Study Needed On Impact Of Borneo Modernisation

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia - There is a need to study and understand the impact of modernisation on the people in Borneo, said Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Vice Chancellor, Prof Datuk Dr Kamaruzaman Haji Ampon.

He said the issue could be understood better if all the higher learning institutions in Borneo cooperate since interaction among scholars in the region was presently somewhat lacking.

Speaking at the dinner in conjunction with the launch of the Fifth Inter-University Borneo-Kalimantan Conference, Tuesday, he said based on the number of universities on the island it was logical that the combined results from their researches would contribute greatly to the corpus of knowledge.

The comprehensive social modernisation process including industrialisation experienced by the communities in the three countries in Borneo had transformed them into a contemporary society, he said in his speech read by Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and International) Prof Dr Amran Ahmed.

The communities in Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and Kalimantan Indonesia had also experienced modernisation in terms of economics, politics and culture, he said, adding that lately the neo-liberal global economy had emerged as a new dimension in the economic modernisation.

“This is something that we have not really studied,” he said.

At the same time, the modernisation process also has negative characteristics, hence the concept of modernisation was no longer appropriate in today`s context.

It is observed, that the logic of competition had the upper hand on the logic of citizenship and social compactness while healthy critical reasoning had been demoted to rationality inclined more on profit reaping due to the capitalist system, which had become the main frame of modernisation.

In this respect, he hoped the conference would be able to debate on the impact of modernisation in terms of politics, economics, social, culture, religion, science and technology to the community in Borneo in order to achieve a synthesis to address many issues arising from it as a whole.

Kamaruzaman also expressed gratitude to the five participating higher learning institutions namely UMS (school of business and economy), UiTM Sabah branch, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Universitas Tanjungpura, Universitas Lambung Mangkurat and Universitas Mulawarman for making the conference a success.

Also on hand was Indonesia Acting Consul-General to Sabah, Rudhito Widagdo.

Source: http://www.dailyexpress.com.my (18 June 2009)
Photo: http://bali-tunas-tour.com

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