Strike while the iron is still hot

Unity in Sarawak comes naturally. The diversity of cultures, traditions, languages, and belief systems is significant. Growing up, having friends from all sorts of races and ethnicity one can find in our land colours my life. How does homogeneity even possible for us? The question that I asked myself while trying to get inspiration for this short story. But now, I've found the answer—'melentur buluh biarlah dari rebungnya'.

Let's go back to 20 years ago, the phase when my conscience was still vulnerable and also evolving—a primary school kid. Moving to a new school in the middle of the term was not easy. As a new kid in the class, I found myself adapting effortlessly nonetheless. Scoring tests with flying colours and participating in actively in-class activities drew teachers' attention to me unintentionally. Because of that, I unexpectedly had a rival, Mei Li, as she became the second-best since I came in. Jealousy made her said hurtful things—body shaming, ridiculing and mocking me. You name it. Enraged, imagining myself flipping off the table was the only way to feed my vengeance. In reality, I just kept quiet and put on my sour face. It happened for quite some time.

Bottling it up took a toll on my mental health as I hated going to school when seeing the same face was irksome. So, telling my parents about it finally made me relieved. At that very young age, of course, the term 'mental health' did not exist in my dictionary or vocabulary, but knowing that it was not okay is a good thing. Rather than feeling furious about how Mei Li had treated me, my parents advised me to show kindness instead. They explained that reacting positively towards negative remarks will make a person change his or her perspective and may change him or her for the better.  Thankfully, they did not come out with any racist slurs and did not encourage me to provoke a fight.

True enough, she stopped belittling me and we became good friends after that. Surprisingly, I got invited to her 11th birthday party at SugarBun. Well, it was a BIG deal to be invited to a birthday party like that. At that time, in the late '90s and early '00s, my parents could not afford to throw a similar birthday party, but they successfully shaped a decent human being. That's beyond everything!

My parents' advice has been very impactful in developing my personality and mindset. With like-minded parents in our community, in my opinion, this is why the unity in Sarawak is inevitable. They did a really good job in nurturing their young kids with good values, which fittingly explains the phrase 'strike while the iron is still hot' or 'melentur buluh biarlah dari rebungnya'. I believe that our parents learned from their parents, and their parents learned from their grandparents or great grandparents and so on, who also learned from the pasts. 

Not saying that Sarawak has zero racism (still, the occurrence is quite low), but we do have a high tolerance and are highly considerate people. We should view or judge someone as a person, not as a race or an ethnic community. That's the secret of living in harmony. However, we, as the current generation, should not be complacent as we also must play an important role in shaping our new generation to be better than our forefathers and us. 

Happy 57th Independence Day, Sarawak! 

Dum Spiro Spero.

Info: Sarawak Independence Day is observed on 22 July every year by the state of Sarawak in Malaysia, celebrating the establishment of self-government and de facto independence on 22 July 1963.

Disclaimer: The name used in this story is not the actual name of the person involved.