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Sabah tourism to stay strong – CM BorneoPost Online | Borneo , Malaysia, Sarawak Daily News » Sabah - New 2 Borneo

Sabah tourism to stay strong – CM

Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:35 AM PDT

by Murib Morpi. Posted on August 22, 2014, Friday

KOTA KINABALU: The State Government is confident of registering an increase in tourist arrivals by year end despite lingering impact of the recent double airline tragedy and the series of kidnappings that took place in the east coast of the state earlier this year.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said that although the incidents were expected to cast a shadow on the tourism industry, a healthy growth was still likely with a bulk of international tourist arrivals coming from Singapore.

"As shown in the past, negative events are unlikely to impact the tourism sector significantly and are viewed as temporary setbacks," he said when officiating at the Asian Tourism International (ATI) College 17th Convocation in Tanjung Aru yesterday.

He noted that Sabah registered RM6.35 billion in tourism receipts last year with 3.38 million tourists, which represented a 17.6 per cent increase compared to the tourist arrivals in the previous year.

This was despite a security situation in the early part of the year and significant negative press and travel advisories in foreign markets.

Musa said the latest data from Tourism Malaysia showed the number of international tourist arrivals in Malaysia between January and April had increased by 10 per cent to 9.27 million, compared to 8.43 million over the corresponding period in 2013.

"However, this does not mean that we must not work hard to continue drawing tourists to Malaysia and Sabah. Negative events aside, the State Government is committed to make Sabah a viable and attractive destination for holidays and for meetings and conventions," he said.

Among the steps being taken to lure visitors to Sabah included the ongoing construction of world-class international meeting and convention centre in Kota Kinabalu.

The state tourism authorities were also continuously marketing Sabah as a nature, culture and adventure destination, capitalizing on the state's diverse and unique land and seascapes.

Meanwhile, Musa said the State Government also focused on ensuring that there were sufficient institutes of higher education that catered to the needs of the different sectors of the economy.

"Developing capable human resources to fill jobs is a responsibility that we take seriously, and in order to achieve this, we work closely with the institutions of higher education," he said.

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CM commends ATI for attaining ISO9001:2008 certification

Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:34 AM PDT

KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman yesterday commended ATI College for its success in producing high quality graduates.

He noted that by acquiring ISO9001:2008 certification, ATI has managed to put itself on par with some of the best colleges in the country.

He said the critical factor for the college now is to keep learning and growing, and keep grooming school leavers and those interested in tourism and hospitality.

The college has also helped in bringing external higher education to Malaysian students' doorstep through collaboration with international institutions, such as the Cardiff Metropolitan University in UK.

Also present were Minister of Tourism cum State Education Exco Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun and Resource Development and Information Technology Minister Datuk Siringan Gubat.

ATI chief executive officer Datuk Seri Wong Khen Thau, in his welcoming remarks said the college will continue to expand and upgrade its facilities and courses to meet the demand and criteria to attain University College status in near future.

He said the Ministry of Higher Education in their last inspection two months ago had advised ATI to move to the next level of upgrading to University College as they have already qualified for that.

A total of 250 students graduated from various courses in certificate, pre-diploma, diploma, advanced diploma levels.

At the event, ATI also officially received the ISO 9001 certificate.

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Workshop to discuss ‘bin and ‘binti’ issue

Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:33 AM PDT

by Amy Dangin. Posted on August 22, 2014, Friday

KOTA KINABALU: Many Peninsular Malaysians serving in Sabah have labelled those with 'bin' or 'binti' in their identity cards as Muslims or Malays automatically.

The issue of 'bin' and 'binti' has long been one of the many issues of identity classification in the state that needs to be clarified and understood.

Hence, the Sabah Cultural Board, as the custodian of the state's diverse culture and ethnic groups, is taking a proactive step to organise a workshop, which will discuss such issues among members of the relevant agencies and bodies.

Its chairman, Datuk Wences Anggang, disclosed that the workshop will be held on September 2 and 3 at the Ming Garden Hotel and Residences with participation of about 80 people from 26 ethnic associations in Sabah, native political parties, State Museum, Native Affairs Office and other relevant agencies.

The workshop, he said, is aimed at exposing the participants to the practices relating to identity and classification, types of classification, and to come up with resolutions and suggestions for the registration practices and procedures by the National Registration Department, Statistics Department, hospitals and other departments in Sabah.

