Extract from The North Borneo News & Sabah Times, 30th June, 1960
*DUSUN or KADAZAN?*
By Donald Stephen - President, Society of Kadazan
“Why should Dusun be called Kadazan?” I have often been asked this question and feel that it would be best for me to clarify this controversial point today - on the day when the natives celebrate their first official holiday.
As far as I can see there is no “stigma” attached to the name Dusun, a good name which has been used for many years to describe the Kadazan people of this country. The name has been in use for so long that many Kadazan know themselves only as Dusun and when using the word Kadazan or Kadayan they take the word to mean “people” and not as the race to which they belong. But there can be no doubt that DUSUN is an imported word and the name was first used by traders along the coast and by the Brunei overlords and then accepted by the Chartered Company as the generic name for the Kadazan people. Dusun means “people of the countryside”, people who plough the land. It is a good definition of the Kadazan people but it is also true that many are inclined to use the word in what be said to be derogatory sense the same way as we refer to the country folk as “yokels”. For this reason the educated Kadazans and those who have some pride to their race feel that the name should be changed to what they believe to be their true name - KADAZAN.
Many a Government official have been heard to say that “Kadazan” refers only to the people of Penampang District. Investigations we have made show that there is no truth in this assertion. It is true that the Penampang Kadazans have had some advantage over their Kadazan brothers in other districts; they have had the benefit of more English education because of the Mission which was established in Penampang and because of this educational advantage had been better able to look more fully into the original name of their race. They found that the “Dusun” were in fact Kadazan and had the courage to use this words.
To be frank, the Penampang Kadazans have seldom found much favour in administrative circles: because of the bit of education they possess and because of the courage they have in fighting for their rights they have been called “lawyer buruk” and other even less savoury names. It is the same everywhere when natives tend to exert themselves they have often been looked upon with suspicion and dislike. And because the Kadazan of Penampang and Papar (who also had the benefit of a Mission in the district) have tended to be more outspoken in what they believe to be true they have not been popular. Because of this unpopularity in administrative circles, it is known that administrative officers in other Kadazan districts have gone out of their way to prove the Kadazan there that they are in fact Dusun and not “that imported name from Penampang - Kadazan.” Much of the antipathy on the part of many an administrative officer for the Kadazan of Penampang and Papar has no doubt been subconscious, but we know it to be there.
The North Borneo News and Sabah Times of which I am the Editor, Publisher and Owner may claim credit for making the name KADAZAN better known. I say frankly that it was done in answer to a rising pride among the Kadazan people and the knowledge of their desire to be known by their own name and not by a name which they feel had been nothing but a label hanged on them, put there by others without their consent. Personally I feel that such natural pride should be encouraged and for this reason started a small corner in my small paper and called it the KADAZAN CORNER. Since then the name has become widely known and Radio Sabah when it began to broadcast in “Dusun” to use the official language, the section was called the KADAZAN SECTION.
Be they Dusun or Kadazan the people have a common link, and that common link in the past has merely been the similarity of their language. I feel that if the Kadazan are ever to feel one that common link should be strengthened and there was no better way of strengthening it than by trying to standardise the language. The obvious answer was to start with the Kadazan as spoken in the Penampang/Papar are because it is in this area that the people have gone a long way in having their language written down. I also found out that the language as spoken by the Kadazan of the Penampang/Papar area was the most understood by Kadazan in other areas.
The reason for this is obvious, with some advantage in education, the Kadazan of Penampang and Papar had more opportunity of moving about the country - in getting around they found that the Kadazan in other areas did not find it difficult to understand them. One could have picked the Kadazan spoken in Tuaran or Kota Belud or Ranau for use but because the Kadazan spoken in Penampang and Papar were the most commonly used and had already been used as a written language (Romanised) it was obvious that the best choice was the Kadazan as used in Penampang/Papar. There was no thought of favouritism or pride of place: the choice I made was one purely on convenience. I can say today that I have received letters and articles in Kadazan from Tuaran, Ranau, Bundu Tuhan and other areas and these letters and articles have led me to believe that my idea of standardising the Kadazan language is beginning to show signs of succeeding because these letters and articles were written in the Kadazan as spoken in Penampang/Papar area - to have this was in most cases simple because the language the Ranau, Tuaran and Bundu Kadazan is basically the same except for the way certain words are accentuated and the way the “r” and “I”, are sounded or the heavier accent on the “h”s.
Among the people who had been questioned about the name Kadazan is Native Chief Taliban of Tambunan and Native Chief Pinghing of Penampang. Taliban says that the so called Dusuns had always been known as Kadazan (or pronounce it “kadayan”) but that the Kadazan (Our People) were divided into various sections or branches such as the Rungus, Liwan, Tagaas, Lotud (the Kadazan in the Tuaran area), Bakud (the Kadazan in Membakut area, Bundu, Kwijau (the Kadazan in the Keningau area), Tangaah (the Kadazan living in the Penampang-Papar area) an so on.
Pinghing, who admittedly is Sino-Kadazan but a Native Chief who has taken great pains to study the traditions and history of his Kadazan people, says with some force that “there is no Dusun, we are all Kadazans.” Pinghing substantiates what Taliban goes further” … just as the Chinese have Hainanese, Hakka, Hokkien, Teochew etc. so also with the Kadazan, we have branches like the Tagaas, Tanggah, Lotud etc. But we are all Kadazans.”
More names can be mentioned but I feel that these two are sufficient to bring home my point. I will not deny that there are a considerable number of Kadazan who by virtue of circumstances outside their control have in fact forgotten their original name and when asked what race they belong to will answer: Dusun. The word Dusun has been used ever since the Chartered Company first ruled this country, and even before the Chartered Company brought with it a proper form of Government to this country: four or five generations and even more have been born into this world since then and common usage of the word [sic] “Dusun” through all these years has no doubt brought about what I consider one of the most pathetic instances in the Kadazan-Dusun controversy: there have been honest people who told me that they would prefer to be known as Kadazan but they have actually forgotten what they were. “Saya orang suda lupa bah, dan yang say tahu saya orang Dusun sahaja”, they say. It would only be fair to say that the Administrative Officers mentioned earlier in this article must have encountered a number of this “saya sudah-lupa” Kadazans and convinced that because of this the people are in fact Dusuns and not Kadazans.
The more forward looking and better educated Kadazans are beginning to feel that Government prefers not to encourage the use of the name Kadazan (a recent example is when Radio Sabah advertised for a “Dusun translator” for the Kadazan Section) because the word is beginning to take shape as the unifying influence among the so called Dusun people.
Divide and rule? We do not believe this to be true. But we know that many “Dusuns” who gave their race as Kadazan recently have been told that they are Dusuns and “Dusun” is written down in official forms where the race of the individual is required to be given. It is only fair that if an individual prefers to be known as “Dusun” that he be allowed the privilege of classifying himself as such, but on the other hand it is also right that if a Kadazan prefers to be known as Kadazan, no coercion should be used to make him change it to Dusun - or even worse to change it without his consent, as, to my knowledge has been done.
I have been asked whether “your desire to change the name Dusun to Kadazan” has political significance. The answer is simple: I have no desire to change anything; the change will come whether I desire it or not, In fact it is wrong to use the word “change” because all the Kadazans want is to be allowed to revert to their own original name. As for political significance, all I can say is that if the Kadazan everywhere in the country can be united into one solid whole, the Kadazan people will be able to be better position to have their voice properly heard, and given its due weight, and when time comes, they will also then be able to play their part in the affairs of this country in a more fitting manner. That surely should be the desire of all right thinking people in this country.
