The Dewan Rakyat was informed this week that the number of Orang Asli students at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels had increased from 25,3543 in 2004 to 26,990 this year for the primary level; from 7,554 to 10,725 in the secondary level, and from 157 to 295 for the tertiary level.
There continues however, to be a high dropout rate among Orang Asli students and that a committee had been formed to identify the problems they faced and also to create awareness, encouragement and the promotion of education.
A few months ago, it was also reported that a minister visiting a Cameron Highlands maternity ward expressed shock to find 11 and 12-year-old Orang Asli mothers.
His concern was that these young mothers were unaware they had to register the birth of their babies. These are not teenage mothers. These are children thrown into motherhood when still in their childhood.
Education still the key
Whilst I agree with him that every birth has to be registered to avoid possible complications in the future, surely the more pressing question has to be why these girls, who basically are children, have become mothers at such a tender age? Education, still holds the key to this dilemma.
In this day and age, it is shocking to find such practices occurring. Whilst I have no wish to intrude on any person’s culture and way of living, I feel that it is wrong for a very young girl to become pregnant.
Mainstream Malaysia has tried to introduce modernity to the Orang Asli. We have plucked them from their natural way of life which is beautiful, tranquil and spiritual and we have tried to adjust them to our way of living, within our community structures.
We have replaced the attap huts that their elders once lived in and given them zinc roofs atop relatively larger sized concrete homes which are hot and stifling during the day and noisy when it rains.
We have given their children schooling but we don’t visibly encourage them or introduce role models from their community to motivate them further. Thus the drop-out rates are high.
We also hear of stories about their children being bullied because they look and talk different and teachers, unaccustomed to them, shamefully ignore them. Our tendency is to look the other way rather than assist the affected children.
We have introduced modern medicine to them which in many cases may have eradicated a lot of common diseases like worm infestation and measles in children, but by taking them away from nature, we prevent many traditional methods of cure from the trees and plant-life which would have helped them heal in the olden days.
Pregnancies a village affair
In years gone by, pregnancies would have been a village effort and affair. Thus the child-mothers witnessed by the minister in the maternity hospital must therefore suggest that the families of these young mothers have embraced modern medicine and medical facilities.
By transplanting the Orang Asli from their natural surroundings, and into urban dwellings, we prevent normal activities like helping the family in the vegetable patch after school or helping the elders gather produce in the jungle.
In those days, being active during the day meant being tired out by nightime.
However, urbanized Orang Asli youth, like any normal youth of today, is easily bored and when night falls, gets hooked on television or drinks heavily and loiter in the streets.
We have introduced modern life to the Orang Asli, in terms of education, health care and job opportunities. But I feel that we have really given them an inferior quality of life.
The attempts to tackle the causes and the consequences of teenage pregnancy need to be speeded up. Various worldwide studies have shown that teenage parents and their children have a lower quality of life when compared to older mothers.
In earlier times, an Orang Asli settlement, the family and community network is sufficient for a child or teenager to raise a family.
But in the present day, if we have introduced them to a modern way of living, then we must stress that children born to a child or teenage mother risks a higher mortality rate. Moreover, the low birth weight of the baby will have an impact on the long term health of the child.
Difficult to be a young mother
The young mother also risks having poor emotional health and well being. They are more likely to suffer from post-natal depression and experience poor mental health over a longer stretch of time, in some cases for up to three years, than older mothers.
A young girl and her baby has a poor economic outlook and future. Teenage parents and their children prolong their living in poverty, as they have had to discontinue their education, their chances of training or obtaining skills and their prospects of employment are much reduced as they have to take care of the needs of a growing family.
During the Emergency, the Orang Asli were placed in settlement camps, to prevent the communists from getting food, labour and intelligence from them. Sadly, several hundred Orang Asli died, more from mental health problems than disease in the overcrowded and sun-scorched camps.
Now, we are still in danger of risking and doing the same with our urbanized Orang Asli.
We have taken a noble way of life away from them. The least we can do is drive improvements in the outcomes of their teenage parents and their children.
Serious consideration must be given in helping the Orang Asli. Let us return the respect and dignity which we have taken away from them. And let their children value and truly treasure their childhood, before embarking on motherhood.
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Ipoh, a chemist and pollution-control scientist by training, with a passion for people and the outdoors, and a strong sense of equality and justice.
MM
10/12/09
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