Peaceful Societies

For some of the peaceful societies, glimpses of their traditions can be gleaned from histories of the Europeans who invaded their lands and who subsequently chronicled their own accomplishments. A good case in point would be the Tahitians, whose many customs were richly noted by the 18th century French and English visitors. While stories of lusty Tahitian maidens climbing aboard tall ships for their pleasures with the sailors titillated the European imaginations of the time, most of the visitors came for serious purposes and, to some extent, they recorded interesting details about Tahitian life.

An image of the 2012 transit of Venus taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft (Creative Commons license)

An article published last week in the Otago Daily Times from Dunedin, New Zealand, focused on the scientific aspects of Captain James Cook’s visit to Tahiti in 1769 and the observations by contemporary scientists in the ship of the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. Cook’s voyage to Tahiti and other places in the Pacific was part of a worldwide effort to track the transit by scientists and trained observers.

The author of the article, Neville Peat, visited Tahiti and made a point of celebrating the 250th anniversary of Cook’s astronomical observations by visiting the wooded area along the north coast of the island, called Point Venus. It was so named by Cook and the name has stuck to this day.

Point Venus, site of the observatory where the transit of Venus was observed (Photo by Mitch Allen on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

In a travel-diary style, Peat writes that he wanted to get away from the narrow streets of Papeete, the small city on the northwest coast of Tahiti that serves as the capital of French Polynesia, and get out into the woods. So he took an old, smoke-belching bus 15 km east out of town along the coast. He got off and walked 2 km to reach the famous point where Cook and the scientists on the expedition had set up their astronomical instruments. Peat summarizes the reactions of the Tahitians to the Europeans as wariness about the firepower on the three-masted vessels, though at the same time the local people were intrigued by the visitors.

Cook and his expedition arrived in the ship Endeavor on April 12, 1769, seven weeks ahead of the transit date calculated by the European scientists. So Charles Green, the astronomer on the expedition, had a fort constructed around the observatory to protect it from curious Tahitians. He posted an armed guard as added protection but nevertheless one day a quadrant disappeared. Green and the chief scientist with the expedition, Joseph Banks, gained some information from a chief and they quickly traced the missing equipment to a village 6 km away.

On May 20, still two weeks ahead of the transit, the Tahitians celebrated with feasting and rituals an astronomical event of their own when the constellation Pleiades, known by the local people as Matari’i, sank below the horizon. That event, to the people of Eastern Polynesia, represented the beginning of winter and a time of food scarcity.

Sydney Parkinson’s sketch of a Tahitian man (From his published work A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas …, 1784)

During these events, the two artists who accompanied the expedition, Sydney Parkinson and Andrerw Buchan, were busily recording in their works the scenes around the bay: people, their dwellings, landscapes, vessels, plants, and so on.

Dawn on June 3, 1769, was clear. The scientists were able to see and record the transit of Venus across the sun, a tiny black dot that appeared to move across the surface of the solar disc. However, they were not able to track it as precisely as they had hoped because of interference from the atmosphere of the planet.

The Point Venus lighthouse (Photo by Pi3.124 in Wikimedia, Creative Commons license)

The Point Venus observatory and its surrounding fort are completely gone now but one hundred years after Cook’s adventures on Tahiti, a lighthouse was built at the point. Other historical markers have since been added to the park. Mr. Peat completed his tour of Point Venus, observed other visitors in the park, and returned in the afternoon heat to Papeete.

The Egyptian government announced on June 19 the decision of President al-Sisi to provide compensation to Nubians for the homes and lands they had lost due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the mid-1960s. As might have been expected, the announcement has prompted a range of reactions from the Nubians themselves. Nubian opinions and other expert analyses were discussed in an article on July 10 in the Middle East news service, Al-Monitor.

