https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9784-8408
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ABSTRACT
Previous research has offered mixed results regarding whether federalism and other mechanisms of multilevel governance (MLG) present advantages or disadvantages for civil society and, in particular, impoverish ethnic minorities. Since self-determination is a key element of the political autonomy of Indigenous peoples (IPs), this paper explores under which circumstances different mechanisms of MLG foster the rights of IPs in the Federation of Malaysia from the perspective of Indigenous activists. This work relies on face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with Indigenous activists, advocates and stakeholders from different states of the federation, with different levels of self-government and quality of democracy. The main findings suggest that any attempt to evaluate the performance of MLG arrangements in the fulfilment of the rights of IPs should consider the relationship between Indigenous organizations and state and local governments – a relationship that depends on the distribution of Indigenous populations – and the degree of political accountability in specific territories.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I will always be indebted to the interviewees who shared their time, knowledge and experience with me. This article is an outcome of the Atles project funded by the Catalonia Regional Government and I gratefully acknowledge the trust and support of both principal investigators Marco Aparicio Wilhelmi and Pere Morell i Torra. Finally, I thank the anonymous reviewers, the handling editor Klaus Detterbeck as well as Hugo Marcos Marné for extremely useful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 For decades within the international community there was debate over the concept of IPs. For example, UN Special Rapporteurs on the rights of IPs and ethnic minorities from different regions of the world have expressed different positions on the topic. Originally, and from a North and Latin American perspective, the international community defined IPs as the original peoples who have historically and continually inhabited a territory prior to the colonization by distant settler-states (Martínez Cobo, Citation1986; Stavenhagen, Citation1989). As a result, the concept has been deeply contested, in both Africa (Inman, Citation2014) and Asia (Erni, Citation2008). In fact, Indigenous advocates from Asia put the emphasis on self-determination as IPs as the main defining feature of Indigenous nations, communities or individuals (Daes, Citation2008; Tauli-Corpuz, Citation2008). This latter perspective was the one finally adopted for the UNDRIP.
2 It specifically states: ‘IP have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development’ (UN General Assembly, 2007).
3 I adhere to the definition put forward by Alcantara et al. of MLG as ‘an instance of policy-making in which government(s) engage with a variety of non-governmental actors, organized at different territorial scales, in a process of decision-making that aims to collaboratively produce some sort of public good’ (Alcantara et al., Citation2016, p. 40).
4 In English: Department of Orang Asli Development.
5 Organizations include, but are not limited, to the IP Network of Malaysia (JOAS), the nationwide Indigenous organization, the Center for Orang Concerns (COAC), the organization most prominent for all Orang Asli in West Malaysia, and the Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (SADIA), which encompasses several IPs from Sarawak. Unless otherwise suggested by the interviewee, no further details were provided regarding their identity due to confidentiality, since some of their members had faced persecution from current state governments.
6 The research project (including overall project design, questionnaires, information sheets for participants, consent sheets for participant) had been approved by the ethics committee of the researcher’s university.
7 For more details on the interviews, see Section A in the supplemental data online.
8 Interview with Colin Nicholas, in Peninsular Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 19 November 2019.
9 Interview with a Sarawakan activist in Kuching, 15 November 2019.
10 Interview with an Indigenous activist in Sabah and technical advisor to JOAS, Kota Kinabalu, 16 November 2019.
11 Interview with Colin Nicholas, in Peninsular Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 19 November 2019.
12 Government of Malaysia (Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954 (Revised 1974) 1954.
13 Interview with a well-known lawyer and academic, Kuala Lumpur, 20 November 2019.
14 Interview with a senior activist from SADIA, Kuching, 15 November 2019.
15 Interview with an Indigenous technical advisor to JOAS, Kota Kinabalu, 16 November 2019.
16 Interview with Colin Nicholas, in Peninsular Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 19 November 2019.
17 Interview with Colin Nicholas, in Peninsular Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 19 November 2019, when talking about the responsiveness of state and federal government in Peninsular Malaysia.
18 Interview with a lawyer and scholar, Kuala Lumpur, 20 November 2019.
19 Interview with an Indigenous activist in Sabah and technical advisor to JOAS, Kota Kinabalu, 16 November 2019.
20 Interview with an Indigenous activist from SADIA, Kuching, 15 November 2019.
21 Interview with a lawyer and scholar, Kuala Lumpur, 20 November 2019.
22 Interview with Colin Nicholas, in Peninsular Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 19 November 2019.
23 Interview with an Indigenous activist from Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, 16 November 2019.
24 Interviews with an Indigenous activist from SADIA, 15 November 2019; and with a Sarawak lawyer and politician, Kuching, 14 November 2019.
25 Interview with an Indigenous activist from Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, 16 November 2019.
26 Interview with an Indigenous activist from SADIA, Kuching 15 November 2019.
27 Interview with Colin Nicholas, in Peninsular Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 19 November 2019.