Letters written by a Sarawakian

I am a proud Sarawakian because Sarawak is just.. simply a beautiful state any country could ever have. But I believe people of my generation can do a much better job. The ones ruling us now are just too old fashioned and to be very direct here.. stupid, but I am not going to elaborate any further on that, maybe in the next entry.

So recently, I have read the papers and to my utmost surprise, the concern that has been expressed by one of our ministers regarding the Ibans has been posted in the front page of a newspaper. Nope, you've guessed it wrong, it has nothing to do with getting oneself so highly intoxicated with alcohol.

Apparently, the trying-to-show-my-community-how-prudent-I-am minister expressed his dissatisfaction with the modernization of Iban long houses and Iban long houses should never have their traditional architectural elements of current long houses and any future buildings of long houses to be taken of. But what abruptly annoyed me as I was reading through, the minister has commented on the internal changes of long houses in general. He stated that Iban long houses are now very modernized, thus, losing all its traditional values.

Not happy with the internal changes made to long houses. As to what I could decipher from that statement given, I think what he was implying to is that long houses should not, by all means, have properly tiled floors compared to the once wooden flooring.. but.. wooden floorings are at a higher risk of being eaten by termites as we know it, right? Isn't it obvious, he is also trying to tell us that the once wooden ceilings should not be replaced with concrete ceilings and air conditioners should not be used as substitutes to fans. Is he saying that the Ibans living in longhouses should be left out of the modern living? How far do you want these people to be left behind? Oh Datuk, haven’t you heard already? We're living in the freaking 21st century; some people in some parts of the world have robots working for them already!

And correct me if I’m wrong, but cowboys don’t live in old ugly McDonald ranch houses anymore do they? And to have that concurred, here’s another one.. a vast majority of them have already migrated to big cities and have since MOVED FORWARD! Do you seriously think the Ibans have everything modernized to the way they they dress and especially to the way their long houses are designed to be intentionally done? Like DUHH.. it is called home improvement dumbass. I personally believe this downright stupid Datuk has hit the jackpot in the idiots department.

It’s easy for you to say Mr OH-I-AM-CONCERN-FOR-MY-PEOPLE Minister. You live in a 2 story concrete house in the big city. Maybe you'd like to go back to your long house some day, have the television turned on and watch people living oh so modernly on television, and not have your living standards upgraded and feel so left behind. And what was your reason to avoid any modern changes made to long houses again? You are afraid that Iban long houses might lose the traditional touch to their long houses? Well I think you are losing your mind. You’re indirectly encouraging Iban youngsters who look up to you to slack their life away and not help to contribute in bringing modernization to the community in rural areas. I suggest you worry on other things that I believe that are far more important than the modern changes made to Iban long houses.. go figure man. And if you’re really worried if our tourists might mistakenly identify a true long house with all it’s traditional architectural elements, go and have one of your own built.

Man I can’t wait ‘till we take over!