Doctor Alice Jawan is the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Utilities Sarawak, previously known as Ministry of Public Utilities, since January 2017. She personally oversees the development and implementation of electricity, water and gas on Malaysian territory. As a professional engineer with the Civil Engineering degree from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville she is fully qualified for this job (AFRICA, 2021). Throughout her leadership Alice has always highlighted her position as an indigenous woman and believed that she should be giving back to her supporting community. This leitmotif can be seen in all of her notable achievements, which display her passion and commitment as an engineer and as a feminist.
As the leader of the Ministry of Utilities Sarawak she has implemented numerous significant changes and secured outstanding achievements in the relevant area. Alice leaded the development of the new Water Supply Plan and transformed the water supply industries in Sarawak. These changes are already having a significant positive impact on the daily well-being of the country’s residents. Her official message as the Permanent Secretary states her commitment to the provision of reliable, affordable and high-quality utilities throughout the country.
Despite her impressive successes in the field of public engineering and utilities administration, Alice’s accomplishments do not end here. She is the president of Sarakup Indu Dayak Sarawak, a non-governmental organizational body that focuses on the empowering and support of indigenous women in Malaysia. In particular it is dedicated to the preservation of culture and heritage of the Dayak women through the extra emphasis on education and social uplifting. In this, the organization carries out its non-profit status by providing education-related support to its members to combat the existing social inequalities.
As the president of SIGS, Alice successfully increased the level of interest younger Dayak women have in the organization, with the members currently ranging in age between 18 and 80. She was able to overrun the resistance younger generations of marginalized groups experience, not want to other themselves further on. By focusing her efforts on the network establishment between younger and professional Dayak women, Alice demonstrated the potential groups like SIGS have for benefiting the lives of everyday people. Under her leadership, SIGS became the biggest Dayak-women focused association in the world, with over 14,000 registered members and 28 branches. The interest in the organization’s activities does not seem to decline either, with membership numbers increasing instead.
In her current positions, Alice is committed to making a difference, since she has wanted to change the world for the better ever since she was a child. She plans to continue to uplift indigenous Dayak women despite the backlash it occasionally brings her. Persistent activism in favor of a marginalized group of people as a public figure is arguably an accomplishment of its own. Furthermore, the success of SIGS can inspire the future generations of Dayak women, which is Alice’s most important dream. Alice Jawan is a heroine for the indigenous Dayak women, and has no intention of disregarding her ties to this community despite having rose to power in less emotionally charged areas of politics. On the contrary, her accomplishments can be largely explained by her remembering the ties that exist between the community of Dayak women and herself.
Dayak women are involved in various fields encompassing social, political, and economic; and we lack the statistics on this. Therefore, it is important to know the current standing in order to achieve the goal of mutual development and support. Sarakup Indu Dayak Sarawak had established the Tan Sri Empiang Jabu Research Chair with University Putra Malaysia to carry out research on the Dayak women issues. It is noted also that the TSEJRC will also do other study on preservation of our culture and crafts, as well as providing scholarship on Dayak women studies. The Dayak women’s strength is their differences and Alice believes they should unite for our development so that we can contribute towards our communities, state, and nation building. She insists they should strive to up-lift each other because the successful achievement of one is the pride for all.
Reference
AFRICA, P. (2021). Alice Jawan – POWER WEEK ASIA. Power-week.com. Web.