UNITING THE MURUTS VIA BMNO

By : BMNO MEDIA

WE ARE fortunate to live in a country, which grants us the perfect freedom of speech and expression, the freedom to profess our social beliefs or religions and the freedom of associations to administer our cultural, social, ethnical or political associations, clubs, unions or organisations designed with their own noble intentions.

With reference to this fundamental democratic rights, No Citizen should therefore be deprived of this liberty in question, as spelt out very clearly under The Federal Constitution except those infused and instilled with subversive elements considered detrimental to the security of the Nation.

Over the years, the creation of several communal associations let alone the Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Sabah have been cropping up in numbers with clear conscience, not merely to reflect the presence of their races as part of the State’s population.

But any legally registered social, communal, cultural or sports entity let alone, the political parties, could occasionally be used as the platforms that would speak or ‘Yell’ with stern rational voices or ‘Shouts’ on behalf of the respective communities in the process of expressing their discontentment over certain matters of public interest to the government of the day in conformity with the principle of Democracy.

The recent formation of The Borneo Murut Native Organisation (BMNO) is no exception at all and it formation is justifiable for a number of reasons despite there being an existing Murut communal entity formed more than a decade ago known as the Persatuan Murut Sabah (PMS).

Specifically, BMNO Constitution spelt out very clearly that it will accept not merely the ethical Muruts in Sabah, but membership are open to those living in Brunei , Sarawak and the three Indonesian provincial territories of Kalimantan as well.

Hence, the wisdom of choosing the four significant alphabets to create the acronyms BMNO is perfectly coined to match with its transparent and broader scopes of memberships to other regions, where the Muruts have made permanent settlements, outside or beyond its traditional home base in Sabah.

The fact is the population of the Muruts communities found living in Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei, combined together may not even reach the 500,000 marks, but with the inclusion of their brothers and sisters living in West, East and Central Kalimantan, where they are known as the ‘Orang Ulu’, their populations statistics could be in the range of almost a million, as the Muruts communities form 8 % out of the whole Ten millions populations within the three Indonesian territorial provinces of Kalimantan.

The vocal Datuk Dr Bernard Maarat, the former Member of Pensiangan is the prime mover and instrumental to the inception of BMNO. The registration of the organisation was approved by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) and officially launched on Saturday 19th Feb 2011 in Keningau, where the organisation’s head quarter is located.

The paradox is, the advent of BMNO did stir some atmosphere of suspicions from somewhere hinting that this newly formed Murut organisation would pose a challenge or might overlap the objectives of the existing Persatuan Murut Sabah (PMS), which was incorporated over a decade ago but keeping very low profiles all these years for unknown reasons.

It is only fair that the Murut Communities need another communal club of their own without the intention of competing with the existing entity for One specific ground, the new Murut generations in particular are well aware of the benefit that they would get through the medium of social integration closer to the tide and ebb of modernisation.

The new Muruts generations mostly choose to be with BMNO viewing the fact that this communal club is incorporated based upon the inspiring concepts of ‘The Way Forward‘. They need recognition of their communal participation and representation in any field of National Development Programme set by the government of the day.

On the broader screen, they want to have a fair share of the fruits of our State’s Robust Economic Growth achieved via Independence through the Federation of Malaysia since 1963.

Generally, BMNO is formed purely based upon the concepts, which were designed with the destiny, firstly to foster social integration with other existing associations, clubs or organisations regardless of their communal affiliations in the State and secondly to explore the feasible solutions towards improving the livelihood of the Murut communities via the effort of upgrading their children’s educational standard and economic status quo along with the social aim of attaining cultural advancement, as a whole in the long run, which maybe parallel to the objectives of the existing PMS, which has string of memberships that comprised mostly from the local Murut communities in Sabah unlike the BMNO.

This is the significant difference between the two Muruts’ communal entities, while they shared identical objectives as far as matters which focus on the transformation of the Muruts’ Social & Economic development is concerned, regardless of their tribal groups be they The Baukans, The Nabais, The Paluans, The Kolods, The Selugais, The Sinambus , The Timogons, The Tagals, The Sembukungs and The Kalabakans or The Serudongs etc, whose populations are dominantly found within most South Western and Eastern rural zones of the Sabah.

The Present BMNO committee is pooling their hard efforts together in seeking the most suitable mechanism deem fit to act as the effective catalysts in turning those visions and missions into reality before the next millennium. The Draft Guidelines sought for the implementations of the relevant programmes is in the final stage of accomplishment.

Apart from that BMNO has made the criteria more flexible for the entry of many new generation of Sino Murut keen to be members of the organisation at their own free will. The terminology ‘Sino Muruts’; simply defines that the children born out of the inter marriage between a Murut parent with other race, either one of the parent must be a Murut irrespective of their tribal groups, this terms and conditions of membership eligibility is applicable for every prospective Sinos living in other regions of Borneo as well.

The proposal to establish a chamber of commerce to be known as the BMCC. The Borneo Murut Chamber of Commerce that would soon become a reality one day only if the existing Murut traders could come up with realistic understanding to make this dream come true with the blessing of BMNO in future.

Viewing the fact that The Kadazan & Dusun Communities do have their own Business platform created during the Golden Era of PBS Administration called The Kadazan Dusun Chamber of Commerce (KDCC) via which they have progress with leaps and bounces and flying colours in the business world.

Many of whom have even expanded and diversified into business operations on large scale basis considered on par with many established non bumi’s businessmen, traders, contractors etc State wide.

