KOTA KINABALU, Jan 19 — A Sabah federal lawmaker today urged the state government to follow in Sarawak’s footsteps and remove the “dan lain-lain” (others) race column in government forms, saying it should be left blank to allow locals to identify their ethnicities on their own.
PKR’s Penampang MP Darell Leiking, in lauding Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem for removing the “lain-lain” designation from official government documents, said Sabah’s many indigenous communities too could not be defined by the three main races in the current document.
“I would like to suggest to the state government to go a step further and immediately change all the state government documents, including requesting the state’s Federal Secretary to remove and replace the government documents with a blank race column so that Sabahans can identify themselves in writing as to their ethnicity,” he said in a statement here.
The “lain-lain” column in the race category has been a point of contention among Borneo’s native races who are mostly from ethnic tribes like the Kadazan, Iban, Dusun and Bidayuh.
The racial make-up is vastly different from Peninsula Malaysia, which is typically categorised under Malay, Chinese and Indian.
While expressing his disappointment with this “long overdue recognition”, Leiking said he believes that all is not lost yet for Sabah to regain her rightful position within the federation.
Leiking said he first raised the issue of racial distinctions in Parliament last March and had also lamented the failure of state leaders to fight for equal status for Sabah.
Sarawak, he said, has outpaced Sabah in the struggle for state rights.
Leiking, however, commended Sabah deputy chief minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan for finally making a statement in support of the issue.
“He has been in the Barisan Nasional (BN) state government since 2001 (and chief minister between 1985 to 1994) and he has finally realised that the description burdened upon the people of Sabah as “lain lain” can actually be changed,” said Leiking.
Pairin had yesterday said that doing away with the column would be appropriate to provide clarity on the applicants’ race and avoid confusion.
Following the efforts of Sarawak ministers like Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah and Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun, Adenan recently announced that the state’s indigenous groups like the Iban, Bidayuh and Orang Ulu would no longer be referred to as “others” in the column for race in official government forms.
They are now to write Bumiputera Iban, Bumiputera Bidayuh, Bumiputera Melanau and Bumiputera Orang Ulu in the column for race.
Pairin was recently reported as saying that Sabah could follow the move and at the prerogative of the person filling up the form, scrap the “lain-lain” word and replace it with his or her own respective race or ethnic group.
Api-Api Assemblywoman Christina Liew also said the Sabah government should emulate Sarawak’s move in removing the racial ambiguity for Sabahan natives.
