Letter: Program for indigenous people

The article titled “Preventing atrocities in Southeast Asia,” (the  Post, June 16) is quite relevant if only to dramatize the plight of affected peoples, such as the orang asli or indigenous tribes in Southeast Asia who are marginalized and victims of “acculturation” and integration programs of their respective countries.

Singling out Cambodian victims of civil wars without covering those victims of modernization and development in other ASEAN countries is greatly unfair, amid the current reality of their becoming “extinct” in their own native lands. This is a serious humanitarian injustice while dominant cultural majorities lavishly take pride in achieving modernity and development at the expense of native aborigines, who are mostly fully integrated, thanks to sustained national integration programs. But just how happy these “integrated” minorities are remains largely unknown.

The stark reality is that these native aboriginal peoples suffer pitiful discrimination in their own native lands. The other minorities, consisting of migrants like Chinese, Indians, etc. are luckier, being well organized and educated, and all engaged in business.

In fact, they not only survive, they flourish in their adopted country. Aborigines are in sad state, because even such programs as education are no guarantee of their cultural survival. In fact, education hastens their assimilation and integration.

In short, modernization produces the reverse effect of their cultural extinction. What can the UN and other concerned bodies do to reverse the process? Governments in ASEAN and elsewhere should come up with credible programs and solutions to this serious humanitarian injustice.

Bab
Dhaka