ANY ULTERIOR MOTIVE? 'Bin', 'binti' does NOT mean you're Muslim in Sabah - Masidi

KOTA KINABALU - Sabahans have a duty to make West Malaysians understand that the use of ‘Bin’ and ‘Binti’ in local names in the State is not indicative of their religion.

Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun who said this, stressed that West Malaysians and those working at the National Registration Department (NRD) have to be made aware that the use of ‘Bin’ and ‘Binti’ in Sabah was introduced by the British during the colonial era to differentiate between the male and the female amongst the natives.

“It is similar to the use of the term ‘s/o’ which stands for ‘son of’ and ‘d/o’ which stands for ‘daughter of’ amongst the Indian people in West Malaysia,” he said this in his speech and later during an interview at the closing ceremony of a workshop on the classification and identification of Sabah’s population held at the Ming Garden Hotel and Residences yesterday.

He further said that the origin of the terms were Arabic, and reminded that not all Arabs were Moslems.

“In Lebanon, 50 percent of the people are Christians. Their Bible is written in Arabic,” he said.

Masidi also said that Sabahans should not worry too much about the term ‘bin’ and ‘binti’ and the problem arising from the use of the two terms were mainly due to the lack of understanding of West Malaysians about Sabah.

“They assume that everyone (using ‘bin’ and ‘binti’ with their given name) is a Moslem. We have to make them understand. In India, the term ‘daughter of’ and ‘son of’ is widely used, and when translated to Malay, it becomes ‘binti’ and ‘bin’,” he said.

He described the problem relating to the use of ‘bin’ and ‘binti’ as merely a problem caused by confusion and the lack of effort undertaken to educate the National Registration Department on the particulars related to the people of Sabah.

The minister also said that the National Registration Department also does not have any source of reference regarding the ethnic people of Sabah.

He, however, believed that the matter would soon be resolved following the proposed resolutions which he received yesterday.

The proposals were received from various indigenous members who took part in the two-day workshop that ended yesterday, where some 80 participants from various indigenous groups in Sabah took part.

“The proposed resolutions will be sent to the State Cabinet for endorsement to become an official document and then submitted to the central government,”Masidi said.

He expressed confidence that the document will become an important source of reference for departments such as the National Registration Department with regards to the natives in Sabah.

Earlier in his speech, Masidi also mentioned that the government understood the issues faced by the people with regards to their culture and identity.

“The government is not quiet on these issues and problems, especially if the issues are against or hinder the efforts of the government to look after and further elevate our culture,” he said.

At the same time, Masidi stressed that there were needs for further discussions with regard to the definition of each of the ethnic races in Sabah and the recent workshop has helped increase the number of ethnic races in the State.

“People see multi-ethnicity as a problem but I don’t see it like that,” he said.

The second phase of the workshop will be held again in Sabah early next year. -BP