For our Dayak brothers and sisters, this is a well-deserved time to celebrate. Traditionally, the harvest is safely in, and the planting season is still a couple of months or so away. For those living in urban areas and overseas, this is the time to celebrate their culture and underline their proud heritage.
For Sarawak and Sabah, and indeed Malaysia, this is also a time to join in the celebration, to underline and reiterate the richness of our multi-ethnic, multilingual, and multicultural society, particularly in Sarawak where the Dayak community with its various ethnic groups is a very important and significant part of our population.
For our entire society, it is a time to celebrate peace and harmony, and particularly the acceptance in which we all live, regardless of creed, social status, and ethnicity.
The world has indeed truly become a global village with instantaneous communication to anywhere in the world. There is a growing flow of people between nations through immigration, emigration, sourcing educational facilities and employment in other countries, escaping from poverty, persecution, civil unrest, societal inequities, and discrimination, as well as actively seeking better prospects for oneself and one’s family. This need to explore, experience, and settle in the wider world has been going on ever since Homo sapiens have lived on this planet. It is unstoppable, notwithstanding national boundaries.
So for our entire society, I would like to suggest Gawai Dayak Day is a day when we can also reflect on the fact that we are all part of the world community, but unlike so many countries in the world, here peace, harmony, and acceptance prevail. In the traditional open houses of various festivals, everyone, even strangers, and people who may not wish us well, are all welcome. No one in Sarawak or Sabah has ever refused to welcome anyone from anywhere, living next door or living thousands and thousands of miles away. All ethnic groups, without exception. I am extremely proud of this tradition. We have known of cases of people from Sarawak traveling to attend events outside Borneo were told the event was not for them! But the same people, when visiting Sarawak, were taken care of and lavishly entertained. These images of both Sarawak and Sabah are truly unique.
The Dayak community has contributed much to the peace, security, and progress of Sarawak like other ethnic groups. They have served this country loyally and well all these years. And on this special day, let’s drink a toast to all our Dayak friends and also multiethnic friends in Sabah.
I wish them and their loved ones, wherever they may be, Selamat Gawai Dayak and Happy Harvest Festival and a great, peaceful, and successful year ahead of them.
