'Kadazans should band together to grow'
Published on: Monday, November 24, 2014
KADAZANS should band together to ensure the community continues to grow to be on par with other Malaysians in terms of education, social and economic development.Kadazan Society Sabah (KSS) President Datuk Marcel Leiking said the community should not depend solely on government grants to carry out its activities but find a way to sustain its financial abilities."The grant given to the society recently is good but it would be better if we raise our own money. For example, if each member gives RM10 a month for one year, and we have 10,000 members, we will have a lot, more than a million.
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"This money can be used for our children, provide scholarships, study grants or any form of financial assistance to deserving and needy students of the indigenous Kadazan people."If we spent money like this, we can ask for grants from the Government, dollar for dollar. Then our application would be justified and it won't be given to us for nothing as that would be embarrassing," he said during his speech at the 3rd Triennial Delegates Conference on Saturday.He added that the society is a non-religious and non-political association and all Kadazans, by virtue of their ethnicity, are eligible to become members of the society."KSS is a bridge of the Kadazan community to the government of the day. It aspires to seek help from the Government on matters that are beneficial for the community and, therefore, we seek the kind understanding and cooperation of all leaders, especially our Kadazan leaders, in this pursuit," he said.
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During his speech, Leiking also encouraged members to become KSS Life Members by paying a RM1,000 one-time fee to the society. The membership is transferable to any beneficiary of the member's choice for generations.The family name is perpetuated and will be kept at a Kadazan Museum in the proposed Wisma KSS, Perkampungan 1Malaysia.
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"The Kadazan Museum will preserve the genealogy of families of these Life Members and will serve as a point of reference of our descendants and determine their race as Kadazan bumiputera and nationality as Malaysian," he said.The society aspires to recruit a minimum of 1,000 Life Members with the membership fees amounting to a million ringgit.The amount will remain intact in KSS bank accounts and will multiply for generations thus preserving the Kadazan identity and race in the world.Leiking said so far, the society had received more than 100 applications to become Life Members although only about 80 have made the full payment."We are not very aggressive in our membership drive. We are not a political party that has specific goals every five years. We are content with growing slowly. You cannot force a sun to rise according to your will. That's how I see this," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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