Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia: Successes and Challenges in Development

The Orang Asli communities are at a crossroad in development. Although they are marginalized and viewed as poor and backward, this is just one of many perspectives of them. In fact, the Orang Asli’s existing culture shows many environmentally friendly practices, which are so important as Malaysia embraces the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) approach as we embrace modernization and development. Despite their high levels of poverty above the national average, they have shown resilience as they balance between modernization and the preservation of their cultural beliefs, values, and languages. This paper has outlined some of their successes and challenges as they move forward in development and modernization. Secondary data materials were used to write this paper, and keywords such as “Orang Asli successes”, “Orang Asli challenges”, “Orang Asli sustainability”, “health Orang Asli”, “education Orang Asli”, “Jakoa” were used to search for relevant articles on the Internet. Finally, this paper concludes that the Orang Asli communities should not be viewed as backward because their existing culture embodies sustainability practices which are much favored in our postmodern society. In truth, the Orang Asli should be viewed as ‘postmodern’ in some aspects because they have the necessary knowledge and practices of environmental sustainability, which are highly cherished in view of today’s global environmental crises.