Kota Kinabalu: Schools and universities need to take charge of teaching young Malaysians about the significance of Sabah Day or risk losing this important celebration completely, warned Universiti Malaya’s history Professor Datuk Dr Danny Wong.
“Sabah Day has a tough road ahead because people were unaware about it for 60 years before it was brought back recently,” he told a forum in conjunction with the Sabah Day celebrations, here.
“Some teachers and school principals are just as confused as everyone else about Sabah Day.
“My wife teaches kindergarten and she says that other teachers at her school do not understand why Aug 31 has two different names, National Day for the whole country and Sabah Day for the State.
“It is hard for teachers to help students learn about these special days when they themselves do not fully understand either,” he said.
Danny said developing the Sabah Day tradition is like parenting, you cannot celebrate it for just one week and then abandon it until next year.
“If our young cannot appreciate what Sabah Day is, then this is a lost cause,” he said, adding that today’s young people are harder to teach about history than before.
He said teenagers and young adults today cannot focus for very long and they would rather learn from their phones, computers or social media instead of sitting through regular classroom talks.
“They do not have two hours to spend with you, they have split-second attention. Their minds move very fast, so we must learn how to promote this idea through their channels like podcasts and streaming,” he said.
He suggested a few ways to make sure Sabah Day stay important. First, teach students about Sabah Day in their history and character-building classes.
Second, the government could set up a special secretariat to organise talks, workshops and events all year long, not just during the one week celebration.
Third, teachers should consider using social media, applications and other modern tools to connect with young people.
“Lastly, all must stick to this plan for at least five years to make it work properly.
He said people should get just as excited about Sabah Day as they do for their own birthdays, because it celebrates the time when different groups of people joined together to become independent, separate from when Malaysia was formed.
“Sabah is a place where many different types of people live together. We come from all sorts of backgrounds. Our great-grandparents came from faraway places and made this their home.
“This mix makes our unity even more amazing. We have all kinds of people here. So, what makes us all come together and say ‘this is my home State’?” said Danny, a Sabahan who lived in the peninsula for over 30 years.
He said different ethnic groups felt Sabah was their home long before it officially became independent, referring to how people fought back against British rule, naming historical heroes like Mat Saleh, Antanom and Pengiran Samah in Gomantong.
“The same thing happened during World War II. The people who tried to protect this State from Japan included the Kinabalu Guerrilla fighters, not just Chinese but also Suluks, Bajaus, Kadazans and Indians. There was Sergeant Good Singh.
“What made them fight side by side? What were they thinking about? What were they fighting for? They were fighting for North Borneo, for Sabah, for this State.
“This showed they believed ‘this is our State, this is our home.’ “Even though it was not planned this way, this became the identity we accepted, welcomed and that the independence generation tried to protect,” he said.
He pointed out that when Malaysia was being formed, Indonesia and the Philippines objected, which made the UN postpone Malaysia’s official start. But the people in Sabah were not worried about the delays.
“The older generation who fought for freedom said they would become independent on Aug 31 no matter what, with or without Malaysia.”He noted that Sabah Day was only officially gazetted two or three years ago after being forgotten since Aug 8, 1963.
