Published on: Friday, December 15, 2006 |
Kota Kinabalu: Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said Sabahans could avoid being controlled by foreign immigrants in the future by stressing on achieving education at the highest level.
As of now, he said they were already losing inherited skills such as farming and house-building to foreigners who have become experts in these two fields after acquiring the skills from locals.
Speaking at the presentation of laptop computers to 180 students at Cosmopoint College of Technology at Metro campus, Menara MAA, he said not many among the younger generation are keen to delve into farming and house-building.
"I'm quite worried that if we keep on passing the skills, we are going to wake up one day and realise that we are being controlled by people who are better in terms of skills they have acquired from us," he said.
By then, he said Sabahans would become second or even third class citizens in their own country. Hence, the only way to avert this is for the people to develop their minds through education in fields such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
The ICT, Masidi said, would become a crucial component in people's lives. And looking at the track records of immigrants in Sabah, he said it would not take long for them to master new skills.
Citing Filipino immigrants, he said, previously most of them were ordinary labourers in construction sites but now they have risen to become supervisors.
"In fact, they and the Indonesians have edged out the Chinese from Sarawak and the peninsula who monopolised the tukang paitong (cement-layers) work in the past," he said.
"So, we must seize the opportunity and become better in education such as ICT," he said.
While the trend of locals being controlled by foreigners is not so obvious now, he warned that it would become a reality 20 to 30 years from now.
Masidi also noted that the operation of international law allows immigrants to acquire citizenship over time if they consistently stay in the country for a period.
And when they have become citizens of this country, they will be accorded with rights just like what the locals have.
Therefore, he said the locals must change their mindset and discard the notion that the "world is going to wait for them".
He said migrating to the peninsula is one way of addressing their predicament.
"In fact, I have not obstructed our youths from migrating to the peninsula because when you are alone there, you are forced to adapt to the environment and in the process become better."
Sabahans, he said, could become more competitive and resilient by living in a very harsh environment.
It is for this reason, Masidi said that many Sabahans have ascended to the supervisory level in the hospitality industry over in the peninsula because generally they are hardworking and honest people.
In this respect, Masidi challenged the youths to make it their mission to change their lives and the lives of their family and inevitably the people in general.
Also present was Cosmopoint Kota Kinabalu branch Centre Manager, Victor Sylvester.
