Dear Friends and Family,
WARNING: This blog is very long! I couldnt stop writing, I really felt the words flying off my fingertips, so I hope this is a worthwhile read for you all. Later in the blog, I touch upon a lot of Scripture without any detailed discussion for the sake of keeping the overall argument clear (I hope!). My interpretations of these passages might be surprising to you, and they may leave you with serious questions. So I put out a challenge to you: if you are so inclined, check out the passages I reference, see how you read them, and offer me questions or critique. Id love to engage with you on these things, and I dont claim that the ideas Ive put forth are THE correct interpretation, and certainly not the only valid one, but there is quite a bit of strongly supported perspective behind the small bits I've shared. In addition, I don't claim that my passionate reflection on the concept of community development is complete, or that it engages all necessary questions and differing perspectives. Again, all is open to challenge and discussion! Please reply with a comment or even email me directly at [email protected]. Hope you enjoy:
Perhaps one of the few experiences that is common to humans of every era and time is the passing of knowledge, traditions, and ways of life from one generation to the next. Although modern people now have ample tools at our disposal to assist us in this process, like computers and the internet, video cameras, and even libraries full of books, indigenous peoples like the Orang Asli here are often limited to oral and experiential means of transmitting such intangible wealth. The unfortunate reality of such limitations (not to say they are insufficient in any way), is that, if the younger generations do not care to receive and continue practicing such knowledge and ways, they are effectively lost, buried with their last living retainers. No memory card or book can preserve their cultural treasures. Tragically, the vast majority of Orang Asli youth fancy a “better,” modern life in the cities, not wishing to learn or carry forth their families’ and communities’ beautiful traditions. Of course, this isn’t a phenomenon new or unique to the Orang Asli, as peoples all throughout history have surely lost precious knowledge and life-ways that, sadly, can probably never be recovered.
Nevertheless, through faith we know that God forever opens the door of hope to break the chains of the past; the Orang Asli are not consigned to repeat the same pattern that so many other peoples have walked, losing the priceless treasures of their heritage. I believe, and Malaysian Care is trying to practically implement such a perspective, that the Orang Asli can stand firm in faith to resist the ever-rising tide of globalization and modernization’s culture-killing waters. No matter how strong the temptation to forsake their forest foraging and seek the “easier,” more “comfortable” life of Kuala Lumpur (the big city in Malaysia), I believe God can, and is, helping some of the Orang Asli hold on to the truer, more rewarding riches of their ancient, beautiful ways of life.
The most visible and active way that Malaysian Care is trying to enact this attitude is through their experimental cultivation of many traditional forest plants that some of their Orang Asli partners have identified for them. So incredibly rich are these Orang Aslis‘ relationships with God’s creation in their local contexts that they were able to collectively identify 168 wild plants that they use for a wide array of purposes, like medicine, food, cosmetics, etc.! It was quite hard for me to imagine that they could find and remember how to use such a huge assortment of wild plants. Yet, while walking through the jungle here with my Orang Asli friends and co-workers, I asked some of them (guys too, ones who are not even particularly interested in this knowledge) to show me some things we could eat or use from the forest; while literally standing in one small area, they were able to find at least 5 or 6 edible or medicinal plants within 1 minute, and then a host of others on our 10 minute walk back to the farm. One was an edible leaf they called “chandan” that had a powerful spicy note to it, really delicious and interesting, and another gave me a good laugh: Adidas said it was for headaches, and he showed me how they tie the long, broad leaf around their heads, making it something like an organic Tylenol headband.
In consultation with their Orang Asli partners, Malaysian Care has selected a few of these plants, many herbal or medicinal in usage, which could be, or already are, valuable to sell in the global market (a major one is vanilla, and others include a rejuvenating herb for mothers after birth, and one that some Orang Asli use to straighten their hair!). Not only that, their selections are ones which seem to grow particularly well in shaded areas, under trees, similar to their natural habitat in the deep jungle. The hope behind this experimental cultivation is to demonstrate for the Orang Asli that they can find ways to grow something profitable without having to cut down their local forest; rather, they can let their uniquely adapted habitats provide something that is of value even beyond their own communities. They don’t need to “sell-out” to the ecologically devastating trend of planting oil palm or rubber. They can harness the inherent goodness, the distinctive gifts, of their God-given homeland without mechanistically overhauling it to squeeze out some unsustainable dollars (or ringgit, in their case). Thus, Malaysian Care envisions this project as dovetailing their efforts to prevent further destruction of Malaysia’s rainforests and assist the Orang Asli who desire to generate more income and materially improve their lives.
Notice, however, how oddly I rendered that last phrase… I’m finding it increasingly challenging to use the term “community development.” Although I have enthusiastically supported the concept of holistic (community) development for a long time now, which is what Malaysian Care claims to enact, my time here is making me evermore skeptical of what we, as First World Westerners, mean when we use and espouse it; particularly it is the idea of “development” that has me on edge. Have we, and I include Americans, Malaysian Care, and especially the Malaysian government which has done the most extensive “development” work with the Orang Asli, assumed and subconsciously led the Orang Asli to assume that their way of life is inadequate or incomplete? Will they only be fully content, and by implication, only fully human, if they become “developed”? … If they have nice roads with vehicles, bigger, air-conditioned houses, satellite TV, and laptops? Who’s to say that this society and way of life we have created, all of these “developments” and technologies on which we depend, are what makes for the best life for all peoples, for the Orang Asli?
