Discussion of All Things Political

AT the end of the year, the Tourism Minister is supposed to have identified certain foods to declare as Malaysian. According to the minister, Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen, the months of October, November and December, when the Malaysian International Gourmet Festival is being held, will be the time when the selection is made. Ng went ahead and classified laksa, nasi lemak, bak kut teh, chilli crab and Hainanese chicken rice as worthy of being declared originally Malaysian.

Hainanese chicken rice

But then followed a "food fight" in cyberspace between Malaysians and Singaporeans. Singaporeans typically thought they had the better version, while Malaysians argued that the food down south was a shadow of the real deal. Some Malaysians were indignant too, when they checked the government's heritage food list and found that Penang assam laksa, Penang curry mee, nasi kandar and pasembor were not included. Meanwhile, Malaccans wanted even more definitive recognition — Hainanese chicken rice is ours, they said.

Onde-onde: on the heritage food list...

I wonder how Ng will go ahead with her plan. Thankfully, it does not include filing patents on the dishes. That would be silly. Who would be the patent holder? What about the fact that foreign workers from Myanmar were responsible for some of the tastiest hawker food I've ever had?

Ng claims she was surprised at the war of words over food that she had triggered, saying she only wanted people to know the origins of the food they enjoyed. And although she has been laughed at for her suggestion, we should actually thank her for this history lesson. Tracing culinary roots will take us back to the people who created these dishes. And that's where we'll find some parallels to and pointers about issues of race and identity in Malaysia. MORE

BOGOTA, Sep 10 (IPS) - The latest killings of Awá Indians in southern Colombia – 12 members of a family, including four children and three teenagers –, the forced displacement of hundreds of native villagers, and death threats against indigenous leaders and teachers are signs indicating that their demand to be considered neutral in the armed conflict is still being ignored.

The Aug. 26 murders were preceded by the killings of at least 17 members of the Awá community in February by the left-wing FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrillas, and by death threats against Indigenous Unity of the Awá People (UNIPA) leaders.

Some become obstacles for the armed groups, as awkward witnesses. That was the case of Tulia García, one of the Aug. 26 victims, who had seen armed men detain her husband Gonzalo Rodríguez on Aug. 23 and later found his body, with shots to the head.

According to a statement by Human Rights Watch, "Colombia: Investigate Massacre in Southern Region; Possible Army Involvement and Effort to Eliminate Witnesses in Killings of 12 Indigenous People", García had accused the army of killing her husband.

The Awá collectively own the land and rivers in the Gran Rosario reservation or "resguardo" in the southwestern province of Nariño, a place of strategic value for the armed groups. They also have strong boys and young men that the armed groups recruit, against the wishes and cultural values of their families.

The Awá are intimately familiar with the region, but refuse to serve as guides for any group that carries weapons. Like other indigenous communities, "they are opposed to any form of violence," as missionary Antonio Baraín explains. MORE

SANTIAGO, Sep 30 (IPS) - Sound files containing recordings of spoken Kaweshkar - a nearly extinct indigenous language of southern Chile – have been put together thanks to the work of ethnolinguist Óscar Aguilera and anthropologist José Tonko, and donated to national and foreign institutions with the aim of preserving the culture of one of Chile’s nine native groups.

Kaweshkar is on the verge of joining hundreds of native languages that have disappeared over the past 500 years in South America, a process many blame on colonialism and the imposition of a dominant language, while others attribute it to the natural evolution of languages.

Whatever the reason, the reality is that the vast majority of the 600 to 800 languages that were spoken when the Europeans arrived in the continent have disappeared.

In recent years international agencies and language experts have agreed on the need to work towards preserving languages regardless of the number of speakers, because of their importance to cultural identity and diversity, and a series of legal instruments have been adopted towards that end.

The Kaweshkar - also known as Alacaluf - are one of the nine indigenous ethnic groups legally recognised by the Chilean government.

A nomadic sea-faring people, in the early twentieth century they finally settled down on the Island of Wellington, some 3,000 kilometres south of Santiago, in the Chilean fjords.

Today, only seven speakers of Kaweshkar are left in Puerto Edén, the island’s small port village, which is considered one of the country's most isolated inhabited places. MORE

KUALA LUMPUR, Sep 21 (IPS) - In wealthy Malaysia that employs over four million Asians to service its high- rolling lifestyle, a tiny indigenous tribe is fighting for its survival against state inaction and bureaucratic apathy, as well as marauding giant multinationals and timber loggers.

It is an increasingly losing battle for the Penan, a tribe of about 12,000 semi- nomadic people fighting against destruction of their home in the jungles of Sarawak state in East Malaysia, home to the world’s oldest rain forest and a complex ecosystem.

The state’s wildlife and unique tropical ecosystem are equally under threat from loggers who swing into the forest felling the best trees, leaving giant oil palm plantations while clearing the logged forest to grow more palm oil.

In recent months about 3,000 Penan in the Bakun area in upper Rejang River – the second longest river in the country – faced severe food shortage for various reasons, including drought sparked by deforestation. Food supplies had to be airlifted after church groups raised the alarm.

Exacerbating their already harsh living condition is that Penan women and children are being raped by loggers and their workers, according to a long- delayed government report that concluded in mid-September what human rights activists and non-governmental organisations had been saying for at least a decade.

But despite evidence of sexual assaults, Malaysian police are dragging their feet in investigating the cases and bringing the culprits to justice.

MORE