I refer to Joe Fernandez's lines appearing in Malaysian News Network, that I qoute in verbatim below:
"The Dayaks should shed their slave mentality and focus on Ketuanan Dayak in Sarawak and Kalimantan".
"If the Dayaks (at least the voters) didn’t have a slave mentality, they would have voted for a system of checks-and-balances, democracy, public accountability, and transparency and not vote in, like political morons, the same political dynasty for the last 40 years. What do you call that, if not slavery?"
"No Malaysian is as lazy as a Dayak when it comes to studying".
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I take that harsh stigma as a challenge but at the same time also take exception to the label, 'slave mentality'.
The Dayak, notably the Iban never have 'slave mentality'. They are descendants of great warriors. They never ever have the mentality of the slaves let alone behave like slaves. But what have made the Dayak and the Iban in particular in the state they are now is the result of long years of oppression, systematic and subtle marginalisation.
Slaves never fought their masters. They have to purchase their freedom. But the Iban alongside other ethnic races fought the Brooke's regime and the British colonial rulers with their lives and blood. On the side of politics, they had fought many general elections. The Dayak, like the Malays, are masters in their own right. They had grouped together to fight the oppressive regime of the BN government in 1974, 1987 and 1991 and the Alliance in 1970. The Dayak didn't fail but there were too many Dayak voters who couldn't be convinced that the BN government was oppressive. They were still lacking political maturity and/or political literacy.
The reason why many Dayak do not possess tertiary education was because they rarely ever have good access to scholarship. And further, local institution of higher learning do not provide enough opening/place for the Dayak even though they are academically qualified. And worse, they do not have sufficient resources to go overseas for higher education. Education is a key to political maturity.
Yes, some Dayak students are damned lazy. I do not dispute that. And there has been high incidence of school drop out among the Iban especially in rural schools. But that is not because they are lazy. It is because of their lack of knowledge about the value of education for future life. But why are they lacking such wisdom? It is because the education system does not provide sufficient ways to convince them of the value of education. Books and academic world are aliens to the Dayak not until the coming of the Europeans and so is their knowledge about electoral process. If indeed the Dayak are lazy people many would have starved to death for lack of food to eat. But this has never happened because they have always been dilligent and intelligent in the search for food. That is why the Dayak have large areas of Native Customary Land. Because they are strong and aggressive in their quest for new land. But what the Dayak are lacking is the knowledge of electoral process. Who is the culprit? Answer: the Dayak leaders in BN coalition, who are supposed to be agents of changes including educating them about the value of democracy but betrayed them by telling them the reverse.
If the Dayak were to be considered morons (as Joe Fernandez has put it) for voting or putting the BN in power for the last 40 years, the Indians, the Eurasians, Chinese and Malays in Malaya are worse and more moronic because they have been voting for the the BN for the last 51 years. Just because the Malays, the Indians and the Chinese have voted out the BN in March 8 election and therefore considered intelligent and the Dayak are morons for doing the reverse in Sarawak, I would humbly say the person who had made such a remark is a moron himself.
Yes, I salute the voters in the Malayan peninsular for giving themselves the opportunity to be different in the March 8 election. With better access to education and the internet, I am happy that they had decided to say enough is enough to the oppressive and corrupt BN regime.
We are not interested in 'Ketuanan Dayak' as Joe Fernandez has suggested that we must have. What we are not interested in Ketuanan Dayak but only interested in "Ketuanan Rakyat" and in a government that is fair to all and gives equal protection to all. Nobody in Malaysia is more 'tuan' than the other. We all have contributed to the state's coffer and nation building in one way or another. But the reason why we have major ethnic relations problems in Malaysia is because UMNO leaders insisted in having ketuanan Melayu. If that is so then the Dayak are more 'tuan' than them and the rest are no where! But the Dayak never regard themselves as more 'tuan' than the others. We regard others as equal. We know and in full belief that in order to achieve long-term racial harmony we cannot insist on having a single-race hegemony. That is why the Dayak are always very accomodative of other ethnic races but that generosity of the Dayak has always been taken for a ride.
