Someone suggested the other day, "Eh, why not a PM from PAS?" I nearly ended up with a cardiac arrest. Why not? Brother, let me tell you why not. From a common man point of view, a guy who just wants to go to work, pay his bills, and live peacefully.
Look, I respect people who are religious. My own neighbor next door is very religious, good man. But PAS as a party running the whole country? That's a different story.
Imagine waking up one day and Malaysia becomes... quiet. Too quiet. No music in the shops. The radio? Only ……on loop. Whoever plays guitars at weddings in has to hide his guitar like it's contraband. You want to buy a 4D number because it's your hobby? Sorry, haram, banned. You want to go to a concert? Banned. You want to watch a movie in cinema with your girlfriend? Later they say the cinema seats too close, also banned.
They talk about banning lottery, banning alcohol, banning concerts, controlling what women wear, what men do. At this rate, even kid's Ultraman cartoon also maybe they say cannot because Ultraman's pants too tight. It starts small, we already saw. No cinema, no big concerts, separate supermarket counters. It's like they are slowly turning the volume knob down on life until everything is silent.
It's funny but it's not funny. You know who else banned music and lottery and entertainment and told everyone how to live minute by minute? The Taliban. Yes, I said it. Same playbook, different packaging. One says it's for Afghanistan, one says it's for Malaysia. But the end result is the same - a country that is grey, boring, and everyone is scared to breathe wrongly.
We are Malaysians lah. We like our roti canai, our Deepavali songs, our karaoke, our Chinese New Year lion dance with drums banging. You want to take all that away and tell us it's for our own good? A common man like me, I write and teach 6 days a week. My only fun is Saturday morning I go buy TOTO, lunch time, I listen to SPB songs on my phone, I lepak late nights with either shots of Vodka, Black Rum with coke or Chivas on the rocks.
You want to ban my small happiness? For what?
If a PAS PM comes, I tell you what will happen to the economy. All the investors might might want to “tapau”. Foreign companies mighthave second thoughts of coming to a country where their staff cannot have a beer after work, cannot have a year-end dinner with music? Tourism? Finished. Who wants to come to a country where everything is banned? Will we become poor but very, very pious on paper. While the politicians at the top still have everything.
So no, thank you. Why not a PM from PAS? Because I still want to live in Malaysia, not in a big pondok where everything is forbidden.
Now, you ask me what I want instead. I want a PM from East Malaysia. Specifically, from Sarawak. Now you are talking.
For 60 years, we always hear West Malaysia decides everything. KL decides. Putrajaya decides. East Malaysia is just like the fixed deposit. When election comes, "Oh Sarawak our brothers." After election, forgotten. Their roads still broken, their schools still no proper toilet, their internet still like snail. But their oil and gas money flows to KL non-stop.
What if we flip the table? What if for once, the boss comes from across the sea? The South China Sea!
A PM from Sarawak will understand what diversity really means. He doesn't need to give a lecture about ‘Perpaduan’. He lives it. In Sarawak, in one longhouse you can have a Christian, a Muslim, and animist, all eating together. No one makes an issue. Malay, Chinese, Dayak, Melanau - they sit one table and eat kolo mee together. They don't need any religious body to tell them how to be united. They already are. Imagine that spirit becoming the spirit for the whole country. No more every week got some politician playing race card or religion card to get votes. Enough lah.
Second, a Sarawakian PM will finally be fair with money. He knows how it feels to see your own timber, your own gas, your own hydro power generating billions, but your own kampung in Kapit still needs a boat for 4 hours to go to clinic. He will not allow that kind of unfairness to continue, not just for Sarawak and Sabah, but for Kelantan, for Kedah, for Perlis too. He knows what it means to be left behind. A KL elite who was born in Damansara Heights will never understand that feeling.
And development. Sarawakians are practical people. They don't want to build the tallest flagpole in the world just to show off. They want roads that don't break your car. They want stable electricity. They want schools where the roof doesn't leak. A Sarawak PM will bring that kampung practicality to Putrajaya. Less drama, less politicking about who is more Malay or more Islamic, more work. More focus on economy, on fixing prices of barang, on jobs for our kids so they don't have to go to Singapore to wash dishes with a degree.
And most importantly, he will make us feel like we are really one Malaysia. Not Semenanjung Malaysia plus those two states over there. One Malaysia where a kid in Ba'kelalan feels as Malaysian as a kid in Johor. For 60 years we told them to integrate with us. Maybe it's time we integrate with them, and learn how they managed to keep peace without shouting.
So yeah. You ask me, PAS or East Malaysia? Any day I will choose a Dayak or a Melanau from Kuching or Miri over someone who wants to turn my country into a silent, music-less, lottery-less, joy-less place. Give me a PM who knows how to build a bridge over a real river, not a PM who wants to build a wall between people.
ENDS
By
Sam Trailerman
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