‘Communities should continue living in peace and harmony’

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TUARAN: Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Haji Hajiji Haji Noor wants the people here, who come from different backgrounds and cultures, to continue living in peace and harmony.

He said, as Malaysians, it is their responsibility to ensure that the nation, particularly Tuaran, would continue to grow and develop, to benefit the people.

“It is my wish that Tuaran will prosper while the people live in harmony. And I believe through family gathering, we will be able to foster greater ties with one another,” he said when attending the Hiu Family get-together at the Seri Sulaman Hall, here, yesterday.

“The family unit is an important institution. As the saying goes, charity begins at home.

“Without a united family, there will not be a united community and without a united society there will not be a united nation,” he pointed out.

The patriarch of the Hiu Clan, Hiu Mee Teck came to the then North Borneo from Sarawak at the invitation of the British Chartered Company before World War 11. He settled down in Tuaran and opened up the land.

He later married a local native and today the Hiu Clan number about 1,000 spread all over the world. Among his relatives was the late Datuk John Dusing, a former Tuaran district officer and later the State Secretary in the early days of Malaysia.

At the event, some 200 family members, who came from Labuan, Sandakan, Ranau and Kuala Lumpur, got together.

Also present were the Hiu Family gathering organising chairman Anthony Christoper Lim, advisor Joseph Hiu and deputy chairman Michael Goh and organising secretary Lucy Goh. Tuaran District Officer Madiyem Layapan was also present.