The GE14 is over and we have witnessed the first power transition since the founding of the nation, Malaya, in 1957. Before GE 14, the parliamentary seats in Sarawak had been the focus of attention. It was because the people were living in misery, and many were looking forward to government change after BN\u2019s 60 years of one-party governance. So Sarawak, which has 31 parliamentary seats, was the centre of attention and had been so since the previous two elections.<\/p>\n
I am not a political commentator and I am not keen on political affairs. But as GE14 was said to be the election that would decide the future of the nation, I closely monitored the election results on the night of May 9. In the past Sarawak had been called the \u201cfixed deposit\u201d state of BN because Sarawak was able to capture most seats for BN (most indigenous people cast their votes for BN). This was especially so after the previous two elections (the 308 and 505 political tsunamis). That might be the reason for the government official website to release the election results for the seats in Sarawak first on the night when the election results were announced. In this election, PBB, one of the Sarawak BN component parties is still able to capture many rural seats (contested 14 seats and won 13 seats).<\/p>\n
A new government has now been elected. Sarawak is now no longer the \u201cfixed deposit\u201d state of BN. We see that people are no longer accusing the indigenous people. But what if Pakatan Harapan failed to win in this election? I believe that the indigenous people of Sarawak would again be criticized by many. We are always reproachful to the indigenous people. Do we fully understand them and why they were supporting the BN?<\/p>\n
These indigenous people, who live in the interior, are simple, loyal, kind and very hospitable. So long as others are willing to communicate with them sincerely they are friendly. My father used to employ some indigenous workers. He helped them generously. When one of their village folks died my father would lend them the pickup truck for the funeral. My father thus maintained a good relationship with them and many of them worked for my father for a long period of time.<\/p>\n
The indigenous people are easily satisfied and they enjoy life while they can. Usually they do not plan for the future, do not often have savings and so they are often short of cash. That is indeed a true reflection of the way they live.<\/p>\n
The indigenous people generally respect the village chiefs and obey them. Once they have decided on something they will do it wholeheartedly. An Iban woman once told me that she met members from some cults who invited her to their gathering. She turned down their invitation for a very simple reason that she is a member of Methodist Church since she was young.<\/p>\n
On top of that some of them still live deep in the jungle and are not often linked to the outside world thus they do not often know about the current affairs. On the day after the election, I was attending one of their gatherings and I told them about regime change and one old lady asked me \u201cwhat changed?\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact sometimes their good character may become their \u201csoft spot\u201d. Because they are kind and simple they are easily cheated by the cunning politicians with their empty promises, they may also be threatened that if they do not vote for a certain party there will be no development or monetary grant.<\/p>\n
Not walking one\u2019s talk<\/span> <\/strong> SCAC has been promoting BM Ministry in various towns and cities in order to shepherd the indigenous people. We care, love and provide various kinds of assistance to show our love by actions. When it comes to politics, some Christians however change their attitudes towards the indigenous people and begin to blame them for supporting the previous ruling coalition. How contradictory! When we say that we love them and that they are our brothers and sisters in Christ yet in the face of injustice in politics and our desire to change the government we choose to insult our brothers. Perhaps we should ask ourselves whether we truly love the indigenous people.<\/p>\n Everybody has the right and freedom to vote for any political party or any candidate in a democratic country. Shouldn\u2019t we respect the choice of others? Moreover, they are our brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n During the last election, GE14, a lot of people returned to Malaysia to cast their votes and also many others hand-carried their friends\u2019 ballot papers back to Malaysia to cast their postal votes; we were so touched by that. We must also be aware that many indigenous people voters were also trying hard to fulfil their responsibilities.<\/p>\n Before the election I asked an indigenous lady whether she would be returning home to cast her vote. She said, \u201cLet me think it over.\u201d For her to go home would be time-consuming and costly. She needed to take a bus, a speed boat and another chartered car and the whole journey would take her two days. The government subsidy was only RM200.00 and not enough for her travelling expenses as she brought along two children, one 9-year-old and another 4-year-old.<\/p>\n Three days before the election I received her voice message informing me that she would not be attending the worship as she was on her way home to cast her vote. I was so happy and proud for her. Just an ordinary indigenous housewife yet she is so patriotic, doesn\u2019t she deserve great applause?<\/p>\n The election is now over and most inland constituencies remain BN\u2019s seats, despite this I still love these indigenous people. They might not hear or understand our scolding but I think Christians still owe them an apology for our arrogance and prejudice and also for ignoring their strong points. We must apologize for not obeying our Lord\u2019s command: It (Love) is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. (1 Cor 13: 5)<\/p>\n If church members are still prejudiced against the indigenous people, it is like a loop-hole in our BM Ministry. No matter how many human and financial resources are invested or how perfect the planning is, the BM Ministry will be in vain. Only by understanding each other with sincerity, with forgiving and loving heart (loving the indigenous people wholeheartedly) then the Holy Spirit will move and God\u2019s faith can take root among the indigenous people.<\/p>\n The GE14 is over and we have witnessed the first power transition since the founding of the nation, Malaya, in 1957. Before GE 14, the parliamentary seats in Sarawak had been the focus of attention. It was because the people were living in misery, and many were looking forward to government change after BN\u2019s 60 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[183,190,10],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nA lot of people were hoping to see changes after the previous two general elections (308 and 505 GE). However their hopes were crushed because the rural folks supported the then ruling parties. There were then a lot of accusations and negative remarks against these indigenous people even on social media. We were sorry to note that some of these accusers were Christians.<\/p>\nWritten by Dorothy<\/span>
\nTranslated by KT Chew<\/span>
\n(Photo credit – Steve Ling)<\/span><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"