A view of Lake Nasser from the site of the Abu Simbel temples (Photo by HamYoyo in Wikimedia, Creative Commons license)

The two-week period allowed by the government for Nubians to register their claims for compensation would have just expired on July 9. Al-Monitor announced that 3,851 people are eligible for compensation due to the reservoir, Lake Nasser, and 7,865 due to the construction of the High Dam, for a total of just over 11,700 claimants, according to the report.

Al-Monitor provided a helpful history of the flooding of the land of Old Nubia. The first displacement occurred in 1902 when a low dam was built to help control floods in the Nile Valley. In 1912 the dam was raised and in 1933 it was raised even higher. Each time the water level in the reservoir was raised, more villages up river were inundated. The High Dam, of course, was much higher and destroyed most of Old Nubia. About 135,000 Nubians were displaced from 44 villages roughly from October 1963 through June 1964. They were resettled onto dry, desert lands without having the benefit of Nile River water. Government promises to resettle them to lands nearer the river have never been kept.

Some Nubians interviewed by Al-Monitor, while aware that their historic claims are not being met, are nonetheless willing to accept the government’s offer of compensation as being better than nothing. Hussein Jabr, a 63-year-old Nubian man, said he is getting older and he “cannot afford to keep struggling.” He and his family live in the village of Balana, in Nasr al-Nuba, which is mostly composed of displaced Nubians.

A mud brick building and a donkey cart on a farm in Nubia (Photo by COSV in Wikimedia, free use)

His family owned 8 acres of farmland in Old Nubia plus two houses. The government is willing to compensate them for only 3 acres and one house. Jabr acknowledged that the compensation seems unfair but he expressed gratitude for anything he can get. “Why would we refuse financial compensation that we are entitled to? Let us take what we can get rather than waiting for something that will never come,” he said. On the other hand, he made it clear that the compensation does not absolve the government of its duty to meet the Nubian demands for the right of return to the Nile.

Wafa Ashri, an activist with the General Nubian Union, argued that the monetary compensation offered by the government does not provide an adequate resolution to their demands. Article 236 of the Egyptian constitution stipulates that the government must promulgate laws that develop areas to which the Nubians can be resettled, she said, and that provision should be implemented before monetary compensation is offered. She said that the people “want a place that preserves their Nubian heritage, customs and traditions, and that represents a social favorable environment for the Nubian cultural identity that they fear will be lost.”

Hamdi Suleiman, the head of the Nubian Union in Austria, made a similar argument—that compensation for houses and lands lost in Old Nubia doesn’t negate the rights of Nubians to resettle in their historic areas that are still accessible. It is in the best interests of the Egyptian government to have the Nubians maintain their heritage, identity and language, he maintained.

Said Sadek lecturing on the Egyptian revolution of 2011 (Photo by Said Sadek in Wikimedia, Creative Commons license)

Al-Monitor spoke with Said Sadek, a professor of sociopolitical science at The American University in Cairo. He said that the government is stalling and making empty promises to the Nubians the same as they do to all other minorities. He said that if the government were to allow the Nubians to have access to their lands, they might have to meet the demands of other minorities—Copts. Shiites, people with differing sexual orientations—for their rights. The government is opposed to that for any of them. The professor assumed that the offer of compensation represents to the government only a temporary palliative to calm the Nubians.

Discrimination and economic inequality against the Rural Thai by the wealthy urban elites in Thailand is a major factor in instigating protests and political turmoil in the nation, according to a recently released report. The study by the Asia Foundation focused on Isan, the region of northeastern Thailand that is populous but poor, and feels left behind by the thriving people in the rest of the nation.

Redshirt political protest in Bangkok, September 2010 (Photo by Takeaway in Wikimedia, Creative Commons license)

The report, “Thailand’s Inequality: Myths and Reality of Isan” by lead author Rattana Lao, was featured in a news story on July1. She was quoted as stating, “Research [has] shown that one of the leading indicators that pushed people toward political turmoil and protest is the fact that they are not satisfied with their economic condition and [the] uneven treatment … that they receive.” The purpose of the study was, in part, to focus the nation on this poor section, which has nearly a third of Thailand’s 69 million people but is generally dry, undeveloped, and cut off from the breakneck growth of the rest of the country.

