FOUR piglets squealed as they were being prepared for a ritual on November 1. The animals were eventually spiked to death by a sangkuh (spear in Iban) as sacrifice to appease Petara (God).
The event took place at the home of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) elder Major (Rtd) Moses Anak Ripai in Kampung Sungai Amang, just four kilometres out of Kapit town.
‘Gawai Sandau Hari’, and ‘Berbancak Babi’ are rituals performed not only to dispel misfortunes but are indigenous Iban rites to cement the spirit of brotherhood after a consensus or vow has been made.
The consensus among party members was made a day earlier during the party’s annual general meeting at the same location.
The resolutions agreed upon during the meeting were firstly, that the party which had earlier been known as Parti Bansa Dayak Baru will jettison the “Baru” tag and will now only be known as PBDS.
Secondly, it was agreed that PBDS is neither a member of the current ruling coalition nor is it part of the opposition.
And thirdly, the ‘Berbancak Babi’ ceremony is a symbolic act to unify all the different ethnic groups of the Dayaks into a formidable force.
Speaking to The Vibes, PBDS president Bobby William said the party’s struggle and its manifesto has been consistent from day one.
“There is no ‘lama’ or ‘baru’ in our struggle. Our struggle has always been for the cause of the Dayaks and we are the only political party in the state with ‘Dayak’ in our party name.”
PBDS was founded in 1983 by Tan Sri Leo Moggie. In the 1987 state elections it won 15 seats and was a part of the Barisan Nasional coalition.
That was the only time the party flag flew high, following which the party went into a tailspin, earning itself a chequered past.
PBDS was dissolved twice, first in 2003 and the second time in 2004 due to a leadership crisis between Datuk Daniel Tajem as PBDS president and Tan Sri James Jemut Masing as his challenger.
However, the party was reinstated on March 9, 2004, only to be de-registered again on June 19 of last year.
“Thank God, on August 14 this year we were reinstated. We have faced a series of misfortunes and that is why we performed the rituals.
“We want to fly our flag high again. God-willing, we will try to put some candidates for the upcoming state elections,” said Bobby.
According to him, although the party was silent after being deregistered last year, PBDS has forged a union with other home-grown parties and NGOs to form a pact called Gasak.
Gasak is the acronym for Gabungan Anak Sarawak, and is composed of the Sarawak Workers’ Party, Aspirasi (formerly called STAR), a local NGO called the Sarawak for Sarawak Movement and the Sarawak Independence Alliance.
Bobby, who is also the president of Gasak, is confident that the coalition will serve as the voice and platform for the Dayaks to push their agenda on the campaign trail, if the twelfth state election (PRU12) is held anytime soon.
Deprived of funds, PBDS is now focusing more on recruiting Dayak youths to join the party and groom them to be future politicians who will lead the community in the near future.
“We do not have big money to mobilise an election machinery for PRU12. So, we will do some groundwork among the youths, build them up as our future asset and make them election ready for subsequent elections in the future,” Bobby concedes.
“We will have to build the confidence of Dayak youths to embrace our party’s aspirations for the community because we have been on ‘silent mode’ for quite awhile when we were deregistered.”
He said during the 14th general election, it was evident that many Sarawak voters supported the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition.
He believes they had this misconception that the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidates would fight for their cause.
“But that did not happen. Most of the PKR leaders are lawyers who portrayed themselves as ‘land rights heroes’ such as Selangau lawmaker, Baru Bian.
“Now Baru Bian has abandoned PKR to join Parti Sarawak Bersatu. The voters are now split and confused. Only a Dayak-based party will be able to stand for the local ethnic groups. And PBDS is the legitimate voice for the Dayaks as always,” he asserts.
Bobby says he sees himself as a Sarawak nationalist. PBDS is a home-grown Dayak party which will campaign for the rights of the Dayaks, he adds.
“The Dayaks have been left out in the fringes. We are not considered as mainstream society but as people on the sidelines. For decades, we Dayaks have been discriminated against.
“We do not even have an identity. In official documents we are known as ‘Lain Lain’ a gross disrespect of our status as people of Sarawak, a Malaysian state. We are Dayaks and we want to uphold Dayakism,” he said.
“Others may say that we are clinging on to tribalism and are being sentimentally parochial.
“No, it is about survival of the Dayak community. We want to rise from the ashes to become a politically formidable force,” Bobby added. – The Vibes, November 7, 2020
