The majority of the Dayaks are against the government’s intention to replace the term ‘lain-lain’ with ‘bumiputera’ to refer to Dayaks in the race column of official government forms, judging by their reactions and responses.

There were protests, demonstrations and countless statements to the press, as well as petitions to the government to oppose the term ‘bumiputera’ to refer to Dayaks, after Chief Minister Adenan Satem ( left ) announced three weeks ago that Dayaks would be henceforth known as ‘bumiputera’.

The government’s move could be counter-productive as angry Dayaks demand that their identity is just ‘Dayaks’.

Even Dayaks who are loyal members of BN strongly oppose the word ‘bumiputera’ to refer to the Dayak communities - which form about 60 percent of the state’s 2.6 million people, said a leader of Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) who did not wish to be identified.

“If the government refuses to listen to the voices of the majority of Dayaks, then don’t blame them if they vote against the BN government in the coming state elections,” said the PRS leader.

PRS - which is a member of the BN coalition - was among the first to oppose the word ‘bumiputera’ to refer to Dayaks.

In Facebook , hundreds of Dayaks have expressed their anger against the government’s move.

Meanwhile, Sarawak PKR has joined several Dayak NGOs urging the government to refer to the Dayaks in Sarawak as ‘Dayaks’ instead of the words ‘Bumiputera Dayak Iban’, ‘Bumiputera Dayak Bidayuh’ and ‘Bumiputera Dayak Orang Ulu’ to replace the term ‘lain-lain’ in government official forms.

“We are fully aware of the ongoing debate on this issue and like other Dayak NGOs, we do not agree with the proposal by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Joseph Entulu Belaun to classify the Dayaks as ‘Bumiputera Dayaks',” Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian ( right ) said after chairing the meeting of the state leadership committee yesterday afternoon.

“To the state PKR, this is a very important issue. We agree unanimously that the Dayaks should be referred to as ‘Dayaks’, because the term is officially registered and used by the Sarawak Dayak National Union to incorporate all the Dayak NGOs and associations.

“The term is also used by Bidayuhs to call their association as the ‘Dayak Bidayuh National Association’,” he noted.

'A Pakatan gov't would've recognised Dayaks'

Bian - who is also the Ba'kelalan state assemblyperson - said that if Pakatan was given the mandate to be the next government of the day, it would amend the state and federal constitutions to legally and officially recognise the Dayak communities as ‘Dayaks’, pointing out that the word 'bumiputera' is not even a legal term as it is not found anywhere in the constitution.

Meanwhile, Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association (SDGA), Dayak National Congress (DNC), Dayak Informal Group (DIG), and Barisan Iban Sarawak (Bisa) have signed a memorandum which wanted the term ‘Dayaks’ to be used to refer to the Dayak race.

The group spokesperson, Dusit Jaul, said the NGOs reiterated that they did not want ‘bumiputera’ terminology to represent native racial identity in government forms as the term was not - and had never been - considered a racial identity of the various races categorised under the Dayak group.

He added that the NGOs welcomed the government’s move to do away with the term ‘lain-lain’ in official government forms, but they were concerned about the ongoing deliberation on what terminology to adopt in place of ‘lain-lain’.

“In this context, we want to put across the message loud and clear that we want the government to adopt ‘Dayaks’ as our official racial identity,” Dusit told reporters.

He said that the memorandum would be forwarded to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Joseph Entulu ( right ) for discussion by the Bumiputera Technical Committee on Feb 17.

The committee - which comprises of Dayak federal ministers, including Idris Jala and Richard Riot, along with Sabah native federal ministers and senior civil servants - would be chaired by Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Douglas Uggah Embas.

Meanwhile, another Dayak group led by Serian DAP chairperson Edward Andrew Luwak is going around collecting signatures among the Dayaks who wish to be known as ‘Dayaks’ instead of ‘bumiputeras’.

“With these signatures, we will petition the federal and Sarawak state governments that our official racial identity shall be Dayaks.

"Therefore, in pertinence to that, we petition for the following: (a) in all government forms (be it federal or state government) the racial column for us shall be just 'Dayaks', not 'lain-lain', and (b) we do not want ‘bumiputera’ as our racial identity because it is not and has never been our racial identity,” said Edward.