To Joe Fernandez, please do not provoke the Dayak masses in the way you had done. I may be labelled as arrogant if I say that the Iban are among the bravest people on Earth. Had it not been for the brave Iban, many more Chinese, Malays and Indians in Malaya and Kuala Lumpur in particular would have perished for killing each other in May 1969 as a result of the folly of UMNO ultras. But the 1st Batallion of the Sarawak Rangers that constituted 99 per cent Iban, were summoned to Malaya to diffuse the situation, a duty they had executed with great valour and without ill-will, prejudice or favour. The Malayans are owing the Iban their lives so to speak.
So speak with a sense of dignity. Betrayal by some Dayak over other Dayak is not a mark of a slave's mentality but as a result of divide and rule policy of the current regime. It is good that you challenge the Dayk to rise and revolt. But don't call them by names and especially with such undignified label because hidden below the shadow of their friendliness and generosity is the ever flowing blood of gallantry. Just look at the human skulls held by the Iban elder shown is this portal and how that would speak volumes to affirm what I have just said. Please be reminded of the indigenous Dayak's reaction in Sampit, Kalimantan, to the continuous provocation by the immigrants from Madura that had taken the world by surprise.
To all Malaysians, I repeat, we have only KETUANAN RAKYAT and NOT KETUANAN DAYAK or Ketuanan Melayu.
4 hours ago
12 comments:
I have a lot of experience in dealing with the Dayaks as well as others. I stand by every word I have written. I always believe in taking a truthful position. That way, it’s easier to defend myself. I have nothing to gain by spreading lies.
The Dayaks are living in a dream world interwoven with superstitions and myths.
They need to wake up and face the living nightmare they are in now. Of course, they are not the only ones who need to wake up. The Malays too need to realise that their own leaders have been squatting on them, as well as on the others, for the last 50 years and defecating all over them so that a handful of them can maintain their lifestyles. This is the result of the “Datuk knows best” syndrome which is also a epidemic among the Dayaks. Observe the grining, cringing, groveling, half-crouch hands-folded slave style among the Dayaks when dealing with their own leaders and other leaders. Even the smart Dayaks are willing to shortchange themselves and behave like morons because of the “Datuk knows best” syndrome. Eventually, even the smart Dayak becomes a moron and the community loses.
You are kidding yourself if you think that the Dayaks don’t have a slave mentality. By the way, I am not playing the devil’s advocate here just to provoke a discussion. I am stating the truth, not to hurt, but to wake up people who are still living in a dream world, as stated earlier.
The truth is the truth. The truth is not going to go away just because you refuse to acknowledge it. Whether today, tomorrow or some day, you will have to acknowledge the truth if you want to move on.
Meanwhile, what do Dayak bloggers do? They indulge in verbal diarrhoea.
I am yet to find even one Dayak blogger offering some concrete suggestions to deal with the plight of the community. Just verbal diarrhoea as usual.
You should read the Dayak blogs.
They seem to have all the “answers” to all the ills that beset the Dayaks and the world.
Yet nobody listens to them.
Well, that’s not surprising.
If only verbal diarrhoea could solve the problems of the Dayaks.
Henry,
Even slaves have fought bravely for their masters. That does not make them free men. You are confusing the issue.
Anyway, these days the Ibans are only brave when they are drunk. This also results in incest in the rural areas which, along with closely knit marriages, lowers the general energy level and intelligence level among the Dayaks.
When a community is disoriented, they degenerate into alcoholism, wife-beating etc etc This happened to the native Indians in the Americas (after they lost their land and were herded into reservations by the US Govt) and the Tamils in the estates in Peninsular Malaysia after they were virtually kidnapped by British agents in Tamil Nadu and brought to Malaya to work. That’s why Hindraf wants to sue the British Government for compensation. And what happens? The Umnoputras are getting worked up over the issue and have locked up five of the leaders under the ISA. Is it any of their damn business when the British courts themselves and the British Prime Minister have accepted the Hindraf memorandum and suit? The Umnoputras of course want to protect their precious MIC to keep the Indians down.
Dwelling on ancient history does not solve the problems of the Dayaks. Let go of the past and move on man, for goodness sake.
re qualified Dayaks being denied places etc, blame the morons who vote in BN election after election. I have been telling the Tamil morons the same thing for years: “Why put all your political eggs in the MIC and BN basket?” Also, I think you didn’t really understand when I mentioned Abraham Lincoln.
In any case, fingerpointing and indulging in the blame game does not solve the problems of the Dayaks at the individual level. Take charge of your destiny. Walk and swim to the United States or wherever you can work part-time and get a university education.
