UMS students, staff in Borneo Border expedition

KOTA KINABALU: Some 45 students and 25 staff of University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) began the Borneo Border Expedition 2018 (RSB’18) expedition yesterday.

UMS vice chancellor Professor Datuk Dr D Kamarudin D Mudin officiated at the expedition at the university’s Dataran Dewan Canselor.

“Studying and understanding sociocultural diversity is very important to students because you are the future leaders of the country,” he said during the ceremony.

“You will be a leader in an organization that will have a workplace culture with workers from a diversified background.

“To bring an organization to excellence, you need to understand who you are leading,” he added.

Dr Kamarudin also suggested that participants reach out to parents of future UMS students, children and the whole community at the locations that will be visited during the expedition.

“Do mind your behavior throughout the succession of this program and establish friendly relations with the Sarawak community,” he reminded.

Earlier on during the ceremony, RSB’18 chairman Associate Professor Dr Saafie Salleh stated that RSB’18 was aimed at raising the name of UMS especially in the Borneon island through a network of connections with various agencies and communities.

According to him, the results of the discussion with Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Bintulu Campus received good acceptance from the two universities.

“The two universities have also helped identify the villages and longhouses that will be involved.

“Together with this team are three medical doctors and a nurse, as well as security guards who are acting as escorts. Meanwhile, the four-wheel drive team will participate to help from the point of logistics,” he said.

Various events have been organized for both locations in Kuching and Bintulu, among them are exhibitions, gotong-royong, motivational talks, agricultural knowledge sharing, caricature, cultural performances and telematches.

Also present at the launch was UMS registrar No’man Datuk Ahmad.