KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 — Any Kadazan offended by Sabah mufti Bungsu @ Aziz Jafaar’s claim that the ethnic group was an artificial construct can lodge their grievance against him in the state’s Native Court, said Kadazan Society of Sabah (KSS) after it filed a summons against the Muslim leader.

The society’s deputy president Sylvester Disimon said the Native Court — which governs affairs related to customs and culture of native communities in Sabah — did not restrict the number of people who intended to seek redress for the mufti’s perceived insult.

“According to our legal advisor, any Kadazan who feels they have suffered insult and humiliation from the mufti can also lodge a summons to any Native Court anywhere in Sabah,” he told The Malay Mail Online when contacted yesterday.

The KSS filed their summons against Bungsu with the Native Court on Monday, seeking a ruling on the compensation, known as “sogit”, which should be imposed on the state mufti for claiming that the Kadazan community was not a real race.

Sogit normally involves the offending party offering a live animal to the aggrieved party, which Sylvester said could range from a chicken for a minor offence all the way to a buffalo for a major transgression.

The animal would then be slaughtered and divided among those who filed the summons, typically for a feast to signify that the issue has been put to rest.

The Federal Constitution provides for disputes among Sabah’s indigenous peoples to be settled by tribal law, which are decided by a native chief or district chief appointed by the government to assume the role of the judge in the Native Court.

Bungsu stirred up a hornet’s nest when he proposed a programme to “meMelayukan” or to make Malay the many Bumiputera Muslims in Sabah who continue to identify themselves by their tribal roots.

Before a thousand-strong crowd at a symposium to discuss the “Malay Leadership Crisis” in Putrajaya on September 28, the mufti claimed it was vital for Sabah’s “Malay tribes” who were already Muslim to be made Malay, “for the sake of the Malay Muslim community”.

He also described the Kadazan, who were at one time the majority race in Sabah, as an “invented” ethnic group — sparking a flurry of angry responses from Sabah leaders from both sides of the divide.

Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman later came out to say that the state government has no plans to convert ethnic groups there into Malays, describing Bungsu’s controversial proposal as a “personal view” and stressed that the state administration will always respect the diversity of Sabah’s many native groups.

Yesterday, Sylvester said that the mufti has had ample opportunity to apologise and retract his statement yet has not done so, leaving the Kadazan community little choice but to pursue compensation by way of native law.

“We have already lodged a police report, we have asked for an apology from him and he hasn’t apologised. Our last move is to saman him in Native Court,” he said, referring to the summons filed.

Once a summons is officially issued by the Native Court, Bungsu will have 21 days to appear before the native chief, failing which he is liable to be arrested by the police and hauled before the Native Court, Sylvester added.