The Ordinary Kadazans Will Save The Race

Some may question the truth of the title for this blog. This is written to make concerned Kadazan consider the question of who or which group will, at the end of the day, save the Kadazan Language from extinction.

These are among the possible answers:
i) Kadazan leaders;
ii) KDCA and KSS;
iii) The government via schools;
iv) KLF

v) Kadazans (Dusuns) themselves

The intention of the blog is not to belittle the role of any leader or organisation. 

These have their specific roles to play and these are all important. Each of these has a contribution to make.

Kadazan Leaders

Leaders come and go. Each one has different reasons for becoming leaders. It is not necessarily to help in the survival of the race. There are myriads of reasons for becoming a leader, some noble, some good, some "not so good."

Leaders can play a role by encouraging the people and trying to make them proud of their own people. They can also help by not underming the effort of those who are involved in related activities.

KDCA, KLF and similar bodies

Kadazan or Kadazandusun bodies such as the KDCA, KLF and KSS can play their role as provided for under their respective Constitution.

Each of these organisations have constitutional provision intended to help improve the socio-economic development of the people. If it is to help members, then members must enjoy benefits as members as stated in the rules. This is good for members. And it will be good for the organisation because people would want to become members.

At present, KDCA is the umbrella for every indigenous tribal organisation supported by USDA. This is good. Indigenous peoples of Sabah cannot afford to be at loggerheads. This is detrimental to their people.

It would be very unfortunate if the group that prefer "Kadazan" and the other that prefer "Dusun" restart the antagonistic attitude towards each other. This first started when UNKO was formed and continued until 1995.

Some "third party" may most probably take advantage of this in order to disenfranchise the "Kadazan-Dusun."

Government Schools

It is good that there are Kadazandusun language classes in schools (POL) in Sabah. This can help preserve the language. But it has the possibility of failure if members of the community treat it just as another subject to be learned.

The people must own the language and proud of their language. Parents need to nurture interest in the mother tongue among their children, conversing with them in the language.

Members of the Race

All of the above and others can make their respective contribution.

But at the end of the day, the ordinary Kadazan (or Dusun) wherever they are will be the ones who will save the day for the Kadazan (or Dusun) Language. If and only if Kadazan parents, and Kadazan adults are truly concerned in the preservation of their language, a beautiful and very rich language, then the language can be successfully passed down to succeeding generations.

Taking all of the above into consideration, the Language may still disappear if less and less Kadazan speak to each other in the language. 

There may come a time when the language is only preserved in libraries, archives and books. It is worth rethinking strategies to ensure the Kadazan Language remains a living language.

But who is this writer that he dares to make such suggestions? There are those who are in better positions to do so. In response to my suggestion, a woman, a Kadazan from Penampang, said to the effect that if one made any comment, he or she would be "attacked". It was better to keep quiet.

Notes:
KDCA: Kadazandusun Cultural Association
KSS: Kadazan Society Sabah
KLF: Kadazandusun Language Foundation

Other entities are not mentioned by name because the writer had not seen their Constitution or objectives.

to be continued in future blogs. (The writer cannot keep quiet.)

R. Pascalis Claudius Lotinggi Dampian

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