Sarawak Dihatiku

The other day in the gym while waiting for zumba to start, I was talking to this new girl (Tiada tempat lain ka Cyn selain gym? Unfortunately gym is the only place I socialize). When she heard that I'm a Sarawakian, the first thing she said was 

"I heard in Sarawak, Malay can eat in a Chinese shop without issues."

Then the other day, my colleague, an Indian, was telling me her cousin went to Sibu and was surprised to see Malay eating in a Chinese shop without problem. Then she ask me 

"Is it true?"

Aahhhh..here comes my favourite part. 

"Of course it is true!" and I go into lengthy explanation about how people in Sarawak respect each other, how people of different race and religion can sit in one table and eat without any issues because we all know what we can or can't eat and we respect that. 

It's sadly very different here in peninsular where most people are sensitive and intolerant, have strong sense of entitlement and demanded that people respect them. 

My friend showed me a print screen of a FB status of a girl the other day and it sounds something like this

"Bulan puasa ni jangan biadap sangat post gambar makanan boleh kan?"

I'm bewildered by some people who are offended whenever someone eat or drink in front of them during this fasting month. 

Saya rasa majoriti kami yang tidak puasa ni pun segan kalau mau makan minum depan yang berpuasa sebab kami hormat kamu. 

Yang tidak puas hati orang post gambar makanan tu, boleh pilih untuk tidak buka apa2 sosial media masa berpuasa kan?

I was thinking about this "entitlement" attitude and I came across this well-written article by a Muslim itself, which sums up perfectly what I thought. 

The other thing I'm proud about being a Sarawakian is how well we can adapt ourselves to our surrounding. We are multi-lingual. I can speak fluent Bahasa KL yang ai ai yu yu then I can switch to Bahasa Sabah yang buli ba kalau ko then onto Bahasa Sarawak nak berkamek kitak ya eh. 

Well anyway, one more thing is whenever a guy ask me whether I'm Malay or Chinese or what not and I tell them I'm a Sarawakian, their immediate reply was

"Ooo patutlah cantik :) "

Choiiii. kembang bontot iols kena cakap begitu.