(BY TOMAN MAMORA)

Sunday Tribune Sept 4th 2005

     With just two weeks away to the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Seminar, interest and excitement are already building up among the more than 1,200 delegates who will be making their way to Miri to participate in what has been billed by Pehin Sri Dr Haji Taib Mahmud as the watershed seminar for the party.

     And with PBB leading the way as the backbone of the State Barisan Nasional, the ‘watershed’ significance of the forthcoming seminar will obviously have far reaching implications on the bigger political and socioeconomic landscape of the State.

     As the term ‘watershed’ suggests, the two-day seminar is held at time when PBB celebrates its 45th anniversary and when Sarawak is on the threshold of the Ninth Malaysia and just months away from the next State election. However, interestingly enough, politics takes a backseat in the seminar and the party has decided to focus on issues which matter to the people in the State, in particular Bumiputera, as they brace for the challenges and opportunities of the Ninth Malaysia Plan and force of globalization.

     Of interest to political watchers is that the decision to postpone the PBB party election to a later date will be resolved at an extraordinary general meeting of the party during the seminar period in compliance with the relevant provision of the party constitution.

     Capacity building will be the buzzword at the seminar. Why not, when it has dawned on us all that the ultimate force that will drive the economy of the State through the uncharted water of globalisation is the power of human capital, skilled and knowledgeable. But the process must begin now, even ahead of many other states. It involves creating awareness. It involves cognitive change. It involves attitudinal and behavioral change. But germane to the value chain is the knowledge. For it is knowledge that will set in motion the wheel of response of the people to challenges and opportunities.

     Taken holistically, the entire process entail capacity building. It is an ongoing process which challenges the people to rise to challenges and respond positively to an ever-changing environment.

     Capacity building covers a wide spectrum of human development; it includes enriching a man’s mind and broadening his outlook, extending his capability to a bigger cooperative framework, and enabling him to adapt well to changing relationships in an increasingly competitive environment.

     Stretched to the extreme, capacity building will have to pave the way for the full development of the human capital and enable the enlightened individual to face the brave new world with confidence, courage and resilience.

     The topics which have been selected for the seminar and which are expected to stimulate interesting discussion among speakers and participants clearly underscore the importance that is attached to capacity building.

     The party delegates will thus get the opportunity to have and insightful understanding and appreciation of capacity building from various perspectives. Such topics as Education and Training within the Sarawak context, NEP revisited, Challenges and opportunities of the Ninth Malaysia Plan, Small and medium-scale enterprises, Modernization of Agriculture, Human resource planning and capacity building and Effective Management of Business will carry through the messages of capacity building.

     The speakers, too, are as diverse as the topics and are drawn from fields where they excel in their expertise and experience. And unlike most other seminars, which tend to end up as unilateral discourses, the PBB seminar in Miri promises opportunities for the participants to be engaged in group discussion and debate. This will be made possible with the holding of concurrent sessions on different topics at separate venues. And the participants too, will be glade to know that they have the options to choose the sessions most relevant and of interest to them.

     PBB will also be holding and exhibition on commerce and industry at the same venue during the duration of the seminar. Involving 80 exhibitors from the private and public sector, the exhibition will be open to the members of the public.

     The decision to hold the exhibition at the time when the more than 1,200 PBB divisional leaders from throughout the State are present in Miri should be lauded as it completes the whole packages of the seminar in attempting to open up the hearts and minds of party members to the economic challenges and opportunities of the new wave of development.

This article was contributed by Sarawak Tribune