Isan has routinely voted for populist politicians who pledged to change the dynamics between the urban elites and the rural poor. Thaksin Shinawatra was elected in 2001 on his pledge to challenge the balance of power in favor of the Rural Thai, and his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, was elected for the same reason in 2011. Both were unseated by military coups, Thaksin in 2006 Yingluck in 2014. The army is allied with the royalist/urban elite power structure. Ms. Rattana argues that “if the income is dispersed more equally among the provinces and people feel satisfied with their living standard … I think the feeling of being disparaged, the feeling of being uneven would be reduced.”

Isan girls (Photo by Dan Weber in Flickr, Creative Commons license)

The report appears to go well beyond an analysis of the political situation in rural Thailand. The Asia Foundation, in its investigation of Isan households, found that more had decreased incomes in recent years than had increased incomes. More of the Rural Thai in Isan felt that their neighborhoods were declining than were improving. Admittedly fewer residents live in poverty than years before but Isan still has more impoverished people than any other part of the nation. Almost 9 out of 10 are in debt and they earn less than the rest of the country, on average.

The survey by the foundation did find that while many of the people from Isan migrate to find work in other sections of Thailand, they would prefer to stay in their own provinces. A sizeable majority of the Isan residents would be in favor of more industry in their rural, farming communities. Ms. Rattana urged the nation to look for more ways to invest in Isan since the rural Thai clearly do want to remain in their own communities.

An old school bus passing through a village in Isan (Screenshot from the video “Life in My Thailand, Morning in the Isaan Jungle Village” by Jens Chanthasook Sommer on YouTube, Creative Commons license)

The researcher also said that the people of Isan would benefit from an improvement in the quality of their educations, which would assist them in filling job openings. She said that she had shared the research findings with the National Economic and Social Development Council, which advises the prime minister.

Wilailak Maiwong, who is an analyst with the development council, said that part of the problem with development taking place in Isan is that the region lacks adequate infrastructure such as supplies of electricity and water. However, Thosaporn Sirisamphand, the Secretary General of the council, said in an interview published in January that the government, the military junta, has been taking steps to address inequalities nationwide.

Countering that, the article quoted the dean of the faculty of political science at Ubon Ratchathani University, Titipol Phakdeewanich, who emphasized that Thailand’s elites would have to learn to respect the poor Rural Thai in Isan before anything would really change there. “If the Thai elite and middle class change their perception, I believe that this would be one of the main things that can help to reduce tensions between … the people and the state,” he said.

Since the mystery illness that affected the Batek village of Kuala Koh was finally diagnosed as a measles epidemic several weeks ago, the flood of news stories in the Malaysian press has slowed to a trickle. A few of them provide helpful updates and useful insights, however.

Two Batek children in the Taman Negara National Park (Photo by Fergus Macdonald on Flickr, Creative Commons license)/

On June 24, the New Straits Times published an incisive opinion piece by Alberto Gomes, an anthropologist who has done field research among the Orang Asli societies of Malaysia since 1975. Gomes makes it clear that the Batek and the other original people, the Orang Asli, have a lot to offer to humanity. “Perhaps, we should learn from them on how to live wisely within nature’s limits and relate non-violently and peacefully with each other,” he writes.

While the cause of the mystery illness was diagnosed by the Malaysian health authorities, the underlying disease, Gomes argues, is the structural violence that they suffer from—poverty, racism, discrimination, and oppression from elements in the government and the economic system in general. In contrast to the growth-at-any-cost capitalist system, the Orang Asli, exemplified by the Batek, treasure the forests, rivers, and living in harmony with nature and one another.

