A young participant receives a prize from Riot. Looking on from left are Tebedu District Officer Suhardi Tukimin, Serian Division Resident Dahim Nadot, and political secretary to the Minister of Human Resource Major (r) Peter Runin.
SERIAN: Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot Jaem wants the Bidayuh to think of themselves as equal to other Malaysians in terms of their social standing.
Riot said being a minority group should not prevent members of the community from thinking big and aspiring to compete head to head with other Malaysians.
He said the fact that many Bidayuh today were holding high positions both in the government and in the private sector showed that they were equal to other Malaysians.
“There are Bidayuh who are professors and associate professors in universities, there are Bidayuh who are department heads and directors, and there are Bidayuh who are highly successful corporate leaders. There are even Bidayuh who have made a name for themselves in fields like sports.
“Yes, we are small in number, but the success of many members of our community shows that we too have the brain and the talents to compete if we are afforded a level playing field,” Riot said at a closing of the Blue Ocean Strategy event in Kampung Mujat, a border village about 36km from here, on Saturday night.
Riot who is Serian MP noted that since Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak took office many Bidayuh had been emplaced in senior positions in the civil service.
He said it was due to the prime minister’s inclusive policy that he was made Human Resource Minister, a position he has continued to hold despite both minor and major reshuffles of the Federal Cabinet.
“My conclusion of this is that the prime minister recognises the talent of the Bidayuh, it now falls on our shoulders to show him that we fully deserve this recognition by using our positions to facilitate the necessary changes to the Bidayuh, the community we seek to serve, the state of Sarawak, and Malaysia as a whole,” Riot said.
On the Blue Ocean Strategy event, an outreach programme requiring government departments and agencies to bring their services to the villages, Riot thanked Sarawak Implementation and Monitoring Unit (Simu) director Buckland Bangik for choosing Kpg Mujat as the programme’s launching pad.
“Buckland could have picked any other villages in Sarawak to launch the programme, but he picked Kpg Mujat and for that we are grateful because it shows that Simu is keen in ensuring that all development projects approved for Serian Division will be implemented as planned,” Riot noted.
Riot said Simu would ensure that the rural-urban development gap would be narrowed down.
According to Buckland, Simu has 20 such outreach programmes planned for Sarawak and the one in Kpg Mujat was the first and involved, among others, the Malaysian army, the Medical Department, Serian District Council and the police.
On the general security of border villages like Kpg Mujat, Riot said the government did not take the issue lightly and was looking to continuously improve the presence of the military and the police.
“However, the one aspect that is of great concern to me, as far as border villages are concerned, is the growing number of Sarawakians marrying Indonesians.
“My advice to Ketua Kaum, Penghulu and Pemancha in these villages is to make sure these marriages are properly solemnised and documented so that children born of these marriages would not find themselves stateless and unable to enjoy the rights of citizens of this country.
“Statistics given to me says that 1,250 Sarawakian children today are stateless because the marriages of their parents, who are from border villages, are not done the right and proper way,” Riot said.
Kpg Mujat lies at the furthest end of the Serian-Mongkos road. The nearest Indonesian settlement is a mere 30-minute walk away.