ofthe SAME TREE

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Chapter 7
The Orang Asli/Suku Terasing
and the Malayu
The interior of the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra is home
to numerous groups who are distinguished from the
Malayu by their nomadic or seminomadic lifestyles. In
the past they were referred to by distinctive names or more generally by the
areas where they lived or which they exploited. Only in the twentieth century
were names such as “Orang Asli” (indigenous people) in Malaysia and
“Suku Terasing” (isolated tribes) in Indonesia applied to all such groups as an
administrative convenience. 1 While such terms convey marginality, this was
not always the case in the long history of intercourse between these interior
communities and the Malayu. For many centuries the complementarity of
their economies encouraged the maintenance of their differing lifeways. The
interior groups were the principal collectors of forest products in demand
in the international marketplace, while the Malayu provided the facilities for
international trade and were the source of the iron, salt, cloth, ceramics, and
other necessary and prestige goods desired by the interior communities. There
was every reason to encourage the preservation of these complementary and
mutually beneficial lifestyles.
This chapter provides another example of the manner in which a shift
in trade affected relationships between groups, leading to a reassessment of
ethnic boundaries. Prior to the late nineteenth century, the relations between
the Malayu and the Orang Asli/Suku Terasing were marked by profitable economic
arrangements. But the transformation of the land from forests to agricultural
export plantations in the nineteenth century removed the relevance
and value of the Orang Asli/Suku Terasing as the suppliers of highly desired
forest products. Pressures of modernity, the nation-state, and the competitive
global economy made the lifestyle and economic pursuits of the forest and
hill people increasingly irrelevant and undervalued. While some succumbed
to the pressures, others fought a dispiriting battle to retain their unique lifestyles
and ethnic identities.