Kg. Hubah Kaamatan Festival

The Kaamatan Festival continued to be celebrated last Saturday, 6^th June 2009 at Kg. Hubah, Penampang held at Kg. Hubah Balai Raya. Incidentally, the celebration coincided with the 20^th Anniversary of the opening of the Balai Raya officiated by (YB) Datuk Clarence B. Malakun on 18^th June, 1989 when he was then the Wakil Rakyat of Moyog.

For the first time, the Kaamatan Festival was jointly organized by KDCA/KSS/JKKK and was attended by Datuk Clarence Bongkos Malakun, Deputy President of KDCA; Datuk Marcel Leiking, President of KSS. The other dignitaries who took time to attend the function were YB Tan Sri Bernard G. Dompok and YB Donald Mojuntin despite their other commitments to attend other important functions.

President of KSS Datuk Marcel Leiking, who officiated the launching of Kg. Hubah Kaamatan Festival on behalf YB Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, was pleased to note that KDCA/KSS/JKKK Kg. Hubah have jointly organized the function. “This is a clear manifestation that KDCA and KSS are working in harmony with JKKK at Kampung level,” he said during his speech. He said that this spirit of ‘Mitaatabang’ augurs well for the community in preserving the cultural heritage with the sense of belonging irrespective of political affiliations and creed.

Datuk Marcel corrected the adverse perception of the public about the “competing” functions of KDCA and KSS. “In fact the existence of KDCA and KSS in our midst has further strengthened our community in the preservation of our cultures, customs and traditions – the core objectives of KDCA,” he said. “The functions of KSS are, among others, to promote and preserve the identity of our Kadazan community,” he added in concurrence with Datuk Clarence B. Malakun who spoke earlier in the same vein.

It is very unfortunate that there have been misleading statements and phrases that would distort historical facts and identity of the Kadazans in particular. “We do not allow this to happen, and we need to correct them as and when necessary, otherwise if we allow mistakes to perpetuate, it will eventually become the truth and hence our generations are misled from the real truth,” Marcel said before he declared open the Kaamatan festival.

Earlier on Datuk Clarence Bongkos Malakun, Deputy President of KDCA urged all Kadazan community to speak the proper Kadazan dialect rather than imitating or speaking in dialects other than the proper Kadazan. “We are all Kadazans from Penampang and so we must speak the proper Kadazan dialect rather than we speak in other indigenous dialects,” he urged.

He noted with regret that though the Church Hymn is written in proper Kadazan, but when it is sung in churches from other Districts, the lyrics are changed to suit to their own spoken dialect of that particular District. On the other hand, the church choirs in Penampang would religiously sing the hymns written in other dialects from other Districts. “We can likewise translate the lyrics to our proper kadazan dialect in order to instil the usage our own language,” Datuk Clarence argued.

Datuk Clarence also touched on the coveted title of “Unduk Ngadau”. “There is only one title of “Unduk Ngadau” to represent the Huminodun known to have a radiating beauty like the sun,” he said. He was commenting on the numerous Unduk Ngadau this year – 41 of them all, each representing her District or Territory.

“When I was asked by a Chinese guy of the numerous numbers of ‘Unduk Ngadaus’ ranging from Kampong level to District level every year, I was at the loss for explaination,” Datuk Clarence said.

He proposed that the coveted title of ‘Unduk Ngadau’ should only be awarded to one contestant (as it is being done now) who is selected from amongst the “Unduk” pageant at the State level. These contestants, or beauty pageant, representing their various kampungs or Districts should be categorized with different titles other than “Unduk Ngadau” in order to preserve the sanctity of the coveted title and to avoid confusion.

Datuk Clarence suggested that the beauty queen titles of “Unduk Tosuau” and “Unduk Gavanus” may be the appropriate terms that can be awarded to the winners of Beauty Pageant at District and Kampung levels respectively, or vice versa. Beauty Queens from these categories are, as in the present arrangement, eligible to vie for the coveted title of ‘Unduk Ngadau’ at the State level,” Datuk Clarence added.

Some other pictures HERE taken Bo Tiza.

Datuk Marcel Leiking, KSS President, delivering his speech before launching the Kg. Hubah Kaamatan Festival

Datuk Clarence Bongkos Malakun, KDCA Deputy President, delivering his speech.

Christopher Robin Manjaji, the Organizing Chairman, welcoming those attending the Kaamatan Festival.

Datuk Marcel Leiking officiating the launching of Kg. Hubah Kaamatan Harvest Festival on 6th June 2009 at Kg. Hubah Balai Raya.

YB Tan Sri Bernard Giluk Dompok, MP for Penampang seated with Christopher Robin Manjaji (on his right) with George Mijin (extreme left) and Peter Disimond and Maurice Datuk Jintol Mogunting (extreme right).

YB Donald P. Mojuntin (ADUN Moyog) seated with Datuk Clarence B. Malakun.

The Organizing Committee of Kg. Hubah Kaamatan Festival 2009.

Published in Borneo Post on 9th June 2009.