Kaamatan dispute
The Kaamatan dispute or Kaamatan conflict describes a power struggle between Islamic and traditional ethnic forces in the Malaysian state of Sabah . The Malaysian government tried to use the traditional Kaamatan festival of the Kadazan-Dusun as a platform for their Islamization efforts. Provoked by the opposition of Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan , his party urged him to give up his ministerial post.
background
Kaamatan had become an important ceremonial event in the cultural life of the Kadazandusun since the 1960s . In the adat , the traditional customs of the Kadazandusun, Kaamatan is a living form of thanksgiving. The bobohizan , a group of priestesses who make sacrifices to the spirits of rice for a good harvest, play an essential role in this .
Course of the conflict
In 1982, in his speech on the Kaamatan , the Yang di-Pertuan Agong emphasized the importance of Islamization in Sabah and emphasized that it was the government's task to promote spiritual development in Sabah. In Keningau , the royal couple attended a mass conversion of 326 adults and 112 children from Nabawan and Tenom to Islam. Then the king and his entourage continued his "spiritual mission" at further Kaamatan festivals in Kundasang, Sandakan and Labuan. Here, too, Islamic mass conversions were in the foreground.
The presence of the ruling family at the most important festival of the Kadazan-Dusun and, above all, the instrumentalization of the event to intervene in the religious life of the people, was not well received by the Kadazan-Dusun. Public perception in Sabah saw the role of the bobohizan damaged by the king's behavior.
Joseph Pairin Kitingan , at that time both president of the Kadazan Cultural Community (KCA) and minister in the Berjaya government, felt compelled to hold another Kaamatan in Tambunan . More than 10,000 visitors came to the festival in Tambunan; partly from distant cities like Sandakan , Tawau and Lahad Datu . The event deliberately emphasized the prominent role of the bobohizan within the kaamatan . Pairin Kitingan was then publicly accused of denigrating the king and Berjaya stopped sponsoring the events.
Political Consequences
Although Kitingan's resignation as Berjaya minister shortly afterwards was apparently at the insistence of the party, the then Prime Minister of Sabah, Harris Salleh , announced that it was the wish and will of the party leadership to pave the way for young political figures.
The Kaamatan dispute represented the break between the government and the Kadazan cultural community.
literature
- Regina Lim: Federal-state relations in Sabah, Malaysia: the Berjaya administration 1976-85 , Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2008, ISBN 978-981-230-811-5
Individual evidence
- ^ Daily Express, January 15, 1983 edition; cited in Lim, p. 118