The Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) is urging the federal government to recognise the indigenous ethnicity of Sarawak’s Dayak citizenry at the national and international level.

“We want the terms ‘Bumiputera Sarawak’ and ‘Others’ to be replaced with “Dayak’ as the official identification of our ethnic group,” says party president and parliamentary candidate for Sri Aman, Cobbold John Lusoi (above).

Cobbold told Malaysiakini today that the call for recognition of the term ‘Dayak’ is a salient highlight in the party’s election manifesto.

He pointed out that the term “bumiputera” is only an expression which only collectively describes indigenous groups prevailing throughout the country.

“The term does not specifically define the Dayaks of Sarawak,” he added.
He also said in Sarawak the term “majlis istiadat Bumiputera” must be replaced with the more appropriate “majlis isitiadat Dayak”.

On another point, he said the term “Bumiputera Court” must also be replaced with the term “Dayak Court”.

“This term will further strengthen the institution at the national level and will be equivalent to the Syariah Court as well as the High Court. This will unite the Dayak natives as one community,” he said.

He said these changes in terms should not be a cause of concern for other communities as it will not impact on the non-Dayaks while the Malays are protected under the syariah courts and the non-Malays under the civil courts.

According to him, the Dayak Customary Rights (NCR) land cases must be decided only by the Dayak Court.

“Even though it is a known fact that the Dayak NCR landowners have had favourable decisions made by the High Court and Court of Appeal on several occasions, but there are instances of non-favourable decisions when it comes to the Federal Court.

“This is illogical and makes no sense. A Federal Court judge once ruled that native customs have ‘no force of law’ to allow Dayaks to own communal land and forests next to their cultivated farmlands,” he pointed out.

“For these issues at hand, our party is highlighting the inclusion of proper official terms in our manifesto so that the Dayaks will not be left out from the mainstream,” he said.