No, Sabahans don't live on trees!

As a Sabahan, I could relate with most of what Erna Mahyuni writes in her article in MalaysiaKini. (Click here to read it).

I grew up watching Petronas Hari Merdeka advertisements portraying little Ah Chong, little Abdullah and little Ramesh playing happily together as children, and 30 years later as old men these three multi-racial friends would still be able to sit together having coffee at the same table.

As a school student, I noticed that the National Textbooks would always portray multi-ethnicity in their contents, having characters like Siti, Kumari and Mei Ling harmoniously interacting and co-existing with one another.

I grew up having that image of Malaysia in my head and my heart, and living in Sabah does not make it difficult to believe that this is indeed what Malaysia truly is.

It is not a strange scene for the multi-racial (we have over 40 different ethnic groups in Sabah) and multi-religion people (Muslims, Christians of different denominations, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans etc) in Sabah to sit together having coffee and mee goreng at the same table all the time.

In the late 1990's, I set foot for the first time on the land of Semenanjung Malaysia to further my study at one of the local university. My Malay Semenanjung roommate greeted me, "Welcome to Malaysia!"

Thinking she must have mistakenly identified me as an International Exchange student (from Indonesia, maybe?) I laughed and told her that I was actually from Sabah. To that, she replied, "Yes, I know that! First time here? So what do you think of Malaysia?"

Throughout the years, I was being asked a lot of questions by my fellow Malay Semenanjung friends, among others:

"Is it true that Sabahans still live in the jungles?"
"Do you live on trees?"
"Do people in Sabah wear 'cawat' all the time?"
"So how was your first time on an airplane?"

And as for Ah Meng, Balakrishnan and Ahmad having coffee together at the same table, it was almost non-existent that at that time I thought I was in another country other than Malaysia. The Malaysia that I thought I knew.

Malays would never set foot on a Chinese restaurant. Once I was having a meal with some friends in one Chinese stall by the roadside. A Malay man who happened to pass by spat on the ground near our table. I thought about the beautiful Petronas advertisement, and felt betrayed.

In the university itself, Malays would mingle among the Malays, the Chinese among themselves, the Indians likewise. Always unsure which 'group' we should 'belong to', Sabahans (Muslims and non-Muslims) would always opt to mingle among ourselves, and of course with our fellow Sarawakians (Muslims and non-Muslims).

I could still remember the time when the University decided to implement its 'integration' policy, in which they decided that allocations of hostel rooms for students should not be based on races and religions anymore. A hostel room should be shared by students of different races and religions, to promote unity.

The university students rallied around the campus, protesting against the 'new policy'. Sabahans and Sarawakians could only watch in amazement.

But that was about 10 years ago. With more and more Sabahans and Sarawakians working and studying in Semenanjung, things must be a lot different nowadays. Are they?

This recent squabble over the name of God in Malaysia shocked us Sabahans, not because of the possibility of non-Muslims being denied the right to use the word 'Allah' to worship God, but because after so many years, surprisingly, there are still a lot that our Malay Semenanjung brothers and sisters do not know about Sabah and Sarawak.

Along with the questions on whether we still live on trees (Yes, they still ask that!), in their protest over the use of the word 'Allah' among non-Muslims, we could hear these remarks being made:

"Kita sudah cukup bertoleransi dengan mereka, tapi mereka pula mahu pijak kepala kita".
"This is a propaganda to confuse Muslims and convert Muslims to Christianity".
"The fact that you and your family are still a devouted Christian living in Sabah is a proof as well as a testament that for years ever since Merdeka, you fella have been allowed to practice your religion freely".
"Jumlah mereka cuma 9%, tapi Santa Claus ada di mana-mana."
"Bantah 1Malaysia!!!"

Sabahans and Sarawakians are natives of the beautiful island of Borneo, we were proud to call ourselves Malaysians after this small island happily joined Tanah Melayu to form Malaysia in the 1960's.

As natives of Borneo, we share the same Indigenous title with our Orang Asli and Malay brothers and sisters in Semenanjung Malaysia. And as such, we hold every single right as Bumiputra, or 'sons of the soil' (heheh!) as some people like to call it.

Some Malaysians are now proudly proclaiming how much they have 'tolerated' us all these years.

Definition of tolerate (Essential English Dictionary):
tolerate ['tɑləreɪt /'tɒl-]
verb
1. put up with something or somebody unpleasant
2. recognize and respect (rights and beliefs of others)

We are Bumiputra Malaysians, not PTI (Pendatang Tanpa Izin) that anyone should feel the need to 'put up with' us (are we unpleasant?). Yes, we appreciate it that you recognize and respect our rights and beliefs, but doing so and still treat us like aliens in our own land makes us wonder whether we are 'second-class' citizens in your eyes.

We 'fella' practise our own religion freely not because we are 'allowed' to do so by any human organisations, but because we have the human right as God's creations to do so.

Bantah 1Malaysia? What is 1Malaysia? Even before 'Merdeka', Sabahan and Sarawakian Muslims and non-Muslims have always been able to live together harmoniously and peacefully, despite our differences.

Most of our Muslim brothers and sisters in Sabah and Sarawak have no problems sitting together having coffee with their non-Muslim friends at the same table not because they 'tolerate' us.

It is because they embrace us.

Our Muslim brothers and sisters in Sabah and Sarawak are aware of the existence of the word 'Allah' in Indonesian-translated Bibles of their Christian friends for many many years, but they never accuse us of having secret agenda. They never get confused or get accidentally converted to Christianity. Is it because they 'tolerate' us?

No. It is because they embrace us.

Occasionally after work or during the weekends, we like to have meals together with our Muslim brothers and sisters. Sometimes we would have roti canai at Restoran Bilal. The next day it would be the Japanese Tauhu at Vui Kee. If we want to have nice ais kacang, we would go to Sharmis.

Is it because we 'tolerate' each other? Yes, when my friend insists on having ais kacang while I am craving for roti canai, of course we need to be tolerant with one another in coming up with the best solution.

But more than that, we also embrace each other.

When I first became a teacher 5 years ago, my Headmaster asked some of the non-Muslim teachers to help out as AJK Hadiah for Majlis Tilawah Al-Quran for our district. Being a small school, we didn't have enough teachers. No problem. We were more than happy to help out.

"But it's a Majlis Tilawah Al-Quran. You have to wear tudung", my Headmaster said.

"No problem", we said. We giggled gleefully as our fellow Muslim colleagues helped us put on the tudung, we even experimented with different styles and tried to match it with different kerongsangs. I was pretty sure that I looked like the famous singer Waheeda at that time.

We did that, not because we 'tolerate' our Muslim colleagues. We did that because we love them. We embrace them. We trust them.

Our students got the second place in the Nasyid Competition which was held simultaneously with the Tilawah Al-Quran. No words could express my feeling when the little children ran towards me with their arms open, pure innocent joy in their eyes, declaring proudly "Teacher! Teacher! We won! We won!"

I remembered opening my arms as wide as I could and EMBRACED the little ones, one by one.