Dr.

Harry Entebang: A Biography

KML 6033 Social and Cultural Dimensions in Learning and Instruction

Instructor: Dr. Julia Lee Ai Cheng
Joshua Baru Andrew ()
Mohammad Faizal B. Ismail ()
Voon Hui Joo (14030315)
Wong Ling Hua (14030314)
Due date: 6th January 2015
Assignment 3

Dr. Harry Entebang: A Biography

1.0

Introduction
Among so many capable people, how do we choose? Why is him? We have our own

criteria to choose as we (Joshua, Faizal, Voon and Wong) are currently taking Master in
Learning Science programmes. This course is intended for professionals whom are interested
in teaching & learning and best suit to teachers, trainers, lecturers and professionals. Reasons
to choose him was most of us are in the education line. So, we decided to look for a Senior
lecturer as we are interested to know our career path as an educator in future. Besides, we are
interested to know how one can be so success and struggle from poor family. We know that
majority educator only can afford for moderate living life as compare to entrepreneur. We
believed this is a fate and therefore we interested to know him more.
He is Dr. Harry Entebang, a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Economics & Business
and CEO of UNIMAS Holdings Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned company of Universiti Malaysia
Sarawak (UNIMAS). He is Iban (Dayak) and born in 11th December 1968 at Simanggang, Sri
Aman, Sarawak. He is married with four children.
For academic background and qualification, he went to year 1 at Chung Hua primary
school as his mother is a typical Chinese lady. Therefore, strongly encourages him to study at
Chinese School. But he was not interested in Chinese. Therefore, he was not performed in
primary school yet very naughty to pass his primary school time. After year 6, he joined
Government Secondary school in Simanggang for form 1- form 5. He had great and
outstanding academic performance. Then, in 1990, he went to MARA Institute of Technology
(UiTM) to study Diploma in Accountancy as this was the best course offered at that time.
According to him, his initial ambition wanted to become lawyer but not come to the bus, as
no courses provided. One the best program is accountancy, so enter it. After finished
Diploma, in 1991, he worked as sub-accountant. At the same time, in 1992 to 1996, he
studied part time for degree in UITM. In 1999, he enrolled in UNIMAS for CMBA

Dr. Harry Entebang: A Biography

programme which is the first batch students and had graduated in 2002. He worked at
Sarawak State Farmers Organisation for six years, subsequently, he moved to another
company, Sarawak Information system which is a wholly owned company by the State
Government of Sarawak. He had also worked there for another 6 years (1998 2003).
Upon completion of CMBA (UNIMAS) in 2003, he moved his job to UNIMAS
Holdings Sdn Bhd. One of the motivation to become a lecturer was asked to become a trainer
working closely with state government department instead of working hours from 8am
5pm, stayed and looked at the same place for 12 years and want to experience more
interesting life. In sum, prior to joining UNIMAS, he worked for the Sarawak state
government agencies for 11 years and had been stay at UNIMAS until this date.
His areas of expertise involve accounting & financial planning, financial performance
analysis, organizational strategic planning, innovation, strategic renewal, corporate
entrepreneurship and credit management. He had published locally and internationally in
refereed journals while actively involves in various training and consultancy services. One of
the examples is Corporate Entrepreneurial Orientations in State Owned Enterprises in
Malaysia.

2.0

Analysis of Interview Data

Born in December 1968 in Simanggang to a farming family of seven children, Dr.

Harry had a childhood with tight economy. The economic condition during 1970s in Sarawak
was not good and people worked hard just to provide basic necessities for family. Condition
he faced during that time motivate him to make changes in his life. Dr. Harry knew that the
only way to improve his future life was through education. Bandura (2001) in his Social
Cognitive Theory mentions essence of humanness is the capacity to have control over the
nature and decide quality of ones life. However, his education path was not smooth initially.

