Part 2: The Formation of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS)
Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) was a political party in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia. It was established in 1983, by Datuk Amar (now Tan Sri) Leo Moggie Anak Irok, after seceding from Sarawak National Party (SNAP) following his loss in the contest for the SNAP’s president post against Datuk Amar, James Wong Kim Ming. PBDS (Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak), a breakway of SNAP in Sarawak state election in 1987, won 15 seats while its Permas won only 5 seats. Overall, the Sarawak National Front won 28 constituencies with PBB 14; SUPP 11 and SNAP 3.[1] In both cases, SNAP and PBDS (both parties now defunct) joined the Malaysian National Front (Barisan Nasional) as the ruling coalition. The party was dissolved twice, firstly in 2003 and secondly in 2004 due to leadership crisis between Datuk Daniel Tajem as the PBDS president and Dr James Jemut Masing as the challenger.
The dissolution of PBDS led to the formation two offshoot parties; one is 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 while another Malaysian Dayak Congress (MDC) failed to be registered by the Registrar of Societies (ROS). Meanwhile, there was also an attempt to revive PBDS and it was finally successfully approved and re-registered as Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (Baru)
The Birth of Dayakism
In 1983, the leadership crisis in SNAP came to a boiling point when the party expelled Daniel Tajem, who was Monggie’s strongest ally and also Sarawak’s Deputy Chief Minister, due to his involvement in the campaign against SNAP official candidate in 1982 election. Despite his expulsion from the party, Daniel Tajem refused to resign from his cabinet post. At the same time, Taib also refused to intervene, allowing Daniel Tajem temporarily in the Sarawak Cabinet although he was not SNAP member anymore. Taib decision was right, he sees the charisma and leadership in Daniel Tajem. If Taib, expel him from his cabinet, the Sarawak politic will be in chaos.
The PBDS was formed in 1983 when it split from the Sarawak National Party (SNAP). The SNAP had been part of a coalition government (Sarawak Barisan) and represented the interests of the Dayak community. However, in 1980, a dispute arose over who would succeed President Datuk Dunstan Endawie when he resigned. The most likely candidate was the then Deputy President, Datuk James Wong (a Chinese), but a faction of young highly educated Iban members protested that SNAP, as a Dayak-based party, should nominate a Dayak as President. However, the senior Iban members, whose educational level was relatively low, supported the Chinese candidate because they did not want to see their influence in the party challenged by the young educated generation.This incidence was seen as a confrontation between “multi-racialism” promoters and Dayak sympathizers on the one hand, and as friction between different generations on the other. In short, it was a combination of political and ethnic strife within the party that led to a confrontation among the Dayak (mostly Iban) members. As a result, the young Iban members were defeated by the faction favoring the Chinese candidate at the party’s general meeting in 1981, so the younger members broke away from SNAP to organize a new Dayak-based party, the PBDS, in 1983.
The new Dayak Party led by Leo Monggie and Daniel Tajem became the party’s Deputy President. The formation of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak had left a significant landmark in Sarawak political landscape. The Dayak sees the party as a ‘’Warship’’ and the right platform for them to chartered themselves in political arena. Joseph Tawi, the author of The Broken Shield, described the formation of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) as the Birth of Dayakism. According to him, the idea of the formation of PBDS came from Daniel Tajem. He labelled PBDS as race dominance party adopting the concepts of UMNO, MCA and MIC in Peninsular, in which, the political landscape based on race. With the Dayak population is the biggest majority in Sarawak, Daniel Tajem sees PBDS might became the leading character in Sarawak politic. Therefore, the need to have larger sense identify combined with the notion of indigenousness was important of political reasons. This led to the emergence of the term Dayak. Following Tajem and Moggie into PBDS were Dayak Ministers in Sarawak Cabinet, State Assemblymen namely, Dr. James Jemut Masing, Datuk Sandah, Edmund Langgu Anak Saga, Gramong Juna, Ambrose Gramong, Edwin Tangkun and some independent candidate such as Joseph Mauh Ikeh and Harrisson Ngau Laing. Although Daniel Tajem seen as a charismatic and influential leader amongst the Dayaks, but, they are lacked on analytical thinking (political calculation) which led he and Moggie made a wrong judgement and applied to be part of national BN component.
Source : Dayak Baru Agenda
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