The Kadazans are at it again and want the two majority native communities in Sabah to decide, once and for all, whether they are ‘Kadazan’ or ‘Dusun’ and not subscribe to the term ‘KadazanDusun’.

“There are Kadazans in Sabah and there are Dusuns. If you are comfortable with Kadazan or Dusun, so be it. But not KadazanDusun which is not an ethnic indigenous term (recognised) in Sabah,” said Kadazan Society Sabah (KSS or Sinompuuvan Kadazan Sabah) president Marcel Leiking at a Christmas day dinner in Kota Kinabalu.

kadazandusun harvest 090606 rice padi “We should not fight against each other. Instead, we should work together for all Kadazan people wherever they may be.”

Dismissing the “misconception” that the Kadazan people are found only in the Penampang area of Greater Kota Kinabalu and places like Papar along the west coast, Leiking said that the Kadazan people are found elsewhere and even all around the world.

He urged KSS members to work towards the common cause - the survival of the Kadazan people.

Leiking was echoing a similar theme in the KSS’s souvenir programme for the function.

KSS’s Board of Trustee chairman Clarence Bongkos Malakun penned these thoughts: “We should either be Kadazan or Dusun depending on one’s own preference. We should respect those who wish to be known as Dusun just as we expect others to respect our preference to be known as Kadazan.

kadazandusun harvest 090606 dancing “We should not therefore start to coin another ‘race’ just for political or whatever expediency because it causes more confusion in the future,” added Malakun who recently challenged Joseph Pairin Kitingan for the presidency of the KDCA (KadazanDusunMurut Cultural Organisation) and backed out at the last minute when Pairin showed no signs of stepping aside for him.

“I am not surprised that many Kadazans had their race ‘wrongly classified’ in their MyKad as KadazanDusun.”

It was not explained how one could arbitrarily choose to be Kadazan or Dusun based merely on the idea of “being comfortable with” or “preferences”.

Can a “Kadazan” decide that he would rather be classified as a “Dusun” or vice versa? Can an issue of Kadazan and Dusun parents call himself or herself KadazanDusun?

Correct the KadazanDusun misnomer

Malakun pledged that the KSS would help to correct the misnomer about KadazanDusun as well as the spelling and language/dialects used in newspapers and by Radio Malaysia Sabah.

He did not elaborate. Neither did he touch on standard KadazanDusun, based on the BunduLiwan spoken form, used in schools by the Ministry of Education.

Standard KadazanDusun would soon be used in the UPSR examination, followed by the PMR and SPM, according to the KadazanDusun Language Society and the Department of Education Sabah.

KSS members lament the fact that when the KCA (Kadazan Cultural Association) renamed itself as KDCA (KadazanDusun Cultural Association) in 1989, delegates did not realise that the word ‘Kadazan’ would disappear with the stroke of a pen when a resolution was passed to substitute the word with KadazanDusun instead.

However, the Dusun continued to exist as a separate entity under the United Sabah Dusun Association (USDA).

(There is a separate cultural association for the Murut who are not related to the Murut of Sarawak. The Murut of Sarawak, who consider the term derogatory, prefer to be known as Lun Bawang and are related to the Lun Dayeh of Sabah).

The implication in the statement by the KSS leaders are that those classified as KadazanDusun would not be recognised as natives of Sabah.

Besides the Kadazans and Dusuns – divided into 40 sub-ethnic groups - the Muruts and Rungus are other major native groups in Sabah and they are in turn further sub-divided into smaller dialect groups.

Other major native groups are the Muslim Bajau, immigrants from the Philippines over the last 300 years, and the more recent Suluk immigrants.

Abuse of native status

The Sabah state constitution, as follows, has a very wide definition of native of Sabah:

Half-natives who describe themselves by various terms like Sino-Kadazans or Indo-Kadazans, which are not listed in the state constitution, are not recognised as natives but may apply to the state Ministry of Local Government and Housing for a letter, on a case-by-case basis, to be eligible for the privileges enjoyed by natives.

However, KSS has pledged to submit a memorandum to the state government to get automatic recognition as natives for half-natives.

Previously, Sino-Kadazans and Sino-natives among others had to get a declaration from the Native Court on a case-by-case basis that they have native status.

Successful candidates were issued with a Sijil Anak Negeri (SAN). Following the discovery of various abuses, the state government froze all applications for the SAN some years ago and “lifted the freeze as an interim measure” in October last year.

Children of mixed parentage who can be considered for “native status” are Sino-Kadazan or Sino-Dusun, Indian-Kadazan or Indian-Dusun, Sino-Murut, Pakistani-Bajau, American-Murut, English-Brunei, Arab-Idahan, Filipino-Kadazan and “other cases which can be considered on a case-by-case basis”.

They can apply for a verification letter, not a Native Certificate, from the Sabah Native Court “to enable them to enjoy privileges that are meant only for the bumiputera”.

This is a temporary measure announced on Oct 11 last year by the Local Government and Housing Ministry which oversees the Office of the Director of Sabah Native Affairs, who is also the secretary of the Sabah Native Affairs Council.

“Clear-cut” cases can apply direct to the director of Sabah Native Affairs for the verification letter.

An example of a clear-cut case, according to Local Government and Housing Minister Hajiji Noor in his Oct 11, 2007 announcement, “is that one parent of the applicant is a native whose race is clearly stated in the birth certificate, or whose Native Certificate (NC) has been certified by the Native Court which issued it in the first place, and duly checked by the director of the Sabah Native Affairs Office”.

The KSS was registered in 2006 and inaugurated a year later. Among the aims of the KSS are to discourage Kadazans calling themselves KadazanDusun. Any Kadazan holding a post in a political party is automatically disqualified from holding any position in KSS.