A view of the town of Gua Musang (Photo by Straitgate in Wikimedia, Creative Commons license)

On June 27, the Malay Mail reported that 72 Batek infected with measles were being temporarily cared for at a relief center in Gua Musang, a town fairly near Kuala Koh. Hizani Ibrahim, an officer for the District Social Welfare Department, told the news service that the Batek were not going to be permitted to have visitors or to return to their community until they were completely clear of the disease.

The number of people housed in the facility would likely grow to over 100 as individuals with the disease were moved into it from other facilities such as the local hospital. An additional 112 Batek were receiving treatments in other clinics in the area that the article named. Hizani estimated that it might take up to 21 days for the people housed at the facility in Gua Musang to fully recover. He added that the Batek in that town have received a lot of charitable contributions from people who are concerned about them.

On July 2, another news source reported that the Batek in Kuala Koh who had not gotten ill were being vaccinated for measles. Hashim Alang Abdul Hamid, Director of the Kelantan/Terengganu Orang Asli Development Department, said that 204 people from Kuala Koh and the nearby community of Kampung Aring 5 had been vaccinated so far. Health authorities are delaying the vaccinations for pregnant women and for those who already show symptoms of the disease. He told the press that there have been no problems during the vaccination program. “Everyone has given their full cooperation,” he said.

And finally, the Malay Mail reported on July 3 that Ramli Mohd Nor, the first Orang Asli elected as an MP in Malaysia, has weighed in about the deaths of the Batek. The Semai lawmaker from the Cameron Highlands urged the government to have a coroner conduct an inquest to verify the causes of death. The deputy home minister replied that the government was still awaiting the official pathology report. Once that is received, the government would consider what to do next and it might want to conduct the inquest that Ramli suggested.

The Paliyans living in the forests of the Sirumalai Hills in Tamil Nadu are missing out on all sorts of government benefits due to their not having the necessary identification documents. A reporter, A. Shrikumar, described the ways these lacks of identity cards have affected the people for a story in The Hindu on Wednesday last week, June 26.

The Sirumalai forested hills in the Dindigul District of Tamil Nadu (Photo by Arulsjose in Wikimedia, Creative Commons license)

Some Paliyan children, for instance, are hindered in their desires to gain more schooling because they lack what are called “community certificates.” The reporter interviewed a 16-year-old boy named V. Bhoominathan who is eager to pursue his education beyond the 10th grade. “I knocked [on] the doors of many schools in [several different communities] … but I could not get a seat in any of the schools,” the young man complained.

About 20 other Paliyan children in the Sirumalai villages are similarly finding it difficult to get the schooling they want due to the same problem: they lack community certificates. Nearly 70 Paliyan families living in the Sirumalai Hills lack a variety of other identity documents. M. Muthamma complained to the newspaper about the fact that one girl is unable to gain admission to college due to her lack of proper documents. They have contacted the revenue and the forest departments about their need for ID cards but without any success.

A policeman The Hindu spoke with expressed the thought that the Paliyans remain aloof from the rest of the local society because of their lack of proper documents. He attributed other problems with their livelihoods, as he saw them, to their lack of ID documents, such as living in huts in the forests and collecting honey and tubers.

Six Paliyan kids (Photo courtesy of Steven Bonta)

A forester working in the area did point out that a few years ago 18 Paliyans were given some forest land under the provisions of the Forest Rights Act. Others have been given some land for cultivation. Murugan, a worker for an NGO active in the Sirumalai Hills, told the reporter that the process of issuing the community certificates should be expedited.

Sivaprathan, the Village Administrative Officer for Sirumalai, said that the proper forms had been completed and sent up to higher level officials in the bureaucracy. The official did say that there are discrepancies in some of the documents—differences in addresses on several forms, irregularities in the forms, and so on. “However, we are working to find a solution at the earliest,” the official added.

T.G. Vinay, the Collector for the Dindigul District, once again visited his tribal constituents in the forests, this time on June 26. News stories in April 2018 and in February 2019 described his earlier visits to Paliyan communities in the forests . This time he visited Moolaiyaaru village in the Kodaikanal Hills to meet the Paliyan people. He used the occasion to give 22 families tracts of land and the necessary property registration papers.

