BY NUR ASHIKIN LOUIS & NIA NATASHA HASENAN
KUCHING: Yayasan Perpaduan Sarawak (YPS) has entered the Malaysia Book of Records (MBOR) for having the most number of ‘Unity’ short stories.
Head of State Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is YPS board of trustee chairman, was present to receive the certificate of record from MBOR chief operating officer Christopher Wong at the MBOR Award ceremony held at Pullman Hotel here today.
The record was created after YPS collected a total of 1,118 short stories through its Sarawak Pride Project.
Of these, 674 submissions received were from Kuching, followed by Miri with 140, Sibu (97), Bintulu (22), Sarikei (16), Samarahan (14), Betong (11), Sri Aman (10), Limbang (nine), Serian and Kapit (eight each) and Mukah (five), while 104 other submissions were from outside of Sarawak.
According to YPS chief executive Datuk Aloysius J Dris, the record-attempt journey began at the end of 2018 when they came up with the idea of sharing and showcasing the spirit of unity in Sarawak through Sarawak Pride Project.
“We are very thankful for the overwhelming support given by the people. We have received over 1,000 stories — unfortunately not all the stories were suitable, therefore the organiser continued to appeal for more heartening stories until May 2020,” he said.
“Despite the project being affected by the unprecedented movement control order (MCO), fortunately we received more good stories to carry on the project until we qualified for setting the record in July 2020,” he said.
Among those present were YPS board of trustee deputy chairman Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam, Sarawak Development Institute (SDI) chairman and State Secretary Datuk Amar Jaul Samion, as well as SDI former chairman Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani.
