vendredi, septembre 16, 2005
L'illusion d'unité
The illusion of unity.
Today is Malaysia Day. On this day, we Malaysians are supposed to commemorate the proud formation of Malaysia Truly Asia 42 years ago (as a sidenote, Singapore is usually quietly left unmentioned these days; the government doesn't really want to remind us that Singapore also joined us only to quit later over "disagreements" -- and that they also happen to be far more developed than we are today despite their choosing obviously inferior and socially-divisive policies like meritocracy).
But let's be honest: who really cares about Malaysia Day apart from Sabahans and Sarawakians? Most Malaysians other than us don't even know it exists -- some don't even know we exist.
I remember how, more than a few years back before we got Astro satellite television and started watching CNN, my family would watch the news on ntv7 almost every night. And it only truly struck me that there was something wrong with Malaysian unity when they had this segment on the news called the "Sabah/Sarawak Edition." And as a Sabahan, I couldn't help but wonder: why did news from Sabah and Sarawak need a separate segment? If there was a Sabah/Sarawak Edition, why wasn't there a Penang Edition or a Perlis Edition? The mainstream news would have news from Penang and KL and Perlis but we were obviously too special to be treated equally. Obviously, only East Malaysians would be interested in news from Sabah and Sarawak, just like only Peranakans would be interested in news from Perak. Somehow I always felt the media thought us not Malaysian enough for the people in Peninsular Malaysia to treat what was happening across the South China Sea to their East Malaysian countrymen as equally important as the story about the latest snatch-theft in Subang Jaya.
And then there's the ignorance. I remember when my good friend and fellow debater Aaron first came back from Peninsular Malaysia while he was just beginning his Public Services Department scholarship tenure (read: JPA) and he told us that people there thought Sabah was a land of paddy fields where people lived on trees. As amusing as it was, it really was more than a bit shocking that this was the extent of the ignorance of our own countrymen.
But really, who can blame them? It's not like Sabah is a two-hour drive down the highway. All the advertising keeps painting us as Land of the Mountain, the Orang Utan and the Rafflesia. And, truth be told -- if you're really honest about it -- in comparison to the other states, the prospects for Sabah's future sometimes really does feel to be little more than that. We're the least developed and poorest state in the whole of Malaysia and we know it. Forget those Form 3 Geography textbooks that said we have natural resources like petroleum, timber, and minerals; with corruption as rife as it is in that most unbelievable and over the top comedy called Sabahan politics, it's as good as not having them. You don't have it if you don't get paid for it.
With such a legacy of mismanagement, I sometimes question if Sabah will ever break free of its underdevelopment. I sometimes wonder if I'll ever want to go back if I somehow make it big. And I always know that as screwed up as it is, I'll be back. If there is one thing that I am proud of Sabah, it's our culture. People get along better in Sabah than in Peninsular Malaysia. That's right. Kadazan Dusuns, Chinese, Malays, Indians -- we're all cool with each other. No one walks around feeling like the state or country belongs to them and everyone else is trespassing. I'm proud to call people of all these varied races some of my best friends. The only discrimination we have (if you could call it that; it's more like nonchalance as we buy our fish and cigarettes from them, sprinkled with righteous anger every time they stab one of us locals) is primarily against the damned illegal immigrants from the Phillipines and Indonesia who're slowing raping our beautiful homeland into a wasteland of slums and crime.
We have a lot less racism. I didn't know this, but apparently quite a number of those rumors about open houses in Peninsular Malaysia where Malays actually go to Chinese or Indian homes and vice versa happen to be hoaxes. I didn't know that because I thought this was normal for crying out loud. I remember this one time after we'd moved into our new house and we invited our Malay neighbors over for Chinese New Year and gave the kids red packets (and where we served halal food; we've done this enough to know). Our Malay neighbors had just moved in from Peninsular Malaysia and they were shocked. Because, dammit, he'd never been invited into a Chinese home to celebrate Chinese New Year before with a Chinese family. And I think he was even more shocked when he saw other Malays there at the party chilling with Chinese and Indian and Kadazan Dusun people like it was the most natural thing in the world.
He said he was never going back to Peninsular Malaysia. In this small state called Sabah, he'd discovered what was already a way of life for us: the Malaysian Malaysia.