Not to say that any of these things are evil or bad in and of themselves, but we must be humble and open enough to acknowledge that we First World, “developed” people don’t necessarily hold the one, universal, perfect recipe for the good life. Personally, I think it would be quite boring and dreadfully sad if the whole world became “developed” and looked and operated like America or Western Europe (let alone the fact that we would suck our planet dry of its resources and life-sustaining capabilities within a few years). Then my Orang Asli friends wouldn’t still trek the jungle hunting wild boar with their badass blow dart pipes (and tigers too, but that’s a little iffy because they’re endangered…); they wouldn’t live in their marvelously crafted bamboo houses where they sleep and eat with their goats that they love; and most pertinently, they wouldn’t be able to live richly off their abundant forest and its more than 168 plants with which their lives have become beautifully intertwined over the past few hundred, or even few thousand years. Should we keep encouraging them, whether directly or indirectly, to think that those things are not worth preserving and that they will be happier and better off if they live just like us? Is the American dream, or the modern middle/upper class life the goal that every people, tribe, and nation should seek?
You know, I don’t recall Jesus’ spoken and embodied proclamation of the Kingdom of God including a plan for “development.” I don’t recall Jesus encouraging people to build bigger and better houses, wear nice clothes, and listen to iPods. Instead, I remember Jesus having no home (Matthew 8:20) and harshly criticizing people who build bigger houses or barns (Luke 12:16-26). I remember Jesus telling people not to worry about what they will wear, mocking Solomon’s lavish robes for God even dressed the lilies “better” (Luke 12:27-28), and telling his disciples to not pack an extra tunic or sandals for their mission (Matthew 10:10)… maybe He didn’t want them to take sandals because He cleverly remembered that the prophet Amos had rightfully criticized the rich for selling the needy for a pair of sandals (2:6). And I also remember Jesus calling people who have ears to hear, to truly hear the message of the Kingdom (Mark 4:9), to consider carefully how they listen to all the things that will be revealed (Luke 8:18).
Funny, isn’t it, that the next thing Jesus says after that line about considering how they listen was that those who have will be given more and those who don’t will have even the little they possess taken from them (Luke 8:19)? How do we listen to that little parabolic gem of Jesus? Do we really “hear” him saying that God’s Kingdom will entail the rich getting richer and the poor becoming completely destitute? Ha! Did He not also say, “blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20)? Maybe Jesus wanted us to “hear” that those who have, the rich, will receive more, only because they unjustly take every last scrap from the poor through their system of land control, debt, and tax. Perhaps He was satirically illustrating how their unjust system of empire worked, not how God’s Kingdom would be. Perhaps we should hear that the poor are blessed for the Kingdom of God can be found in its elemental form in what they share together in love and community even when the rich take everything else for themselves. Jesus’ Kingdom was not found in the riches and luxury of the elite, but it was found in the places and people neglected by empire who had different riches, mostly immaterial ones. When the Kingdom of God is sought and found by all, the full manifestation of the Kingdom, no one will be in need for God will give us all that we need as well (Luke 12:29-31). At God’s Kingdom banquet table, those who don’t have a seat at the tables of rich, “the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame,” will all come and have their fill (Luke 14:12-24, Isaiah 55:1-3)).
This is the Kingdom we must seek to “develop” with our ministry and our lives. It is a place where poverty does not take root, but we must reevaluate how we define poverty, and subsequently, how we understand what it means to live well. When seeing the abounding gifts of the forest that the Orang Asli have integrated into their lives, the strong communal bonds that tie them together, and the joy they derive from their simplistic way of life together, my picture of the good life from our culture is flipped on its head. I can no longer accept any development model that doesn’t give primary importance to helping communities like the Orang Asli preserve and pass on these invaluable components of the good life.
The goal of Jesus’ Kingdom ministry was never to bring wealth and luxury to all the poor of His day, to lift them off their fields and vineyards and into nice, comfortable houses in the city. The Kingdom we faithfully strive to “develop” today shouldn’t seek to do so either. God’s Kingdom seems to be more about giving God’s precious land back to the people, to the poor who have been dispossessed of it (Luke 20:9-16). The land, when nurtured in love and sustainable care, is where people can discover the good life of the Kingdom together. For the Orang Asli, their native jungle, in all of its biodiversity, is the prime location to etch out a Kingdom community within the contours of their traditional forest lifestyles. Sure, it can also be found in the city, the town, and the suburbs, for the Kingdom is very much within us (Luke 17:21), wherever we are. Perhaps many Orang Asli have and will continue to find it in these places, thanks be to God for this.
Nevertheless, my prayer and hope for Malaysian Care and all ministries and groups that seek to build the Kingdom through some kind of holistic development work is that they will encourage people to hold on to the abundant treasures of their land, livelihoods, and lifestyles, rather than abandoning them for the often deceptive and unsustainable ways of modern life. May the Orang Asli and peoples all over the world be inspired to pass on their beautiful ways of sustainable life to future generations. And may all of us “developed” nations and people discover a passion for a Kingdom, a modern society, that has hears to hear and learn from what God wants to re-teach us through peoples like the Orang Asli… maybe they know and experience more of the truly “good” life than most of us do in modern society.
