Sabah To Give Federal Government A Guide To Stop Misclassifying Its Natives

Sabah is working on a definitive list of the state’s large number of ethnic groups to help solve its natives’ long-standing identity woes, notably those with the word “bin” or “binti” in their names, and may also do away with the controversial category “and others” in official government forms.

The guide is expected to list the ethnic and sub-ethnic groups in Sabah of which there are over 30. There are 95 sub ethnic groups of the Kadazan alone. “The exact number is not known. For instance, we found out that there are sub-ethnics groups that now qualify to become a full ethnic group. So there is definitely the possibility that the number of ethnic groups in Sabah will be increased in future,” Masidi said.

The list, to be endorsed by the State Cabinet, will also be used as a guideline for the federal government in reference to classifying Sabahan natives, state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said today, so as not to wrongly classify those with “bin” and “binti” in their names as Muslims.

“A list of resolutions and suggestions to aid classification and identification of Sabahans will be drafted and made available soon. “The hope is that the outcome of this workshop is to produce a list which we can give to the Federal Government to serve as a guideline for future reference,” he told reporters after attending the closing ceremony of a workshop on the classification and identity of Sabahans here.

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Sabahans have a duty to make West Malaysians understand that the use of ‘Bin’ and ‘Binti’ in local names in the State is not indicative of their religion.

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Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun who said this, stressed that West Malaysians and those working at the National Registration Department (NRD) have to be made aware that the use of ‘Bin’ and ‘Binti’ in Sabah was introduced by the British during the colonial era to differentiate between the male and the female amongst the natives.

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“It is similar to the use of the term ‘s/o’ which stands for ‘son of’ and ‘d/o’ which stands for ‘daughter of’ amongst the Indian people in West Malaysia,” he said this in his speech and later during an interview at the closing ceremony of a workshop on the classification and identification of Sabah’s population held at the Ming Garden Hotel and Residences yesterday. He further said that the origin of the terms were Arabic, and reminded that not all Arabs were Moslems.

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“We have received complaints on this matter in the past. But I would describe it as more of a technical problem,” Sabah National Registration Department (NRD) director Ismail Ahmad said.
He said such mistakes occur when some NRD staff, especially non-Sabahans, do not understand the uniqueness of the Sabah people’s names.

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Some 162 cases have been reported of Sabahan native Christians stepping forward with issues of being classified as Muslims in their MyKad, which had caused problems when they tried to register their marriages. The complainants claimed the NRD refused to entertain their requests, telling the complainants to take up their grouses with the Shariah Court.

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This was a concern raised by Sabah Catholic Archbishop John Wong, who was backed by a statement by the Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) Sabah recently for the authorities to respect the Christians rights to practise their faith as guaranteed by the Federal Constitution. Both Christian religious leaders also called on the National Registration Department to rectify the wrong classification of Bumiputera Christians in Sabah as Muslims just because they have the “bin” or “binti” in their names.

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“Sabahans may have a Muslim name, or a ‘bin’ or ‘binti’, but that does not necessarily mean they are a Muslim. So those (NRD staff) who do not understand this would just key in Muslim as their religion, based on their names. “Even some Sabah leaders have Muslim names but they are, in fact, non-Muslims. It’s normal in Sabah." Ismail Ahmad said.

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Masidi said that the “misunderstanding” occurred because of the lack of awareness from Peninsular Malaysians in the National Registration Department (NRD).

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Masidi also said that Sabahans should not worry too much about the term ‘bin’ and ‘binti’ and the problem arising from the use of the two terms were mainly due to the lack of understanding of West Malaysians about Sabah. “They assume that everyone (using ‘bin’ and ‘binti’ with their given name) is a Moslem. We have to make them understand. In India, the term ‘daughter of’ and ‘son of’ is widely used, and when translated to Malay, it becomes ‘binti’ and ‘bin’,” he said.

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“They might assume anyone using the ‘bin’ and ‘binti’ in their names are Muslim,” the state minister said, referring to Peninsular Malaysians, and added, “We have to make them understand this is not the case here.”

The Sabah Cultural Board held a three-day workshop that ended today, to address several issues like identification of ethnicity in birth certificates and identification documents, the “lain lain” race option in forms and the confusion of “bin” and “binti” for non-Muslims.