1. The Kuching International Airport is the third busiest airport in Malaysia (2006: 3.2 mil. passengers) after Kuala Lumpur International (2007: 26.9 mil. passengers) and Kota Kinabalu International (2006: 4.2 mil. passengers). But then again, both KLIA and KKIA have two operating terminals, the main terminal and Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) whereas KIA has only one terminal - the main terminal. Hence, in my opinion this technically qualifies KIA to be the second busiest main terminal in Malaysia. Besides having one international airport, Sarawak also has five domestic airports, namely Miri, Sibu, Bintulu, Limbang and Mulu, and another 12 STOLports (short take-off and landing ports) namely Lawas, Marudi, Long Semado, Bakalalan, Seridan, Long Akah, Long Lellang, Long Banga, Bario, Belaga, Kapit and Mukah. Hence overall, Sarawak state has the most airports in Malaysia, an amazing total of 18 all together. Sabah being second has only eight, and KLIA is not even in Kuala Lumpur itself! (source)
2. Sarawak has three (and not two) cities - Kuching North, Kuching South and Miri. It is the state with the most cities in Malaysia, with Selangor having two (Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya) and the rest one or even none. Surprisingly, Sibu town has a population as big as most other cities in Malaysia. The Kuching Division itself is 4559.5 sq km, which is almost the size of the states of Malacca, Penang and two Perlises added together. Relatively, the Kuching Metropolis (the combination of Kuching North, Kuching South and Padawan) is exactly 2.3 times the geographic size of Perlis and about 2.95 times the population size of Perlis. (source)
3. This is an interesting fact that MOST Malaysians even Sarawakians don't know: The Sarawak state anthem, Ibu Pertiwiku, is the only state anthem in Malaysia that has the word 'Malaysia' in it. As compared to other state anthems, it is the anthem that praises the people and the land than the premier the most. Some state anthems even have the whole song praising the premier only! *note: those states which have their own Sultan or Raja.* (source) By the way, our national anthem Negaraku also doesn't have the word 'Malaysia' in it. I bet you are trying to sing Negaraku now. *And here's my own anecdote regarding Sarawakian anthem from the past til present. And yes, Cikgu Nikk, even our first anthem in Malaysia does feature the word 'Malaysia' in the lyrics!*
4. The Sarawak state flag is one of the very few state flags in Malaysia that preserves its original tri-colour of yellow, red and black used since the days of Rajah Brooke. The current Sarawak flag was first raised at the National Day parade in Kuching on August 31, 1988 - which makes it exactly 20 years old this coming National Day. It is interesting to note that the Sarawak flag is also the only state flag that has a colour (black) that symbolises the rich natural resources and wealth of the state, such as petroleum, timber etc.
The Kingdom of Sarawak...
...and the state of Sarawak.6. Even though Sarawak, with a population of 2,357,000, is only the fourth populous state in Malaysia and is also the least dense state in Malaysia (19.1 people per sq km) (source), Sarawak prides itself to be a multicultural state with no ethnic majority - its ethnic groups are more varied compared to West Malaysia and Sabah, due to the large proportion of tribal people. The largest ethnic, the Ibans doesn't even form a third of the whole population of Sarawak. There are 27 distinct indigenous ethnic groups in Sarawak that speak 45 different languages and dialects (source).
7. Sarawak, from 1841 to 1946 was known to the world as the Kingdom of Sarawak (source). Sir James Brooke (1841-1868) *additional source here* freed Sarawakians from having to pay tax to the Brunei Sultanate. By and large the Brookes pursued a policy of paternalism for the economy of Sarawak, aimed at protecting the 'native peoples' from capitalist exploitation. Sir Charles Brooke (1868-1917) *additional source here* formed the Sarawak Rangers *additional source here* (not to be confused with the Power Rangers), established the Sarawak Museum, built railways, and discovered oil. Sir Charles Vyner Brooke (1917-1946) *additional source here* also managed to make Sarawak prosper and if it weren't for the World War 2, Charles Vyner Brooke had given Sarawakians their independence. It was only after the World War 2 that the British colonial government took away Sarawak from the Brookes. The Brookes, also known as the 'White Rajahs', were arguably the last native Englishmen ever to rule a country, as the current British Royal Family is in fact of German descent. (source)
8. Malaysia's first and oldest state legislative assembly meeting took place in Bintulu, Sarawak on 8th September, 1867. (source) Sarawak is the first state in Malaysia to fully implement e-government, where every state government department can communicate with one another and is accessible to citizens via the Internet. (source) Out of the six Sarawak-based political parties, not even a single party is specialized for a particular race. (source) Note: Bumiputera and Dayak is not a single race but a group of races.
9. Some of the popular and famous (living) Sarawakians are Dayang Nurfaizah (singer), Camelia (singer), Nicholas Teo (singer, actor), Lim Yu Zhong (singer), Tony Eusoff (actor), Sharifah Zarina (singer), Anding AF (singer, host), Bob AF (singer), OAG (band), Candy (90's singing group), Izwan Pilus (singer, host), Jason Lo (singer), Kenny Sia (blogger), Ramsay Ong (artist), Edric Ong (fashion designer), Tom Abang Saufee (fashion designer), and the list goes on and on.. Well, some of the business tycoons are also from Sarawak such as MAS' Idris Jala, Sin Chiew Daily's Tan Sri Datuk Tiong Hiew King, etc.
