Kota Kinabalu: Celebrating Sabah Day honours the memory of past freedom fighters of North Borneo, Sabah, as well as their sacrifices for self-government, eschewing colonisation.
This was the opinion of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Heritage Associate Prof Dr Bilcher Bala expressed in his Malay language presentation at the Sabah Day 2024 Celebration Inaugural Lecture at the Merana Kinabalu auditorium, recently.
He named the freedom fighters as Datu Tating, Sharif Osman, Paduka Mat Salleh, Ontoros Antanom, Albert Kwok, Datu Mustapha Datu Harun, Donald Aloysius Stephens and Samson Sundang Gunsanad.
Dr Bilcher recalled that on Aug 26, 1963 Donald Stephens said: “It is known that the celebrations will be held throughout Sabah on Aug 31 as scheduled. It will be known as self-government celebrations instead of the Malaysia celebrations.”