He announced that a special camp would be held on Saturday and Sunday, June 29-30, in Ponnuruki village to look into their grievances and to try to help them out.

Many peaceful societies have learned how to contend with tourists. People welcome them into their communities, build businesses and festivals to attract their money, and try to figure out how to preserve their own ways in the face of visitors and their need to be entertained.

Tourists watching a Hemis Monastery festival near Leh (Photo by Nate Koechley on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

Ladakh is a good example of a society that has been transformed by tourism, but as an article in 2012 pointed out, the Ladakhi themselves are striving to preserve elements of their traditional ways and to restore an appreciation for their folk songs and dances. Their young people are becoming captivated by foreign cultural ways but they are also attracted by the performances that are shown by their elders to the tourists.

An article last week threatens to upend this happy scene with the news that the number of tourists in Ladakh so far this year has declined significantly from recent years. According to people in the tourist industry in the Leh District of Ladakh, the number of tourists has dropped by over 50 percent in 2019. Reasons given for the decline include the late opening of one of the major highways into Ladakh, the cancellation of some flights into the district, and the national elections this spring.

The Irfan Guest House in Leh (Photo by Simon on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

Amrit Badam, who has run liquor and hotel businesses in Leh for 30 years, said that his hotels in May of 2018 were at 80 to 95 percent occupancy. This May only 40 percent of the rooms in his establishments were occupied. As with others, he blames the reduced number of flights, the late opening of the main road into Ladakh, and the security issues surrounding the parliamentary elections for the serious decline. Security concerns due to tensions between India and Pakistan have also contributed to a drop in tourism.

The number of tourists visiting Ladakh in 2018 was the highest on record. According to an official with the state department of tourism, 327,366 tourists visited the Leh District last year, of whom 49,477 were international visitors. In comparison, five years earlier only 137,000 tourists visited Ladakh, according to another article.

With some exceptions, that article observed, the tourists had only a minimal impact on the Ladakhi people. After dressing in their colorful traditional clothing, the Ladakhis often appear to enjoy being the objects of tourists’ cameras. Besides, the visitors bring in needed revenue. But conservative Buddhist leaders in Leh decry the visitors’ morals relating to drugs, alcohol, and sex, values that they feel the tourists introduce to the Ladakhi people. The conservatives argue that tourism poses a danger to traditional Ladakhi culture.

Other articles over the years about the tourist industry in Ladakh have made it sound as if the Ladakhi people in general have grown used to the tourists. The question is, how will they adjust to an economic downturn if the tourism decline continues?

In many conferences, women constitute a token presence, the modest voices at tables and lecterns dominated by men, argued a South Asian lady. International Rivers, an NGO that advocates for the human and natural communities affected by harmful dams, sought to modify that dynamic by organizing the first-ever Women and Rivers Congress in Nepal at the beginning of March.

Participants in the Women and Rivers Conference, March 2019 — Participants in the Women and Rivers Congress, March 2019 (Photo by International Rivers and posted in their blog with a Creative Commons license)

A blog entry published on June 17 by International Rivers sought to explain the events at the congress and to explore the roles of women in major environmental issues, such as preserving rivers. The group seems determined that the voices of women need to be better heard, especially since their perspectives often differ from those of men. Almost 100 women from over 30 countries shared their stories at the conference in Nepal

One of the interesting facets of the report about the meeting is the explanation of the role of Lepcha women in the struggle to preserve the Teesta River from dam builders. The reporter, Pianporn Deetes, Thailand Campaign Coordinator, indicates that the Lepcha women at the conference “deeply impressed” the other participants. They showed themselves to be talkative and outgoing among the other women in contrast to the more reserved demeanor that they usually display in male-dominated situations.

