Dayaks want New Deal

A series of public engagement workshops will be held before submitting a Memorandum after Feb next year to the Sarawak and Federal Governments.

KUCHING: Two NGOs, the Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association (SDGA) and Dayak National Congress (DNC), are working on a joint Memorandum, Better Deal for Dayaks in the 21st Century, to be submitted to the Sarawak and Federal Governments after Feb next year.

The Memorandum will only be finalized after a series of Dayak Development Framework workshops “to obtain public opinion, perspective and circumspection on related issues, problems and challenges to ensure Dayaks are included within the mass development framework of the country”.

SDGA president Dr. Dusit Jaul, who also heads the Dayak Informal Group (DIG), said “the workshops represent a bottom-up approach towards initiating the change process for the Dayak community to progress in the field of education, economics and culture”.

The Dayaks feel that they have been deprived of and neglected by the system during the last 51 years in Malaysia, he added.

“The final outcome of these public engagement workshops will be a Memorandum, New Deal for Dayaks in the 21st Century, to be submitted to the Sarawak and Federal Governments.”

According to Dusit, the NGOs will wrap up and compile the final documents for the Memorandum by Feb next year.

Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) President James Masing, in a related comment, noted that the Seraban Social and Welfare Association (Seraban), and University Malaya Dayak Alumni Association were also two other associations of Dayak intellectuals who were active in Sarawak.

He urged Dayak associations for intellectuals to adopt the “Blue Ocean Strategy” and find a niche of their own if they are to survive in the long run.

“Blue Ocean Strategy is a scenario where everyone who operates in the same scene can live and co-exist with each other without having to compete or kill off their competitors,” explained Masing who is also Land Minister. “It is also a case of the more, the merrier with the Blue Ocean Strategy.”

He noted that the direct opposite/antithesis of the Blue Ocean Strategy was the Red Ocean Strategy, “where all competitors fight hard to kill off each other in a race for domination”, which he hoped would never be used by any Dayak association.

“It is important to find a niche first before forming an association as we do not want conflicts to happen within the Dayak community,” he cautioned. “Associations must each serve with a different niche to help the Dayak community.”