LET ABANG JO COSY UP WITH NAJIB & SARAWAK WILL BE SOLD OFF: DAYAKS GET A TASTE OF TENSION-FILLED GAWAI IN PONTIANAK

ON the 45-minute flight from Kuching to Pontianak, Peter Minos thought of the Gawai Dayak (Festival of the Dayaks) he had witnessed in the capital of Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province a few years back.

The president of the Samarahan municipal council, accompanied by his 25-year-old son, was hoping to sample the local culinary delights and watch the colourful parade of Dayaks in their costumes.

But something told him things weren’t going to be the same as he stepped out of the airplane at Supadio International Airport.

“There were soldiers and policemen everywhere,” Minos said as he related the experience of his three-day “tension filled” Gawai Dayak in West Kalimantan from May 19-21.
During the 17km taxi ride from the airport to Pontianak city, he saw military and police patrols every corner.

“I didn’t know what was going on,” Minos said.

“Why were there so many policemen and soldiers? Something must be wrong.”
Thousands of members of the Islamic Defenders Front, better known by their acronym FPI (Front Pembela Islam) – a religious extremist group – had come to Pontianak to disrupt this year’s harvest festival.

After a successful campaign to oust Jakarta’s first Christian governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or better known as Ahok, FPI wanted to do the same in Pontianak.

They started making their presence felt on the eve of Gawai Dayak (May 19) before demonstrating near the police headquarters demanding the ouster of Governor Dr Cornelius MH.

“It spoiled my Gawai mood,” Minos said, fearful of what could possibly happen at the opening ceremony at the ceremonial house known locally as ‘Rumah Adat Dayak Betang’.

Assured that it would be safe, he went to join some one thousand other Dayaks from Sarawak, Brunei and Sabah who had been invited to the opening ceremony that was officiated by Cornelius.

Under the watchful eye of hundreds of policemen and soldiers, the ceremony went on without any incidents.

However, Minos, an ethnic Bidayuh from the gold mining town of Bau, decided to skip the Gawai parade from the ceremonial house to the Pontianak Cathedral 11km away.

On the way back to his hotel at Jalan Gajah Mada, Minos got his first glimpse of the FPIs.

“We ran smack into them. The FPIs had been corralled by the army and police into one section of the city away from the parade route but some of them tried to break the police lines.”

Minos said the FPIs looked “hell bent on clashing with the Dayaks”, but were beaten back by the soldiers and policemen when they tried to break the police lines.

“In my mind, I was hoping all this would stop. If they didn’t, it would be like the Madura clash again,” Minos said in reference to the 2001 ethnic bloodbath that took place in the Central Kalimantan town of Sampit.

Thousands had died during the clashes between the Dayaks and Madura Muslim migrants. The majority who died were the outnumbered Madurese.

It was estimated that there were about one thousand FPIs while there were around 10,000 Dayaks taking part in this year’s parade.

“The army and police did a great job. Maybe they have learnt some lessons from the Sampit ethnic clash.

“There was tension, yes, but there was no violence or clashes. The army and the police made sure there were none.

Former deputy minister for information, communication and culture Joseph Salang Gandum, who was also visiting, similarly was not aware of the tension whipped up by the FPIs before he arrived.

He was on the same plane as Minos but Salang was travelling with his friends from the Standard Chartered Bank where he once worked before he was elected to parliament.

“I didn’t know of the tension.”

Salang nevertheless brushed it aside as “nothing serious”.

“Nothing like what’s reported in the papers. The photos you saw in the media of Dayaks running with their machetes, spears and bamboo weapons and shouting, they were not rioting.

“They are Dayaks taking part in the Gawai parade and the traditional weapons they carry are part of their cultural regalia,” he said.

“It was an 11km parade of colourful floats and Dayaks in their finest traditional costume. We saw the FPIs but we didn’t feel threatened.

“The army and the police did a fantastic job, keeping the two groups apart.”

Salang said he felt “so safe” that he and his friends even went for a dinner that night at a town called Dumai, some 10-minute drive from the city.

“There was tension but no clashes and no violence.”

– https://www.themalaysianinsight.com