Sino-Kadazans more than qualified to be natives, says KSS
Published on: Monday, November 24, 2014
KOTA KINABALU: The Sino-Kadazans are more than qualified to be considered natives of the land because of their ancestral background.Kadazan Society Sabah (KSS) President Datuk Marcel Leiking said, however, the community needs to adhere to the rules set by the National Registration Department (NRD) for now."In fact, nobody is pure Kadazan nowadays, because of intermarriages. As far as I'm concerned, all our leaders, for example, have been products of intermarriages.
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"The late Donald Stephens, for example, was a Sino-Kadazan. I understand the grief of the Sino-Kadazans and their fear of losing their identity. But if they are adamant to put Sino-Kadazans, they will need to get the native certificates which are frozen right now," he told reporters during the 3rd Triennial Delegates Conference here on Saturday.Leiking was commenting on the current predicament faced by the Sino-Kadazan community who wished to retain the name Sino-Kadazan/Sino-Dusun/Sino-Murut in their children's birth certificate.Currently, this is no longer possible as the NRD will only allow races which are in the department's system to be registered in birth certificates.Leiking advised the community to consider registering their children as Kadazan or Dusun or Murut but retain the Chinese surname.
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