Education is the key to breaking out of the vicious cycle of poverty and bringing about economic development. Faith and commitment (not giving up) are important.
Education is a lifelong endeavour and does not end with a university degree.
The reason why the NEP bypassed the Dayaks is because the handful of Dayaks who were provided with business opportunities were more interested in pouring their money into the fleshpots in the region rather than embrace the concept of lifelong learning. Had they kept in touch with the universities they would have learnt how to manage their opportunities and money and blossomed for the benefit of the community, the state and the nation. When an individual does well, everybody benefits.
Re dignity, stop being so pompous. If you had even a shred of dignity left, you wouldn’t be swallowing the crap that BN puts out election after election.
Ketuanan Dayak was only suggested as a response to the Umnoputras harping on Ketuanan Melayu.
If no talk of Ketuanan Melayu, there will be no talk of Ketuanan Dayak either, or Ketuanan KDM or Ketuanan Orang Asli.
We can all talk about Ketuanan Rakyat as promoted by Anwar Ibrahim.
During the time of the British colonialists, there was talk of the "white man's burden" and Ketuanan Orang Putih.
Now that we are free, no one should should talk abut Ketuanan anything. There are no masters and no slaves. Yet the Umnoputras insist on harping on Ketuanan Melayu. Is this supposed to impress the Malays and con them into uniting under Umno once again? This is a scam. I don't think that the Malays are going to be fooled by the Umnoputras for another 50 years.
Is Joefernandez the same joefernandez who wanted to become ketuan indian in Sarawak and was banned from entering Sarawak by Taib Mahmud until this day? The joefernanandez who married a bidayuh woman?
To Joe Fernandez: I thank you for visiting and leaving comment.
Dear readers and especially Dayak readers,
I do not wish to indulge in polemic on this contentious point with Joe Fernandez. As any Dayak would do in the circumstance, I am therefore only correcting the wrong perception or allegation that Joe Fernandez had levelled against the Dayak community no matter how well-intended it could have been at the material time.
As much as the author has fully stood by his comment and so am I by what I have written and shall write herein.
Yes, the author might have a lot of experience in dealing with the Dayak as he had claimed. I am here not to dispute that claim of his and neither would I wish to dispute his perception of the Dayak. That is his perception. Anybody can have perception or form a perception about the the Dayak while I speak about facts about Dayak.
Mine wasn’t an experience in dealing with the Dayak like one that the author has. I was born among the Dayak. I have been living among the Dayak eversince. I was schooled in a prominently Dayak school. Both my parents are Dayak. Both my paternal and maternal grandparents were Dayak and to be precise, Iban. As evidenced by the human skulls in our possession and corroborated by oral testimonies of those who knew my grandfathers, both my paternal and maternal grandfathers were warriors. Hence, I am competent to speak in answer to allegation by the author.
If anybody who Could give an accurate account of the Dayak, he is none other than the Dayak himself whilst others can only express their mere perception even if they have experience in dealing with the Dayak in their entire lives.
To put matters in its correct perspective, yes, I must admit, like any other races on the face of the Earth, the Dayak did commit crimes like robbery, theft, murder, rape, and even incest, cheating and other statutory offences. But very very seldom a Dayak ever commit violent offence without grave provocation except going to war with traditional enemies across the border.
I do agree that a number of Dayak individuals become brave when they are drunk but quiet when they are sober. Yes, there are quite a great number of Dayak voters who can be bribed. We even have Dayak prostitutes selling their flesh at the corridors of some lodging houses. Can someone tell us that there is no Indian prostitute or Chinese or Malay call girls? We also have Dayak traitors in our midst.
I can go on and on and we have all of that. But tell us which race on the face of the Earth that never commit the above cimes? The point is, the ubiquitous crimes that are also committed by other races does not point to the Dayak of having slave mentality. Yes, one may say (or as Joe Fernandez has put it) that the past is irrelevant, ie, that we are descendants of great warriors. That is where he goes absolutely wrong. Without the ancestors, Dayak don’t exist today. Of course it is also equally true that even though our ancestors were great people, it does not mean that we would become as great if we don’t work hard. There is an old adage, “No matter how tall is your grandfather you still have to grow yourself”. There is no doubt the Dayak have to work hard, have to be well-educated and have to be economically better of in order to be able to contribute meaningfully towards nation building.
