By Brad Rantayy
MIRI, March 13: Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau urged Kayan and Kenyah community leaders to use best practices when it come to nominating candidates for village headmen posts.
This would prevent bickering and division between longhouse dwellers, he said.
“Since 2011, splits among longhouse folks do take place because of this matter,” Dennis revealed during the opening of a two-day workshop for community leaders to draft a Kayan ‘Adat’ guidebook yesterday.
The workshop aims to redefine the content of the ‘Adat’ guidebook so as to ensure that it remains relevant to the community today.
Dennis also reminded the Kayan community leaders to always update their village profile and submit them to the District Office and work closely with all government agencies including their elected representatives.
Also present was Kayan paramount leader Temenggong Elizabeth Deng, Nicholas Jok from Majlis Adat Sarawak and nearly 20 local Kayan community leaders.
On another note, Dennis has also reiterated his call to the State government to establish the position of community leader for the Kayan community in Miri, Kuching, Sibu and Bintulu.
“Perhaps, we could start with Miri as we have completed the population study on the Kayan back in 2017,” he said.
The population study revealed there were some 5,000 Kayan community members residing in Miri at the time and the number might have since increased up to 10,000. — DayakDaily
