Discovering the ‘others’ who make Malaysia what it is

It happened at a combined celebration of the Kaamatan and Gawai festivities of Sabah and Sarawak that she first began to realise just how much of Malaysia’s cultural tapestry she had never known.

She met people at the celebration who introduced themselves by the names of communities she had never heard of. “I met people who said, ‘I’m Kelabit.’ Then someone else said, ‘I’m Kiput.’ I thought, what is this? I didn’t understand,” said Lim, who is better known as Faye Lim.

…