Sebup community reminded of the importance of education
MIRI: Educational empowerment enables every individual to cope with life challenges.
Towards this end, the Sarawak government is working hard to help people improve their living standards through various development projects.
Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau said this at the first annual dinner of the Sebup community from Long Luyang, Tinjar in Baram at a hotel here recently, during which he urged the small but proud Sebup community to always prioritise education no matter the economic level of their family.
“Education has proven to be the catalyst to propel everyone to be among the successful people today. With education, some individuals among the community now stand tall and are among the successful people in the country,” he said to more than 200 Sebup from the state, Sabah and Kuala Lumpur dressed in their traditional attires attending the dinner.
Dennis regarded the gathering as an excellent opportunity for members of the community to network.
“You must attend and support this kind of event to keep in touch with your community at large. Never underestimate the benefits of making effort to be present and to voluntarily attend your gathering, no matter what sort of gathering it may be.
“I would like to urge the young generation to make it a point in life to regularly return to their respective longhouses yearly, be proud of yourselves, take good care of your culture and work towards maintaining or restoring the culture that you inherited,” he said, while congratulating the Sebup 2018 dinner chairman and committee members for making the effort to gather all Sebup for the event.
He praised the community for taking the initiative to document their language by publishing two books – Kamus SebupBahasa Melayu and English- Sebup Vocabulary.
“Congratulations on the effort to publish the maiden books and on the same note, I hope the Sebup will form a formal association to look after the welfare of the community and I look forward to seeing bigger activities and more programmes organised by the Sebup,” Dennis said.
At the dinner, Dennis announced a grant of RM10,000 for the community’s future activities and received a copy of the first and only Sebup-Bahasa Malaysia dictionary from the writer Clement Langet Sabang, who is also the organising committee chairman of the dinner.