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Maaf dahulu jika posting ini dlm bahasa English hehe kalau ada masa nanti sy akan cuba translate.
From even before the establishement of Malaysia, the ethnic tribes of
Borneo lived a relatively peaceful lives albeit preserving their own
identities, language and culture. I presume that it was isolation that
has helped many cultures in Borneo to preserve their identies .
However today, the coming of modernism and globalisation has created
an imbalance where indigenous people face the indirect gradual erosion
of their identities as larger forces threaten to overwhelm. As a result
people come together and rally around each other in unity to protect
their way of life from the more dominant and influential bombarded
almost daily by radio, tv and mass media. Unfortunately, indigenous
people often find themselves in scattered pockets of resistence
against the unplanned and planned systems that are in place in this new
age. I personally do not believe in the erosion of national borders as
touted by supporters of globalisation or the global citizen who pries
about the world declaring his/her liberation from nationality. In fact
globalisation has made nationalism all the more relevant to uphold the
sovereignity of a people as well as restoring the rights of indigenous
people. Nationalism is now needed more than ever as we witness alarming
trends of young people largely from Asian countries, which continue to
leave their land for greener pastures in other lands. While there is
nothing wrong with travelling and seeing the rest of the world but with
decreasing local population, are we opening the back door to
multinational companies and outsiders to grab our lands, and to acquire
our natural resources? Lets not forget that such events has happened
before, I refer to the land grab attempt in Kunak where the
perpetrators even employed foreigners to try and intimidate the local
smallholders.
Nonetheless I think that local business, communities,religious groups
and even hobby groups must begin to realise the importance of
corporatism by uniting their members and by organising persatuans but
all organisations could stand in National solidarity. Fortunately
semangat kenegerian in Sabah is still very strong and perhaps through
the unification of Sabahan communities online we can create a much
greater impact that demand (not beg) for attention from the greater
powers that be.
From even before the establishement of Malaysia, the ethnic tribes of
Borneo lived a relatively peaceful lives albeit preserving their own
identities, language and culture. I presume that it was isolation that
has helped many cultures in Borneo to preserve their identies .
However today, the coming of modernism and globalisation has created
an imbalance where indigenous people face the indirect gradual erosion
of their identities as larger forces threaten to overwhelm. As a result
people come together and rally around each other in unity to protect
their way of life from the more dominant and influential bombarded
almost daily by radio, tv and mass media. Unfortunately, indigenous
people often find themselves in scattered pockets of resistence
against the unplanned and planned systems that are in place in this new
age. I personally do not believe in the erosion of national borders as
touted by supporters of globalisation or the global citizen who pries
about the world declaring his/her liberation from nationality. In fact
globalisation has made nationalism all the more relevant to uphold the
sovereignity of a people as well as restoring the rights of indigenous
people. Nationalism is now needed more than ever as we witness alarming
trends of young people largely from Asian countries, which continue to
leave their land for greener pastures in other lands. While there is
nothing wrong with travelling and seeing the rest of the world but with
decreasing local population, are we opening the back door to
multinational companies and outsiders to grab our lands, and to acquire
our natural resources? Lets not forget that such events has happened
before, I refer to the land grab attempt in Kunak where the
perpetrators even employed foreigners to try and intimidate the local
smallholders.
Nonetheless I think that local business, communities,religious groups
and even hobby groups must begin to realise the importance of
corporatism by uniting their members and by organising persatuans but
all organisations could stand in National solidarity. Fortunately
semangat kenegerian in Sabah is still very strong and perhaps through
the unification of Sabahan communities online we can create a much
greater impact that demand (not beg) for attention from the greater
powers that be.
