scan of notice here). NECF immediately followed up with a letter stating disputing the legality of the notice (view scan of letter here) and this was again followed up by a letter of demand by the legal counsel of the Penghulu to the District Council asking for a withdrawal of the said notice failing which an injuction will be applied against the Council (view scan of letter here and here).
Unfortunately, despite various efforts to halt the demolishment, the church building was demolished on June 4. This turn of events made it necessary for the Penghulu to make a police report asking for an investigation on the incident (see scan of police report here).
Afterthoughts
This incident is just the latest in a string of incidences involving the demolishment of places of worship of religious minorities in Malaysia (ref: BBC & Malaysiakini [PDF]). It goes without saying that this is a worrying trend and despite the various public outcries, there seems to be no indication that this will end anytime soon. Such incidences of discrimination and disregard of legitimate rights are especially prevalent with marginalised communities that are more “out of sight” like the rural poor ethnic Indians or the Orang Asli.
These are legitimate and dangerous trends in our nation that will affect all Malaysians, regardless of ethnicity or creed and I can only hope and pray that attempts to redress such issues do not get twisted by some vested interests in such a way that will pit one segment of our society against another (the Lina Joy case being one good example). Doing so will just play right into the hands of those who seek to retain their hegemony on power through divide-and-rule.
Reference & Background
- First hand account of Kg Jias incident
- Gospel to the Poor - Orang Asli land rights affirmed
- Aliran - Incentives for marrying and converting orang asli (PDF)
- The Star, 27 June 2006 - Nik Aziz: Preachers must not impose on others (PDF)
- The Star, 14 May 2007 - More background resources in my previous post
Response
I’ll give some further thought on this and post on some suggested responses later.
For the time being, those of us who feel inclined to may pray for peace and justice to prevail and pray for those who seek to use force and unjust ways for their own purposes that they may be convicted by their ways and those who are being persecuted for perseverance in the midst of these trials. Pray also for those of us who can act on their behalf, either materially or otherwise, to rise up to the challenge.
uliang
I feel saddened by this incident.
As much as God is at work within the Orang Asli community, the devil is also hard at work.
We must pray.
June 9th, 2007 at 8:12 pmAntares
The last thing the Orang Asli need is religious dogma (whatever the brandname) – especially any dogma that distances humanity from the divinity of nature. Having said that, dickheads who go around destroying shrines and other people’s places of worship (especially loggers who sytematically devastate and desecrate mighty cathedrals of old-growth forests) ought to be arrested under the ISA for threatening national harmony and our spiritual heritage. I’ve circulated this blogpost far and wide. We’ll see some positive outcome from this fiasco yet. This reminds me: between Ulu Yam Baru and Sungai Tua there used to be a shrine built and maintained by some Chinese who were in the habit of making offerings to a local dato’ (I’m told the dato’ was originally Malay). However, I suspect some renegade members of the Forestry Department or DBKL smashed the shrine out of sheer spite. It was swiftly rebuilt. They smashed it again. It was again rebuilt. They smashed it a third time. And since then, the shrine has vanished – though the friendly dato’ is still there (I wave to him every time I pass). It profoundly angers me to see such BARBARIC behaviour go unchecked. Maybe we should invite Pat Robertson to come over and convert our Muslim fanatics?
June 10th, 2007 at 4:18 amRobert Dentan
This has happened before, as Dentan and Endicott detailed in the book “Malaysia and the ‘Original People’. You might want to check out my article
There is a semi-indigenous Christian church in Malaysia, the misi Sengoi, headquartered in Kampar & run by Semai Christians. They understand how to deal with the JHEOA in a way that foreigners often don’t. The situation for Christian churches is increasingly perilous, and especially for the indigenous people, who are supposed to be proteges of the Muslim Malays and thus destined for Islam. The Christian missionaries themselves are often wilfully ignorant of the politics involved and often seem indifferent to the material, cultural and social welfare of the people. I’d like to say that, as an outsider, I could tell you who the good guys and the bad guys are in this situation but the instances I’ve encountered just leave a bad taste in my mouth.
June 10th, 2007 at 8:38 amBob K
Uliang,
While I do not want to give the impression that I do not give any credence to spiritual warfare, the Christian community must also bear some of the blame. We generally do not get ourselves concerned institutionally and theologically with issues of social justice unless it directly affects Christians. This selective response allows such abuses to occur as we do not deem it necessary to respond prophetically en bloc and keep those who seek to abuse power in check.
Antares,
You have been engaged intimately with the Orang Asli community for a long time. In a sense, I can attempt to understand where you come from and the sense of outrage and cynicism that you have.
Part of the problem with the Christian community’s effort to convert the OA is precisely that – conversion. Conversion of a community becomes the primary motivation and usually the end-all in itself. There’s also a strong element of socio-cultural imperialism which seeks to replace the expressions of OA culture; which is by itself already very diverse; with a middle class, westernised expression of popular Christianity rather than seeking to contextualise what some would sincerely hold as a faithful response to Providence/God/et al with the community that they’re working with.
Robert,
Thanks for highlighting the fact that many Christians seem indifferent to the material, cultural and social welfare of the OA. I think you might have hammered at least one of the nails on the right spot. The problem is not merely about being ignorant to the fact but that in many circles, their theology and worldview encourages indifference or at least subordinate those concerns to conversion.
Having said all that,
There’s a lot to think about here, especially in view of the response from you folks.
I’d also like to point out that its not just OA Christians that are being discriminated against, but also animists, Hindus and in some places, Taoists and Buddhist, Ahmadiyas, Shias et al.
There’s much, much more to this than what we’d sometimes allow ourselves to believe.
Christians might want to have a look at Fr Jojo Fung’s paper on Practical Theology for some insights and re-examination on how we ought to approach communities.
