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Brief histories of the
first clubs of each geographic regions or countries
Rotary Club of KOTA KINABALU,
the First Club of Sabah
(formally independent North Borneo, now a state of
Malaysia)
Rotary International
District 3310
Part of our
History of Rotary in Asia
Section
A Brief
History -
"Sabah, land below the wind" -
south of the typhoon prone region around the Philippines.
Originally under the Sultanate of Brunei (from 1658), this area has been
also under control or outright ownership of the British East India Company
(from 1761), an American trading company (from 1865), the Austrian Consulate
in Hong Kong (from 1871) the British North Borneo Company (from 1882) and
finally as a protectorate of Great Britain (from 1888).
On 16 September 1963 it joined Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya to form the
"Federation of Malaysia" which had already gained independence from Britain
in 1957.
Singapore separated in 1965 leaving the remaining areas as "Malaysia".
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The following information was extracted from a Powerpoint presentation
by PDG Datuk George
Anthony Ginibun at
the “20th Pan Borneo Meet” held in Kuching, Sarawak in May 2007.
The rapid growth and
success of Rotary in the Kingdom of Thailand, British Malaya, Straights
Settlement of Singapore, Sarawak and Brunei made it imperative and urgent,
that Rotary should also exist in the last bastion of the British
dependencies in South East Asia.
And so it was Dato’
Panglima Kinta, Dato Mohamed Eusoff, DG 1951/1952 that undertook this heavy
task. He appointed President H. Earnshaw of the RC of Kuching and Rtn
Horace G. Gray, to carry out a preliminary survey.
A large gathering of
leaders attended the first interest meeting in Jesselton, now Kota Kinabalu.
On the 24th November,
1952 with 22 charter members, the first Rotary Club in North Borneo was
chartered. A.J.B. Dickson was elected as the Charter President.
There was no looking
back for Rotary Club of Kota Kinabalu, as it continued to sponsor five other
Rotary Clubs – RC Sandakan, RC Brunei Town, RC Tawau, RC Likas Bay & RC
Tanjung Aru
Among the prominent
personalities whom have graced the Past Presidents roster for the Rotary
Club of Kota Kinabalu were:
Wong Kee Hung, 1961-62
Lucas Chong, 1965-66
Datuk Peter Yew Mun Sang,
1967-68
Wong Tshen Hin, (TH Wong)
68-69
Peng Tien Yuen (TY Peng)
1969-70
Tan Sri Thomas Jayasuria,
1970-71
It is interesting to
note here that among the prominent past presidents of RC Kota Kinabalu, two
personalities rose to become District Governors namely:
1). The
late YBhg Dato’ Seri Haji Rashidi bin Ma’asom President in 1972/73, who
became the District Governor for District 330 in 1985/86.
2). The
late John Wang Gen Sieh, President in 1977/78, who later became District
Governor D. 3300 in 1992/93
Finally, in 1995, after
43 years of Rotary International existence in Borneo, a Sabahan in the
person of His Excellency YBhg Datuk George Anthony Ginibun from the Rotary
club of Kota Kinabalu South, broke the history of the Rotary movement in
Borneo by assuming the high office of the District Governor District 3310 in
the year 1995/1996 .
From his beginnings as a
kampung boy from Penampang, he is undoubtedly the forerunner of many more
District Governors to come from East Malaysia.
The second Sabahan who
will assume the high office of District Governor in 2008/2009 is YBhg Edward
Sung Burongoh from the oldest club in Sabah, the RC of Kota Kinabalu. He
comes from Tuaran.
Looking back over
the past 50 years, it is interesting to note that there were quite a number
of large projects undertaken by the clubs in Kota Kinabalu particularly RC
of Kota Kinabalu. Amongst them are:
- Maternity Home,
Penampang
- Wallace
Training Centre for the Blind, Tuaran
- Rotary Hospital
Lodge, Kota Kinabalu
- Construction of
500 toilets in Kota Belud
- The Don Bosco
Orphanage, Bundu Tuhan
- School for the
Society for the Deaf
- SINDEX
- School Girls’
Hostel in Keningau
- River
Cleanliness
- Water Gravity
in Sabah
- Medical
Outreach
- RCC (Pitas)
In addition to that,
RC Kota Kinabalu was also instrumental in organizing the following
associations
- Sabah Society
for the Blind, 1961
- Sabah Society
for the Deaf, 1974
- Sabah Mental
Health Association, 1975
- Sabah Cancer
Society, 1983
- Senior Citizen
Club, 1986
- Sabah
Thalassaemia Society, 1992
Currently, there are
13 active Rotary Clubs in Sabah
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