‘Be careful with matters pertaining to customs’

KUCHING: When it comes to determining the rights of the ‘adat’ (customs) or abiding to election regulations stated by the law, the most important thing is to avoid sending the wrong signals, said Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia) president Sidi Munan.

Sidi Munan

He was responding to a statement by state election director Datu Takun Sunggah, as reported by The Borneo Post on June 9, who said that it was the right of longhouse chiefs to reject visitors, including political workers, canvassing for votes during election campaigns.

In the published article, Takun said: “Political workers should get the permission of the chiefs before they enter to campaign.

“The state election office does not have the right to give orders to the ‘tuai rumah’ on who has the right to campaign at the longhouse because the power is with the chiefs themselves. But if the ‘tuai rumah’ allowed the political party to do so, then the longhouse folk should abide by election rules.”

Sidi countered: “As that statement has not been denied as of today and as it has something to do with what I had said in my statement last month, it is incumbent upon me to respond appropriately.

“To recap, mine was about Sadia’s concern over the trend set by certain `tuai rumah’. It began with four in Merindun during the Batang Ai by-election followed by many during the recent Sibu by-election to keep their longhouses out of bounds to workers from opposition parties.”

Sidi said he feared that this violation of the hospitality norm of the Ibans, which has been in existence long before the introduction of partisan politics, may develop into a cultural trait of the longhouses concerned, thus undermining the relationship and solidarity of the residents and causing an embarrassment to the community as a whole, if allowed to flourish.

Although he did not read into the state election office’s statement as an endorsement of the right to ignore the custom, Sidi stated that his curiosity was aroused by the director’s reference to ‘even for us the Malays, one can’t just enter a person’s home without knocking or asking permission.’

“Absolutely true. An Iban visitor or campaign worker would also ask permission before entering the house, saying, “Bisi orang di rumah, ulih niki / tama, wai?” (Is there anybody home? Can we come in?) And no decent Iban will ever reply “Oh, anang! (No!),” he stated.

In the case of a Malay house, Sidi highlighted, it had a front and back door whereas in a typical Iban longhouse there was no door to the ‘ruai’ (common corridor) except the main door to individual ‘bilik’ (apartment).

He pointed out that a longhouse was more or less equivalent to a Malay kampung (village). In the longhouse there were many partitioned rooms but joined together whereas in a Malay village there were many separate houses. In each house, there were one main door and this was equivalent to the Iban ‘bilik’.

As the structure was such that a Malay may slam the doors on the campaign workers, Sidi referred to a case in the peninsular where during the height of the PAS-UMNO ‘kafir mengkafir’ tirade, home owners were slamming doors right in the nose of the political campaigners.

“But we don’t want that sort of problem to come over here. It will split us more and more. The ban on party workers to canvass for votes in the longhouses for their respective candidates might be copied by opposing campaigners during the next election.

“I’m not sure if the election commission would like to be quoted as endorsing the right of the ‘tuai rumah’ to ban party workers from the longhouse even though they are not likely to create trouble there. During election campaign the last thing that canvassers for votes do is to create trouble; that’s the time one shows one’s best behaviour,” he stressed.

Sidi concluded that it would be prudent for anyone, official or otherwise, not to send a wrong signal which was the ‘approval of a violation of a custom’. Each ethnic community has its own customs to preserve and practise.

“Biar mati anak jangan mati adat (don’t forget your roots), don’t you agree?” he asked.