Mustapa steps down

Published on: Saturday, November 05, 2022

By: Daily Express

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Mustapa steps down

Oct 31, 1975

Tun Datu Mustapha bin Datu Harun (pic) stepped down at 57 as Chief Minister of Sabah, a post he had held since May 11. 1967.He remained head of Usno and the Sabah Alliance. Usno was ousted from power the following year by a newly-formed party, Berjaya.

Sabah Residencies formed

Oct 31, 1954

The Colony of North Borneo was divided into three Residencies: East Coast; West Coast and Labuan; Interior.

Keningau Sports Club set up

Oct 25, 1952

To football fans in the Interior region, the rivalry between the Keningau and Bingkor teams was noteworthy. A match between these teams was thus, an appropriate event to mark the setting up of the Keningau Sports Club, headed by District Officer, Mr WS Holley.

New system of teaching English introduced

Oct 31, 1980

The standard of spoken and written English among students in Sabah, especially in rural areas, had dropped to serious levels, largely due to the lack of English teachers.

In an effort to arrest the decline, the Government formulated the Sabah English Language Module (SELM). It was launched in remote Pensiangan by the Education Minister Datuk Musa Hitam.

The SELM concept was a short-term measure to meet the urgent need in Sabah, especially at about 200 rural primary schools, which did not have English teachers.

Under this system, lessons were taped on audio cassette tapes. Each SELM kit also contained pictures and brief instructions in Bahasa Malaysia.

Musa said the learning of English would be an asset and expose children to greater knowledge. Efforts to promote English as a second language would not undermine the position of Bahasa Malaysia as the national language, he added.

As part of long term measures, Musa said, the Government was training English lanaguage teachers at Universiti Malaya.

New District Office opened

Oct 28,1979

The $100,000 Membakut District Office was officially opened by Chief Minister Datuk Harris Mohd Salleh. The building cost about $100,000 and had been in use for almost one year before the official opening.

Thumbs up from Philip

Oct 30, 1989

The wildlife conservation efforts of the Sabah Government won praise from Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and president of the Worldwide Fund for Nature, when he visited the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, Sandakan.

The Labuan RMAF base opened

Oct 27, 1968

“We desire peace but we must also be prepared to stand up and fight for our right to exist as a sovereign and independent nation.”

These words, spoken when Malaysia was a nation just born, came from Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak who was also Defence Minister.

He was speaking at the official opening of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base in Labuan. It was the final event in his itinerary during a four-day visit to Sabah.

The Minister of Works, Posts and Telecommunications, Tun VT Sambanthan, also paid tribute to officers and men of the RMAF, saying: “So much is owed by so many to so few.” The base was built jointly by the Public Works Department and the RMAF.

First bank in Tuaran

Oct 26, 1968

Chief Minister Tun Datu Mustapha Datu Harun declared open the first modern building on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu the Tuaran branch of the Chung Khiaw Bank. It was also the first bank in Tuaran and Chung Khiaw’s 27th branch.