Kamek Anak Sarawak

It’s the general election weekend. My friends and I were very-very lucky to get free tickets to go back to Kuching for the weekend. Because i'm a true Sarawakian at heart, yes I brought a box of gardenia buns and bread back. We were very excited as it was our first voting experience. During the flight to Kuching and later, back to KL, everyone was really excited.

The flight to Kuching was uneventful but the one back to KL was..interesting. It was a HUGE plane, double deck and everyone was looking forward (I think) to go back and return to reality. It turns out there was an engine technical problem and we were delayed for 6 hours but amazingly no one complained. Well, maybe we realized it’s a free flight and we have no right to complain or maybe it’s because we Sarawakians are not complaining type of people. Both on-board and ground MAS staffs were very friendly and helpful too. It’s not easy though to handle about 300 passengers. Kudos to them :)

During the wait to board a new plane coming from KL, there was a strong sense of excitement and camaraderie. It’s not always that all the passengers of a flight are all Sarawakian. Although we are of different races and religion, all of us speak one language, our beloved Bahasa Sarawak. And since Kuching is such a small place, almost everyone knows each other. So you are bound to bump into someone you know boarding the same plane. Even if you do not know each other, all of them are so friendly that when you talk to them, it’s as if you have known them for a long time. It’s like all of us are one big family.

I’m proud being a Sarawakian. From where I come from, race and religion is not an issue. Sometimes we would shake our head in bewilderment on racism and extremism in the peninsular. They only have 3 main ethnic group yet they can’t get along well. We on the other hand are so “rojak” (due to mixed marriages) that you can’t tell a person’s ethnicity from their physical appearance. A Chinese looking guy might be a Malay and vice versa.

Where ever we go in the world, Sarawakians tend to blend well into the community but once they met another Sarawakian, maka keluar la kamek kitak nya tek. It’s true what they say, “You can take someone out of Sarawak but you can’t take Sarawak out of someone.”