We belong...

I was reading an entry from one of my favourite blogger, Justin at I'm Just Saying... , when something dawned upon me. Well, the entry was called New Sabahan , and I suddenly was thinking to myself, heck, I’m one of those ‘new’ Sabahan too. Keke... Well you see, I have a Johorean father and a Sabahan mother. Not much you might say since I’ve heard of others whose parentage was so diverse and complicated (e.g. English-Pakistani-Chinese-Japanese-Kadazan), that mine seemed a bit too tame.

Yup! That might be the case to some of you people, why should I be bothered by Justin’s entry? I’m not ‘illegal’, right? The thing is, whenever people ask me, where I’m from...you know what I would normally reply? Well, I'm from here & there, my father from Johor and my mother from Sabah. Then, they would continue to ask, so...what are you, then? Ooo...my reply would be, I’m JAWS. LOL. Where did that term come from? From my dad, of course! Dad used to joke that since his late father had Javanese blood and his mother’s Malay, so “JAW” is from him. And the “S” is from my dearest mother who is a pure Dusun (and proud of it, right mom?). 

What’s unfortunate though is, I know nada about the Javanese language except for ‘Kabare’ and ‘Waras’...hehe. And as for Dusun, gosh...I often wonder what my grandmother often asked of me. Yup, whenever my grandma came to our house, I often have to shout to my mom, “Mak, Nenek datang!” Why? ‘Cos my grandma will straight away converse in Dusun, and with the little Dusun that I possess, I’m ashamed to say that I could only understand bits and pieces of what my grandma was saying...keke.

Why you might ask, my command of those two languages (Javanese & Dusun) so poor? Err...could be because of the nature of my dad’s job, our family moved a lot when we were kids? I couldn’t even keep in touch with my friends when I was in school. I’ve studied in SRK Bandar Baru Bangi and then to SK Tanjung Aru. After that I went to SM Konven St Francis in KK and then to SMK Tunku Kurshiah in Negeri 9. What did I gain from all this? Well, I know how to sing the state anthem of Selangor, Sabah & Negeri 9. Huhu... What did I miss from all this? Lemme see, close childhood friends and the opportunity to master the 2 dialects (Javanese & Dusun) perhaps? 

But, you know what? Because of the slightly different upbringing, I’m proud to say that my siblings and I are all very open-minded people. We are sorta the ‘people’ person some might say. Due to the integration brought by our daring parents, we don’t judge others hastily. Yes sir, in the 70’s, not many ‘Semenanjung’ people marries Sabahan, you know? So, they are sorta the pioneers...keke. My parents have been practicing the ‘1 Malaysia’ spirit wayyy before it even existed. Way to go mom and dad!

My siblings and I adapt well with both the Semenanjung and the Sabahan people. We switch back and forth from the way the Malays in Peninsular Malaysia talk to the way Sabahan talk in a blink of an eye. We laughed our hearts out whenever there's an awkward moment when someone from Semenanjung tried to chat up with someone from Sabah...using the Indonesian slang! “Apa khabar Pak?” LOL ...what the heck?! And we’ve tried to make both our Johorean & Sabahan relatives to understand the different custom practices between them. For example; in Johor, we use Pak Long, Ngah, Uda, Andak, Uteh & Ucu. In Sabah, we use Auntie & Uncle :)

Ooo...I remember my grandma used to ask us kids when we visited her in Kundasang during school holiday once. She asked... “Bila la kamu pulang pigi Malaysia?” I looked at my brother and my sister, smiling wide and scratching our heads, thinking the same thing I guess. “Err, I thought we ARE in Malaysia?” 

So, you see people, I am sorta a ‘new’ Sabahan. Albeit slightly different than what Justin had to say about in his entry. I would like to think that I’m the best of both worlds, hehe. I guess ALL of us are mostly like that in this time of age, right? We are ALL very 'rojak' these days...hehe. Where do we belong? Let us listen to what Pat Benatar had to say in her song aptly titled “We Belong” shall we?

 
We Belong to the light
We Belong to the thunder
We Belong to the sound of the words
We've both fallen under
Whatever we deny or embrace
For worse or for better
We Belong, We Belong
We Belong together