KUCHING: Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) which claims to be the sole bona fide Dayak political platform is calling all Dayaks to unite through the party in order to strengthen the community.
Its president Bobby William said all Sarawakian Dayaks, regardless of their religious background who have a clean track record are invited to join the party.
“The invitation is also extended to those Dayaks in Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).
“However, they have to be clean and free from corruption and land scandal issues.
“We believe that Dayaks must be united to bring PBDS Baru to a much greater height, in order to safeguard the rights of the Dayaks and Sarawak,” he said.
Bobby reiterated that PBDS Baru did not belong to him but to all Sarawak Dayaks, adding that as the party president, he would uphold and ensure that PBDS Baru would be the platform for the Dayaks to unite and voice out their views on Dayak issues and agenda.
“PBDS was formed by a group of Dayaks to articulate the Dayak cause and so was named Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak.
“A group of Dayak intellectuals in 1983 led by Tan Sri Leo Moggie and the late Daniel Tajem had formed this party. It is a Dayak-based party and I hold the view that it should be such,” said Bobby.
“We shall be generals instead of foot soldiers. The choice is yours (Dayaks) either to rule or to be ruled. In any democratic country, majority should rule. We (Dayaks) are the majority in Sarawak. Thus, we need Dayaks to unite to bring back PBDS into mainstream politics,” stressed Bobby.
Meanwhile PBDS Baru secretary general Julius Enchana said a major problem of the Dayaks today is political fragmentation where the community is spread thinly among all the parties in the state.
“They are even in the non-Dayak parties that pass themselves off as multi-racial, but which give only scant attention to issues plaguing the Dayaks either out of ignorance or political convenience,” he said.
PBDS was established in 1983 by Datuk Amar (now Tan Sri) Leo Moggie Irok, who broke away from Sarawak National Party (SNAP) following his loss in the contest for the SNAP’s president post to Datuk Amar James Wong Kim Min.
PBDS won 15 seats in Sarawak state election in 1987. The party was dissolved twice, firstly in 2003 and secondly in 2004 due to leadership crisis between Datuk Daniel Tajem and Dr James Jemut Masing.
The dissolution of PBDS led to the formation two offshoot parties; Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) led by Datuk Dr James Jemut Masing and Datuk Sng Chee Hua which was successfully registered and admitted into Barisan Nasional in 2004 while Malaysian Dayak Congress (MDC) failed to be registered by the Registrar of Societies (ROS).
Meanwhile, the attempt to revive PBDS was finally approved when Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (Baru) was approved by the ROS in 2013.
