Host Sabah all poised for Malaysia Day event

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is all set to host this year’s Malaysia Day programme which runs for three days from today. Workers have been putting the finishing touches to the stage and booth as well as canopies for the event. Full rehearsals have also been conducted every evening since Wednesday. This year’s Malaysia Day, which falls tomorrow, has heaps of activities lined up for the public. “So far, everything is going as planned and we hope there won’t be any hiccup,” said Malaysia Day organising committee deputy secretary Mariam Omar Matusin. Mariam, who is also state Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment deputy permanent secretary, said the event which will take place at the Sports Complex in Likas is expected to draw thousands of spectators.
 The Malaysia Day celebrations will see activities and programmes including exhibitions, concerts featuring local artistes, and the official launch tomorrow.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is expected to officiate the event. The events during these three days will start at 2pm and go on until night. The public is invited to come and make this Malaysia Day merrier. Malaysia Day commemorates the formation of the federation of Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963. Source : The Star
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Japanese Film Festival showcase starting Sept 29

KOTA KINABALU: The Japanese Film Festival will be held at Suria Sabah cinemas here on Sept 29-Oct 2. A statement received here yesterday said the festival was returning to Malaysia for its 14th installment and selected films will be shown in major towns and cities this month and October. It boasts a thrilling slate of box office favourites, trophy magnets, eye-opening documentaries, and highly-anticipated manga adaptations. The country’s premiere showcase for new Japanese cinema promises a truly immersive cultural experience for audiences of all ages and tastes, the statement promised. The month-long celebration did its rounds in the Klang Valley from Sept 7-13 at GSC Mid Valley, GSC 1 Utama, GSC Pavilion KL, and GSC NU Sentral. Penang (GSC Gurney Plaza on 14–17 September) is the next city on the nationwide tour, followed by Kuching (GSC CityONE Megamall on 21–24 September) and finally Kota Kinabalu (GSC Suria Sabah on 29 September–2 October). The revelry was enhanced with a generous helping of star power, courtesy of matinée idol Saitoh Takumi who appeared at GSC Pavilion KL on Sept 5. The in-demand actor sat in the director’s chair for his first feature-length production as he depicted two brothers coming to terms with their absent father’s death. All films are presented in Japanese with English subtitles. Source : New Sabah Times
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Travelling a lot easier for Malaysians — Matta

KOTA KINABALU: Travel  has become a lot easier for Malaysians as it is just a few clicks away, thanks  to digital advances. However, most people still prefer going to physical fairs and talking to travel consultants who can make holiday recommendations and propose itineraries as booking online wmeans travellers have to organise every detail themselves. The steady turnout of visitors at the Malaysia  Association of Tour and Travel Afents (Matta) Fair is testament to the popularity of such events. Matta president Datuk Tan Kok Liang said the twice-yearly fair had established itself as a one-stop planform for value-for-money travel packages which appeal not only to Malaysians, but also expatriates in the country. “Purchasing through licensed operators physically also gives travellers the flexibility to negotiate as well as manage travelling matters such as cancellations with the assistance of travel consultants. “The just concluded Matta September 2017 Fair pulled more than 120,000 visitors and achieved more than RM220 million in sales,” he revealed. Tan added that the tourism industry in Malaysia was still thriving, despite the fluctuating ringgit. “People still travel for business or leisure, be it domestic or international. Foreign arrivals into the country had increased, particularly from China with a growth of 7.8 per cent this year from January to May compared to last year. The president said according to the Statistics Department, the number of domestic tourists grew by 7 per cent to 189.3 million in 2015 while domestic tourism expenditure saw an increase of 10.2 per cent. “While still travelling abroad, Malaysian travellers now opt for vacations within the Asean region as they have become more cost-conscious,” Tan said. He added that Matta was working closely with Tourism Malaysia and national associations of various countries in marketing and promotion activities to boost the country’s tourism industry, with business networking trips and consumer fair participations. “Tourism in Malaysia continues to be  bright as long as we keep developing and strengthening our capacity building, infrastructure and service standards to serve both new and return tourists,” he said, adding that tourism was one of the key foreign exchange revenue earners for the Malaysian economy. Source : Borneo Post
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Oath stone brings focus to Keningau Heritage Museum

