Jimmy Donald donates his books to DNC and SDGA for research purposes

KUCHING, Dec 20, 2014: Former Sri Aman Member of Parliament Jimmy Donald has donated a number of his books to Dayak National Congress and Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association for research purposes.

He wrote the books - in Iban - over a period of many years from the days he was a secondary school headmaster right through when he entered politics and became an elected parliamentarian.

caption: Jimmy Donald expresses his appointment that DBP does not produce Iban books.

All the books are on the Iban culture, literature and customs, many of which have long been forgotten or discarded.

One of the books, Leka Main Asal Iban, contains a number of long forgotten Iban practices in respect of longhouse life and practices, like how to woo young women for marriages, meet parents of young women and farming practices.

The book is written in poetry form, which the present generation of Iban may find it difficult to comprehend  or understand.

Nevertheless, books written by Jimmy are well sought-after by university students  for their research on the past Iban practices.

At the handing over of the books to SDGA president Dusit Jaul and DNC president Mengga Mikui at DNC office this morning, Jimmy called on other Iban writers to contribute their works to the two Dayak NGOs.

"Those researchers who want to do some research on Iban culture, literature and customs can come to DNC and SDGA libraries," he said.

Jimmy expressed his disappointment that Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka does not publish Iban books.

"When DBP took over the role of the Borneo Literature Bureau in the 1970s, it burned all the Iban books for unexplained reasons. This is very sad because books written on Iban are now in Bahasa Malaysia," he said.

Jimmy (centre) handing over a set of books to Dusit while Mengga looks on.

He said when books on Iban are written in Bahasa Malaysia,  for example, Iban literature and poetry, they lost their meanings.

"These books no longer reflect the actual feelings of the Iban community," he said.

Jimmy said that out of his love for Iban culture, literature and customs, he wrote these books which he said are based on his interviews with experts and the elders in the longhouse.

"These experts, like lemambang or bards and the elders may have died, but their knowledge is recorded in the books," he said, adding that the knowledge is authentic and factual.