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By Mihar Dias November 2025
"Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
And Wilderness is Paradise enow."
Omar Khayyám, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/475599-here-with-a-loaf-of-bread-beneath-the-bough-a
Omar Khayyám once romanticised life as needing only a loaf of bread beneath the bough, a flask of wine, a book of verse, and a beloved companion. It was an image of simple beauty: nourishment, wisdom, companionship, and the serenity of the wilderness.
Fast-forward to Malaysia, November 2025, and we have somehow reduced that poetic ideal to… Gardenia.
Not wine.
Not verse.
Not even the proverbial “Thou” singing beside us.
Just a loaf of bread being waved by a Kedah PAS assemblyman who apparently believes Sabahans can be politically persuaded the way pigeons are coaxed in parks. https://focusmalaysia.my/sabahans-angered-after-pas-lawmakers-gardenia-comment/
If Omar Khayyám were alive today, he’d likely stare at our election discourse and mutter, “This is definitely not what I meant.”
Let’s be clear: Sabah is not unfamiliar with political drama. But what unfolded when a PAS assemblyman suggested Sabahans could be swayed by “just Gardenia bread” was a new milestone in tone-deafness. It wasn’t merely an insult; it was a revelation of how little some Peninsular politicians understand the Land Below the Wind.
One might expect, at the very least, that a politician from a party that prides itself on religious knowledge would remember Deuteronomy’s reminder: “Man does not live by bread alone.”
The verse is an exhortation to acknowledge spiritual purpose beyond material needs. Instead, we got the political equivalent of tossing a loaf over the South China Sea and hoping for votes in return.
The absurdity of it all is that the people who speak most loudly about faith and moral grounding overlooked the basic dignity of an entire state.
The patronising tone carried an unmistakable whiff of colonial mentality—an outdated, condescending belief that Sabahans somehow need guidance, handouts, or, in this case, sliced bread from Peninsular Malaysia. It presumed that Sabahans live in a vacuum, waiting for political saviours with carbohydrate-based solutions.
If only these politicians understood how deeply connected Sabahans are to their own identity, history, and aspirations. This is a community that has survived storms—literal and political—long before some of these leaders learned to pronounce “Kota Kinabalu.”
To imagine Sabahans are swayed by a loaf is not only laughable; it is embarrassing.
What makes this episode even more absurd is that the perpetrator has likely never spent meaningful time in Sabah.
How else could someone conclude that a people who navigate mountain passes, multicultural communities, border complexities, and the daily realities of East Malaysian infrastructure might suddenly be moved by packaged bread?
Perhaps the assemblyman thought “the wilderness” of Khayyám’s poem referred to Sabah. If so, he should know: wilderness does not imply ignorance.
Sabahans are not starved of choices, nor are they waiting for latecomers from the Peninsula to define their political destiny.
Now, that brings us to the heart of the matter:
If you are unfamiliar with Sabah—its people, its pulse, its pride—then perhaps it is best to stay out of Sabah politics altogether.
Sabahans value engagement, not grandstanding. Respect, not condescension. Understanding, not imported assumptions wrapped in plastic packaging. A loaf may be received politely—because Sabahans are courteous—but votes are not something you buy off supermarket shelves.
The assemblyman has since apologised, though the damage was done the moment he implied that Sabahans live on bread alone. They don’t. They live on cultural richness, resilience, and the right to chart their own course—something far more meaningful than anything that comes out of a bakery.
So the next time a politician thinks of offering a loaf as a political metaphor, may I suggest offering something else instead:
Respect.
Presence.
Actual understanding of the state you’re speaking about.
Then, maybe, just maybe, leave Gardenia out of it.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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