Dr. Harry Entebang: A Biography

Since his mother is a Chinese, Dr. Harry was sent to a Chung Hua primary school for
his primary education, where he faced lot of challenges in learning there. He cannot read and
write well in Mandarin and slowly gave up in his study. Poor academic performance led him
to become a naughty boy in his school. Unsatisfied result on his primary school certificate
made him to reflect on the importance of education and change his attitude toward learning
for brighter future. Dr. Harry managed to learn everything he should had learnt in primary
school in his transition class within a year. Since then, he always got the first place in his
class.
Social Cognitive Theory by Bandura plays influential role on evolved factors in
human adaption and change. Human behavior was shaped and controlled automatically and
mechanically by environment stimuli (Bandura, 2001). Social condition can influence human
thoughts. Dr. Harry intended to make changes in his life and knew the only way was through
education. He also realized he must change his learning attitude after completing primary
school. Dr. Harry said, Education can make big different in ones life.
Dr. Harry felt the changes before and after he achieved his doctorial degree. Before he
got his PhD, he never considers many things in his life; he only lives for himself and care of
his family. However, after he got his PhD, people approach him for advises and expect to get
something from him. He told us that When you have achieved something in life, you have to
start to think of other people and giving out what do you have. Sociocultural theory by
Vygotsky proposed that there is dynamic interdependence of social and individual processes.
Social can affecting an individual and the individual also affects the social. People are not
simply undergoers of experiences but agents of experiences (Bandura, 2001). Dr. Harry
realized that he can impact other peoples and began to think of other peoples. He started to
become imparter of knowledge and contributes on things that can help the society.

Dr. Harry Entebang: A Biography

Question 1
Is there anyone in your life who has significantly / greatly transformed your thinking and
perspective? Who is this person?
Dr Harry admired Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn born in September 17, 1930 and was an
American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker for personal development. He had
conducted seminars over 39 years and addressed more than 6,000 audiences and 4 million
people worldwide. Even in 1985, he also won the coveted CPAE Award from the National
Speakers Association. Jim Rohn has authored more than 17 books, audio and video programs
He spent lot of money to buy Jim Rohns books or tapeas it let him viewed things differently
and also wider his view or thinking.
Dr Harry used to listen to Jim Rohns talk and books whenever there is spare time as
he found that Jim Rohn is a philosophical man and his word are made sense and can be
translated in real life. This implies "Vygotsky conceptualized development as the
transformation of socially shared activities into internalized processes" where build inner talk
for him from time to time.

Question 2
How has this person shaped your thinking and changed you? How did the influence
unfold?
Dr Harry had got bored as employee life as worked from 8am to 5pm. From there, he
understood that no matter how hard he worked, toward the end of the year, everyone still got
same pay. He also had mention that only his bonus was slightly higher than others as due to
his profession, he was able to help company to save money from paying lots of company
yearly income tax.

Dr. Harry Entebang: A Biography

Dr Harry learnt from Jim Rohn that if he wanted to earn more, he had to think outside
the box. He was not satisfied with what he had before joining UNIMAS Holding Sdn Bhd.
He wanted to earn more money than what he received before year 2003. From Jim Rohn, he
started to think of what can he do for people or offer to people in order to earn more and to
sustain household expenses with four children.
He started to think of and analyze his strength, weakness, opportunity and threads
(SWOT) in his career path. He focused on his strength and opportunities based on his
academic qualification, personality and inner self talk from Jim Rohn. In 1999, Dr Harry
came up with a business proposal. Only two years later, it was accepted. This was where
began his road toward higher level of career. In year 2003, he had come out with another
proposal. Since then, his income had improved from year to years.
"Vygotsky conceptualized development as the transformation of socially shared
activities into internalized processes." We view that Dr Harry had shift his career from sub
accountant to a CEO and senior lecturer. Later, we found that Jim Rohn started to work as a
stock clerk for department store and ended up with entrepreneur, author and motivational
speaker. This had probably influenced his opinion about career shifts. Theoretically, an
internalisation process had incurred (Vygotsky, 1978).

Question 3
What strategies and knowledge did you learn from these individuals?
We understand that Rogoff expanded Vygotskys genetic law of development and
called it guided participation. The same go for Dr. Harry Entebang. For example, he said that
school never teach us to make money or rich. But cant denied that university produce good
graduate become good employees which not to enrich themselves. From this idea - Dr Harry
review again about his wants or needs in his life.