Ironically, by just a glance of the acronym for The KDCC, one would form an impression that the chamber in question is specially meant for the Kadazan and the Dusuns communities themselves and it does not reflect the desire of representation from the Murut communities at all for a ‘very special reason’ which still remained unexplained until today.

The Murut communities feel that they have been side lined somewhere along the tract that leads the way to the spring board of the business world, but the amusing point is several Kadazan Dusun Murut (KDM) based political parties truly need, have sought and will continue to seek every grain of support from the Murut communities, which mean a lot and vital to them, as the strategic option in maintaining their political strength and axis of influence in several constituencies, where the Muruts dominate in the State.

In a more straight forward phrase, the objective of getting the Muruts to be part of the ingredients in the KDM pie is nothing other than for solid political supports, when it comes to something that sounds business, commerce or trading the Muruts will have to turn their attentions to some other venue for alternative business advisory body themselves.

The current scenario summarised that the Muruts have just being taken for a ride politically and they have yet to see and share the prospects of economic windfalls! Maybe from somewhere.

Would it not be nice if the letter M for Murut be slot in to create the terminology Kadazan Dusun Murut Chamber of Commerce (KDMCC) in the first place to run parallel with the Spirit and Concept of the KDM that was used for the sake of political integration among these three local indigenous races which have common roots and such clouds and air of suspicions among the Muruts would not have cropped up for sure? Only then the significant of the KDM will carry its true meaning and to justify the purpose of its inception politically, socially and economically.

In fact, many Muruts shared similar curious thoughts and have been asking the same question repetitively over and over again and keeping it among themselves for many years, perhaps this is the first time that it is being highlighted publicly, by someone who is affiliated with BMNO, the newly formed communal entity; which now has successfully gathered more than two thousands of registered members from all walks of life and varying ages living mostly in the Interior Residency, since it was launched just six months ago.

The organisation is expected to gather many new members from Tenom, Melalap, Sipitang, Kalabakan, and is scheduled to expand its wings beyond the Land Below The Wind to Sarawak, Brunei and The Indonesian Territorial Provinces of Kalimantan soon.

It is still fresh in our minds, during the recent launching ceremony the President of BMNO, Datuk Dr Bernard Maarat was quoted as saying; “The Government of the day must take serious attention to the welfare of the hardcore poor Murut communities found mostly in the remote Interior.”

Datuk Dr Bernard messages are virtually ‘loud and clear’; no question about it and the far sighted younger generation Muruts do share resembling expectation that the government of the day ought to respect the privileges and the customary rights of the rural communities including the Muruts, who have suffered critically in silence, as the consequences of the horrific land plundering taking place in broad day light within their ancestral home grounds in the Interior.

The present State Leaders have been urged on several occasions by NGOs and Opposition parties, to step in without hesitation, to find the perennial solutions to this social stigmas that have been infesting the Interior land sporadically thus creating a trend that ‘The Sons of The Soils’ would eventually be displaced by the new species or breeds of so called Malaysians, whose citizenry status are believed to have been obtained via dubious means.

If this phenomena turns out to be a reality, the displaced Muruts would take it hard to swallow the facts and neither to bid farewell to their ancestral home grounds to become ‘Refugees’ in their own country.

Whoever is behind the Land Robbing Tsunamis, deserved to be rebuked or reprimanded for their ‘act of treason’ as they appears to have lost their sense of responsibilities and directions in protecting the rights of the indigenous people in the State.

Sensibly, They do not seem to have the slightest humanistic qualms nor the regret at all for having breached the trust that they were vested upon by the peoples through the ballot boxes.

State Leaders including CM Datuk Seri Musa Aman, had played their roles by issuing Communal Grants to thousands of Native Customary Rights (NCR) holders living in the Interior Residency, as the means of protecting the legal status of the land ownerships, which could not be sold neither transferable except by inheritance to their next of kins.

In Theory and Practice, this is the best options of keeping the natives lands from changing hands to outsiders for generations, but at this stage, the whole idea has not been fully understood by the land owners for some known reasons.

In the words of the Late Datuk G.S Sundang, a local leader hailing from Keningau and well known for his strong opposition to the Concept of Malaysia formation in early ‘60’s was quoted as saying during an interview at his residence Jalan Kampong Keningau with Datuk Dr Bernard Maarat, the then Director of Broadcasting with RTM way back in the late ‘80s, Sundang said, “The people of the Interior will always be the victims of exploitations and manipulations, I am afraid what will happen if our rich natural resources diminished and gone forever!”

The fears and alert expressed by the late Datuk Sundang, has truly showed their invasive threats judging from the present status quo of our once rich eco system with its natural forests and the crystal clear rivers and streams, which have now become things of the past.

Retrospectively, the Rundum Rebellion that took place around 1915 that formed part of Sabah’s history is a case in point, whereby by a Murut warrior name Antanom had successfully in uniting the Muruts together to rebel against The North Borneo Chartered Company in defence of their customary rights in those days.

This historic event is an important testimony, whereby The Muruts at one time had shown the test of their patience for the sake of the protecting their ancestral land and other relevant matter that infringed their customary rights brought down by their forefathers, so did Mat Salleh, The Bajau Warrior who staged stiff mutiny against the White Men Rule to protect and safeguard the right of his race, before his death in one of the clashes at Tibabar, Tambunan, where a monument was erected in honour of his heroic struggle for his people.

This is merely a simple recollections of written historical facts about our past patriotic warriors, who lost their lives for the cause of their peoples and worthy of presentation for our living and future generations to ponder till the end of time.