The Laksamana - official blog of M. Shahrim
11/4/2025
I don't agree with most Sarawakians.
They said "Sarawak is harmony" (racially harmonious and peaceful).
Nope.
I say, we Sarawakians are just polite, and are just too busy fending off our common enemies.
We Sarawakians have 2 common enemies:
Once these 2 common enemies are gone or subsides, the so-called harmony will also be gone.
Racial harmony is hard to achieve.
To harmonize peoples with different culture and comprehension, you need to give them some kind of motivation that all of them can accept and share equally, especially at emotional levels.
Often, the quick remedy is politeness to each other.
But politeness does not "bring food on the table", because the economic pie are sliced based on competition.
There is no reward when you compromise most of the time. A man has to eat. A man has to get placement in public university. A man has to secure reputable position in an organization. A man has to entitled for a piece of land.
In the long run, the politest is the poorest, while the rudest hold the biggest slice in the economic share.
In modern world, there is no award for being the poorest.
The ruckus that is happening right now in the Semenanjung is because they no longer have common enemies.
The enemies are now between themselves. Group A vs Group B.
Go ahead and tell Group A: please be polite. Tell Group B: please be compassionate.
It will not work. Not at this point. People even laugh at PMX for trying to instil morale.
Does Sarawak have illegal temples or illegally erected religious structures somewhere?
Does Sarawak have illegal plantation somewhere in the remote jungle?
I'm not implying anything.
Sure you can argue that the conditions and situations here are different by several magnitude compared to the Semenanjung.
The current State Government did a very good job at fending off what Sarawakians unanimously agree as valid common enemy: The Federal Government and the fight for MA63. It's not just a good show. It's materializing.
The Sarawakians are thrilled to see what GPS has done so far. We are having fun and is busy at the moment.
As long as we are busy at 1 or 2 common enemies, we won't have time to pick up between each other.
The "harmony" we have now, is of mixture of our people being polite and being united toward common enemies.
Politicians always have something to give to the people. They could promise infra development, jobs, law reform, and some even offer a new common enemy to fight for, or recycled the old ones.
Having common enemies is good. It helps communicate our shared struggles. People trapped in flood will help each other out regardless of race and religion.
The common enemy does not have to be another political party or extremist. Not long ago, almost all Malaysian bashed a Chinese uncle who curse Grab for not using Chinese language in the app.
Without common enemies to fight for, our differences are showing up. If we are equally struggling at economy and education, we are more ready to be emphatic toward each other. But we all know the hard cold truth: that we are not equal, and we compete with each other.
footnote
Dear MCMC, in case you ask: the term "common enemy" used in this post refers to "something to be opposed of, idealogically" and not typical enemy in war or terrorism. Don't you guys have something better to do?
Mohamad Shahrim
author of The Laksamana