Kebergantungan Orang Kuala ke atas Modal Insan Tradisi dan Kaitannya dengan Pendayaupayaan Ekonomi

Orang Kuala is a tribe of Orang Asli in Malaysia in which they have a specific human capital associated with the sea. The human capital is known as the traditional human capital in which acquired hereditary from earlier generations. Orang Kuala’s traditional human capital is sea based because their settlement are close to the sea, thus they known as the Sea Peoples (Orang Laut). Beside the development of the country, Orang Kuala also involved with a change, especially in an economic aspect. In Orang Kuala context, the explanations of economic change observed on the current economic empowerment are based on their possession of traditional human capital. However, the relationship between an economic empowerment and traditional human capital of Orang Kuala is still a question mark. To clarify this question, this paper lists the two objectives of the research, namely to identify the possession and practice the traditional human capital by Orang Kuala and to explain the relationship between the possession and practice of the traditional human capital to economic empowerment. The data were obtained by distributing a questionnaire on 267 respondents amongst Orang Kuala in Johor. The data were analyzed using SPSS software and used MANCOVA as statistical procedures. The results showed, traditional human capital were less possession and practice by Orang Kuala. The study also showed, there is no effect of possession and practice of the traditional human capital toward economic empowerment amongst Orang Kuala. In conclusion, the traditional human capital amongst Orang Kuala are not able to achieve an economic empowerment. However, it doesn’t mean that traditional human capital does not have a positive value to change Orang Kuala’s economic situation, but the traditional human capital should be rejuvenate based on a sustainable community development approach to building a capacity to their traditional human capital.