Dr. Harry Entebang: A Biography

According to conceptualisation model, Vygostsky (1978) SCT, development of

knowledge is the transformation of socially shared activities into internalised process of
learning. His principle is never give up. Since Form 5, he had a dream to study overseas. As
his background is from poor family which not able to afford him to do so. But he still
interested to know the process (overseas lifestyle) even though he had got his Masters in
UNIMAS with happy marriage and surrounded by four children. He still embarked his
journey to seek solution. In personal, he keeps on doing self-reflectiveness in shaping his
career and evaluated his pursuits, goals and motivation (Bandura, 2001). Instead of looking at
the product, Dr Harry is interested in the process; understanding is the great importance of the
genetics analysis (Vygotsky, 1978). His dream finally realised 20 years after Form 5.

Question 4
You are such a successful individual; how did you motivate yourself through inner-speech
or self-talk to get to where you are now?
The toughest moment Dr. Harry faced in his life was during the time he pursuing
doctorial degree in United Kingdom. His family was together with him during the first year.
However, his wife could not stand the weather in UK and hence bring their children back to
Kuching. Dr. Harry was been left alone in UK for the next two years. He was very lonely and
misses his family so much. The only thing he thought of was to finish his doctorial degree as
soon as possible and came back to gather with his family. Bandura (2001) defined agency as
agent that act to make things happen intentionally. Dr. Harry managed to achieve his goal
with completed his doctorial degree in two years and eight months.
He told us that do things that you have not done before need a lot of self motivation.
He had performed self talk frequently to motivate and encourage himself during those two
years. He usually performed self talk by look at the mirror and talked to himself in his room.

Dr. Harry Entebang: A Biography

Bandura (2001) figured out four core features of human agency: intentionality, forethought,
self-reflectiveness and self-reactiveness. Dr. Harry is fulfilled with all these features. He has
intentions to set some goals and performs proactive commitment for the outcomes. He also
thinks and selects action that likely produce desired outcomes. He motivated himself and
provides self-guide on his actions in anticipation of future events (Bandura, 2001). Dr. Harry
said, Self talk is very important element in my life, when time is very tough. He also did
self-reflection by self talk. He always thought on his own strength and ways to solve
challenges faced in life.

Question 5
What are some of your philosophies in life for solving problems that you encounter and for
thinking outside the box in your work and personal life?
When asked about some of his philosophies in life, Dr. Harry replied, In this life, you
been trained and are paid to be a problem solver, you can do all things. He sees difficult
things faced in his life as challenges instead problems. The challenges are always be there
and cannot be avoid no matter where are we. Therefore, the only way is to face and solve it.
Dr. Harry believes that everyone has abilities to overcome challenges and these abilities
depend on own perception and attitude toward things and environment.
Dr. Harry thinks that we can do all thing, we can always seek help from others if lack
of certain knowledge or skills needed to solve the challenges. There are three mode of human
agency: direct personal agency, proxy agency and collective agency. When facing challenge
where Dr. Harry finds his knowledge or skills are insufficient to solve the challenge, he will
seek helps from others. This sentence implies the Social Cognitive Theory by Bandura that
pointed up people try to approach those who have access to resources, expertise or who
wield influence and power to act for them, to secure the outcome they desired. People do not

Dr. Harry Entebang: A Biography

live their lives in isolation but work together in coordination with others to secure what
cannot be accomplished on their own (Bandura, 2001).

