PETALING JAYA: Rita anak Uju, a single mother from the Mah Meri native community, used to weave handicrafts to support her family before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
It was quite common for women like herself to sell their weavings to the tourists when they come to Pulau Carey, Selangor, and visit the cultural villages, which are considered main attractions for people visiting the island.
Some do this for supplementary income but only few would depend solely on handicraft sales for an income.
But now with the CMCO, Rita said the ban on tourism has taken away this source of income completely.
“Usually, we can get a little money from the tourists. Before Covid-19, I weaved – not that I used to get a lot of money from it, but I got enough.”
But now, with the multiplied effects of the previous national shutdown in March and April and the current conditional movement control order (CMCO) affecting the Klang Valley, she was forced to look for low-skilled work away from her village.
Rita took up a job as a cleaner after feeling the strain from the economic consequences of the battle against Covid-19.
Many others in the Mah Meri tribe have similarly been facing difficult times. But this is especially so for a single mother like Rita with no other sources of income.
She leaves her house in the wee hours of the morning only to spend another hour travelling on a motorbike with her son to make it in time for her shift at 7.30am.
She comes home at around 5pm, when she would then cook for her family and go to sleep right after.
During the MCO, her already pitiful salary, barely above the minimum wage, was reduced even further by RM100.
On top of that, petrol costs up to RM10 a day for her travel to and from the workplace, she said.
After all the deductions, she barely earns enough to care for her 12-year-old child, the youngest of four.
“My hope? I am not even sure. It was lucky for me to even get the cleaner job. Even then, I feel forced to go. The place is so far away.
“I definitely do not make enough. On top of that, I still need to pay for my child’s schooling.”
Another woman from the community, Maznah anak Uju, said many Mah Meri families, who have an average of five or six children per household, were struggling to make ends meet since the MCO.
“There is not even a little money. Before the pandemic there was at least a little bit,” she said.
Like Rita, Maznah too used to sell weavings for tourists who were interested to buy from the natives. She used to make about RM1,000 a month from her sales.
“There were some tourists in June and July during the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO), but still not too many.
“Now there is none at all, of course. People are scared to come and we are scared of outsiders bringing the virus into our community,” she said.
“The worst challenge for us is still our economic situation. I don’t even have money to take care of myself. Food also comes difficult,” she said.
Maznah added that living in the village has made it difficult for her to move her handicraft business online, having no transport to go and post the items.
Reita Rahim, coordinator of Gerai Orang Asli (Gerai OA), said most of the Mah Meri people who lived on the island depended on palm oil as the main economic activity if they had land.
The younger ones in this community would also work off the island as paid horticultural labourers or cleaners in Cyberjaya or Putrajaya. She said they had suffered most during the MCO because they were often paid relatively low daily wages – some of which would go to transport.
Even though not every Mah Meri on the island are directly affected by the lack of tourism, some extended family groups who would perform in the famous cultural troupes, produced crafts or carved wood, still depended on tourists more than others.
But it’s still too early to gauge the negative effects the CMCO would bring to their community, Reita said.
“Craft sales are much slower now because of the general economic downturn and the lack of bazaars to sell them at.”
“They welcomed the Bantuan Prihatin Nasional payments which helps bridge the gap, but the worry is what happens when the lean year-end season rolls round?
“Rain makes it difficult to harvest oil palm and pandanus leaves (for weaving), while fishing is difficult. And then there’s the cost of going back to school,” she said, adding that more native children nationwide are expected to drop out of school as families attempt to make ends meet.
On this, Reita said it was important for the children to remain in school, or that the government create other vocational options, as native Mah Meri children who stayed in school end up with better-paying jobs off the island.
However, she said unlike other native groups, the Mah Meri being relatively more accessible had received help from the government and the NGOs throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
But much of the aid would end up in the two main Mah Meri villages of Sungai Bumbun and Sungai Judah.
“The smaller hamlets including those in Sungai Kurau, Bakar Leleh and Kepau Laut are not as known or as accessible which is why they did not receive as much. But no one was sidelined on purpose. No one starved,” she said.
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