One of the women told the reporter that it was the first time a Lepcha woman had made a presentation at a conference such as that. Pianporn Deetes writes that the Lepcha women are “known for being reserved in organizing meetings in their home state of Sikkim, India.” The intrinsic interest in the story, aside from the recognition of Lepcha women and their role in protecting the Teesta, is the change it documents in gender relations in their society. For Gorer, in his 1967 book, wrote that Lepcha women were often more self-assured than men. He did fieldwork in Sikkim in 1937.

That appears to have changed by the beginning of the current century. Anita Sharma, who did fieldwork in the Upper Dzongu from September to November 2003, wrote in her 2013 book that women now have subordinate positions to men in Lepcha society. Men make the major decisions; daughters normally do not inherit land from their fathers; a woman’s status in a family diminishes after she has been married. But women in Lepcha society still are highly valued, she insisted. She suspected that the changes have been due to the influences of Hindu beliefs and practices.

However, Roy and Bardhan (2014) present an even bleaker picture of gender discrimination based on their 2013 fieldwork in a Lepcha village in the Darjeeling District of West Bengal. They provide stark facts about such things as a much lower life expectancy for female than for male babies, a higher mortality rate for women than men in local health facilities, and so forth.

Thus, one can hope that the conference organized by International Rivers in March, which accorded recognition to the Lepcha women, may have also provided a confidence-building boost to them.

The Egyptian government announced on June 19 that compensation would be provided for Nubians who had been displaced from their villages by the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s.

A Nubian elder who might be eligible for compensation (Photo by Barthwo on Pixabay, Creative Commons license)

According to the official government news release, Omar Marawan, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, announced at a press conference that beginning on June 25, Nubians who are eligible for compensation for the damages they may have suffered from the construction of the dam may start filing compensation requests.

The measure was agreed upon during a cabinet meeting devoted to the compensation issue. Nubians who think they are entitled to compensation will be allowed three weeks after June 25 to file their claims. Ten days after the close of the filing period, the names of those judged eligible for compensation will be announced at the headquarters of the Aswan Governorate in Aswan, on the website of the governorate, and “at the relevant diplomatic and consular premises.” The minister added that grievances regarding those claims for eligibility must be filed within 10 days after the announcement of the eligible names.

The announcement was made at a joint press conference with the Aswan governor, Ahmed Ibrahim. Al-Ahram, an Egyptian newspaper that is mostly owned by the government, reported the gist of his comments. He evidently said that the government intends to “take all necessary measures” in their efforts to provide compensation to the victims of the dam more than half a century ago.

Some Nubian houses along the River Nile near Aswan, traditional Nubian territory (Photo by Belmahdy in Wikimedia, Creative Commons license)

He added that a major ceremony will be held in September when the compensation payments will be distributed to eligible Nubians. The governor also said that a ministerial committee will monitor the process of handling the applications to ensure that it is going properly.

Another news source last Thursday indicated that the cabinet was acting under instructions from President al-Sisi. It said that about 11,000 people lost their homes due to the dam and appear to be eligible for compensation.

A substantial portion of the news and reviews published by this website over the past 15 years about the Nubians have been concerned in one way or another with their demands for justice from the government regarding their expulsion from their villages in Old Nubia. For instance, a news story in February 2018 reported that a committee charged by the president with working out a compensation strategy for the Nubians had indicated that “Nubian elders consider the president’s move to re-open the compensation issue ‘a positive step.’”

On June 8 the Tristan Islanders posted on their website an ad for a position in the government of the island for a “Police Assurance Officer.” In the course of the ad, the island administrators preparing it didn’t mind expressing—modestly of course—their pride in the fact that the place is still relatively free of crime and violence, as it always has been.

The Settlement on Tristan da Cunha (Image by Michael Clarke Stuff on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

The job description includes the assertion that “crime is low on Tristan.” It modestly states that while there is a magistrate’s court, it only sits once or twice a year. The paragraph concludes, “Policing on Tristan takes community policing to a new level.”

