KUCHING: The Dayak Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) has written to the State Secretary to ask for a meeting to discuss bumiputera participation in various economic sectors.
DCCI president Datuk Leonard Martin Uning said they were prepared to work with the state secretary, State Financial Secretary, and the director of the Sarawak Economic Planning Unit to come up with a mechanism to realise Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg’s vision for the bumiputera business community.
“As bumiputera participation issues have been discussed in the Bumiputera Steering Committee consisting of Sarawak Chamber of Bumiputera Entrepreneurs (DUBS), Sarawak Malay National Association (PKMS), and DCCI, I am quite certain that all the bumiputera chambers will come on board,” he said at a press conference at the DCCI office here today.
Earlier on Monday, the chief minister announced that the State Financial Secretary Office had been directed to develop a formula whereby certain jobs are allocated to bumiputera, adding that the state government intended to nurture and improve bumiputera participation in all economic sectors.
Leonard expressed gratitude towards Abang Johari for his commitment in this matter.
He said the Dayak community was concerned about the serious and persistent economic disparities that continue to exist between rural and urban populations, between bumiputera and non-bumiputera, and between the emergence of economic powerhouses and the rest of the
population.
“We are therefore of the view that efforts should be made to address these disparities as these may lead to discontentment which can in turn undermine our racial harmony.
“A balanced wealth distribution policy is necessary to achieve the desired economic target of equitable wealth ownership and productive capacity of 30 percent for bumiputera together with all the measures to be implemented to ensure the restructuring of society agenda for Sarawak will be achieved towards a high-income economy by 2030.”
He said there was a growing awareness that some form of structural change and transformation would have to take place in Sarawak if the Dayak business community were to be able to catch up with the progress achieved by other communities.
“Transformation, from the Dayak perspective, simply means a desire to have a better future.
“For the majority of Dayaks, especially those in the rural areas, a better future is the desire to have better income, better livelihood, and being able to reap economic prosperity on a more sustainable basis and to lift them up from the bottom rung of the economic ladders, namely from B40 (low income) to middle class economic status.”
For the Dayak business community, Leonard said it was not beyond their expectation to have a fair share of the economic cake and other opportunities created through the government’s development programmes.
He noted that based on the Household Census 2010, the Bumiputera population in Sarawak made up 75.4 percent of the total population, comprising the Ibans (30.5 percent), Malays (24.4 percent), Bidayuhs (8.4 percent), Orang Ulu (6.7 percent), and Melanaus (5.4 percent).
However, he said there were no statistics on the percentage of corporate equity held by the Sarawak bumiputera.
He said that from the perspective of the Dayak business community, there was firm realisation that the main strategies of the New Economic Policy (NEP) 1970 on the restructuring of the Malaysian society had not been successfully achieved for the bumiputera community in Sarawak.
“(The main strategies of NEP 1970) include that the bumiputera should own and manage at least 30 percent equity of the corporate sector and that there was a need to create a Bumiputera Commercial and Industrial Community (BCIC).”
Also present were DCCI deputy president Kilat Beriak, treasurer-general Bell Bernard Aggan, supreme council member Leonard Jambu, Datuk Allan Keripin Nangkai and others.
