BY JACINTHA JOLENE
KUCHING: The federal Education Ministry has come under flak for omitting Gawai Dayak Festival as a school holiday in this year’s school calendar.
Assistant Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Datuk Snowdan Lawan said the recurring issue was too big to ignore.
“It impacts the sensitivities of the largest spectrum of Sarawak society – the Dayaks”, he said.
Datuk Snowdan was commenting on the omission of Gawai Dayak, which falls on June 1 every year in Sarawak as a school public holiday in the Ministry of Education (MoE) calendar.
“It has been gazetted since 1st June,1965.
“What has caused it to be omitted for the year 2021 and now 2022, again, if not intended,” he lamented.
Snowdan also commented on the professionalism of the drafter of the calendar itinerary and their sensitivity to local festivities in a state like Sarawak that is packed with multi racial ethnicities.
“If the calendar is drafted without consultation to locals, it is self-centred. If it did, professionalism is at stake, with malicious intent and prejudice. It would be hard for the Dayaks to not think likewise,”
Snowdan suggested that to prevent recurrence, a checklist of all festivities should serve as a guide.
“If that is difficult to do then nothing is easy.”
“Do not intentionally ignore these sentiments because it mould sensitivities”, Snowdan advised.
