A visit to Bidor~

This is a sharing that I posted up in my Catholic Society yahoo groups. And I've copied and pasted it here. Read on..

A three days exposure to Orang Asli settlement in Kg. Chang Lama, Bidor couldn't be anymore enriching experience, although I wish we could have stayed a few days more to really sit, talk, listen and mingle more with the Orang Asli, to see and understand in depth of their long struggle of letting people know their EXISTENCE and wake MALAYSIANS of their IGNORANCE.

Words can't fully express how I feel about my stay in Kg.Chang Lama- there's compassion, anger, inspired, and awe. As most of you have already known, the main struggle by the Orang Asli community is the right to their land. By putting myself in their shoes, I feel their sadness, their depression, and most of all, their hope for a better life for their community. If you were there, and listen to their woes and how they were not recognize and entitled to their rights by the Higher Power of mankind, you can feel the anger building up in you on how such cruelty, 'tindakan tak berhati perut' be done upon them...I felt the anger. I was also inspired by their fighting spirit standing firmly on their feet to not be oppressed by our ignorant Government. I was too, awed by their action - to train the younger generation, to equip them with SKILLS and KNOWLEDGE to ensure the continuous of their battle for their land and their rights as an to any MALAYSIANS here in our beautiful land.

A picture paints a thousand words they say, and I'm already out of words to fully describe my 3 days experience in Bidor. Here are among the pictures I've taken, I hope these pictures can be 'captured' into your memory and stays there to remind you the struggles of our fellow brothers and sisters, while we are living comfortably within our comfort zone.
















The lady in Pink top is Kak Tijah, our main contact person with the Orang Asli community.

Rumah Adat. This is where we stayed.

Walking around in Kg. Chang Lama.

A typical Orang Asli home.

A waterfall nearby the kampung. An elder makcik from the kampung said it takes her 20 minutes walk to get here from her house. She said ‘Kamu orang muda 10 minit sajalah…’ And we orang muda took 30 minutes to get there…tsk tsk tsk.

This is taken during sharing on our first night stay. They are youths from various kampung (they left their homes) came here in Chang Lama for 6 months training called, Training of Trainers (TOT). We want to get people to go for prayer meetings ONCE a WEEK for 2 HOURS pun susah…we have a lot to learn from them.

Kak Tijah sharing her story. She has all my respect for her fight even when she is ill, doing all she can to ensure her people is not being ‘step over’ by our selfish Government.

A visit to another Orang Asli settlement in Kg. Gesau,Ulu Slim. We were touched as they made us crown made of coconut leaves and decorated with colorful flowers. Its like welcoming kings and queens. They are a very giving and selfless community.

A makcik is teaching us how to make the crown from coconut leaves. My fingers got tangled with each other a few times before I can complete one. There’s just so much of lipatan! Behind me is aktiviti membakar ubi. Its so good that you can even eat it on its own – like Gardenia. I think this is basically what they do whenever there are visitors or kenduri or festive.

Helena and Kaitlin (MJCC) learning a few Semai words from the young ladies. They were giggling away I guess its because Kaitlin and Helena couldn’t pronounce the words correctly.

The younger generation – where the hope for a better future lies in them.

The man on the most left, he is Tok Batin of Kg. Gesau – similar to penghulu kampung. A man who has fought together with our fallen soldiers during war and also before Merdeka. He used his own retirement savings (EPF) to help setup hectares of land for growing kelapa sawit for the community as a source of income.

Kg. Pos Bersih (1)

Kg. Pos Bersih (2)

The pictures above, Kg. Pos Bersih (1) & (2). What you see is a land being robbed. A company has illegally entered Kg Pos Bersih and did their ‘perlombongan pasir’ activity without any notification to or permission from the villagers. And this land has a geran tanah! How can you do that? Don’t take something that doesn’t belong to you!

The final night of our stay. We had a reflection session with Fr. Jojo, everyone shared their thoughts and opinions, and wished that there’s more that we can do to help the Orang Asli community.