The Tristan school (Photo by Spixey on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

The Police Assurance Officer will help the existing policeman on the island with policing in the neighborhoods and working with other officials to ensure that essential adult and child safeguards are being properly followed. The new officer will work with the current police staff in establishing youth groups in the community; he or she will help identify, nurture, and mentor new recruits to constable positions.

And perhaps just as critically, the new officer will work with the existing staff in seeking to reduce and prevent crime on the island. The ad singles out the need to focus on “petty crime and crime related to alcohol abuse.” The existing police service on the island consists now of a full-time inspector, two special constables, and an administration officer. They are also responsible for customs duties, immigration, search and rescue operations and disaster management.

Conrad Glass, the former Chief Islander, in 2009 (Photo by Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

A news story from January 2010 about Conrad Glass, at the time serving as policeman for the island, provided some background about crime and policing on Tristan based on a news report in The Guardian. Officer Glass was in the UK for training in community policing. He told the Guardian reporter that the jail on the island is not really usable as such—it would not adequately hold a felon.

He said that crime is almost non-existent, so the concept of community policing, for him, usually consists of not getting involved in things. Since he doesn’t drink, he avoids the pub in the Settlement, normally preferring to sit home with a book. He did admit that a fight broke out once in the 1970s on a fishing vessel, and since then problems have been caused by visitors on their yachts.

The report from nine years ago indicated that Glass was hoping to retire in five years, but no one else, including his two deputies, is interested in taking the job. It appears from the Tristan website list of government departments that officer Glass is still the head of the island police force. Perhaps he is hoping to finally retire and have more time for his reading. If he does, one might hope he will have the time to write another book to update his charming work Rockhopper Copper, which was first published in 2005 with a second edition released in 2011.

Back in early April, reports came out about a mysterious illness that was afflicting the Batek of Kuala Koh: some young people were becoming sick and having breathing problems. The state health authorities in Kelantan attempted to provide cover for themselves by blaming the Batek for not being willing to take transportation to clinics to get tested. The cause of the illnesses remained a mystery. A couple weeks later, however, despite some recriminations, the people in the village seemed to be getting better.

Batek children near Kuala Koh (Photo by Heng Fu Ming on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

On June 10 the story became a national scandal when it was revealed that over the course of the previous month two Batek people had died of pneumonia and 12 other bodies of individuals who had also died of the mysterious illness were going to be tested. Scores of news reports were published in Malaysia and at least one international source—The Guardian—picked up the story. The reports quoted numerous state and national officials, including the Prime Minister, scholars, and some Batek individuals.

Some Batek suspect that they are dying because of contamination of their water supplies due to mining near the community. Inja Punai, a 32-year-old resident of Kuala Koh, was quoted as saying “we have not made accusations but suspect that the water pollution is caused by chemical waste.” An NGO, Sahabat Jariah, indicated that nearby explosions and thee uses of chemicals have been polluting the area.

The NGO added that the river water around the village had been sampled by staff from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, who found it to be contaminated with arsenic, metals, and chemicals from fertilizers. “The blasting ingredients are said to be processed near the water source of the village” Sahabat Jariah posted on its Facebook page.

Dzulkefly Ahmad, National Minister for Health of Malaysia (Photo by Kharil Yusuf on Wikimedia, Creative Commons license)

The national health minister, Dzulkefly Ahmad, spoke about the situation at a press conference held in the Gua Musang hospital. He admitted that environmental poisoning might be a cause of the crisis. Lung disease could be caused by the mining being done at a manganese mine in the area. The Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, responded that the government would take “stern action” if indeed it turned out that the Batek had been poisoned.

Another news source reported that Senator Datuk Husan Musa of Kelantan wants the state government to carefully investigate the issue of iron ore mining close to Kuala Koh to see if it is linked to the deaths in the community. He wanted to know if the iron mine was operating without a license. He said that a state official who had recently visited the village had understood that the mine was operating illegally. During his visit on June 9, he learned from the supervisor of the mine that they had been using explosives in the operation, though it was not clear what type.

