Sabah

ASSALAMU`ALAIKUM WARAHMATULLAH

The best sight is the sight of Kinabalu. It provokes zest, summoning spirits and emitting legacy. Its wonder doesn't decrease for every glance instead it intensifies even more.

Hey, didn't you realize something peculiar about me? No, I mean I once said that I'm a Sabahan who's proud about his state but never write anything about it? Well, this is my first attempt and I hope what I write meets the requirement of a good explanatory entry about Sabah. I love Sabah!

A brief about this state

Before the name Sabah was coined, this land was known by the name Seludang. The authenticity of this fact is blurred to me, too, so don't bother asking. I can't answer (hey, is that Google-sensei?). The origin of the name Sabah terminologically has many hypotheses. The most famous one (and which the most mentioned in books, textbooks) is the Saba' Banana hypothesis. The Bruneian Sultanate was said to be so impressed with the multitudes of bananas distribution on all coasts of Sabah, they use the banana's name, saba's, that is, as this land's name. But I like (and prefer) the Arabian's Origin hypothesis which says that Sabah came from an Arabic word which means the (place of) rising Sun.

Nonetheless, Sabah is as unique as its name. First, size: you can fit six Pulau Pinangs or thirty Kuala Lumpurs in it. It has the oldest rainforest and the tallest tree in Southeast Asia (tualang, if I'm not mistaken) and has many World Heritage Sites like Kinabalu Park and Simpang Mengayau. And oh... the majestic Mount Kinabalu, Southeast Asia's pinnacle. Rafflesia and Proboscis monkey are some of Sabah's stupendous wonders. Ladies and gentleman, talking isn't as great as doing, so do visit Sabah and experience it first hand.

Sabah: Land below the wind

Out of 27 million Malaysians, 11% of them call Sabah as their home, with 32 ethnics altogether. Although 63% of Sabahans are Muslims, they never claim to be an Islamic state nor a Christendom, yet they live well together. Maybe because worldly label isn't their measuring flask of faith, and because integrity is indispensably quintessential.

As a Sabahan, I never quite feel lacking in anyway. Not that I don't want it to be an Islamic state, but the rationale of being one itself is unclear. What is the meaning of the label, Islamic state if its citizen aren't living the way of it? So, instead of making labels of ourselves that can cause social and political turbulence, we stand on being grateful and live as decent as possible. Living a modest life itself, is quite technically, a Muslim way.

Nonetheless, we live as one family. I don't care what religion you're believing in, integrity has always been more important in having a stable place which we call as home. Being an Islamic country but having rifles pointing at each others isn't conceptually Islamic and not even come close to what Qur'an says about Islamic country.

Lets get out of the suffocating cocoon

Sabahan guys are the most handsome guys in Malaysia-no, the world! LMAO

Let us not talk about religious things for a sec (as my contemporary thought is unacceptable to some) and talk about its people. Our lingua franca is Bahasa Melayu and before that, was English (no kiddo) and most of us speak Baku Malay (different from Semenanjungian's Johor-Riau). We say "saya" as "saya" and not "saye" or "sayo". We pronounce "suka" as "suka" and not "suke", "suko", etc or whatever. This is not a degradation to Semenanjungians (hey, they're our buddies) this is mere educational description. 

And we have quite an incurable habit of saying things aggressively, like, the stressing of the letter "k" in "sakit". It sound "saqit" instead of its original pronunciation. Another example of word stressing is "kakak" which pretty much sounds "qaqaq" as we say it. Ah, have got plenty more but let us just rest this case here.