"The results from the workshop will be presentated to the cabinet for further action," said Wences at a press conference at the Sabah Cultural Board building here yesterday.

"Identity and classification issues in the state have long remained debatable issues. We often hear of complaints such as that their ethnicity is not classified or acknowledged when registering their child's birth or when registering for identity cards.

"The relevant departments only list the main ethnic groups in their database, while the lesser known minority ethnic groups are classified as 'lain-lain' (others)," said Wences.

Another issue that will be highlighted in the workshop is the classification of children born of mixed Chinese and native ethnicity parentage, which in recent times had been generalised as 'Sino Native'.

"The thing is, 'native' itself is the general term for ethnic classification. People want their ethnicity to be specifically identified when registering births or when filling in any forms," he said.

The workshop will consist of six talks by speakers from the relevant departments, namely, a talk on the 'Mission and Vision Towards Sabah's Ethnic Identity Refinement' by the Sabah Cultural Board and the 'Issues, Problems and Challenges of Identity Acknowledgment in Diversity in Sabah' by Dr Paul Porodong from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).

Other talks include 'Birth Registration Procedures at Government Hospitals and Clinics' by the State Health Department, 'Identification Registration Procedures of Birth Certificates and Identity Cards' by the National Registration Department, the Native Affairs Office's approach in handling identity-related issues by district officers through the Native Affairs Office, and the 'Malaysian Population Identity Classification Policy in Census', by the Statistics Department.

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Girl in fall may be bully victim – Befrienders

Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:32 AM PDT

KOTA KINABALU: The 15-year-old girl who survived a fall from a building near Cyber City at Jalan Lintas, Kepayan on August 18, might have been a victim of school bullies, said Befrienders KK chairperson Datin Seri Siti Rubiah Bte Abdul Samad.

"School bullying is rampant in schools nowadays as seen from many YouTube videos going viral. It seems that the youth are now acting more aggressively which could stem from emotional inadequacies or domestic problems," said Siti Rubiah yesterday.

According to her, the aggressor enjoys feeling superior and in control and think it makes them more popular. They possess leadership skills but an aggressive leader is not necessary a successful leader. Bullies are people with moral and emotional issues, without respect for others. They tend to dislike school, have emotional instability, have an inflated view of themselves and poor anger management skills. They need to bully others to feel good about themselves. This applies to their supporters too.

Befrienders KK hopes that school counselors can play a more effective role to help counsel students as well as teaching bullies to manage their anger and to be more mentally healthy.

"We are glad that the Education Ministry is presently holding a Psychosocial Tour 6 for school counselors to update their skills in handling psychological problems. We hope that schools will also be willing to participate in workshops to promote mental health and expose students on maintaining positive emotional skills," said Siti Rubiah in a statement yesterday.

She stressed that schools should play their role and be more open in ways in ensuring the well-being of their students and promote a mentally healthy environment for their students to study in.

Many schools in Singapore and Australia inculcate positive sychology and well-being classes in their curriculum, she said.

Siti Rubiah was commenting on the incident on Monday when the girl allegedly leapt from the first floor of the building at Kepayan Perdana as her elder sister watched in horror.

Before the 11.57pm incident, the girl had asked her elder sister to accompany her to the commercial centre to meet her friend.

After reaching the commercial centre, she walked up to the first floor of the commercial centre while her sister waited on the ground floor.

Several minutes later, the elder sister saw her climbing onto the railing and jumping to the ground.

City police chief Assistant Commissioner M. Chandra said initial police investigation found the victim was suffering from depression.

Meanwhile, Siti Rubiah disclosed that Befrienders KK has obtained permission from the Education Ministry and the State Education Department to conduct workshops at schools.

Students are taught how to recognize and identify their feelings and emotions, self-assessment, communication skills, recognizing depression and how to manage emotions. All these topics are connected to life coping skills.

This is the third year that Befrienders KK conducted mental health workshops at schools in Sabah.

"We have approached six schools but only three schools accepted and the recent workshop was concluded at SMK Tansau, Putatan. We hope more schools will invite us to conduct talks on mental health," she said.

Befrienders KK also operates a listening helpline where trained volunteers listen to those who need an empathetic ear for them to pour out their feelings. All calls are not recorded.

Call Befrienders KK at 088-255788 (7pm to 10pm, daily) or email: befrienderskk@gmail.com or send us message at Facebook.com/befrienderskk.

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