TAR UMT lecturer becomes first Orang Asli female to receive Merdeka Award Grant

KUALA LUMPUR: Masni Mat Dong, a lecturer from Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT) in Pahang, has made history as the first orang Asli female to receive the Merdeka Award Grant for International Attachment. The award, presented by Sultan Nazrin Shah, the Sultan of Perak and Royal Patron of the Merdeka Award Trust, was given to five exceptional young Malaysians at a ceremony held on August 25. Masni, a member of the Jakun tribe, was recognized for her research proposal titled “Reimagining Inclusive Development: A Spatial Justice and Multi-dimensional Poverty Perspective on the Orang Asli in Malaysia,” which seeks to improve the quality of life for the community.

According to Masni, the orang Asli community faces numerous challenges, including displacement and the loss of cultural heritage, due to their remote locations. With the grant, Masni plans to pursue her attachment at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at the University of Oxford in England. Her objective is to study spatial injustice and multidimensional poverty among the Orang Asli.

From Kampung Sungai Soi in Kuantan, Masni hopes that her achievement will empower and encourage Orang Asli to actively participate in decision-making processes using participatory and inclusive approaches that respect their culture, history, and values. Established in 2012, the Merdeka Award Grant for International Attachment aims to support outstanding young Malaysians in their pursuit of excellence by funding their attachment to prestigious institutions or organizations abroad in various disciplines such as arts, sports, education, environment, health, science, and technology. To date, 29 grant recipients have been able to secure their attachments at 30 institutions of higher learning across nine countries.

Aside from Masni, this year’s recipients include Syaza Soraya Sauli, a full-time PhD student; Amaziasizamoria Jumail, a research officer at Sabah’s Danau Girang Field Centre; Dr. Ng Chuck Chuan, an assistant professor at Xiamen University Malaysia; and Dr. Kong Xin Ying, a postdoctoral fellow at Nanyang Technological University. Amaziasizamoria, who is currently working on the Regrow Borneo project in the Kinabatangan floodplain, plans to undertake her attachment at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (UAEM) in Mexico, where she will study “Tropical Forest Restoration Ecology within a Global South Context.”

The Kinabatangan floodplain in Sabah, which is home to rich biodiversity and opportunities for carbon sequestration, has lost 80% of its forest due to non-forestry uses. Amaziasizamoria and her team established the Regrow Borneo project in 2019 to replant trees and sequester carbon, with the aim of improving the livelihoods of local communities and enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem resilience. However, there has been no comprehensive assessment of the impacts of forest restoration efforts in Malaysia. Through her attachment at UAEM, Amaziasizamoria aims to study suitable indicators to evaluate the outcomes of effective forest restoration, such as forest structure, ecological functions, and biodiversity. She believes that the similarities between Malaysia and Mexico in terms of challenges related to deforestation, climate change, and socio-economic impacts make her attachment valuable as she can learn from a renowned research team and apply their model to the Bornean rainforest. – Bernama