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Group welcomes racial recognition for Sabah and Sarawak natives
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Rhythm in Bronze, a contemporary gamelan orchestra from Malaysia. (JP/-)
T
he Federal Government’s move to recognize the racial categories of Sabah and Sarawak natives is justified and long overdue because they do not want to be identified as "lain lain" in official forms.
Native-based Momogun National Congress (MNC) president Datuk Henrynus Amin said official recognition for Sabah and Sarawak natives in official forms is a welcome development for the indigenous people of the two states.
He said separate identities for the various natives in official forms will be the next right step towards giving them national recognition.
"There is a need for national recognition of the various native communities," he said in referring to the call in Sarawak, where Dayaks want to be recognized as "Dayak" in the official forms.
However, he said that while MNC expects separate categories for Sarawak and Sabah natives, the Federal Government must retain "lain lain" for other undefined ethnic minorities in the states.
Henrynus felt that dropping the "lain lain" category altogether could be an overreaction and counter-productive.
He said doing away with "lain lain" would defeat the ability to categorize racial minorities or undefined groups such as naturalized Indonesians, Filipinos and Europeans.
"In the case of Sabah, if 'lain lain' were to be dropped, where would you put non-native Filipino Bajau or Visaya, Indonesian Bugis or Tatur or Timorese, etc, who are naturalized citizens, in official forms?" he said.
Though Sarawak natives of various groups have asked to be categorized as Dayak, he said he is not aware of any similar initiative in Sabah for the Dusunic, Murutic and Paitanic speech community, who collectively come under the Momogun or indigenous people of Borneo.
