KAPIT: Members of the Dayak community who have migrated to the urban centres are urged to adapt to their new surrounding and take note of the multi racial composition of their neighbourhood.
This will enable them to live a peaceful and comfortable life away from their original settlements in the interiors.
Giving this reminder was Hulu Rajang MP, Wilson Ugak Kumbong, when officiating at a two-day youth programme at Taman Indah Ixora in Jalan Selirik here recently.
He said the Dayaks, like everyone else, had the right and privilege to change their destiny – whether to remain in longhouse or move to the urban centres looking for new opportunities.
“Many of you have migrated from the rural areas and almost 100 per cent of the 240 households at Taman Ixora Indah have their roots in the rural areas,” he said.
The programme was organised by Kapit District Council in collaboration with the Village Security and development Committee (JKKK) of Taman Ixora Indah and various government agencies in the district.
Ugak went on to advise the new ‘urbanites’ that not everything the urban centres have to offer were good and more often than not the good ones were there for a price. They had to pay for the use of water which was free in the rural areas, electricity and food.
He also told them about cleanliness which they had to maintain at all times.
To the parents, the MP urged them to constantly keep an eye on their children to prevent them from indulging in social ills now that they have more avenues to explore, including the Internet.
On the JKKK’s request to build a multi-purpose hall, Ugak said that he and his Kapit counterpart – Datuk Alexander Nanta Linggi – were looking into the matter.
The function organising chairman Cr Tapah Ata, a political secretary to the Chief Minister Wilson Nyabong Ijang, Walikota Philimon Nuing, council secretary Yong Ing Chu and assistant secretary Regina Giles Senin, and SAO Keron Mapus were among those who attended the function.