Lotud association holds leadership workshop with community learning centre

Madius (seventh from left), Fredie (ninth from right) and the participants of the workshop.

18 April 2023

By Wartawan Nabalu News

KOTA KINABALU: Persatuan Suang Lotud Sabah (Lotud) recently together with the Lotud Community Learning Centre (LCLC) organised a leadership workshop at the Kionsom Baptist Retreat Centre.

The workshop which was held from April 14 to 15 was officiated by Tuaran member of Parliament Datuk Seri Panglima Madius W Tangau selaku Ahli Parlimen Tuaran and closed by the Chief Minister’s wife Datin Seri Panglima Juliah Salag who was represented by Persatuan Suang Lotud Sabah’s president Datuk Fredie Sua.

Madius in his speech said that the association’s initiative to organise the inaugural workshop is the right step towards its progress into the future.

Madius advised LOTUD’s leadership to master the use of digital technology in order not to fall behind in all the fields explored.

Meanwhile Juliah in her speech which was delivered by Fredie opined that the workshop should be continued and made an annual event.

According to her, the most important thing for any association is that the leadership move as a group and mobilize their energy, thoughts as well as efforts.

“The association should think about how to bring the Lotud community forward and be competitive in order to further improve the standard of living of the community. Let us all be involved in uniting and strengthening the relationship among the Suang Lotud ethnic group so that the spirit of family and cooperation, helping and respecting each other can be sown, nurtured and will grow stronger,” she stressed.

Juliah pointed out that the Suang Lotud ethnic group is still a minority compared to other ethnic groups in Sabah such as the Bajau, Brunei, Sungai and Rungus.

She opined that there are many things that the community should do such as conserving and defending the socio-culture and customs of the Lotud people adding, “improving and improving socio-economics, education, health, business and enterprise among the Suang Lotud ethnic group should be our concern if we want to see a change in the lives of the Suang Lotud community.

“Therefore, we must encourage the community to take advantage of the existing opportunities and the association can help in terms of advice and guidance on how to get the help that is available,” she said.

Juliah also pointed out that language is a strong identity marker for a nation and praised the efforts that have been carried out for more than 10 years to produce a dictionary to ensure that the Suang Lotud language does not die out.

“The Hatod Suang Lotud, which was published in May 2015, is now being used among Suang Lotud children. I also understand that the effort to develop the morphology of the Suang Lotud language that is being worked on now for a complete dictionary which would contain approximately 20,000 words,” she said.

“I am personally very happy with the development of the Lotud language so far and that the Lotud Community Learning Center that implements these programs gets expert services from local and international ethnic linguistic bodies in the development of the mother tongue, namely from the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL Malaysia) and the Kadazandusun Language Foundation ( KLF),” she added.