Hello! Borneo calling...

Welcome to Sabah, the 'Land Below The Wind', so-called by early explorers and seafarers (Magellen included) who used her to seek shelter from typhoons which sometimes hit her neighbours in the South China Sea. As can be seen from this blog's title, this former British colony is now nicknamed Malaysian Borneo for easier identification purpose, although it's unofficial and only a geographical description. Even the Sabah Tourism Board uses this tag line, after all Borneo is the 3rd largest island in the World. Sabah joined Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya (now nicknamed Peninsular Malaysia) to form Malaysia in 1963; thus gaining Independence from Britain and changing from its former colonial name of North Borneo. (Sabah gained self-rule on 31 August 1963 but Malaysia officially came into being only on 16 September 1963 for reasons which I will explain in future postings.) But Singapore, a tiny island city-state just below the Malayan peninsular, left the Malaysian Federation in 1965 to be on her own and is now a republic. The oil-rich Brunei (whose Sultan was once the World's richest man until guys like Bill Gates came along) is sandwiched between Sabah and Sarawak on the upper portion of Borneo while Indonesian Kalimantan occupies the entire lower half of the island. Another thing to be noted here is that Sabah and Sarawak had in the past been variously referred to as East Malaysia, something which Malaysian politicians frown upon as it sounds rather like the former East and West Pakistan before the East side broke away to become Bangladesh while the West side became known simply as Pakistan after the split. To help readers, especially those from outside South East Asia, to better understand where Sabah is, I include here a map showing Borneo's location within the South China Sea, courtesy of Encarta. (For a larger view please click on map)

So who am i and why do i blog? Who I am is already partly answered in my profile, so the only questions that remain I suppose are why do I use a pseudonym and what Sikmading means. I use a pseudonym because it is more convenient as I am still an employee. But to my faithful readers (hopefully there will be some) don't worry, you will know my true identity when I retire in a couple of years and hopefully by then I would be able to compile my writings from this blog into a book for the sake of future generations. As for what Sikmading means, well, to be honest I myself do not know what it means but I first heard it when I was serving, as a young journalist, my first political master way back in the 1970s. A half-drunk villager in my hometown walked up to my boss (a senior Sabah politician who has since passed away) and just uttered, in the local dialect: Datuk, Datuk (a Malaysian title, just like Sir in Britain) "Sikmading pudol nga Tinompok do botilum ." Although there was no real meaning in it, we all had a good laugh. I sort of liked the sound of Sikmading as I found it funny and the nickname somehow stuck until today. But only my closest friends, especially those from my hometown, would know. (It is not my intention to disgrace my own countrymen but everywhere in the world, people do get drunk sometimes, don't they?)

Why do I blog? I was introduced to blogging by another veteran Sabah journalist, whose name I am not at liberty to mention here. Until my friend's introduction, I wasn't particularly interested in blogging, mistakenly thinking that it was only for mercenary writers or opposition party sympathizers or simply those who have nothing better to do than to write rubbish on the Internet or get a kick out of spreading lies, gossips or rumours about others, especially their enemies. But after reading my friend's blog and those of his friends, my perception changed. I now realise that not all bloggers are like that, and some bloggers simply write about themselves, not others. Of course there MAY still be mercenary writers (with due respect), not just in Malaysia but perhaps all over the World but their number is negligible compared to the millions and millions of blogs floating in blogosphere and the thousands and thousands of new blogs being created worldwide everyday . Besides, it is up to the reader what to make of from what he or she reads, after all we are living in a free society. I used to dream that I would start a newspaper of my own, probably an evening tabloid, when I retire. Something to call my own, no matter how small. But that would be too costly and beyond my means. So when I was introduced to blogging, I jumped at the opportunity. My own web page, although it's just a blog, is my new dream fulfilled, no longer the newspaper. And the best thing is that it's free, thanks to Google which bought Blogger in 1999 to provide a platform for us to blog for FREE, Thank you, Google.

So what will I write about? As I have indicated in my intro, well, basically all things Sabah including current affairs, culture, tourism, happenings, you name it. But I also said emphasis will be given to recent political history of Sabah. 'Recent' means starting with the formation of Malaysia in 1963, although not necessary in order of sequence. Why? Well, I would consider myself selfish (especially now that I have the free platform to do so) if, towards my retirement, I do not share my experiences, observations and thoughts after serving for more than 30 years as an information officer, pressman and PR practitioner under four state governments since 1973. I am of course not saying that I know everything. Learning is a life-long process and we learn until the last day of our lives. I realise I am no angel and stand to be corrected. I therefore welcome readers' comments including criticisms. This ends my first posting, to give myself a coffee break, but I'll be back real soon. Until then, Cheers! (or, as the Sabahans would say, Aramaiti!)