By Dayangku Hidayatul
KUCHING, Oct 22: Sarawak United National Youth Organisation (SABERKAS) continues to serve as a platform for nurturing young leaders, with its president Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah clarifying that membership alone does not assure anyone a place on the election candidate list.
He said SABERKAS does not formally put forward election candidates, but provides a platform for identifying and developing potential leaders who may eventually enter politics.
“Looking at past elections, the highest number of candidates has always come from SABERKAS. So, I won’t be surprised if it happens again this time round.
“I’m not saying that we are the ones who select or put forward candidates. If it were like that, everyone would want to join SABERKAS,” he said at a press conference after chairing the 61st SABERKAS Sarawak Supreme Committee Meeting at a hotel here today.
Abdul Karim, who is also PBB information chief, said SABERKAS had long served as a platform for identifying and nurturing young leaders, with many candidates in previous State elections coming from its ranks.
He said the movement could once again be a source of candidates for the coming State election.
“SABERKAS is one platform where you can see that anything to do with religion or race does not come into play. They are all above that,” he said.
With 57,928 members, including 54,233 ordinary members, across 82 branches, SABERKAS also has clubs in several higher education institutions, providing opportunities to engage younger generations and encourage their involvement in leadership and community development.
Among the institutions are Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Cyber College, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Swinburne University of Technology, i-CATS University College and SEGi College.
The organisation recently organised 66 programmes at unit, branch and state levels from July 1 to September 30, covering seminars, workshops, sports, cultural activities, social welfare, entrepreneurship and women’s affairs.
These activities reflect SABERKAS’ broader role in developing young talent and building leadership experience. — DayakDaily
