The Dayak Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sarawak (DCCI) which has been described by some Dayak government leaders as 'a thorn in the flesh' has re-elected a new committee that includes several Dayak elected representatives with close connections to these leaders.

According to a supreme council member, there had been some indirect pressure on the elected representatives to stay away from the chamber, headed by Leonard Linggi Jugah, former Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) secretary-general, who is said to have fallen out of favour with the present state leadership.

A private medical practitioner who had told chamber officials he still wanted to be associated with the chamber but not want to be publicly seen had been replaced as a supreme council member. Two others holding some government positions also opted out.

There are only minor changes in the new supreme council line-up elected to a new three-year term on Thursday.

Apart from Linggi, founder and prime mover of the chamber who has been re-elected president, Stanley Ajang Batok, the state assemblyperson for Belaga remained as deputy president.

Ajang, together with four other elected representatives of the now defunct Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), have applied to join PBB, led by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Peter Nansian, the state assemblyperson for Tasik Biru and a successful Bidayuh businessman, has been re-elected one of the five vice presidents, along with Dr Jerip Susil, the state assemblyperson for Bengoh, Leonard Martin Uning, Henry Lian and Douglas Sullang.

Sullang, a successful Iban property developer, was elected vice president to fill the veep slot left vacant after Joseph Salang, another Iban, was appointed deputy foreign minister. Salang is now one of the DCCI advisers.

Follow-up action

Nansian is from Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) and Jerip is from the Sarawak United People's Party (Supp), component parties of the ruling coalition in the state.

The other four advisers of the chamber also have close connections with Dayak leaders in the government.

They are former state minister Celestine Ujang, who is now deputy chairperson of Bintulu Development Authority (BDA), former state assembly speaker Robert Jacob Ridu, a PBB vice president Stephen Wan Ullok and a senior Unimas academician Prof Dr Dimbab Ngidang, who is also president of the Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association (SDGA).

Elected secretary-general was a senior bank manager Freddie Acho Bian who was earlier appointed acting secretary-general after Peter Minos, a Bidayuh businessman, resigned before his term expired.

A former bank manager turned businessman Allan Keripin Nangkai was retained as treasurer-general.

Ten others, mostly professionals, were elected supreme council members and another six appointed to the supreme council.

Freddie told malaysiakini that the members had voted for continuity, and that one of their top priorities is a follow-up action to the resolutions adopted at the recent bumiputera minority economic congress held earlier this year in Kuala Lumpur to improve the level of economic participation of the Dayaks in the national economy.

The resolutions were mainly to draw the government's attention to the low level of economic participation of bumiputera minorities such as the Dayaks and to recommend specific measures in addressing the issue, he added.

The DCCI has so far been unsuccessful in trying to make an official appointment to meet the chief minister and other senior state leaders to brief them on its aims and objects and its activities since it was formed three years ago.

"We are still trying," a chamber official said.