Question 6
Would you please share with us the significant role model who had shaped your
development/growth?
Dr. Harry Entebang mentioned he did not have any role model in life but very admire
Dr. Patrick Dixon. He always watches the video of Dr. Patrick through YouTube and learnt
some ideas to improve himself and also the society. Dr. Harry described Dr. Patrick as Man
of God. He mentioned Dr. Patrick is a good speaker. He interested in the idea of Dr. Patrick
Dixon to get involve in communitys engagement. An idea of Dr. Patrick that he very admires
is think of the other people. Dr. Harry said he have everything in his life and want to share
or invested it in communities development. Not only the luxury but he said he can contribute
his knowledge and skills to help the society growth.
Dr. Harry shared with us that at the certain age, we start to think of the other people.
I am not from a rich family. My background is farming family. If I did not help my society,
nobody wants to care for it. I really want to change the life of the rural people. That is why
he interested to help the other people. From Bandura (1971), human behaviour can change in
terms of a reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioural and environmental
determinants. When Dr. Harry watch a video of Dr. Patrick, he picks the idea as knowledge
gain (cognitive) from it and change his behaviour and people that involved in that
environment. In this scenario, Dr. Harry select, organize and transform the idea from Dr.
Patrick in his situation especially in term to help the society growth.

Dr. Harry Entebang: A Biography

10

Question 7
What are some of your goals in life that you would like to share with us?
Dr. Harry has many goals to achieve in life. Of course he wants to be a rich man and
have a good health in life. The first goal he said was he want to write and publish own books
that can change the world in particular field. As a senior lecture at Faculty of Economics and
Business at UNIMAS, having the skills and also knowledge, he said he can make it with his
ability.
Second goal for him is to be a good father and can be proud of his family member. He
said, lets legacy create itself and not family create legacy. He did not force his daughters
interests in debate or her study. He lets his daughter to choose what she wants to be.
The third goal of Dr. Harry is to involve or contributes much more in church work. He
believes in God and believes God will support him in whatever he does. When looking back
into theory of social cognitive, Dr. Harry is an agent of changes. He wants to change life of
the other people. He is cognitive agent as he mentions from his goal that he wants to create a
book that can change the world in particular part. He is very proactive and reflective person.
He is motivated to achieve personal goals and these properties are described in the paper by
Bandura (2001).

Question 8
What are some of your pursuits in life?
First is the belief in God and he want involved more in church work. He wants to
contribute more for church organization. After involved in this work, he told us that the
feeling was very different. Even he has more duties or works, but his mind is very peaceful
and has many friends especially among church member. He told us that God had made him
into what the person he is today. Through interviews with Dr. Harry, we could say that Dr.

Dr. Harry Entebang: A Biography

11

Harry is a man who has a personal nature that is very effective against the church and the
community. These properties can be associated with the idea of Bandura (2001) which stated
that personal efficacy is needed to manage the other people life and have an effect in social
changes.

Question 9
What are some of the significant transformative roles that you play in the government/
society/ industry?
Dr. Harry is the current CEO of UNIMAS Holdings Sdn Bhd. In 2013, the company
was in bad shape, where they had several issues and the company was not doing so well. The
top management of UNIMAS then turned to Dr. Harry for help, where they asked him to be
the CEO of the company. Dr. Harry was reluctant at first, but after pondering on the matter,
he finally agreed to the offer as he sees it as an opportunity to give back or contribute to the
university.
Since his involvement with the company, Dr. Harry has manage to turnaround the
company, where the company improved in terms of profit, cash flow, staff morale and putting
everything back in order. Hence, Dr. Harry states that he believes his involvement with
UNIMAS Holdings Sdn Bhd is the most significant role he played.
Bandura (2001) mentioned about influential role of evolved factors in human
adaptation and change, under the topic of Social Cognitive Theory. Dr. Harry was required to
turnaround a company which he did not started; hence he is in a new environment. The
success of the turnaround will depend on how Dr. Harry manages the company, getting use to
the new environment, new place, new work scope, new staff. He needs to bring his 'A' game
and learn to adapt and learn. Having high self-efficacy is also crucial to keep him motivated

Dr. Harry Entebang: A Biography

12

in his role as the CEO of the company. Influence is also a part of the physicalistic theory of
human agency.

