By ASIA PACIFIC INDIGENOUS YOUTH NETWORK
www.nordis.net

This is the solidarity message to Jaringan Orang Asal Se Malaysia during the World’s Indigenous People’s Day Celebration in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia last August 9, 2015. — Ed

We, members of Asia Pacific Indigenous Youth Network, greet this day with celebration and strength, as we observe United Nation’s World’s Indigenous Peoples Day in line with the declaration of rights of the indigenous peoples of the world. We are one with the continuing struggles of the first peoples of Malaysia in their defense of land, life and resources against profit-oriented powers.

The issues of the indigenous peoples of Malaysia – migration, development aggression, militarization, commodification of culture, displacement and land-grabbing – are not far from the experiences of the indigenous peoples of the Philippines and the whole of Asia. Because of rapid modernization in a globalized world, the concerns of the indigenous peoples are avoided and evaded to give way to multi-national corporations and investors that create a fake and simulated homogenous culture of consumerism. Our indigenous socio-political structures that order our determination of development and progress are violently strained by the institutionalization of oppression and domination often times by the authorities of the state and multi-national corporations.

Centering on the matters of the youth sector, issues on the commercialization of education, unemployment, inaccessibility of health care, neglect of tradition and culture and human rights violations greatly affect the indigenous youth of our country.

With the characteristic of our educational system as becoming more and more corporatized, policies have been implemented by privately owned schools to increase tuition fees to gain more profit. This issue of corporatization is of course tied to state neglect. In 2012, the Philippine government through the Department of Education (Dep-Ed) decided to institutionalize the usage of local language for basic education, but only some schools adopted this resolution because of the lack of technical and material support to train educators. The students from far flung areas experience lack of priority; they remain to have no teachers, classrooms, books and chairs as some would have to walk hours just to reach their schools. At present, our indigenous brothers and sisters in Mindanao are calling for global support to stop the attacks brought by militarization against the schools in their indigenous territories.

Unemployment is also one of the biggest disputes of the IPs in the Philippines, as more and more indigenous youth look for contractual jobs in fields that they did not specialized in, for most courses offered in most schools are those that benefit the needs of mono capitalists and not their communities. Aside from these, health care is also not accessible for indigenous peoples. It is a usual case in communities to witness malnutrition where there is large scale mining operation. This also confirms the presence of various diseases caused by the destruction of the environment. Again, groups of Lumad in Mindanao were forced to be relocated to give way to mining corporations leaving their farms and other sources of livelihood.

These are just some of the matters that the indigenous peoples of the Philippines are currently facing, and we have observed that similar trends are being confronted by the indigenous peoples of Malaysia. As countries part of the South East Asian Nations, here and now, we are expressing our highest solidarity and fiercest love for those who stand and fight with us in this struggle to achieve a good life of integrity and equality.

The rights of the indigenous peoples are the rights of the people! Together, let us unite in advancing our rights to self-determination!

Long live the Indigenous Peoples of Malaysia! Long live international solidarity! # nordis.net