“Impian Malaysia” or the “Malaysia Dream” is a movement started by DAP Parliamentary Leader Lim Kit Siang in May after the 13th General Election envisioning a plural society where all her citizens are united as one people, rising above their ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic differences as the common grounds binding them as one citizenship exceed the differences that divide them because of their ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural divisions.
The movement hopes to gather more Malaysian volunteers (including non-party members) to be “Impian Malaysia” Agents for our activities and programs to promote Malaysian identity and consciousness particularly among the young generation of Malaysians.
In September 2013, we had successfully launched the first pillar of the movement, “Impian Sarawak” and have completed several projects, involving nearly 40 “Impian Malaysia Agents”.
Today, we are launching the next pillar to our “Malaysian Dream” – the “Impian Sabah” project.
The DAP will explore, study and identify critical programmes and projects which needs to be carried out in Sabah to uplift the well-being of the rural and poor villagers. We will organise teams of members and volunteers to penetrate these remote villages to undertake projects such as micro-hydro electric dams to provide electricity, gravity feed water systems, repair works on basic infrastructure such as roads and bridges as well as economic upliftment programmes via sustainable sources of income.
Impian Malaysia Agents are required to take part as volunteers in these programmes to bring significant changes to the livelihood of these villagers – Kadazan, Dusun, Murut, Bajau and other ethnic groups – who have been marginalised by the BN Government. The participation of Impian Malaysia Agents in the campaign will make an immense difference to these people.
We will be kicking off the first Impian Sabah project this weekend to build a gravity-feed water system at Kampung Samparita Laut, Kota Marudu.
The Dusun village is a 3-hour drive from Kota Kinabalu including an hour of off-road driving. After parking the car, everyone will have to wade across a thigh-deep river. During rainy days, the water level goes up to the waist. This is their daily routine to enter and exit the village.
Kg Samparita has a population of more than 200 people who have no access to piped water. These villagers rely on the main river as their main source for drinking, washing, and cleaning. In fact, they don’t even have toilets because the villagers feel there isn’t any point in having toilets if there isn’t water.
Their usual drinking water looks like Nescafe susu and during rainy days, when the colour becomes more like “Nescafe kurang susu”, they will collect rainwater for drinking. With this project, we’ll be able to provide running water to the whole village.
This project will involve 2 batches of volunteers from 30 Nov – 8 Dec and 12 Dec – 21 Dec. The volunteers will stay with the villagers, assisting them to connect and bury pipes, cement work, and all work related to build a gravity feed water system.
Impian Malaysia Agents who can’t take part directly, can certainly take part in this thrust by attending our fund-raising dinners or donating online via https://dapmalaysia.org/donate. You may even run your own fund-raising activities, and our leaders will be more than happy to make available time to attend these functions.
For more information, please email [email protected].