June 10th, 2007 at 3:23 pmChris Congleton
I read over the story and the posts. All I know is that local community autonomy should be respected above all else, and this looks like a rather complicated battle between non-local Christians, a converted “headman”, and the corrupt local branch of the Malaysian government and their muscle heads. I know we’re on a blog here, but I need to hear a trusted source speak about the Kampung Jias community’s wishes, which may or may not even be Pedik bin Busu. These two religions are playing chess with the Kampung Jias community’s sense of autonomy, safety, and labor: building and demolishing, bullying and threatening, mock laws that have no historical grounding.
What does the community of Kampung Jias really want?
As a friend of the Orang Asli, and all people everywhere, there is state hegemony (1) get it off our backs, there is religious co-optation from two sides (2) can it monitor its own ethics instead of focusing so much on conversion at any cost, whether it be intimidation or charity?, and there is what the community really wants and/or needs in their own words (3)? I don’t see the (3) yet on this blog, and while recognizing some of the obvious reasons why this is hard to come up with on a blog, Antares and Bob Dentan are both capable of finding and broadcasting this as best they can in a way I trust. If you want support and attention on this, you need to show me you are a voice of the Kampung Jias in a way I can trust. Right now, you aren’t. Let me hear from the council of mothers and grandmothers, who truly care for their children’s future on this planet, not just their future in an afterlife.
June 12th, 2007 at 3:39 amBob K
Hi Chris,
I can appreciate your sense of skepticism here. All I can say for my own defence is that I was informed of this incident, pointed to a chronological account of the event and then proceeded to recount it in a narrative format. The person who informed me and one of the protagonists in this incident are people I have no reason to distrust.
As a blogger who doesn’t make a living from this activity and one who is also counted as a follower of one of the faith groups in this controversy, I do not make any claims of objectivity (although I do try) and one has to expect some level of nuance from my account of the events. I do have to insist that I have generally reproduced in my narrative the account as faithfully as I could with the information that I have on hand.
It is also unrealistic, as you have acknowledged, for me to provide the perspectives of the womenfolk in my blog. But I am glad that at the very least, this post has generated some interest towards this incident (which is just one among many that involves a lot of other minority faith communities in this country) to initiate further and deeper inquiry by interested parties.
I would also agree that there is a need to re-examine our own ethics and re-evaluate the purpose of outreach to the Orang Asli. They are not souls to be pawned to Heaven. Unless a more wholistic and inclusive approach is taken in engaging the various communities, the moral high ground that any party might assume here is shaky at best.
I’d also like to add that there are peculiar socio-cultural and socio-political elements at play here, elements of which are also true of the other recent tensions between ethnic and religious groups in Malaysia. A romanticised and simplistic view of this incident is not very helpful in dealing with the multiple problems faced by the Orang Asli community and the other marginalised communities.
Certain root problems, perspectives and worldviews need to be identified, engaged and the political will and courage mustered to deal with these issues.
As a whole, I really appreciate the diverse perspectives and point of views presented here.
June 12th, 2007 at 4:15 amAntares
Ethnic, religious and political problems appear to be flaring up wherever one looks – and sometimes it’s a major effort to stay cheerful and optimistic. Take the Palestinian and Lebanese situations for example, and the ongoing quarrel between Shia and Sunni factions. America is still caught up in Cowboy and Injun games. At least the centuries-old feud between Catholics and Protestants seems to have fizzled out. One thing the Orang Asli have shown me is the wisdom of non-action, which is often miscontrued as apathy. They certainly know how to roll with the punches and bide their time. I choose to view these times of intensified tension and melodrama as a necessary phase of healing on this embattled planet. Just as our bodies eject deleterious elements through the mechanism of inflammation and pustulation, the feverish level of conflict on all levels may be nature’s way of dealing with virulent ideologies that have contaminated our collective psyche for generations. At the very least, these disruptions compel us to delve deeper into our own motivations and programming!
June 14th, 2007 at 3:34 amBob K
Can I give a hearty Amen to that?
June 14th, 2007 at 3:41 amazerena nediba a/p zainal abidin
i’m hoping that all be together and pray for it….
bcos in the name of jesus is nothing possible as long as we believe it…. and 1 more thing ,for me personally i think that, as we live in christianity win or lose there nothing to be worried ……… they can do what ever they want,they can said anything also about us (orang asli), but there’s nothing that can change what GOD HAS SEEN INSIDE US
we are not even important here,but there’s always something that we done that other just enjoy it now………
who ever read it…just chil n pray
god bless all of us
AMEN
June 21st, 2007 at 2:45 ambobjots : redux
A Belated Follow Up On The Demolished Orang Asli Church
This is a brief and very late follow up of what happened after the demolishment of the Orang Asli church in Gua Musang went public. First of all, I found this video on Youtube that went on the scene to…
July 24th, 2007 at 12:49 pmkenJ
i was really ignorant about this issue until i saw the news on new straits time. heard it a lot in church before about demolition of churches but had to be honest, i thought it was some hoax…
i would say bravo to the 12 orang asli members who made it to the court in kelantan. this is what we need. people who stands up for what they believe in. the ruling government now has never felt such a threat from the indigenous members of the society. last time, the politicians want us to think like them, now they want us to be bow to their religion.
frankly peeps, these orang aslis have every single right to kick us out from their land (in which case, i will kick out the annoying freaks if they were in Sabah). and the fact that a preacher gets rm10,000, an SUV and all craps (probably some nice OGAWA chair in the paradise too) by converting OA to islam comes out on the news… how cheap can the religion be?
lo and behold.. take courage my brothers and sisters in Christ. you know that your hard work is never in vain.
January 18th, 2008 at 3:16 pm