The Dayaks, who have been ignored in the fields of education, civil service, infrastructural development, employment, trade and industries over the past 10 Malaysia Plans (1963 – 2015) have now come out with two recommendations to be considered for the 11th Malaysia Plan (2016-2020).

These recommendations were adopted at the one-day ‘Dayak Input on 11th Malaysia Plan’ seminar organised by te Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association (SDGA).

More than 100 Dayak intellectuals, politicians and representatives from more than 10 Dayak non-governmental organisations (NGOs) attended the workshop which was officiated by the Land Development Minister James Masing ( below ).

The recommendations are:

  • Proposing to the federal government a specific and focussed policy for the development of indigenous people called the National Indigenous Development Policy; and

 

  • Setting up the 11th Malaysia Plan Dayak steering committee  whose  members are to  comprise  Dayak state cabinet ministers, assistant ministers.  representatives  from Dayak NGOs , senior Dayak  government  officers,  academicians and  community leaders.
    • As the prime mover of the workshop, the SDGA will act as the working secretariat with Masing as chairman of the steering committee.

    Speaking to Malaysiakini today, SDGA president Dusit Jaul said the workshop deliberated at length on Dayak inputs for the six strategic thrusts as outlined by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU).

    These recommendations and the inputs would be submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office, the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) and other relevant the federal government agencies at the end of this month, said Dusit.

    In officiating at the workshop yesterday, Masing said this was the first time that the Dayak community was charting their own way on how to move forward in a collective effort.

    Building roads challenge

    It was not the intention of the federal government, he said, to sideline the Dayaks during the planning of first 10 Malaysia Plans.

    He explained that past leaders were unaware of the impact of the plans and the standard operating procedure (SOP) of the EPU, pointing out it might have been too late to involve Dayak leaders in the planning.

    Pointing out that 2020 was only five years away, Masing said that there was a real and urgent need  for the Dayaks to think and chart vital paths in order to be on par with the other races especially in terms of income.

    “As it stands now, the Dayaks who form about half of the state’s population of 2.6 million, have a long way to go and we can expect a lot of challenges in the next five years.

    “The most important  of these challenges is to build as many roads as possible to reach as many places as possible,” he said, adding the quality of roads constructed was of secondary importance compared to their primary of providing linkages.

    The next most important challenge was education which was the best investment any community could do.

    'Literate robots'

    “But the questions are, do we attach the correct emphasis in our pursuance of creating a literate society? Do we focus on the simple 3Rs – reading, writing and mathematics? Is there any effort to put critical thinking into our syllabus?

    “Are we creating the correct type of students? Are we producing a thinking society? Or are we simply mass producing a group of literate robots?” Masing asked.

    He said all these inputs coming out from the workshop would be presented to the prime minister himself when the former visited Bintulu later this month.