Jatti Miriek community confident of being officially recognised as an ethnic group
MIRI: A new player may soon make it to Sarawak’s already colourful demographics if the ethnic group’s application to be recognised as a race gets the state government’s approval.
The Jatti Miriek community, said to be one of the oldest ethnic communities in the country, may be one step closer to being officially recognised as one of the ethnic groups in the state following positive response from the state government.
A confident Miri Jatti Miriek Association secretary Ujut Rahman said the association had received a WhatsApp message from Antonio Kahti Galis, the director of the Administration Unit of the Sarawak Chief Minister’s Department, on Dec 8 stating that the association’s official application had been sent “to the top management for further consideration”.
” Our association is hopeful that the Sarawak government can speed up the process and finally recognise us as an ethnic community by next year. “
“Our association is hopeful that the Sarawak government can speed up the process and finally recognise us as an ethnic community by next year which has been a life-long dream for us,” he told Bernama here yesterday.
Ujut said a letter to seek official recognition was forwarded to Antonio last March 21 with an official reply sent to the association on April 27.
“We want official ethnic recognition from the Sarawak government for the sake of our younger generation so that they know the existence of Jatti Miriek, historically and culturally,” he said
Ujut said with the official recognition, it would make it much easier for the community to deal with official matters such as applying for government scholarships as well as filling application forms.
In general, there are six major ethnic groups in Sarawak: Iban, Chinese, Malay, Bidayuh, Orang Ulu, Melanau and several minor ethnic groups placed collectively under ‘Others’, such as Indian, Eurasian, Kedayan, Javanese, Bugis, Murut and many more.
In terms of sub-ethnic groups, Sarawak has more than 40, each with its own distinct language, culture and lifestyle.
On Nov 30, Bernama reported that the close-knit community of Jatti Miriek had been longing to be recognised as one of the ethnic groups in the state as currently the community is categorised as Sarawak Malays in the race column on government application forms, unlike other minority ethnic communities such as the Kayan and Kenyah.
For the record, Jatti Miriek is said to be one of the oldest communities in the country that came to Sarawak about 200 or 300 years ago and that the word “Miri” originated from Miriek.
The Miriek people number about 10,000 and they reside mainly in northern Sarawak and Brunei, with many having successfully ventured into business or working in the public and private sectors.
The Miriek language, according to researchers, is one of the oldest spoken languages in the world and is on the verge of extinction.
