When spirituality and unity is in the hearts and not a slogan

The Holy Month of Ramadan is one that is not only observed by the Muslims in Sarawak but the non-Muslims also play an active role during the month, to the extent that many break fast together with their neighbours.

Ramadan is not only about observing the fast or offering prayers, teaching patience and humility but to many Muslims, it also carries an extra meaning to family lives and is a time of fostering ties with non-Muslim friends. The Chinese and Dayak too enjoy the Ramadan 'breaking fast' sessions with their Muslim friends and going around the Ramadan stalls to buy delicacies.

When children remember their parents

Maimunan Ishak loves the month of Ramadan as that is the time when she gets to see all her four grown-up sons eating together. “As children grow up, they tend to go out with their friends and are not concerned with eating together as a family. But during the fasting month, they make an attempt to be with me and my husband. At least, they make an effort,” she told Malaysia Chronicle.

For the first day of Ramadan, Maimunan takes pains to cook all four of her children's favourite food at Bersahur. Waking up at 4 am, she has everything ready. For her, cooking for Bersahur is just like cooking for lunch.

Working as a clerk, Maimunan goes off early to prepare for the breaking of fast. “Cooking and breaking fast at home is more traditional unless I work night shift,’ she said. That is when her children will go and buy food at the Ramadan stalls set up all over the city and that is also when she breaks her fast with her non-Muslim colleagues in the office. “My non Muslim colleagues would make it a point to break fast with the Muslim even though some of them had dinner already. Maybe that is the spirit of our closeness and the respect for each other culture,” she added.

Although a number of people lose weight during Ramadan, Maimunan said she is not one of the fortunate ones. She piled on more kilos as during the breaking of fast, she tends to eat more and there are more delicacies including the dates, cakes and kueh.

Non-Muslims rush for the goodies too

At the Ramadan Pasar at Stutong, Zulina Said from Petra Jaya said most of the traditional cakes have already been sold out. Zulina said she may have to break fast in her car at 6.20pm, customers and the non-Muslims are still packed to the brim at the stalls. Breaking fast for Kuching on the first day was at 6.55 pm and the rest of the days are more or less the same time.

Zulina’s customers are 80% Chinese and for the past 9 years, she had been running her cake stall during the Holy month. “My Chinese customers will make it a point to hunt me down and during Hari Raya, they will come to my house for visiting although I don’t remember a lot of their names. I call all of them Ah Moi, young or old,” she laughed.

Ahmad who operates a doughnut stall nearby was smiling away as he packed his last doughnut for a Dayak customer. Ahmad in his late 50s said his stalls are more frequented by Chinese and Dayak than Muslims.

Operating his stall at noon, Ahmad said his Chinese customers would start mingling around lunch time. The Malays, he said would be coming around 4 pm only. Looking around the Pasar Ramadan, Ahmad said the customers are 70% non-Muslims. “We are really 1Sarawak, don’t talk about 1 Malaysia. 1 Sarawak is more genuine than 1 Malaysia,” he added.

Although Ahmad did not break fast with his non-Muslim friends, he said he would attend his neighbour’s fast breaking with non Muslims. “My retired government officer neighbour makes it a point to invite non-Muslims to his breaking fast at least twice during the Holy month. So I always join them. The non-Muslim would also come with cakes and cookies. This is so normal for us here in Sarawak,” he said.

Bazaar convenience

Mcferrer David, a Sabahan student in a polytechnic college, said he has been in Sarawak for the last three years. “Every Ramadan, I come here with my Muslim friends. I prefer the fried rice here than the one in Sabah and the price is cheaper,” he said.

David said he has no qualms about breaking fast with his Muslim friends. “People in Sabah and Sarawak, sama sama. We are all friendly with each other, Muslim or not,” he said.

Juliza Ahmad who was rushing through her food shopping with her husband and two kids said she would have preferred to cook but due to her office work load, she had to get her food from the stalls. Juliza said she stayed with her in-laws and the nine of them would break fast together. “It’s more meaningful to cook at home and eat. But these days, with so many women working, there is hardly any time for us to cook. On weekends, she said she would do the cooking at home.

Mia, a Dayak, was shopping for food with her son at the Ramadan Stall. Working in a furniture shop, Mia said she always took the opportunity of the Ramadan month not to cook. “It’s easier to buy the ready cooked dinner. And my husband has no complaints. The food is nice,” she said.

Mia, like most Chinese, would end up going home with packets of food. She and the non-Muslims would always be the ones left at the Pasar Ramadan as most Muslims rush home to break their fast. Some of the hawkers who stayed back break their fast at the stalls.

Unity is not a slogan

In Sarawak, celebrating Ramadan with the non Muslim friends is a more common practice than that in the Semenanjung. Azim, an orang Malaya now working here, found out that Sarawakians tend to be more “1Malaysia” compared to his hometown back in the federal capital. Over there, according to him, life is more rushed, and sharing a 'break fast' session is very rare, unlike here in Kuching. Office workers tend to rush out from their office, grab bagfuls of cooked food and cakes, then rush home to be with their family. The bachelors too tend to buy and pack cooked meals and eat alone or with their housemates who are singles like them.

Azim therefore finds that ethnic unity is more evident here than where he came from. Aside from the unity he noted during the month of Ramadan, he feels almost comfortable to go into a Chinese coffee shop with his Muslim friends either to quench their thirst over a thick black kopi O, or order food from the variety of stalls found in a typical kopitiam. Something he does not see back home in KL, where his Muslim friends would not think about going to eat in any place that also served other races apart from Muslims.

Despite the multiple ethnicity found here, Ramadan, a religious month special to the Muslims, has become a uniting month amongst the people of Sarawak. It is the best of example of 1Malaysia, minus the need to shout about national unity. And the odd thing, this racial oneness was always there, long before Najib Razak became prime minister and hopefully, it will continue to bless us all long after he is no longer PM.

After all, unity is in our hearts and not in a slogan. - Malaysia Chronicle