Aidi had made the announcement in Tawau yesterday.
He said it was unfair for the Bugis and Javanese in Sabah not to be considered natives since they have lived here for a long time, even before the formation of Malaysia.
However, Aidi’s statement did not go down well with other native leaders in Sabah.
Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR) president Jeffrey Kitingan said under the Federal Constitution, a native is “a person who is a citizen, is the child or grandchild of a person of a race indigenous to Sabah, and was born (whether on or after Malaysia Day or not) either in Sabah or to a father domiciled in Sabah at the time of the birth.
“The critical phrase in the definition is ‘a person of a race indigenous to Sabah’.
“Since the Bugis and Javanese are not indigenous to Sabah, they cannot be considered natives,” he said.
The Kadazan Dusun Cultural Association (KDCA) deputy president said by Aidi’s logic, the Bugis and Javanese, despite not being indigenous to Sabah, should be considered natives because they have been here prior to the formation of Malaysia.
He said by the same token, the Chinese should also be given native status because they have been here longer.
He described the sudden step to make the Bugis and Javanese natives as a ridiculous knee-jerk reaction that has no rationale or foundation.
“By raising this contentious and possibly incendiary issue, the people have become even more convinced that there is a grand conspiracy to edge out the indigenous peoples of Sabah and make them a minority group,” he said.
Sino-KDM also upset
The proposal also left the Sabah Sino Kadazan Dusun Murut (Sino-KDM) Association fuming, especially because the Sino-KDM people have been waiting for years to get themselves recognised as natives of Sabah.
The association’s information chief Jerry Goh said he was disheartened that a minister could be so insensitive in issuing such a statement.
“Bugis and Javanese people were never natives of Borneo. How can they be eligible to be considered as such and then enjoy all the privileges that Sabah natives enjoy?
“A minister should think wisely before speaking.”
Meanwhile, Warisan has distanced itself from the statement with the party’s secretary-general, Loretto Padua, stating that Aidi was only giving his personal opinion on the matter.
“His (Aidi’s) statement was made without informing the party’s leadership beforehand.
“He is free to express his personal opinion, but the public should know that the issue was never discussed at the party level.”
The prickly issue of who is a native in Sabah is due to the fact that most of the big ethnic groups, including the Kadazan-Dusun and Murut, are not explicitly listed in the Sabah Interpretation (Definition of Native) Ordinance 1958.
The ordinance explicitly mentions only five ethnic groups as natives — the Suluk, Kagayan, Simonol, Sibutu and Ubian, all of whom are to be found mainly in the east coast areas.
Many benefits accrue to those listed as natives, not least being in land ownership and the right to claim certain lands under native customary rights.
A non-native Sabahan can only own “country lease” lands while a native can apply for native title lands, usually meant for agriculture.
At present, the Kadazan-Dusun, Murut, Bajau, Bisaya, Rungus, Lotud and many other groups are lumped into two sub-clauses of the Interpretation Ordinance but the names of their particular ethnic groups are not mentioned.
Efforts in the past to list the various native ethnic groups were shelved due to controversies when other ethnic groups, whose origins do not lie in Sabah, also demanded that they be included as natives in the ordinance.