Over a cup of coffee, Sarawak News - Sunday, September 28, 2008 10:00 - 0 Comments

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Waiting with bated breath, not only in politics

“WAITING with bated breath”, wrote Jocelin Tan in a commentary published in The Star on Friday in response to the Umno supreme council’s special meeting which decided on crucial matters such as party elections and leadership change issue.

Many Malaysians, politicians and businessmen and even civil servants were following closely the events in the political front as they could affect the country’s future political and economic directions, among other things.

But for most working class Malaysians, in particular Sarawakians, their major preoccupation is more likely to be daily bread-and-butter issues. They are still wondering, for example, at how Thursday’s 10 sen drop in petrol prices is going to benefit them, if at all.

The Umno leadership issue, much less the emergency meeting on Friday morning, was probably the last thing on their mind. You can’t blame them for that, as many citizens worry about the spiralling prices in the wake of the hefty petrol price hike after the March 8, 2008 general elections.

The law of gravity — what goes up must come down — doesn’t seem to apply here. People have not actually forgotten that there was a rush by almost every trader in the country to raise prices out of fear for the likely effects on their small profit margins — largely from keen business competition and uncertainty over how rising costs could affect the future of their business.

This leaves to suffer ordinary working people with limited incomes and many mouths to feed, apart from shouldering the cost of maintaining a shelter over their heads, transport, school and tuition fees and other necessary living expenses.

This may be called the ‘cari makan’ group who form the largest among the working population who have to struggle harder to eke out a daily living in the face of rising cost of living.

Civil servants are the more fortunate as they get to enjoy periodic reviews of their salaries and end-of-year bonuses.

The same cannot be said for a large percentage of the private sector, and it is not uncommon to hear of office workers moonlighting to earn extra income or taking more than one job, even with the knowledge and consent of their understanding employers.

In Kuala Lumpur, this is rather common now. It’s the ordinary working class who are now ‘waiting with bated breath’ as to what is to come next, but certainly not the miniscule drop in petrol prices.

The fasting month when our Muslim friends abstain from food for most part of the day for a month, as required by Islamic teachings, might show as less patronage of ordinary eating outlets run by Muslims and non-Muslims. But this is made up for by the break of fast meals in the evening.

Since many Muslims cook less at home nowadays, in line with the trend of eating out, Buka Puasa each evening sees many Muslim-run eateries packed to capacity. They are often joined by non-Muslim friends as their guests, reflecting a spirit of comradeship and togetherness that is typically Malaysian.

It is true to say that race relations is not a major preoccupation of Sarawakians and Sabahans, and, in fact, they hardly think about it at all. All this talk in the peninsula about how some people over there see the need to introduce a Race Relations Act is baffling to most, if not all, Sarawakians and Sabahans.

Besides you don’t legislate race relations. It ought to be promoted by bringing together people of diverse races and creeds in peaceful co-existence.

The point I wish to make here is that whatever change comes ought to be in a peaceful, legal and constitutional way because it is not the Malaysian way to see change come about in a disruptive manner.

We’ve learnt the cost of May 13, 1969 and, honestly speaking, I don’t think anyone would like to see a repeat of that — even if confined to a small part of the country — because the repercussions can be felt everywhere.

A major cause of concern is the rising cost of living. The inflation figure released last week bring little cheer but more worries, especially if indicative of a runaway inflation, with growing fears that rising prices would eat further into an individual’s income.

Let’s hope that not only would people keep their jobs but more jobs would be created for new arrivals in the job market after end of school, college and varsity exams. With school and varsity intakes growing by the year, there is increasing pressure in the job market, especially for those with tertiary education.

Maybe we should walk the talk about opening up land for commercial agriculture as it would create jobs. Give young enterprising Sarawakians the opportunity to engage in activities like cattle and sheep rearing, poultry farming, vegetable growing and starting other smallholder schemes, with financing from government lending agencies or commercial banks.

Graduates should not only count on getting jobs in offices and factories, but be ready to soil their hands by tilling the land.

Lands would have to be made available for this, such as leasing out plots of different sizes on 10,15 or 20-year periods. That would be for those keen to invest in growing food for a living.

Are we ready for this? It’s not just the mental attitude of our citizens that need to change but more importantly, the relevant state institutions have to be ready for it.

It means making lands available for budding entrepreneurs like graduates. There are many of them but they don’t seem to be given the opportunity.

Lest we forget, small is beautiful too, so we must do more to harness the energy and capacity of ordinary people if we are to prosper, and to close the gap between the rich and poor of this land.

After all, in Sarawak we have an abundance of natural and mineral resources, more than enough for our 2.4 million population to share with.