PBDSB is race-based but not racist, says party’s sec-gen

Julius Enchana

SIBU (Dec 29): Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) has refuted recent allegation on social media about it being a racist party.

According to its secretary-general Julius Enchana, PBDSB is the most multiracial and the most inclusive political party in Malaysia, representing all Dayaks who consist of about 40 sub-ethnic groups in Sarawak.

This, he points out, is ‘evidence of PBDSB not a racist party’.

“PBDSB is a Dayak party, we are not racist. Who are racist? PBDSB is race-based, but it is not a racist party.

“If you called PBDSB racist, then you indirectly saying that the Dayak people are racist, aren’t you?” said Julius in a statement yesterday.

He said certain quarters and political parties always had the misconception and projected PBDSB as ‘racist’, without studying Sarawak’s ethnic demography and the term ‘Native’ as defined in the Federal Constitution.

“Article 161A(6)(a) and 7 of the Federal Constitution, the term ‘Native’ means (a) in relation to Sarawak, a person who is a citizen and either belongs to one of the races specified in Clause (7) as an indigenous to the state or is of mixed blood deriving exclusively from those races and (7), the races to be treated for the purposes of the definition of ‘native’ on Clause (6) as indigenous to Sarawak are the Bukitans, Bisayahs, Dusuns, Sea Dayaks, Land Dayaks, Kadayans, Kelabits, Kayans, Kenyahs (including Sabups and Sipengs), Kajangs (including Sekapans, Kejamans, Lahanans, Penans, Tanjongs and Kanowits), Lugats, Malays, Melanaus, Muruts, Penans, Sians, Tagals, Tabuns and Ukits,” Julius cited points from the Constitution.

He then stressed that PBDSB did not reject development, but disagreed with ‘politics of development’.

He claimed that the Dayak people, the majority of whom living in rural areas, were not ready for industrialisation.

“This is because inadequate information about development reached them due to lack of Internet access in the rural areas,” he said.

The level of education and literacy in information and communication technology (ICT) had become the main reason for the community being less competitive in technology advancement, employment, business opportunities, educational access, and political activities, added Julius.

Therefore, he opined that it was important for the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS)-led government to study and deploy qualitative methods that would review the topics of interest from reliable sources and using Education Sustainable Development (ESD) as the theoretical framework to enhance analysis and discussion.

“In this regard, it is vital that the research attempts to access the problems and propose solutions from the perspective of human capital development for Dayak in Sarawak,” the PBDSB man suggested.

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