Activist loses battle with cancer

The Star

PETALING JAYA: Orang asli activist Arom Asir (pic), who fought against communist terrorists in the 1970s, has died of cancer.

He was 67.

According to the Facebook page of the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns, the deputy chairman of the Kelantan Orang Asli Village Committee breathed his last at 4.30pm on Saturday in Kampung Pos Bihai, Gua Mu­­sang, Kelantan.

His funeral was held at the same place yesterday.

Fondly known as Pakcik Arom, he used to don the uniform of the Senoi Praaq, the “Fighting Aborigines” unit of the then Police Field Force, now called the General Operations Force. Senoi Praaq started as a special project under the British during the First Malayan Emergency (1948-1960), with the first batch trained by the British Special Air Services.

A Temiar, Arom was engaged by the Government to fight the Communist Party of Malaya during the Second Emergency (1976-1989).

In 2009, the father of six was among a group of orang asli rights activists who worked with the Orang Asli Peninsula Network and COAC to raise awareness of the Temiar in Kelantan, who were threatened by logging and land encroachment.

Arom's grandson Dendi Johari said his grandfather cared about the problems that the orang asli in this country faced. Arom was once detained in 2012 for creating a blockade against logging in Kuala Betis, Kelantan.