Dayak and Kadazan leaders in Barisan are mere political slaves

The Dayaks in Sarawak and Kadazans in Sabah have only themselves to be blamed for the pathetic situation there are in now. What the Dayak and Kadazan leaders in the Barisan (BN) coalition have been doing all these years? Nothing but only busy enriching themselves and becoming some sort of political slave for the more supreme and powerful Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB) in Sarawak and Umno in Sabah.

These BN Dayak and Kadazan leaders had allow themselves to be make use of by PBB and Umno leaders who are only interested in playing politics of divide and rule so that both of these dominant parties could stay in power on top there forever.

The Dayaks in Sarawak and Kadazans of Sabah were once proud and strong people in their respective states. A Dayak and a Kadazan were once Chief Ministers and Head of State of Sarawak and Sabah respectively. They were the pride of their own state, organization, tradition as well as their culture.

But unfortunately, now the Dayaks and Kadazans are the poorest people in Malaysia and these two communities also have the highest dropout rates in education. Sarawak and Sabah used to be rich of natural resources around them but today, their land had almost dried up, flatten and cleared.

Even Dayak and Kadazan native villages were systematically removed and split to pave way for "development" and "modernization" as claimed by some BN leaders who wanted to justify their various actions.

Dayak turmoil in Sarawak

First it was the Sarawak National Party (SNAP) who had ruled Sarawak. Soon after SNAP joined the BN coalition, SNAP began to disintegrate when its leaders began to tussle for power in the party. The SNAP factional infighting had lasted for some years until the party was deregistered by the Registrar of Societies (ROS), then was later expelled from the coalition.

The split in SNAP saw the formation of another Dayak-based party called the Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) and the party was immediately admitted into the BN coalition to replace the role of SNAP.

However, PBDS also later when into turmoil with factions vying for the party presidency which saw two general meetings were held and two party presidents and their respective central committees were elected. Because of the continuous factional tussle in PBDS, the ROS decided to deregister the party.

The ultimate split of PBDS then saw the creation of two Dayak-based party, Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP). Both PRS and SPDP then applied and was accepted into the state BN fold.

Currently, the SPDP is facing yet another factional fighting from within and the latest, five of its state assemblymen were expelled from the party. PRS is also suffering from a slight turmoil but yet to be blown up as the party president had managed to put away one of his toughest critics.

Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB), a Malay-Melanau majority party dominating the state BN coalition plays its game well in ensuring the Dayaks are not united in a single political party for fear of the later's stronger position.

PBB had since dominates the political scene in Sarawak after the disintegration of SNAP.

The Kadazan split in Sabah

Sabah was once ruled by the United National Kadazan Organization (UNKO) in a coalition with the United Sabah National Organization (Usno) and Sabah Chinese Association (SCA). Later UNKO merged with another political party to become a new entity called Bersatu Rakyat Jelata Sabah (Berjaya). Berjaya, together with Usno later joined the state BN coalition.

Berjaya was later dominated by the Malay-Muslim faction which saw the Kadazan Dusuns being sidelined in the party which resulted to the formation of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) which consist of mostly Kadazan Dusun leaders.

PBS during its initial establishment, functioned and performed well as an opposition party and managed to capture the state during the general election which saw a Kadazan leader was once again governing the state.

The defeat of Berjaya and Usno to PBS later paved way to the entry of Umno into Sabah who began to engineer numerous attempts to manipulate the PBS leadership from within in order to weaken the later.

Under Sabah Umno's move, PBS was brought into the BN fold as a goodwill and in order to continue to "development" in the state, but some disagreements had later motivate PBS to leave the coalition and contested against the BN in the later general elections.

Not able to tolerate the PBS' stance anymore, Sabah Umno began to engineer a more aggressive attempt to disintegrate the PBS leadership with offers of cash and other incentives. Sabah Umno succeeded, and PBS was eventually split to three parties namely Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS), United Pasok-Momugun Kadazan Organization (UPKO) and Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP). PBRS, UPKO and SAPP later joined the state BN coalition.

PBS after been weakened from the mass defections, later rejoined the state BN coalition and became its junior coalition partner instead together with PBRS, UPKO and SAPP.

SAPP after some years in BN had decided to leave the coalition once and for all because the Sabah Umno leadership had failed to address to a number of grievances brought up, mainly on the high influx of illegal immigrants from the Southern Philippines and Kalimantan Indonesia from southwards. SAPP also questions the decision state Umno's plant to grant some of these immigrants Malaysian citizenship.

While SAPP continue to fight for their cause outside the BN fold as a sole Sabah-based opposition party, PBS, PBRS, UPKO had decided to stay in the coalition under Umno.

Despite still having representatives of the Kadazans from PBS, PBRS and UPKO in the BN coalition, the Kadazan Dusun communities in the state never develop. Only some of their leaders became wealthy as the result of their politically aligned to the BN and Umno fold. The majority in the community is still lack behind in terms of development, education ad achievement.

Blackout on the Dayaks and Kadazans

In order to ensure their total and continuous support of the BN coalition in Sarawak and Sabah respectively, both PBB and Umno had systematically engineered a statewide blackout onto these two major communities with no internet and any other advance technologies which would enable them to seek more independent news and resources other than the government-owned mainstream medias and newspapers.

Both PBB and Umno had succeeded in their blackout effort. They managed to put blinds on these two communities in order ensure that they are solidly behind the BN coalition in every general elections.

And while keeping these two communities blackout from the real information and political scene, both PBB and Umno also got their every opportunities to plunder the two states' natural resources, from oil, timber to removing and relocating the villages of these two communities and putting them deeper away from the developing areas.

Who are to be blamed?

Again, we are asking them. Who are to be blamed for the continuous deteriorating situation of the Dayak and Kadazan people? It was the Dayak and Kadazan leaders in the BN. They are powerless in how to decide the fate of their own communities. All their moves are very much dictated by the more powerful PBB and Sabah Umno who are now dominating the two state governments and policies.

PBB leaders cut down the jungles for timber, took over the oil refineries, while Umno leaders plunder the state land, also cutting down the woods for timber and commercialized them, away from the Kadazans, taking away the state's oil and gas supplies and converting more illegal immigrants into citizens to enable them to vote for BN in the next general elections.

Unless all the Dayaks and Kadazans wake up to realize that they being continuously raped, these two communities are going to continue to be under the arms of the plunderers from PBB and Umno. Will then the Dayaks and Kadazans soon become minorities in their own heartland?