Borneo Birthright

            The state of Sarawak is indeed a rarity; a place that is home to a myriad of ethnicities, where the people live side by side regardless of creed, race or religion. Sadly, most Sarawakians fail to realize that our most precious commodity is not in the abundance of our natural resources—our lumber, our pepper, or even our oil—but rather in the abundance of our culture and our heritage.

The Sarawak YES! Programme—which stands for Sarawak Youth Empowered and Engaged to Serve—organized by Azam (Angkatan Zaman Mansang), the Sarawak Development Institute (SDI), and Azam subsidiary Faradale Media-M Sdn Bhd, was launched as a way of ‘instilling in Sarawak’s youths the spirit of serving society at large’. As one of the teams formed during this programme—consisting of Bethany Luhong Balan, Josephine Joeyna ak. Joseph Jantan, Grace Law and Farrah Ping Dahim—we realized that the cultures of Sarawak must be preserved and recorded, or risk facing extinction altogether. Consequently, we have formed a youth organization, Borneo Birthright, aimed at raising cultural awareness in the Sarawakian community. Our main goal is to document legends or interesting folklore from all thirty-odd races and sub-races in Sarawak and compile them in a single book; ‘Past and Present Unite: Preserving Sarawak’. We plan on including pictures of scenes from everyday life of Sarawakians from various racial and geographical backgrounds in our book as well.

            We are calling out to Sarawakians of all ages and from all walks of life to show their support for this youth project. Please feel free to share any interesting anecdotes, biographies or legends with us; we will be more than happy to hear from you. Although it is not true for all Sarawakians, most take our rich ethnic background for granted, thinking that the knowledge of past events and past beliefs hold no place in modern society. After all, remembering all the old legends and customs is the responsibility of the old folks, not the youth. However, we keep forgetting that if nobody is willing to pass the baton, we will never be able to finish the race. If we do not pass these traditions and folklore down to younger generations, soon there will be nothing left of our cultures, and they will slowly disappear from the pages of our history books—something that we as the next generation refuse to allow happen. Therefore, we as Sarawakians—and as Malaysians—need to rise up to preserve the legacy of our forefathers and to safeguard our multi-cultural and multi-layered heritage: our Borneo birthright.