‘Foundations play vital role in moulding children into good citizens’
KUCHING: A foundation like Yayasan Sarawak plays a vital role in helping the state and nation build a better and brighter future for children, especially the vulnerable ones, through further education.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg, who stated this, noted that given the best opportunities for education, children especially the deserving ones can access the world and most importantly, contribute to developing the state and nation.
He pointed to the two important aspects to develop broad-minded Malaysian children - first, the higher education institutions as an avenue to gain knowledge and secondly, the institutions providing financial aid and other assistance.
“Even if we have many higher education institutions, but without a foundation which can help in financing (children’s studies), these institutions will be empty,” he said in his address at the dinner gathering of Yayasan Sarawak and Pemuafaatan Badan Ilmiah Nasional (Pembina) with the Chief Minister on Tuesday.
The event was held in conjunction with the 27th Yayasan Leadership Cooperation Ceremony ( MKKY) at Yayasan Sarawak, Jalan Sultan Tengah in Petra Jaya here.
“And only those financially able will be pursuing higher studies in the institutions. Thus, the financially disadvantaged children will be left out from pursuing studies without financial support,” be stressed.
Abang Johari said the late Tun Datuk Patinggi Abdul Rahman Yakub established Yayasan Sarawak with the intention of helping children achieve what they deserve by giving them financial and other assistance.
“Since its establishment, we have sent our children to study locally and to the Peninsula. As a result of Yayasan Sarawak’s support, today we have young capable leaders like Minister of Works Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof and Assistant Minister of Rural Electricity Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi,” he said, naming the role models who have benefitted from Yayasan Sarawak.
The Chief Minister revealed that he had also received assistance from Yayasan Sarawak to pursue his master’s degree.
To prepare for the future, Abang Johari stressed the need for Yayasan Sarawak, which provides the financial aid, to change and offer new programmes especially in the fields of innovation, information, communication and technology to meet changing times.
“Now the world is talking about revolution 4.0, Artificial Intelligence (AI), driverless cars, e-hailing instead of taxis, watching movies without a cinema,” he said.
“This is the current situation, a direction which our country needs to head whether we like it or not,” he reiterated.
He pointed out that new knowledge and skills were required to realise the aspiration to transform Sarawak from conventional to digital economy.
“This will drive and spur the state’s development to a higher level to be on par with other countries,” he said.
“After a series of discussions, Yayasan Sarawak decided to offer new research-based courses (master’s degree and PhDs) to Sarawakian children and will be open to others when we have sufficient funds,” he added.
Among the 23 new courses introduced were cyber security, molecular engineering and biology and genetics. “We hope students pursuing these courses, which we put our focus in, can do researches that lead to creation of new knowledge,” he said.
“This is the way forward, to uplift our people and enhance human capital development. We need to adopt new ways to achieve our goals including providing quality education if we want to become an advanced and high income nation,” he added.
The event also saw the presentation of prizes to the winners of a golf challenge.
Chief Minister’s wife Datin Patinggi Dato Juma’ani Tuanku Bujang, Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Dato Sri Micheal Manyin Jawong, Assistant Minister of Education and Technological Research Dr Annuar Rapaee, Pembina board of directors member Senator Tan Sri Dr Ibrahim Shah Abu Shah and Yayasan Sarawak director Azmi Bujang were among those present.