Spreading information

Posted by Babuk on October 27, 2004 at 10:25:10:

During the course of doing my job to earn a living and towards the other community (the kireng)in Malaya (as my father calls it!), i came to realise some useful and effective ways of distributing and dessimating information by the intellectuals to their fellow countryman. It strikes me if the same thing can be done by our intellectual Bidayuhs to our kampung folks in our Bidayuh kampungs. Maybe it has been done before, i do not know,but personally i think its worth a try.

These clever malays- lectturers, doctors, professors and the such, but most of the time, charity bodies will make use of the kampung headman to distribute their opinion,writings or findings (not political or any anti-establishment, but mostly helpful motivations and the likes) to the people at large in the forms of pamphlets or magazine for free, with the sole purpose of to help and to educate their people, informally, that is.
It may seems outdated and orthodox in this age of IT,but the reality is, not every of our kampung folks surfs the internet -(or to open Bidayuh.com, for that matter!!) or purposefully buys useful books and aricle done by our clever fellow Bidayuh which can be of benefits for them.Sometimes, simple and down to earth approach can be effective if it is compatible with the situation.
Simply put, what good is a brilliant and helpful writings or findings if it is known only to a small circle of people and not practice by the majority?.Obviously, to reap the desired effect, the knowledge must be known, realised, accepted and practiced by the people at large, and in this case, our fellow Bidayuh.
I think the same goes to us the Bidayuh.Those writings or books or magazine or what ever it is, done by our fellow Bidayuh should be well distributed and read by our people, for only throught this means can we help to change or rather improve the outlook and perspectives of our fellow Bidayuh and creat Bidayuh Bauh-as coinned by britonger member!!.So, a well distribution of information from our fellow clever Bidayuh to our fellow Bidayuh at large is vital if we desired to see changes within our people, which i personally believe, is the desire of the majority of us Bidayuh in Sarawak (and Britongers as well, even if some express theirs in an unconventional ways, but it still is opinion and something can be learn from it!!)

The fact is, with the acception of Radio Bidayuh Service in Kuching and maybe few Bidayuh magazines, we are lacking in mastering and capitalising the communication mediums and tactics (we might have the techniques) to dessimate our agendas like the kirengs-for example, we do not have our TV station like the Kireng or Bisina (of course there are concrete reason for that-government policy!)This leave us with the only option of manual and conventional ways of spreading infromation and one of them is-
- give copies of our materials or writing to the headmans, ask the headman to have kudung (meeting lah) with his people and distribute the materials for free or with a small token.(If cost of printing is the obstacle, than maybe try to find sponsor from our organisation or others to help, maybe charity bodies?....but ways must be find so that these people can have the infirmation and our agenda)
Reading can have a different effect( they can choose to have their own time and place to read resulting in the information being well digested and understood)compare to campaigning and giving speech.

I believe that we are no lesser than any other race and to exaggerate, maybe better-generally we bidayuh are known for hardworking, loyal, humble at times timid!! and few others good traits, these we must take advantage of and it can be our strenth / forte.Hardworking and deligent in continually generating ideas and knowlegde, loyal to our cause and conviction, humble towards our fellow people and wise to execute and implement practicality and many more.
I'm new with Bidayuh.com, but i came to realise, for example, that there are some inspiring and well meaning writings and commentaries sent by our fellow Bidayuh. Question comes to my mind is, how many of my fellow Bidayuh come to know and read about this as well as the such out there? I also think that how nice and useful it would be if my people can have access to materials such as these? The irony is, i've seen it done by the other races.There are books done by our Bidayuh intellectuals, but how many Bidayuh can know and benefit from the content? Its a pity.Accessability to knowlegde and reading is one great engine of development to a society.Geniuses, inventors and movers of the world all gain their knowlgde throught reading. From where else and how else do we think they learn?

The age to come is what they call K- economy (knowldge based and information runned economic system) the IT, the Infomation Society, IT Governance and the likes. The whole world is shifting and adapting towards this inevitable change, and so must we -they don't care and it doesn't matter to them whether we like it or not, the fact is the running of the world is changing,the perils are great, so the decision is in our own hands.
For this reason, my salutation to those who started this Bidayuh website and those who maintained it. They are examples of some special and well meaning Bidayuhs among us!! They have done their part and speak throught their deed!! by the inception of Bidayuh.com and the likes and others as well.

I've heard and read a few commentaries and writings written by our well meaning bidayuh leaders and intellectuals in trying to reach us, but qusetion remain, How effective is the desired effect? This questions provoke me to express my humble opinion on this topic.
Hopefully it dosen't create another polemic among us!!