KUCHING, April 22: Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) claims that the party is going through a tough time as it is facing criticism from both Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH).
“Tremendous heat (has been) poured upon PBDSB which had been the talk on social media like Facebook.
“The hard hitters like PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) and DAP (Democratic Action Party) Sarawak Dayak members are very sarcastic about the entire scenario. They are insulting and accusing PBDSB as being the interveners in PH goals to win the election in Sarawak,” said its president Cobbold John Lusoi.
This, to Cobbold, shows that PBDSB is able to “cause a stir within the Dayak communities”.
He also asked those who criticised the party to decide whether PBDSB is a “peasant party”, “mosquito party” or one that should be responsible to split the votes of either the BN ruling coalition or the opposition coalition.
“PBDSB has always been subjected to all sorts of accusations from both sides. It is not a surprise at all. What are the rural farmers if compares to urban corporate players?
“PBDSB has not changed its Dayakism initiative ever since the deregistered PBDS days. The difference is that now, PBDSB is not funded by a tycoon or ‘taukey’, but by the Dayak community’s funding.
“Are we (PBDSB) a racist party? Who says? We are a Dayak-based party. All Muslim Dayaks, Buddhist Dayaks, Christian Dayaks, etc, are most welcome to joined us. It has nothing to do with racism. The Dayaks have issues unresolved and PBDSB is just the platform to voice it out. If not us, who will? If not now, when?” asked Cobbold.
He said PBDSB refused to support the ruling coalition and the opposition because it has its own stand.
“PBDSB has never opposed for the sake of just opposing. We only oppose wrongdoings and unfairness. What is right, we support and what is wrong, we oppose, simple as that,” said Cobbold.
When being asked about PH members’ comments that PBDSB was totally irrelevant to this current national election and should just stick to the state election instead, Cobbold said the upcoming 14th General Election was very relevant to PBDSB.
“We (Dayak) have been categorized under the racial description of “Lain-Lain” (Others) and do not have the general recognition of our own tribal group/race for the past 54 years.
“Now that Dayaks are also building their careers in Malaya, we too need recognition as Sarawakian natives/ indigenous. Being categorized under Bumiputera is just a general description of being a native Malaysian but we as Dayak, we need our own racial recognition, because we are considered the majority ethnic race from Sarawak.”
To do so, Cobbold said PBDSB has to stand in the upcoming election and appealed to PH members to be the “bigger” people by giving the little “peasant mosquito party” a chance to represent Dayak in Parliament. — DayakDaily
