Looking Back and Looking Forward: Orang Ali Self-Goverance and Democracy

The Orang Asli were once the dominant peoples who inhabited the Malayan peninsula. They governed themselves in customarily-held autonomous areas by developing social, economic and political systems that we now realize have been important in striking a harmonious balance between humans and Nature, and between humans and humans. Their indigenous governance systems, in particular, ensured that every member of the community was the focus of government, but that the interests and continuity of the community took precedence.