THERE it goes again! The longhouses are out of bounds to opposition politicians.
DAYAK HOSPITALITY SERVICE: A grand welcome for Barisan Nasional politicians at a longhouse but some longhouses have been told to bar opposition members from entering their area.
So it was a directive from a political secretary to the chief minister to the chiefs of longhouses in Melanggan near Sibu recently.
Earlier, there was a similar warning from a Member of Dewan Undangan Negeri to the effect that any village chief who allows Opposition workers to operate in that Member’s constituency would be deemed unsuitable for the post of a community leader and for that reason, must quit.
In Song, last month, I was told by a Ketua Kaum there that he had been warned by a senior civil servant to stay away from any leader of the Opposition.
Since the publication of these two news items in the media in late December and early this month, there has been no official denial as to their accuracy.
That’s our concern today.
These two incidents and one verbally communicated (to me), if allowed to be repeated in the existing constituencies and introduced to other constituencies in the State, and if condoned by the powers that be for some length of time, may develop into a government policy. And you bet the Opposition workers now criss-crossing the countryside canvassing for support for their causes will lap this up as an issue to their advantage at the expense of the ruling coalition.
Two wrongs do not make a right
This ban does not make it any easier to promote the concept of 1Malaysia. Indeed, as a political platform, it could be counterproductive if to win over the Opposition supporters is the aim. Longhouses or villages with a preponderance of Opposition supporters may react in like manner; there will reprisals and counter reprisals. Two wrongs do not make a right. Right?
Sea Dayak (Iban) longhouses have been known to have split, both literally and politically, as a result of irreconcilable differences in partisan politics. The trauma of a longhouse split has been felt for a long time by the people affected and has caused considerable concern to many members of the Sea Dayak Community. Recently, a few of the longhouses affected have begun to ‘recover’ after members of an NGO operating among them had discovered the root causes of the break-up: petty politics pursued by individuals yearning and dying for recognition, power and money. The NGO members had to give pep talks discreetly because those politicians allergic to NGOs would slap them with all sorts of labels.
As a political contagion, it will continue to insidiously undermine the solidarity of any longhouse or a village implementing the ban, if nothing is done to stuff it out.
Learn from others
The Dayak communities should learn a lesson from the Malay community in Sarawak. As tension and sour relationship permeated their villages during the anti-Cession struggle in 1946, that community was split right down the middle. The anti- Cession villagers would not even allow young men of the Kolot or the pro-Cession camp to nopeng (to dance at a gendang party) at the next village of anti cessionists and vice versa. Relatives would not talk to relatives and friends turned enemies. Families of civil servants who had resigned en mass suffered loss of income.
In a Malay village near mine in Lundu, a gendang party was open to everybody, a great occasion for the young men from one village to admire girls from another. Often love mushroomed as a consequence. Alas, all this had to stop because of differences over the Cession of Sarawak to the British Crown by Rajah Vyner Brooke.
As a school boy, I could not figure out what the fuss was all about. Now I know why.
It took the Malay villages involved in this Cession issue almost a generation to be reconciled and to come together again. Fortunately, the younger men and women of that community had the sense to rebuild the burnt bridges slowly through the formation of various NGOs.
These two groups?
Do we want this sort of situation to prevail among the longhouses of the Sea Dayaks (Iban) and the villages of the Land Dayaks (Bidayuh)? Can we learn from the mistakes others have made?
These two groups of Malaysians have been the targets, unfortunately of some of their own people obsessed with power by employing a destructive strategy. I have not heard of similar ban among the people in the Baram or Bario or Belaga. These people would be better off without such tactics by which to browbeat their political opponents.
When the Dayak custom of welcoming visitors to their longhouses/villages disappears, it may reflect on the present government’s perceived lack of concern for the culture of a people. That perception, though not necessarily the reality, may give the impression that the venerable norms and mores can be politicised by its agents with immunity; with the connivance from their employers with vested interests, the problem would be compounded many folds.
In a longhouse or village there are people who have their own choices or preferences of politicians or parties and no Tuai Rumah or Ketua Kampong can control their minds. Even in a communist commune in Cambodia under Pol Pot, there were political dissidents; those were ‘terminated’, of course. Fortunately, many community leaders in Sarawak I’ve talked to are sensible: they would allow their nembiak (wards) to talk to all genuine canvassers for political support, except, of course, to those characters who are known to likely create trouble. But the fear of Opposition politicians creating trouble in a longhouse or kampong, an excuse for the ban, is subjective, and as such cannot be the reason for the blanket ban. Troublemakers may come from any quarters including from elements of the so – called government parties (Parti Printah).
All certificated longhouse chiefs are semi-government servants paid out of the taxpayers’ money and if they are politically biased against the Opposition, as custodians of customs, they cannot make good leaders of any community composed of people of all political shades and affiliations. In a true democracy, government is that of the people, for the people and by the people, not just of those supporting the ruling parties to the exclusion of all other residents in the same constituency.
This ban was first imposed at two longhouses during the Batang Ai by-election and repeated during the Sibu by-election. The stratagem might have worked during the Sibu by-election in places like Bawang Assan, Penasu and Rantau Panjang, but it did not, at Teku and Aup.
Problem untreated
This virus first detected during the elections has become a serious problem among certain groups mentioned above. Since then, there seems to be a lackadaisical attitude on the part of top politicians in the coalition government; they are hoping, perhaps, the problem would go away soon.
The voters on the ground, however, are waiting for some signal from above, one way or the other; the longer the silence, the more negative the perception will be.
What the KK should do
Every TR/KK should be smart during the forthcoming election campaign. Listen to people with ideas for the improvement of their own lot; these may be from the Opposition or from the party in power. If their programmes are not suitable for you, reject them at the polls, quietly. That’s your right and duty so to do.
No amount of Opposition propaganda can change your mind from voting again for the incumbent party if you consider it as having been good to you, your family, your community and your country. Nor can you dismiss outright that the Opposition parties will not form the next government. Anything can happen in politics. That much we have discovered from other parts of Malaysia and elsewhere.
Erosion of good values
I am concerned about the creeping erosion of refined norms and mores relating to hospitality, for example, the cherished value system of “Manah Enggau Temuai”. One day in the not too distant future, it may disappear into oblivion from many longhouses/ villages, if not nourished and sustained now. Then blaming the Politics of Division for its demise will be too late and academic.
Parties and governments come and go
After almost half a century of practising parliamentary democracy, and learning from the mass media, we ought to have learnt that political parties come and go; so do governments. Their leaders die out or are replaced from time to time but all the good norms and mores of all Malaysians must go on forever. In Malay there is a saying “Biar Mati Anak Jangan Mati Adat”.
Those who are a party to their destruction may be regarded as either naive or careless of the consequences of their acts; if they are politicians, they are bereft of the gift of foresight.
No one can stop the spread of this contagious political virus except by a deliberate move of those who first created it, in the first place. In Iban, ‘Ular mantuk ular nawar’( Snake’s venom has its own antidote). Something like that.