Abdul Karim (fifth left) presents a mock cheque for RM15,000 to a representative from Saberkas Repok branch.
SIBU: There is a possibility for the Saberkas Run to be revived after a 14-year hiatus.
Minister of Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, who is also the president of Sarawak United National Youth Organisation (Saberkas) acknowledged that the event was last held in Kuching in 2006, before it discontinued due to a tragic accident.
“Last year, we successfully held an event that attracted about 3,000 runners.
“We hope to revive the Saberkas Run, which is a good platform to unite the youths and instil in them the spirit of goodwill,” he spoke during a ‘Saberkas Hi-Tea’ session here on Thursday.
Adding on, Abdul Karim also said another intention to revive the run was to ensure that the name ‘Saberkas’ would always be associated with the event.
“Saberkas Run will not only promote unity, but will also help the people embrace a healthy lifestyle, especially among the members of Saberkas, which is the largest youth organisation in Sarawak.”
Abdul Karim, who is also Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, had expressed his surprise over the surge of Saberkas branches being registered lately.
He observed that in the state’s central region alone, there were about 40 Saberkas branches.
“Saberkas never had that number of branches before. I’m not sure about the rush to register new branches but then, it does help to forge unite and create that type of good feeling among the youths to join Saberkas.”
He also called upon the branch leaders to come up with innovative ideas meant to benefit their respective community.
“Financial-wise, there should be no problem. Myself, the treasurer, and the state government representatives will work hard to source the money to ensure that allocations would be given to every Saberkas branch.”
Touching on Saberkas’ activities, Abdul Karim said 144 programmes such as forums, workshops, skills-based courses, as well as socio-community, welfare, educational and economic-entrepreneurial events were held last year.
In this respect, he cited the Saberkas Sports Carnival (Kasus) as among ‘the most successful ones’, adding that it did not only focus on sports, but also on community programmes and skills workshops for youths.
He also said Saberkas would want to hold several collaborations with the Department of Agriculture and other relevant agencies to open up more opportunities for the youths to be more competitive towards generating more incomes.
“Hopefully, this would ensure that our youths would become quality leaders of tomorrow.”
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