SARAWAK O’ SARAWAK

 

 

I am no political expert but I’m a Sarawakian, born, bred and have lived here for the past fifty years, except for a short stint of three years in KL pursuing a piece of coveted paper. So I have lived long enough to know that things are definitely not right in my homestate. I have been to a few places but ultimately I still come back to the place where I was born. It seemed destined that I will not venture anymore to foreign places as I already have a family and a livelihood to maintain. And ties to the loved ones especially the old folks are just too strong to be severed.

 

Then there’s the place itself and the Sarawakian folks.

 

You have to experience it to appreciate the unique Sarawakian way of life. Many peninsular visitors are touched by the genuine warmth and sincererity of the locals be it Ibans, Bidayuh, Orang Ulus, Malays, Chinese and all the others natives. I guess you could say we not only learned to live with one another but also learned from each other and that is an important difference. It has made the Sarawakian culture so much richer with its varieties of dialects spoken. Inter-marriages are very common and has resulted in an interesting blend of physical looks where there are no more stereotypes of how a Chinese or an Iban or a Malay should look like. We would have probably evolved into a new Sarawakian race with this freely mixing of races!

 

Even foreigners are quickly drawn into this delightful whirlpool once they have stayed long enough and overcame the initial culture barrier and established a network of local friends who will support and care for them. This European couple I know has lived in Kuching for more than ten years and found it hard to live anywhere else despite having the means and opportunity to live in other more exotic places.

 

Sadly, things are slowly changing.

 

It started with the younger generation who are forced to leave their homestate in search for better career opportunities after completing their higher education. Now even just high school graduates are flocking to foreign shores to seek their fortunes and many never return to stay but make the obligatory annual trip home to visit the old folks. Some who have made it and can afford to retire relatively young, inevitably choose to return and spend their golden years at their forefathers’ lands. But the cycle will be repeated with their offsprings.

 

Are we heading into the future with this trend of increasing young exodus? There are simply not enough economic development to create job oppotunities to sustain the rising number of eligible work seekers. What has become of the promise of creating a high income society? Everywhere the disparity between those who have the unfair advantage of being well-connected (read political cronies) and the rest of us widens and it has created a very extreme society of a few elite super rich and the masses of super poor.

 

And no prizes for guessing who is responsible for this state of affairs.

 

Now is the time for all Sarawakians to act and make a change. Granted, it will not happen over night, not during this coming state election nor even the next. The battle to unseat the present state government is simply too monumental given all the resources and the media they control. I am not going to talk about the opposition strength, enough has been said about their state of disunity, infighting, party hopping and so on.

 

Still we owe it to ourselves to be heard by the present government. A change of government may not necessarily be for the better, but we have to start something to make them sit up and notice that we the rakyat are not taking this state of affairs lying down anymore. They should not be taking us for granted, like by just giving election goodies or making promises which mostly never materialise. We must not succumb to their threats of ‘punishment’ which is the lowest of all tactics.

 

If we could reduce the number of seats won by the present BN state government it would constitute a huge morale booster. Every vote for the opposition is a vote against  a tyrannical regime, corruption, wastage of resources and outdated policies.  Only when we have a stronger oppostion are we in the position to negotiate for a better future which encompasses all Sarawakians irrespective of ethnic origins.

 

We look forward to a Sarawak where everyone has equal opportunities to develop the full potential of our rich resources. We also look forward to the days of no more heartaches to see our sons and daughters leaving our shores to become orang asing. I am sure I’m not the only parent who, deep inside, wishes that their children are not so far away.