The move by the government to recognise Iban, Bidayuh and Orang Ulu ethnic groups as bumiputera is strongly opposed by Dayak National Congress (DNC), an influential NGO whose membership extends to the Dayak community in Sabah.

“We prefer to be called ‘Bangsa Dayaks’ instead of bumiputera to replace ‘lain-lain’,” said DNC president Mengga Mikui at a media conference in Kuching today.

He stressed that “the words should be ‘Dayak Iban, Dayak Bidayuh, Dayak Orang Ulu, etc’. Dayaks have always been bumiputera by nature since the beginning of Malaysia. So, why must Dayaks be called ‘Bumiputera Dayaks, Bumiputera Sarawak or Bumiputera Sabah’?

“If this is to be done, how would it be interpreted on the distinctions between the Malays and the Bumiputera Dayaks, Bumiputera Sarawak or Bumiputera Sabah?

“Who would be more ‘bumiputera’ than the other, or a better or higher degree bumiputera than the other?” asked Mengga.

Mengga was reacting to the announcement made by Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem ( left ) last Saturday that the Dayak community would now be known as ‘Bumiputera Iban, Bumiputera Bidayuh and Bumiputera Orang Ulu’ to replace the earlier classification of ‘lain-lain’.

“The non-Muslim indigenous people of Sarawak are called Dayaks, so there is no reason why the classification of Dayak Iban, Dayak Bidayuh and Dayak Orang Ulu - comprising of Dayak Kayan, Dayak Kenyah, Dayak Kelabit, Dayak Lun Bawang, etc - should be disputed and cannot be accepted.

“Why classify them as Bumiputera Iban, Bumiputera Bidayuh, and Bumiputera Orang Ulu? So do the people of Sabah. They have started to accept their roots as Dayaks and are happy to be called Dayaks,” Mengga pointed out.

He said that DNC has registered many Sabah indigenous people as members - and they include Kadazan, Dusun and Murut. The DNC memberships also include professionals, civil servants, businessmen, politicians and ordinary people.

That would make it simpler and the race column in government official forms would only have Malay, Chinese, Indian and Dayak, he noted.

Total of 3mil Dayaks in Sabah, S'wak

Like the Malays, Chinese and Indians which are made up of various ethnic groups, the Dayaks also comprise of so many tribes.

There are more than 30 different indigenous groups in Sarawak - the largest of which is the Iban community making up about 30 percent of the population, followed by Bidayuh (8 percent) and Orang Ulu (5 percent), according to the 2010 census.

There are about 1.25 million Dayaks out of Sarawak’s 2.6 million population, while there are more than 40 indigenous groups in Sabah.

Altogether, the Dayaks from the two states number at about three million, Mengga added.

In Kalimantan, Indonesia, the non-Muslim indigenous people - whose numbers come close to 11 million - are also known as Dayaks.

Mengga ( left ) said that for the past 50 years, the Dayaks have been marginalised, sidelined and treated as “nothing and useless”, despite the fact that they had played the most important role in the formation of Malaysia.

Had the Dayaks of Sarawak and Sabah said ‘no’ to the Federation of Malaya, Malaysia would not have been formed till this day, he noted.

“By not recognising our role in the formation of Malaysia and treating us as ‘lain-lain’, we are being discriminated right from the beginning of the formation of Malaysia.

“It is high time that all Dayak NGOs and Dayaks in Borneo, irrespective of their political affiliations, should stand up for their rights and fight for recognition of their race - Bangsa Dayak.

“For us in DNC, we will pursue this matter until the government recognises us as Bangsa Dayak,” Mengga added.