Community Left Out From Najib's Cabinet

MPs from community feel a Bidayuh should be in the cabinet

KUCHING: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has derailed the One Malaysia concept when he excluded the Bidayuh from his cabinet, a Bidayuh MP said yesterday.

Dr James Dawos Mamit, the Mambong MP and Sarawak’s environmental advisor, said while there was no doubt that the prerogative to appoint members of his cabinet is Najib’s, by not appointing one from among the three Bidayuh MPs the prime minister had made the One Malaysia concept look like just mere rhetoric.

“To me, he (Najib) has derailed the concept of promoting One Malaysia … to promote unity and the concept of all races working together,” he said when met at Dayak Bidayuh National Association (DBNA) headquarters where he attended the Pesta Birumuh appreciation dinner Sunday.

“Whether it (One Malaysia) is mere rhetoric or not, I don’t know, but it does look like it is now,” Dawos stressed, adding that a One Malaysia could not happen if some communities, even how minority, was not given the chance for equitable participation in the business of running the country at the highest level of government.

“I cannot say I’m happy because I did not get it (a federal cabinet post), but I am certainly disappointed that neither of the other two MPs got it. The Bidayuh have been sidelined,” he said, adding that he strongly felt there should be a Bidayuh representative in the cabinet.

That said, Dawos pointed out that he would not resign as MP merely because he was unhappy with the exclusion of the Bidayuh from the federal cabinet. Dawos said the Bidayuh had still a lot to catch up with and could not afford to distance itself from mainstream politics.

He said if he were to resign it would be to the detriment of the future of the community.

“Besides, to me BN is a good political platform and I will always support it and not resign. My political career started with BN and will end in BN,” he affirmed, adding that he would continue to fight from within BN for Bidayuh political struggle.

Dawos was commenting on calls made through SMS asking him and the other two Bidayuh MPs – Datuk Richard Riot Jaem (Serian) and Datuk Dr Tiki Lafe (Mas Gading) - to resign as a show of disapproval for the community’s exclusion from Najib’s cabinet.

Dawos said: “With the latest development (non-participation of Bidayuh in the federal cabinet), I am obliged to make a statement particularly because lately I have been receiving many SMSes calling for my resignation.”

He said most of the SMSes were from people in his constituency who felt that Najib had failed them and fallen on his promise to promote the One Malaysia concept.

Meanwhile, Dr Tiki, when contacted yesterday, confirmed receiving SMSes demanding that he resign as MP to reflect the Bidayuh’s dissatisfaction.

“The Bidayuh are feeling disbelief, frustration and hopelessness. That’s what they said in their SMSes to me,” Dr Tiki said.

“I’m on the ground to get feedback,” Dr Tiki said, but refused to elaborate.

Attempts to contact Riot for comments failed, but political observers feel that the sentiment is the same in the Serian constituency where the five-time MP holds sway. In fact, sources said Serian is a volatile area that only Riot - not BN, and certainly not SUPP, his party — has control over now.

“SUPP (Sarawak United People’s Party) is literally clinging to some straws in Serian, and it really does not help the party that its president (Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan), by his own admission, submitted six names, making it look like he was thinking that Najib would pick Riot’s name like the prime minister was playing a game of lucky draw,” an observer said. - The Borneo Post