“How long has your family been here?”
“Since the 40s.”
“And how long have you been living with no electricity?”
“It’s been this way since day one, I think since the 1940s.”
‘Wow, you mean even before our Merdeka (Independence), that’s like 75 years now?”
“Hahaha.. yes.”
“Why don’t you request for electricity here?”
“Our local orang asli societies did apply for it, the government says they will have future plans to get in some power cable project here, so we are still waiting.”
“What kind of orang asli (Indigenous) are you?”
“We are the Jakun tribe, we are mainly farmers here, we work in the rubber estates. This land was given to us by the government to work on.”
“Aha that’s good, so what religion are you?”
“We have no religion, we believe in the earth and what we have.”
“But you said your name is Rosli bin Bidin, doesn’t that make you a Muslim?”
“Haha no I’m not Islam, they put the ‘Bin’ in all our names as long as we are born in the local hospitals. I was born in Gombak.”
(During my trip with Schneider Electric who donated portable solar lights to the Jakun tribe in a village here in Kuantan, Pahang)