To reinterate, slaves, as a matter of social station, don’t fight their masters. Even though sometimes they did but only as a matter of anger and not as a matter of getting social freedom. Harriet Beecher Stowe had succintly described it in Uncle Tom’s Cabin at how the slaves fled to Canada to gain their freedom. In other cases they have to purcahse their freedom.
On the contrary, the Dayak have been fighting as Masters of the the sovereign land through legitimate political organisation. The shining example was in 1987 when Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS or Sarawak Dayak Party) fought the Barisan Nasional alongside PERMAS (a Malay-based party) under ‘Kumpulan Maju’. It almost succeded in forming the state government. PBDS won 15 seats out of the total 48 state constituencies. PERMAS won five. They were only short of five seats to form the new state government.
The point that I am trying to drive home is that, PBDS had it votes from the Dayak in the above mentioned election. How could it be said that Dayak voters are morons? The above is a clear evidence that Dayak voters did not support the BN when they believe that PBDS was a better choice. The post 1991 general elections has been reflecting that trend. The reason why the Dayak continue to support the BN is because PBDS joined the BN in 1994. Naturally PBDS brought its voters together with it. The Dayak are actually voting for PBDS that they are still in love with and not the BN. Get that point? But now that the PBDS had died and its offspring, PRS, would not command Dayak confidence, let us watch if the Dayak still support the BN.
It is funny that the author, Joe Fernandez, has set a yardstick for fathoming Dayak’s mentality being moron or otherwise by their show of support for the BN. In other words, if Dayak vote for BN they are morons; if they vote for the opposition they are intelligent. We are not quite sure about those Dayak who did not vote for BN or opposition in the past elections.
Dear Dayak readers,
The perception of others is immaterial. They can form any opinion they like or comfortable with in their description of the Dayak. If not now, sooner or later the Dayak will again play a formidable role in the state or national politics. The role of Dayak intellectuals today must have its focus on educating the Dayak about the true value of democracy and teaching them to be self-reliance.
We, as Dayak bloggers, will continue to write to give inspiration to the Dayak leaders.
To Anonymous: I don't know the person called Joe Fernandez who is posting in this blog.
He may be the person you have described or he may be somebody else.
well, dunno dude. some people are only smart in commenting.. what to do? mind to make the first move, Mr Joe? preaching to all the Sarawakian Dayaks (I mean go to all over Sarawak and hold some sort of seminars etc.), telling them that they should wake up and stop being political morons? We'll help you out. We're also expecting some sort of concrete actions rather than verbal diarrhoea. People can be so 'activist' when commenting, but when challenged to put into actions of what they preach, they're so badly poor..I know many of them and these are the people who think that they always think and do the right thing aka the 'hypocrites'. I don't mind people calling Dayaks as morons (which is half-truth), or by any other names (because there are always people out there who think that they are more 'educated', 'experienced', and thus somewhat have the right to being 'critical' to the extent of calling other people as idiots) but I really hope that the Dayaks will take that challenge as a positive thing. I know how it feels like. Don't go berserk, just change your attitudes but you don't have to adopt other peoples' 'civilized' manners in order to be regarded as civilized. Anyway, would Jesus call these people who are mostly uneducated and 'naive' as 'morons'? and one more thing, I think the Dayaks are truly 'idiots' when they agreed to allow the formation of Malaysia.
Among the price they have to pay, sadly, is being ripped on as generally morons by some bunch of hypocrite intellectuals. Some can take them no matter how harsh the criticisms are, but there are also who can't. We can't expect people to behave in the same manner all the time.
After all, labeling other people as morons is like cursing them to be moronic.. and this is clearly not helping them, right?
To Joe Fernandez, i agreed on you on everything except one thing, we are not championing ketuanan dayak. remember this ! Whatever u want to call the dayak,lazy ke, verbal diarrhea ker, whatever you want, i can accept the bitter truth.
but not ketuanan dayak.
the dayaks are not intersted to be rich or whatever, they are interested in living world where the family cukup makan, has house....that's all....
the main problem wit dayak is, the facility like roads. If we have proper roads, the dayak can progress along wit other races. but the BN continues to make their undeliver promises every year. when they try to turn back the BN, no more fund for their rumah pjg...what shud they do? tell me.
the dayaks are not stupid. they dun have choice. there's some intellectual dayak can help them, but they are prohibited frm helping them bcoz the goverment will monitor their activities, especially those who try to oppose the government.
i myself still believe the government can help the people. only the leader need to be change. I believe the BN mission is good, only the people in BN corrupted the true mission. if every1 in BN is good, then no prob.
