CM: It’s people’s Foundation
SANDAKAN: The Sabah Foundation (Yayasan Sabah) does not belong to individuals but belongs to the people, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said.
Since its inception 50 years ago, inspired by the former chief minister of Sabah, Tun Datu Mustapha Harun, the foundation has managed to achieve its objectives, especially the development of human capital with educated local children, he said.
He said opposition leaders in the country, to gain support from the people, want to restructure the foundation and build a university if they win the election.
“Sabah already has many public and private universities. Don’t know what university they want to build,” said Musa, who is also chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation, when launching the roadshow ‘Yayasan Sabah Bersama Rakyat’, here, yesterday.
The Foundation itself, he said, had managed to create early education from school to university through the establishment of kindergartens and University College Sabah Foundation.
He also said the Foundation has made its name for producing quality human resources in the State and will continue to produce more professionals.
“Youths are our future leaders and professionals; I am happy to say that Sabah Foundation has been producing professionals in Sabah such as doctors, engineers and accountants (through scholarships offered by Sabah Foundation).
“I always say, the biggest asset of a country is its people; Sabah Foundation strives to produce quality human resources locally.
“That is how big the role of Sabah Foundation is, and we want people to know about this,” Musa said.
He said that the function of the roadshow is to tell people about the role and achievements of Sabah Foundation, especially to the youngsters.
He urged youths in Sabah, especially Sandakan school leavers to take the initiative to find out more about Sabah Foundation and what it has to offer so that possible opportunities could be grabbed.
“I hope for the youths to find out more about Sabah Foundation because there are a lot of programmes that could benefit them. Now that Sabah Foundation is ‘brought’ to them (through the roadshow), I hope they (youths) will actively ask questions and inquire for opportunities that they can grab,” he said.
Another objective of the roadshow is to gather feedback from the people on social programmes that have been implemented so that the programmes could be improved to fit the demand of the people.
Sabah Foundation Group (SFG) was established based on the late Tun Mustapha’s vision 50 years ago to produce educated locals so that the people would have higher living quality.
SFG then arranged long-term education programmes such as scholarship, loans and education tools assistance.
As the number of students in Sabah increased, SFG strived to find alternative source of income and that is when Musa who was appointed as the director of Sabah Foundation in 1995 got the group active in the palm oil industry.
For the last 15 years, Musa had also generated income for Sabah Foundation through the Kimanis Oil and Gas sector, Sabah Handicraft Centre Keningau, the formation of University College of Sabah Foundation (UCSF) and Sabah International Conventional Centre (SICC) as well as other business activities.
When the Transformation Programme 2013-2023 was launched, the logging sector was no longer the main source of income for SFG as the group ventured into other strategic business activities.
“Back then we (Sabah Foundation) only knew how to cut down trees. I have changed the way it worked by working with the Forestry Department. We not only cut down (trees), we also replant trees that would produce high quality timber.
“The last time that I was updated I was told that a total of 850,000 hectares of Sabah are now planted with high quality trees.
“These trees are going to take around 20 to 30 years time before they could produce income, so these income would be for our future generation,” Musa said.
According to the director of Sabah Foundation, Datuk Sapawi Ahmad, he sees Musa as the ‘architect’ of Sabah Foundation for his contribution in development of the foundation.
“Musa has brought tremendous development to Sabah Foundation, especially in increasing income for the foundation. We must all thank the Chief Minister for his contribution,” Sapawi said.
Meanwhile, in contributing to the development of human resources in Sabah, various programmes were organised by SFG, including basic entrepreneurial courses, handicraft courses as well as courses offered in Diploma and Degree in UCSF and Kolej Teknikal Yayasan Sabah.
SFG has also been organising programmes to develop human resources in rural areas through six Zone Offices.
Through North East Coast Zone (NECZ) which includes Kinabatangan, Sandakan, Beluran, Telupid and Lahad Datu, community development programmes organised by SFG from 2005 until 2016 had benefited 60,147 participants with a total cost of RM1.48 million.
In the same duration, 3,678 students received pre-school assistance and daily scholarship which had cost a total of almost RM1.2 million.
From 2007 until 2015, a total of 4,038 students received Special Assistance Scheme which amounted to RM393,600.
SFG had also contributed to the people through housing projects, Women Small Business Loan Scheme, as well as Desa Cemerlang dan Berinovasi programme.
In total, 94,822 locals in NECZ had benefited from SFG from 2005 until 2016 at a total cost of RM6.51 million.
The roadshow saw booths on programmes and assistance available for youths, visited by secondary school students as well as public members.
Also present at the event were Assistant Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Zakaria Edris, Sekong assemblyman Datuk Samsudin Yahya and president of Sandakan Municipal Council, Datuk James Wong.