Unseen Faces, Unheard Voices

Lydia of Kampung Gebok

She is a young mother of three children who attended Empower's Orang Asli women's leadership training in 2013. It was her first experience attending a training made up of entirely women from various other villages in Peninsular Malaysia. She belongs to the Temuan tribe and daughter of a village head.

Though, her father has passed on, his daughter has begun to take on a major role in decision-making at the community level. When she is not busy with attending to the needs of her community, Lydia harvests fruits from her lush orchard which is blessed with 'petai' trees over 100 years old.

Encroachment - Mining

Lydia's village came under serious danger due to the interests of a mining company which started operating in the periphery of their village. What was clear, the corporation wanted parts of the village which was covered with dense forest and orchards of the community.

The community depended on the resources of their forest for their daily food supply and produce for sale in the adjacent town. Some of them had large tracks of land which had 'manggis, durian, rambutan, petai, nangka and ibu kayu (cassava)'. When in season, the orchards are bountiful and can supply them with a decent livelihood. However, this is changing due to the imminent danger of the mining interest.

The mine has been operating for the past two years without actual permits and approvals of relevant authorities. However, much to the chagrin of the villagers, they discovered that the local authority and the Department of Environment had provided what was required. This was only done after the villagers had started making complaints to both Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli (JKOA) and SUHAKAM (Malaysian Human Rights Commission). At present, they are in a quandary as they have no legal ambit to stop the mining company.

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