10. Sarawak is the state with the most local (state) newspaper (all Malay, English and Mandarin): Utusan Sarawak, Utusan Borneo, Berita Petang Sarawak, Eastern Times, Borneo Post, International Times, Malaysian Today, See Hwa Daily News (mandarin), and United Daily News (mandarin). We even have an Penan-language online newspaper: the Rengah Sarawak. When Sarawak has nine local newspapers, Sabah has only five and other states might only have one or none. (source)
11. In the popular American reality television game show The Amazing Race, Kuala Lumpur was featured twice (Amazing Race 3 and Amazing Race 5) and Kota Kinabalu once (Amazing Race 4). But Kuching was featured not just only in the first edition of the Amazing Race spin-off, the Amazing Race Asia but also as the final destination which saw our very own Malaysian team Zabrina and Joe Jer winning the race. Among the tourist attraction featured were the Cat statue, the Old Courthouse, Sarawak Cultural Village and Bako National Park (finish line). (source)
12. Even though I don't have a statistical proof of this, I have to agree that almost all Sarawakians are bilingual or even multilingual. Besides mastering the main languages of Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, Bahasa Iban, etc, there are also a lot of dialects that Sarawakians are able to at least understand. The 'Sarawakian language' which is technically the Sarawakian Malay dialect is the unofficial lingua franca amongst Sarawakians especially among the Bumiputera. Hakka and Hokkien is the most widely spoken dialect among the Sarawakian Chinese in Kuching and Miri, but the dominant Chinese dialect in Sibu and Sarikei is Fuzhou (fondly known as Foo Chow among locals). Oh, not to forget, almost all Sarawakians can speak good or at least decent English! Refer below.
13. Sarawakians are said to have a better proficiency of the English language as compared to their West Malaysian counterparts. (refer: Tok Bat's reply at January 20, 2008 8:01 AM) (refer: Shi Zeng's/Jimmy's answer to Question 14 *links is dead x_x*) (refer: Additional Info). Sarawakian school children have been scoring better grades for English papers in all of the government school exams, and have never fail to surpass the average national score every year. Well, again I don't have a statistical proof of this. Anyone has access to the data in the Malaysian Ministry of Education?
14. Sarawak's calendar of events is the most colourful tourism calendar compared to other states in Malaysia. Among the best events are the Rainforest World Music Festival in Kuching, Miri International Jazz Festival, the Borneo Cultural Festival in Sibu, World Harvest Festival (together with Miss Fair and Lovely beauty pageant), and not forgetting the popular local festivals and celebrations such as the Gawai Dayak, Muslims' Aidil Fitri, Chinese New Year, Pesta Kaul Melanau, Irau Aco Lun Bawang, Christians' Christmas, Buddhists' Wesak, the Kuching City Festival, Pesta Benak, the Sarawak Regatta, etc. (source: Get ready to be amazed).
15. The Sarawak State Museum is the first museum to be established in Borneo (source). In other words, it is the oldest museum in Borneo (source). It is also considered to have the best collection within Southeast Asia and it houses one of the best ethnographic collections (source). Besides that, Sarawak is also the state with the most number of museums, namely the Sarawak Ethnology Museum, Sarawak Museum Tun Abdul Razak Wing, Islamic Museum, Chinese History Museum, Niah Archaeology Museum, Limbang Regional Museum, Baram Regional Museum, Textile Museum, Art Museum, Natural History Museum, Petroleum Museum and the ever popular Cat Museum, the only museum in the world dedicated to those feline creatures. Among private museums are Wood Museum, Tun Jugah's Pua Kumbu Museum, etc. Also, the living museum - Sarawak Cultural Village! *official website here*
16. Laksa Sarawak, Ayam Pansoh, Umai, Kolok Mee, Kampua Mee, Tomato Kueh Tiaw, Mee Jawa, Lemantak, Ulat Sagu, Bubur Pedas, Kek Lapis, Belacan Bee Hoon, Nasi Goreng Dabai, Midin Belacan, Three Layer Tea.. And not to forget, Sarawak's very own SUGARBUN! *additional source from Kennysia.com. Or check here for more eating place in Sarawak*
17. Even though lacking funding from the federal government to train sportsmen from the interiors, the Sarawak SUKMA team has never fail to impress teams from other states. The Sarawak team has always manage to get second placing in terms of medal tally for the past 5 games (10 years), behind the well trained and well equipped Selangor team. Nevertheless, Sarawak has also produced world-class sportsmen such as Watson Nyambek, Daniel Bego, Sapok Biki, etc. I have a strong feeling that in this year's SUKMA Terengganu, Sarawak has a good chance of getting the first place in the medal tally. Agi Idup Agi Ngelabang! (source)
18. Sarawak has a very ancient history; the burial grounds at Niah Caves National Park are evidence of the oldest modern human settlement in Southeast Asia, and the cave area has been continuously inhabited for 40,000 years, making it one of the most important archaeological sites in the world. (source) Sir Alfred Russel Wallace, the great naturalist and co-proposer of the theory of evolution (with Sir Charles Darwin), did most of his work on natural selection in the rainforests of Sarawak. (source) Whether Darwin actually stole ideas about species divergence from Wallace's 1858 essay or not is yet to be determined.
So, feel free to copy and paste as long as nikkadam.blogspot.com is mentioned in the citation. Agi Idup Agi Ngelaban, Agi Enchelak, Agi Bebatak!
Epilogue:...and right beside me is some idiotic middle eastern foreigner complaining Malaysian food is all about rice, rice, RICE. *shut your trap, foreigner!*
HBT112 is tomorrow...and I am in Istimewa downloading Bleach and Junjou Romantica. lolx!
2 comments:
You forgot to mention we Sarawakian are living on tree. We have helipad and elevator on our tree house!
lol. That's the joke that a Sarawakian have to receive when he fly across to the Peninsula...
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