STU wants more attention given to Sarawak indigenous people
MIRI: Sarawak Teachers Union ( STU) urges both the federal and state governments to pay more attention to several issues concerning the wel fare and interest of the indigenous people in Sarawak.
Its president Jisin Nyud said this was one of the six resolutions STU came up with at its workshop on Indigenous People’s Rights, which ended yesterday.
“We want the government to look into some of the issues on indigenous people, especially the Dayaks,” he stated in a press conference at Mega Hotel here, where the workshop was held.
Among the related issues that STU was particularly concerned about, Jisin pointed out, was identity documents for students.
“There are a quite number of indigenous students who till now do not have proper and complete identity documents, either birth certificate or identity card.
“Without such proper identity documents, students who have completed their formal education are unable to further their studies at higher level due to their nonMalaysian citizenship status. In addition to that, these students from poor family background are also not entitled to enjoy the welfare and education assistance provided by the government.”
Hence, he urged the government to urgently formulate a friendly and effective mechanism on how to resolve the problem, which had been long outstanding.
On other issues, he said STU hoped to see equal employment opportunity for indigenous people in the civil service, both at state and federal level, and urged the Education Ministry to revise school history books, which lack emphasis on indigenous people besides giving more opportunities for indigenous students to enter institutions of higher learning.
In addition to that, he said STU also wanted Sarawak government to appoint representatives from indigenous groups to sit in the management board of Yayasan Sarawak and the government to further develop remote areas in the state which are mostly populated by indigenous people so that they could enjoy basic infrastructure and amenities, and spur more economic activities.
The three- day workshop, organised by global federation of teachers’ trade unions - Education International ( EI) – was attended by 27 members of STU.
Held since Friday, the workshop was conducted by Pathma Krishnan, EI’s Asia Pacific representative based in Kuala Lumpur.