The Symposium
Having the symposium is good. People can share idea. Voice out their opinion. It has been done regularly every 5 years. Our people also expect something out of it. Not just a resolution in paper. Mulut nyebut patong enda nyaut. I got the resolutions from the last two symposium And it was taken from "The Sarawak Museum Journal". Patut aku enda nemu ngelama tu, ko ati aku, nya diengkah urang ba muzeum. Furthermore, kitai bansa kurang bendar tempat endor nyibar sereta ngerembai ke berita. I believe that a copy of the resolutions were given to various party, especially the relevant party or department or association.
The Dead Resolution
In general, the resolutions that were made during the Iban Cultural symposiums were not concrete enough. Written in such a way that not much committment were made to the resolutions. Written by someone who did not want to be committed to what he/she wrote. None of the 31 resolutions from the three symposiums had any deadline. I believe that's why most of the resolutions were dead. Also lack of the ownership or the "who". Not much can be accomplished if there is no deadline and no ownership.
Unknown Achievement
I did ask them to have one paper presented on the achievement or accomplishment or the status of the resolution of the previous two symposium but they said I can ask such question during the symposium itself. In my mind, I said, "that is not being proactive". Or maybe sida enggai nyebut nya laban not much has been accomplished. I also informed YB Ujang that there should be a paper mainly on education and he said I can raise the issue of education in the discussion session when appropriate.
Opinion From Participant Not Considered
During the symposium, there was very limited time to ask question or to voice opinion. At any one time, there are more than 10 people raising their hands. I thought that the resolution will be drafted by taking into consideration the idea from the participant. I thought that the participant can one way on another, influence the content of the resolutions. But this was not what happen. The resolution for the third Iban Seminar was written on the evening of the first day when only two papers has been presented. Another 4 papers were presented in the second day. It was kind of insulting the participant who were trying their best to voice out their opinion and yet not being considered at all. I did ask the committee on how they select the participant for the symposium and they told me that they will select those who can participate. And yet the attendees' opinion, participation and idea were not considered.
Do Not Accept The Truth
The first paper was very hard to understand, and I believe most people in that seminar room did not understand what that guy was presented, including myself. He put up an overhead which was crowded, unclear and messy. This guy was being asked to present his paper to replace Dr Jayum's paper which was banned from the seminar. I have read an overview of Dr Jayum's paper and I strongly agree with the content. In short, it says "Suba Remaong Diatu Raong" and deliberates on what kind of leaders do we need so we could repeat the powerful history of the Ibans. The seminar theme is New Reality but they refused to accept the reality.
The First Symposium
The first symposium resolutions in Kapit, as you have read, can be summarised as follow :
How Much Can We Get From Pua Kumbu & Ngajat?
All of those resolutions were regarding our traditions & culture. How much can we get from it?. Where can such resolutions bring us to? In term of this culture, it seem our people are being dragged by this culture. We could have been a more develop society if we have been stressing on education as much as on culture. Can't our leaders see what happen to the society that stressed a lot on culture? Red Indian of America for example. Aborigines of Australia.
Animal in Zoo
Our people are one of the main attraction in Sarawak to promote tourism. People bring in the tourist. We perform our culture. People see. Give us money. Just enough for us to survive so that we can perform again. Exaggerate it, we are the animals in the zoo. People give us banana so that we can dance like a monkey. They get the entrance fee, our people get a banana. They take photo and sell it as a postcards. That is unfair. But what can our people do? They are less educated. Our leader have not shown to our people the way. Maybe they are with those people taking profit from the Iban that act like an animal in the zoo. Maybe that is why our leader has not been stressing as much as they should on education. They afraid that there are no more monkey for tourist to see. Because once we are educated, we do not want to be in the zoo. Not only that. We will be capable of telling them what to do and may be they get jealous. Feel uneasy or downgraded from VIP to Very Insulted Person, if we tell them how to do things. What our leader should do are to show our people how to make big money from our culture. Then we can call them Yang Berkhidmat (YB). In Hawaii, their cultural village, posted a big sign, saying that the entrance fee will be used for the education of the Hawaiian indegenious people.
