KUCHING: Sarawak Dayak National Union (SDNU) president Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom invites other Dayaks from the Bidayuh and Orang Ulu communities to join the association.
He said SDNU constitution had been amended to create more seats in the Supreme Executive Council, from 17 to 49, to accommodate members from other races and to reflect its dynamic multi-racialism policy and much needed professional aspect.
“When SDNU was first established 63 years ago, it was an umbrella association for all the Dayak communities, but later on the association was dominated by the Iban, thus witnessed the Bidayuh and Orang Ulu forming their own associations – the Dayak Bidayuh National Association (DBNA) and Orang Ulu National Association (OUNA),” said Mawan, in his speech at SDNU’s 63rd anniversary dinner here last night.
Mawan said SDNU is apolitical organisation, but stressed that it needed to work alongside with the government and must play effective and meaningful role to support and assist the government in its effort to further enhance mainstream development.
He said SDNU is a big organisation with about 25,000 members and needed to open itself to new frontiers given that the young generation’s interests were in economic activities.
“We need the direction that the young generation wants it to be and it has to go alongside with the government.
“We have a lot of programmes, but we need facilities and funding from the government to assist us so that we can develop ourselves and move forward,” added Mawan.
SDNU was officially registered on May 10, 1956 by a group of Dayak leaders in Kuching. Edward Jerah was its first president.
A year later, on May 27, 1957, Serakup Indu Dayak Sarawak (SIDS). It became the women’s wing of SDNU and Barbara Mendu Bay was its first chairman. – Bernama