The senator pointed out that two rivers may have been responsible for carrying pollution to the village. The Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources said that they would investigate the possibility that the deaths due to pneumonia might have been caused by water pollution.

A different news story reported that those claims are impossible to substantiate—the Health Ministry said, according to this source, that chemicals could not have caused the deaths of the Batek. The reporter quoted Dzulkefly Ahmad as saying that chest X-rays of the victims of the illness showed that they were caused by microorganisms, not chemicals. He added that he was awaiting the results of the polymer chain reaction tests to determine if the disease is viral or bacterial.

Due to the possibility of a serious, infectious pathogen, the government has decided to exclude all outsiders from the community. As of noon on June 11, Dzulkefly Ahmad said that there have been 101 recorded cases of the disease, at least 14 of which resulted in the deaths of the victims.

A logging truck in Kelantan (Photo by Wakx on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

While the villagers may blame pollution from an illegal mine and medical authorities may be on the verge of finding a disease pathogen, others are blaming the crisis on the rampant logging of the forests around the Kelantan community and, by extension, on the lack of land security for the Batek. Colin Nicholas, Executive Director of the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns, said that the basic problem was not a medical one but rather it was the fundamental disregard for the land rights of the Batek and the other Orang Asli people.

He stated his argument eloquently. The Batek of Kuala Koh were hunters and gatherers and 10 years ago they were mostly contented and healthy. But the state government of Kelantan has been steadily taking away their lands and traditional resources, forcing them into constricted settlements.

“Without access to their traditional way of life, they become malnourished and underweight,” Nicholas said. “They end up eating junk food and consuming more sugar to substitute their diet of fruits and other things. With their resistance being low, many diseases — whether it’s pneumonia or tuberculosis, or even diarrhea — can be fatal. But the root cause is that their environment has been taken away,” he said. His most recent visit to Kuala Koh was about a year ago.

The crisis in Kuala Koh has served to focus the Malaysian media on the Batek, and the Orang Asli more broadly. One of the news stories published on June 10 consisted of an interview with associate professor Dr Wan Ahmad Amir Zal Wan Ismail from the Universiti Malaysia Kelantan about the expertise of the Batek in the forest. He explained that they are still uniquely capable of thriving in the forests that surround their communities.

While they no longer live full-time in the forest, they normally will enter it accompanied by family members and live in a tent for a few days or for longer periods of a month or more. Depending on the availability of forest resources, they may stay in one spot or move to different locations. They will erect temporary shelters in the forest during the monsoon season, October through December or January.

A Batek man shows tourists how he uses his blowpipe in a village along the Tembeling River (Photo by chee.hong on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

He said that the Batek, who still hunt with blowpipes, were quite knowledgeable about the wildlife around them—birds, squirrels, monkeys, and other animals. “Their value of total reliance on the jungle renders them invulnerable to the pressures of normal and routine needs as they believe that the jungle will provide without fail,” he observed.

The scholar said that while they are camped in the forest, the Batek men will forage for honey, frogs, resin, agarwood, bamboo and rattan, among other resources. Meanwhile, back in their tents, the Batek women will care for the children and forage for forest herbs and foods. Compared to other Orang Asli groups, the Batek are justifiably known for their intimacy with the Malaysian forests.

On Monday, June 17, the mystery about the illness was finally solved. Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad announced that 37 of the sick people in Kuala Koh had tested positive for measles. They had not been vaccinated.

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Peaceful Societies

The Transit of Venus

Nubian Compensation: Further Discussions

Wrapping Up the Batek Measles Epidemic

The Paliyan Need for Documents

Tourism Declines in Ladakh

Lepcha Women Gain Confidence

Compensation for Nubians Approved

Police Work on Tristan

Batek Illness Becomes Deadly

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