There is no need to argue with this mad bugger. He is out of touch with the reality in sarawak, banned from entering the state. so, how would he know what are happening? His is pure imagination.
Joe Fernandez, I have a lot of experience in dealing with the indians as well as others too. You dont need to tell us in that way. All races do commit crime. Everybody knows the indian beating their wives and commit other crime more than the other races do.
Anyway, if you want to know how sharp is my father's 'ilang' let me try it on your head. If you want to test how deep is Batang Lupar let me throw you to the middle of the river! Then you know who is dayak.
ketuanan Dayak? whew..why on earth would an 'educated' fella suggest such 'superior than thou' mentality to the already 'politically moronic' Dayaks? Come over to Sarawak, Mr. Joe, and dwell with us..you'll find the reasons why we Sarawakians hate to opt for such mindset and regard ourselves as equal. You can't simply make a general assumption based only on few Dayak bad apples whom you'd happen to deal with. Statiscally speaking, it's a very poor inference and nasty. Check your sample size; don't be lazy to do the study.
I had an experience with a university professor (local varsity) who somewhat suggested me to quit my masters programme and help my people back in Sarawak; for my MSc degree is useless for my people. This professor perhaps thought that I didn't even bother and give a fucking damn of what's happening in my own home and backyard. Well, it was quite unbelievable to hear such thing coming out from the mouth of a professor but I took it as a joke. He only knows Sarawak through reading books. Furthermore, he sort of mocking me for having a western name rather than a unique Iban/Dayak name. He blamed the White Rajah etc. Shhhh....tell you what; he himself adopted a christian/western name too.. geez..why the double standard? Only christian indians can adopt western name?and Dayaks would be less Dayak if they adopt malay, western, chinese names? Not that we are not proud of our traditions, but we enjoy to celebrate the 'colours' that we have in Sarawak. To a certain degree, you can't simply distinguish the Dayaks from the chinese or malays in Sarawak from their looks alone because they are Dayaks who naturally looks like chinese or malays. Notice those moon-language speaking malay looking and chinese looking dudes on the church pews every sunday? It's us. I even had the experience of being denied the Holy Communion for having a malay like appearance and the church wardens thought that I was one..until I told them that I'm an Iban and I showed my MyKad. Well, I only found it as humorous and I didn't blame them anyway. I forgave them. Don't worry, I don't consider that as a bad experience. In a way, it could be a sign that perhaps our brothers and sisters from the Peninsular should pay more visits to Sarawak, know, learn and get in touch with the people, rather than spending your money having fancy vacations in the Europe, UK etc., so that you'll not treat them as aliens should you bump into them in the Peninsular Malaysia. Most of the time, the Sarawak/Sabah non-muslim bumis are trapped between the sentiments of the malay bumis and non-bumis malayans.
So, we are often victimized by both sides especially in finding for jobs. There are non-bumi companies who are not keen to employ the bumis and on the malay bumis side, they have their own favourites..and it really happened to some people whom I've ecnountered including some of my friends..shockingly they speak english fluently and present themselves very well. Eventually they went back to Sarawak/Sabah and luckily they managed to secure jobs back home. Some, have already started their own businesses.
Nevertheless, I don't like and I don't find it's professional to generalize a certain ethnic group by stereotyping. It's totally not cool. Unless you can come up with a very good statistical inferences, it's hard to convince me.
owh, by the way; I have a friend, a pure Iban by the name Fernandez too..
We are the natives of Sarawak. We were once a proud race before the aliens from europe and china came over. Henceforth we have been subjected to discrimination from all quarters. We were being looked down upon and treated with contempt even to this day. We are the majority and yet our interests are not protected but instead being exploited. I am not pointing fingers but that is reality. What we need is a born again leader who cares and is willing to sacrifice for the well being of all dayaks.
lebih kurang baka 'Aliens vs Predators' nya pia Apai Semalau? and yet the victims are largely innocent human beings...
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