Question 10
Are there any people who guided you in stages of your life? Do you go for any
apprenticeship before?
According to Dr. Harry, he never had a specify person who guided him. However he
does have friends, seniors and other people who he would ask as seek help and guidance from
time to time. To quote Dr. Harry, I must say I dont have answers for everything, I think its
best that we ask people who are more experience than us. Books are okay but it is better to
ask people with experience in certain things. This shows that despite learning mostly from
reading books and listening to talks, Dr. Harry also believe that it is better to have interaction
with other individuals in order to learn and gain more information, knowledge as well as
skills.
Regarding apprenticeship, Dr. Harry mentioned that he has no experiences on it, he
even joked about doing everything via trial and error. So we ask his personal opinion
regarding apprenticeship, either it is useful and can it help in individual to learn. Dr. Harry
believes that by having a good mentor or coach, with a good program, can produce good
graduate or students. However, the graduate or student must be willing to be taught, shaped
and change.
Looking at the paper by Lave & Wenger (1991), which mainly talks on situated
learning, or learning in doing, is mostly regarding apprenticeship, where how one learns from
another individual, group or other factors. Apprenticeship is about being guided by someone,
or in other terms, expert - novice.

Dr. Harry Entebang: A Biography

13

Then there is also about the zone proximal development or ZPD, mentioned by
Vygotsky (1978) as "the zone of proximal development is the distance between the actual
developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential
development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration
with more capable peers.", which shows the potential of an individual in learning better with
the guidance or collaboration with other experts. In the context of Dr. Harry, who lack in
having a figure or personal mentor, used other methods to substitute this "figure" or "personal
mentor" or "guidance", by reading books and listening to talks from famous speakers to help
him learn. As mentioned by Dr. Harry also that he do seek guidance from his peers and other
experienced people, so it is not really that ZPD was not there, just that it was in a slightly
different context of ZPD which then catapulted Dr. Harry's potential not only as a CEO and
lecturer, but also as a father, husband and a human being in total.

Question 11
Did you learn mostly through activity or interaction/talk?
Dr. Harry mentioned that he learn from whatever sources that can help him, from his
experience, it was through books, listening to talks, interaction with other people, and that he
will pick up things from here and there to learn or gain knowledge. He stated that Jim Rohn
and Patrick Nixon had philosophies and ideas which inspired him in one way or another.
Reading books and learning from other people and picking up good things along the way.
Again from the paper by Lave & Wenger (1991) which touches on situated learning
and apprenticeship, where learning can occur collaboratively, in a group. The example given
by Lave & Wenger on the Alcoholics Anonymous, where activity and sharing experiences
was key and that opportunity to practice can be a resource for learning, we believe Dr. Harry

Dr. Harry Entebang: A Biography

14

also learned through his interaction with others, collaboratively, as well as his own learning
via reading books and listening to talks, contributes to his learning experience.

3.0

Conclusion
As a whole, Dr. Harry's learning experience came from different sources, via personal

means and motivation, as well as external help and social interaction. His time spending with
books and listening to talks has contributed in his learning experiences as well as when he
does things, learning through "trial and error", by seeking guidance from others. Theories,
mostly from Bandura, Vygotsky, Lave & Wenger has shown how does these factors affect and
impacted Dr. Harry's learning experiences, as the CEO of UNIMAS Holdings Sdn Bhd, as a
senior lecturer, as a father and husband as also as a human being, since his childhood until his
current position in life. We believe that Dr. Harry's life experience so far can be an inspiration
to others as well. Before we ended the interview, Dr. Harry shared some of his thoughts based
on his life experience to share with everyone;
To me, life is a journey. And whether we are going to have a successful journey or not,
depends on how we look at things, how we deal with people, how we manage limitation,
challenges, problems. To me if we can handle that, we will be able to live a 'good life'.
Sometimes we really plan to have good life but things didn't work out the way we want it
to be, don't be discourage. Sometimes our life are miserable but there are other people
who are more miserable than us. I always say this to my wife, be thankful with what we
have. I may not be staying in a big house, drive big cars, but once we start to be thankful,
that is the beginning of happiness. For things to change, I have to change. most of the
time we want things to change, we want other people to change but forget about
ourselves. I cannot change the world, but I can change myself. (Entebang, 2014)