He promptly invited us over for Aidilfitri. It was a year of firsts for him indeed.
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Today is Malaysia Day. On this day, we Malaysians are supposed to commemorate the proud formation of Malaysia Truly Asia 42 years ago (as a sidenote, Singapore is usually quietly left unmentioned these days; the government doesn't really want to remind us that Singapore also joined us only to quit later over "disagreements" -- and that they also happen to be far more developed than we are today despite their choosing obviously inferior and socially-divisive policies like meritocracy).
But let's be honest: who really cares about Malaysia Day apart from Sabahans and Sarawakians? Most Malaysians other than us don't even know it exists -- some don't even know we exist.
I remember how, more than a few years back before we got Astro satellite television and started watching CNN, my family would watch the news on ntv7 almost every night. And it only truly struck me that there was something wrong with Malaysian unity when they had this segment on the news called the "Sabah/Sarawak Edition." And as a Sabahan, I couldn't help but wonder: why did news from Sabah and Sarawak need a separate segment? If there was a Sabah/Sarawak Edition, why wasn't there a Penang Edition or a Perlis Edition? The mainstream news would have news from Penang and KL and Perlis but we were obviously too special to be treated equally. Obviously, only East Malaysians would be interested in news from Sabah and Sarawak, just like only Peranakans would be interested in news from Perak. Somehow I always felt the media thought us not Malaysian enough for the people in Peninsular Malaysia to treat what was happening across the South China Sea to their East Malaysian countrymen as equally important as the story about the latest snatch-theft in Subang Jaya.
And then there's the ignorance. I remember when my good friend and fellow debater Aaron first came back from Peninsular Malaysia while he was just beginning his Public Services Department scholarship tenure (read: JPA) and he told us that people there thought Sabah was a land of paddy fields where people lived on trees. As amusing as it was, it really was more than a bit shocking that this was the extent of the ignorance of our own countrymen.
But really, who can blame them? It's not like Sabah is a two-hour drive down the highway. All the advertising keeps painting us as Land of the Mountain, the Orang Utan and the Rafflesia. And, truth be told -- if you're really honest about it -- in comparison to the other states, the prospects for Sabah's future sometimes really does feel to be little more than that. We're the least developed and poorest state in the whole of Malaysia and we know it. Forget those Form 3 Geography textbooks that said we have natural resources like petroleum, timber, and minerals; with corruption as rife as it is in that most unbelievable and over the top comedy called Sabahan politics, it's as good as not having them. You don't have it if you don't get paid for it.
With such a legacy of mismanagement, I sometimes question if Sabah will ever break free of its underdevelopment. I sometimes wonder if I'll ever want to go back if I somehow make it big. And I always know that as screwed up as it is, I'll be back. If there is one thing that I am proud of Sabah, it's our culture. People get along better in Sabah than in Peninsular Malaysia. That's right. Kadazan Dusuns, Chinese, Malays, Indians -- we're all cool with each other. No one walks around feeling like the state or country belongs to them and everyone else is trespassing. I'm proud to call people of all these varied races some of my best friends. The only discrimination we have (if you could call it that; it's more like nonchalance as we buy our fish and cigarettes from them, sprinkled with righteous anger every time they stab one of us locals) is primarily against the damned illegal immigrants from the Phillipines and Indonesia who're slowing raping our beautiful homeland into a wasteland of slums and crime.
We have a lot less racism. I didn't know this, but apparently quite a number of those rumors about open houses in Peninsular Malaysia where Malays actually go to Chinese or Indian homes and vice versa happen to be hoaxes. I didn't know that because I thought this was normal for crying out loud. I remember this one time after we'd moved into our new house and we invited our Malay neighbors over for Chinese New Year and gave the kids red packets (and where we served halal food; we've done this enough to know). Our Malay neighbors had just moved in from Peninsular Malaysia and they were shocked. Because, dammit, he'd never been invited into a Chinese home to celebrate Chinese New Year before with a Chinese family. And I think he was even more shocked when he saw other Malays there at the party chilling with Chinese and Indian and Kadazan Dusun people like it was the most natural thing in the world.
He said he was never going back to Peninsular Malaysia. In this small state called Sabah, he'd discovered what was already a way of life for us: the Malaysian Malaysia.
He promptly invited us over for Aidilfitri. It was a year of firsts for him indeed.
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