The community's 'crab' mentality had resulted in the non-inclusion of a Bidayuh representative in Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's new cabinet, said community leader Henry Harry Jinep.

"The Bidayuh have no one to blame, but their crab mentality of pulling down those on top. The community lost a deputy minister post when Dr Tiki Lafe was not reappointed as a result of the community’s internal politicking to pull him down," he said.

Dr. Tiki Lafe According to the Dayak Bidayuh National Association (DBNA) chairperson, the politicking against Tiki ( left ) was so bad to the extent that Barisan Nasional leaders feared the community was heading towards disintegration with leaders going in separate directions.

Jinep was commenting on Mambong MP James Dawos Mamit's reaction to the exclusion of a Badayuh in the cabinet.

Mamit had accused the prime minister of derailing the 'One Malaysia' concept of promoting unity when he excluded the Bidayuh from his cabinet.

"From the first day that Tiki was made a deputy minister, there was a lot of politicking to pull him down or to ensure that he would not go up again," said Jinep.

He told journalists that plots and schemes were carried out so that if Tiki was re-nominated to defend his Mas Gading seat, he must be made to win with a slim majority in order to show to the state and federal leaders that he did not have the support of the community.

He also alleged that Tiki's official functions were sabotaged and the small attendance were recorded and reported to the BN leadership to give the impression that he had lost the support of the community.

How about a senator post?

"When Tiki was finally dropped as deputy minister, must we blame others? Blame ourselves for our crab mentality of pulling down those on top in the hope of clawing our way up," he said.

He said the Bidayuh community should not blame the leaders of the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP), Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB), Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) and Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and certainly not the prime minister over the misfortune that they were in now.

Another Bidayuh leader, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the Bidayuh felt that it was indeed a let-down that they were not rewarded with a deputy minister's post, given their unquestionable record of being pro-BN.

Writing in the Borneo Warrior website, he raised the possibility of offering the premier an alternative.

"Nobody from the community has ever been appointed a senator. Would this not be an opportune time to consider a gesture like appointing a prominent Bidayuh to represent the community in the senate?

"Are we asking too much compared to certain quarters who are not occupying a seat in parliament but yet given a senatorship to occupy a ministerial post?" he said.