“If the Lain-Lain term was dropped, there would be no place in official documents for the non-Orang Asal groups in Sabah like the Bajau and Visaya (Philippines) and Bugis and Tatur (Indonesia) and Timorese.”
Momogun National Congress (MNC) President Henrynus Amin was also taking the line that although the Orang Asal in Sabah would no longer be referred to as Lain-Lain, no decision has been reached on what they should call themselves and the Sabah Government has been silent on the matter. He suggested that the Orang Asal in Sabah be referred to as Momogun just as the Orang Asal in Sarawak would henceforth be known in official forms as Dayak. “The Orang Asal in Sarawak was united in their demand that they be called Dayak.”
He recalled a meeting in Kuching last year, presided over by Federal Minister Joseph Entulu, which was attended by all Dayak-based NGOs including MNC. “There was a historic declaration that the Natives of Sarawak, the Orang Asal, be recognized by the term Dayak in official forms.”
“No such decision was taken in the case of the Orang Asal – Dusunic, Murutic and Paitanic — groupings in Sabah.”
The Sabah Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment, he noted, was supposed to be working on a term for the Orang Asal in the state. “I believe that the Ministry has not completed its work although it has initiated discussions with the Sabah Cultural Board.”
“The MNC would like to be part of the process.”
It’s important, added Henrynus, that the people be consulted on what they are going to be called. “Any discussion or conclusion reached on the question of a national identity in official forms for the Natives of Sabah should be transparent.”
“The citizens should be allowed to express themselves.”
Bingkor Assemblyman Jeffrey Kitingan heads the Borneo Dayak Forum (BDF) which has since resolved that just as the Natives in Kalimantan are called Dayak, the Orang Asal in Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei should likewise be called Dayak since all of them form the same nation within the nation-states of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. BDF is a pan-Borneo NGO which has been active across both sides of the border.
The late Fuad Stephens, pushed during his time as Huguan Siou (Paramount Chief) and first Chief Minister, for the term Kadazan (urban Dusun) to cover all Dusun including the majority who were in the rural areas. The efforts came to naught when the Dusun rejected the term Kadazan. The term Kadazan excluded the Murut, the other Orang Asal grouping in Sabah who is not related to the Murut in Sarawak and who are now known as Lun Bawang.