The Second Symposium
We look at the second symposium. The no-deadline resolutions can be summarized as follow:
Not Much Different
The resolutions were not much different from the first one; only being written in a difference way or wordings. The look-like-new resolutions were the resolutions no.1 (education) and no. 8 (Tuak & Manok). What has been accomplished; hard to say. Because these resolutions were unmeasurable and no deadline.
Third Cultural Seminar.
First of all, was this a seminar or symposium or conference? Those three English words are different. What we had in Bintulu was in fact a conference. Anyway, it maybe OK since none of the committee member of the seminar was PhD in English. The resolutions also not much different from the second seminar, and can be summarised as follow:-
Is This It?
After independent for over 35 years and after joining Malaysia for almost 30 years, are those the resolutions that we expect to see? If this year is 1963, will that be the kind of resolutions that we expect to work on in 35 years down the road?
Why only after 30 years that we want to form an advisory panel (Resolution 1)? Only now we want the government to provide business opportunities (Resolution 2)? This Resolution 2 has been mentioned in the previous symposium. Only when our land has been bulldozed, then we want to review the term & condition? I guess it is okay. Munyi ko urang, late is better than never. And this also tell us the kind of leader that used to lead us. And certainly we need different type of leader to bring our people to the future.
Baru Nemu Diatu
Preserving our arts or culture - what do we get from it? This has been the most common resolution for all the three symposium. People are looking into how to produce genieus brains and we are still struggling to stop the drop-outs (Resolution 5)? Ujang has been mentioning this same thing some time ago and keep on mentioning it when now we should have a solution ready to be implemented. They spent thousand of dollars, I think, in making the survey of drop-out. They only realise now!! I and most people realise this problem happen to our Iban community long time ago and our leader only realise now. Survey after survey on our poverty (Resolution 6)? By the time the survey is completed, people almost forget about what the survey are for. Maybe they can make use of the survey for teh coming election. Baka ke survey jalai ngagai menua kami ke Ulu Lemanak - urang ari upis perintah nurun nyukat jalai kin maia sereta enggau aku ke nurun sekula, lalu diatu aku udah lebih sepuloh taun badu sekula, bedau meh bisi jalai alun.
We need more chief (Resolution 7)? We do not have enough chief or we do not have quality chief? Rather than spending more money in paying more chief, I think they should invest the money in training the present chief. Why do we need to call the organisation to review their roles in this seminar - is this resolution 8 neccessary to be call for in this seminar?
Most Boring Speakers
There were few speakers during the symposium and the most boring speaker were Leo Moggie & James Masing. The two of them were reading from the handout, as if the audience did not know how to read. That I consider humiliating. This is not 1960s. All the participant of the symposium know how to read. Ngemeliq ke urang ke datai maia nya. Kelia, maia aku primary satu primary dua, suah bala pengajar macha ke kami cherita, enda nyalah nyalah baka Leo enggau James ke macha paper seduai ba mua bala maioh maia symposiumnya. Bear in mind that people who read seldom mean what they say, because they say base on what is written but not what they meant to be or in short, not from their heart.
Exceptional Rich Tekuyong Jipun.
James Masing ngasoh kitai nunda tekuyong Jipun. Enti siko udah belaboh niki, sida ke ari baroh lalu ngasor ti ngujong ke iya datai di atas. That is exactly what they want us to do. Nyagu ke sida ke atas and when they reach the top, exactly baka tek uyong Jipun, never know how to narit urang ke agi tinggal di baroh. Udah nya Joseph Entulu madah ke iya semina deka nulong enti iya udah exceptional rich. I do not know whether there is an exceptional rich Iban. Certainly not Entulu. Enda ulih anti kitai tulong ari Entulu laban he can never be exceptional rich.
Apple Polisher
Jabu spoke from his heart laban iya enda macha, and what he said tell the audience who he is. Speech Jabu maia symposium nya bisi ke bepuloh-puloh kali muji Taib Mahmud. Jabu was making used of the symposium kena muji muja Taib. Far too much. Is that the type of leader that we need? I believe we need a leader who dare to die for our Iban people.
Datuk Linggi Jugah
I salute Datuk Linggi Jugah for the personality he potrayed during the symposium. He spoke from his heart. He did not presented any paper during the symposium but his speech seem to be what people remember. He seem to have the leadership style that we need in order to bring our Iban to the future. He is the leader that we want.
I think I have to end here.
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