Diverse ideas make up for lack of participants at Rungus seminar

KOTA KINABALU Jan 3 - Although the one-day seminar aimed at charting the future of the Rungus community in the country might be lacking in terms of the number of participants, the diverse ideas voiced out by those who did attend had made up for the low turn out.

Only about 30 people attended the seminar Saturday out of the targeted 100 people due to location of the seminar venue which was quite a distance from the Rungus districts of Kudat and Matunggong.

The fact that the seminar hall was not even half full was hardly felt as one participant after another stood up to share their thoughts on the whys and wherefore the community was still lagging behind other communities.

It was not that the entire community was stricken by poverty, as one participant noted, because there were also many of them who were successful in their own right and were very much above the poverty line.

A participant who identified himself as Stephen Nogiris Sabala, went on to say that he no longer felt that the Rungus were among the most backward community in the country.

"Perhaps those who still labelled us as such need to take a second look at the statistics. We are actually beginning to make our strides towards progress. What we need in order to make that vital step is to have faith in ourselves, support our people, stop belittling our own people and garner ideas and assistance from those who are already successful," he said.

A change in the mindset, the need for role models among the Rungus as well as the necessity to set up a special body to coordinate business activities among the community's aspiring businessmen were among the subjects that kept on cropping up at the seminar.

Thomas Arinjamal Matinggal, manager of a company providing health services, said the community could start off with the setting up of an association of Rungus businessmen.

"We have to be able to guide those who have the courage to venture into business," he said.

Former Matunggong assemblyman Datuk Markus Majihi said it was important for the community to take a good look at themselves.

"We are of people who are hardworking, physically fit because of it, and we can also take pride in the way we preserve our culture...all of these characteristics could be exploited to our advantage.

"We can be successful in business because we work hard, excel in sports because we are physically fit and we can also attract tourists because of our culture," he said.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said in his opening speech that the state government was taking note of the situation among the minority community in the state.

In his speech read out by State Assistant Minister of Rural Development Datuk Masrani Parman, he said the state government was responsive to the needs of the communities in Sabah and it had implemented various programmes to help uplift their standard of living, including the Rungus.

"I believe the bumiputera community in Sabah have with them huge tracts of land but they are still not being utilised to their optimum," he said.

Musa suggested that the Rungus ventured into commercial agricultural-based activities such as in the oil palm sector.

He said that although the Rungus had ventured into tourism, there was still room for improvement.

Saturday's seminar, said Musa, was timely to gather ideas from the community on how to go about achieving greater success for the Rungus people.

An estimated 150,000 Rungus people live in Sabah who are mainly found in the northern part of the state.