Representation of Orang Asli

On August 1st, BFM’s Front Row aired a programme about the Selangor Indigenous Arts Festival. During the course of that interview, the event organizer used a word long considered derogatory when talking about the festival. We apologize for the oversight, which was first brought to light by today’s guest, Rashid Esa. Rashid is the Director of the Mah Meri Cultural Village. He wrote a letter to the Selangor Menteri Besar's office to highlight the poor choice of word as well as how images of the Mah Meri people were used by the state government without permission. We speak to him about responses to that letter as well as the larger challenge of reforming government apparatus to better serve the indigenous communities of Malaysia.