ASIDE from being known as a town in interior Sabah, Keningau is not known for much else. But this looks likely to change with a decision that will result in having a piece of Malaysian history permanently placed there. Earlier this week, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Joseph Kurup announced that the ‘oath stone’ (or Batu Sumpah) that pledges the support for Malaysia by the people of ‘interior Sabah’ will be placed permanently at the Heritage Museum (Musium Warisan) in Keningau. The stone was planted in the compound of the Keningau District Office for many years. It caught widespread attention when someone uprooted it and returned it sometime later with some inscriptions chiseled off. An uproar ensued because the words ‘ugama bebas dalam Sabah’ had been removed. After interventions by numerous parties, the new-look stone which will find its home at the Keningau Heritage Museum will have all the original wordings of the stone, except that they are now etched in a metal sheet mounted on a stone. So much about the stone; but what about its new home? The Keningau Heritage Museum was established in 2008 and is located at what was formerly a government rest house built in 1946 and completed in 1947. The rest house was built by the Borneo Construction Company Ltd. It lays claim that many Malaysian luminaries such as Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Abdul Razak, had visited Keningau and stayed at this historic rest house. Today, visitors can view various aspects of Keningau’s history, covering the culture, history, zoology, ethno-botany and sports. What used to be probably the only place to spend a night for visiting government officials 50 years ago has been turned into a local museum that houses numerous historical collections dating back to the colonial days, ranging from artifacts and old photographs. Some of these items were donated by either expatriates who used to live here or by descendants of famous families of the area. There are two large antique Chinese jars donated by a man who claimed that spirits live within. A guest at his house claimed he saw the image of a lady emerging from one of the jars. The owner, sold to a common local belief that many old jars are the abode of spirits, decided that he did not want them anymore in his house and donated them to the museum. Other amusing exhibits are some photos of a beauty queen (Ms Julita Angian) of Keningau in 1958 including a recent photo of her. All in all, the Keningau Heritage Museum is certainly one of a kind a good way to spend a morning or an afternoon, especially when there’s someone at hand to share a tale or two about the origins of the oath stone. To the uninitiated, Keningau can be accessed via the Kimanis Road, or following the recommendation of this writer, via the town of Dongongon in Penampang and up through the cool of the Crocker Range to Tambunan, with its terraced rice fields, and then to the central valley of Keningau. This route, is about 131km and between two and a half hours drive or more, depending on the number of stops you make and traffic. A large number of lorries still use this route when transporting goods to and from the interior. Keningau was known for logging and some downstream timber industries. Oil palm dominates the landscape. The town itself has a reputation of being ill-planned. One former chief minister labelled it a ‘rojak town’ some years ago. The majority of Keningau’s inhabitants are Dusuns and Muruts with a sprinkling of Chinese and many recent Indonesian immigrants. Keningau gets its name from Kendingau, which is the local name for the spice “cinnamon”. This used to be collected and exported worldwide during colonial times. Keningau has also bred many of our local leaders who were instrumental to our independence from colonial rule, and the formation of Sabah as part of Malaysia. Source : New Sabah Times
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Locals to fully run proposed island resort in Semporna

KOTA KINABALU: A booming tourism industry is nothing if locals do not benefit from it, said Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Pang Yuk Ming. Speaking at the Maritime Environmental Security Workshop 2017 yesterday, Pang said the local community must be involved in the development of tourism in the State, in order to generate income and improve their standard of living. In line with the government’s plan to gazette 10 per cent of Sabah’s ocean as protected areas, Pang said management of the areas should include locals. “To gazette the areas is easy, but we need a holistic approach on how to manage them. We, in the Anti-Fish Bombing Committee have been working in overdrive to present to the government a holistic approach that’s not only to stop fish bombing, but also on how to manage all the gazetted areas and the proper way to manage them. “The direction we’re going to go in from now onwards is community-based management. “The Malaysian government has set aside quite a good amount of financial assistance for cooperatives, and I have approached a community in Larapan, which is a small island off the north of Semporna. “I think they (the community) know what is happening, and they, too, know that they cannot continue with the way they live and their practices. The problem is they do not have an option. “Even though tourism is so prosperous, the ones making money are all the big guys and the impact of the tourism industry is not felt by the local communities. When that happens, there’s no way to change their (locals’) livelihood,” he said. To ensure locals also enjoy the fruits of Sabah’s lucrative industry, Pang said the government was in talks to build a resort on the island of Larapan. The proposed resort will be fully run by locals with about 50 rooms, which can accommodate a projected maximum of 150 patrons. “Running at 100 per cent capacity with a maximum of 150 pax, we are looking at RM150,000. “Even if the resort runs at 60 per cent capacity, which is much lower than what Semporna is now doing, it translates into approximately RM10,000 a day, or RM300,000 a month that will go to this community,” he said. However, Pang said the initiative to improve locals’ lives would not stop there. Guidance will be given in order for the community to manage their resources sustainably. Other than paying salaries, Pang said the money from the proposed island resort would also be channelled towards education to ensure a better future for the next generation. He further said measures would be taken to entice locals into looking after the environment, through inspections conducted on houses around the island to check on the cleanliness of its surroundings. “Incentives will be given to locals who manage to maintain a certain standard of cleanliness. The higher the level, the better the incentives. “This is how I believe we should go forward and if this idea works, it’s going to be repeated on other islands because I want locals to benefit from tourism,” he said. Meanwhile, Benny Chung of Borneo Spatial Planning in his presentation said locals have been given the opportunity to improve their livelihood through aquaculture. “We provide them with training of farming techniques and we teach them how to breed fish fries to maturity. “We also have other marine products like scallops and seaweed that we can introduce to supplement their income,” he said during his Alternative Livelihoods in the Semporna Priority Conservation Area presentation. Together with Janet Goh and Khoo Mum Huah, Benny said the key to eradicating or reducing poverty of poor fishermen was by identifying villages that were willing to join the programme. “Once we provide them with the equipment and materials, we will guide them on how to breed the fish. “After these fishermen are willing to come and buy the fries and breed them, our cooperative will undertake the duty of buying back the fish so we can then export them to the Hong Kong market. “We will then assess the farmers on a case-to-case basis and see how they can adapt. After one or two cycles, I think they can grow from small operators to medium operators and if they are keen with our training, they can even grow to a commercial scale,” he said. Source : Borneo Post
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