Datuk Prof Dr Jayum Jawan
KUCHING (May 12): Community leaders, particularly longhouse chiefs, must be consulted first before any suggestions on allowing Ibans living in urban areas to be buried in village cemeteries in their hometown, said Datuk Prof Dr Jayum Jawan.
He said a few individuals in the Majlis Adat Istiadat Sarawak (Mais) could not be allowed to make wild suggestions just to resolve land scarcity or escalating cost of living in urban areas.
“Community leaders, especially those well-versed in Iban Adat (customs) and traditions, must be fully consulted first,” he said in response to Mais’ proposal to allow Ibans living in urban areas to be buried in longhouse or village cemeteries in their hometowns.
The Academy of Sciences Malaysia fellow said the proposal was “baffling” as funeral events involving urban Ibans were organised and fine.
“I thought living is tough enough for the Ibans… I did not realise dying is equally problematic.”
He said the proposal may address a problem, but it had far-reaching implications.
“This may continue a dangerous precedence of giving away traditional power and authority of community leaders to civil authority.
“Is the implication that Ibans in urban areas are not Ibans because they do not have longhouse domicile? This can become an issue if such authority is endorsed. Then, the Iban will continue to lose power and authority over their own matters,” he said.
He added the loss over the authority of electing their own ‘tuai rumah’ (longhouse chiefs) to the government was a grim reminder that such an approach to problem-solving was not to be taken lightly.
Last Saturday, community leader Temenggong Nelson Kloni Kanang said that MAIS, under the newly revised Adat Iban, had proposed allowing Ibans living in urban areas to be buried in longhouse or village cemeteries amid rising funeral costs and limited burial spaces in towns and cities.
Nelson had said the proposal would help ease the financial burden faced by urban Iban families.
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