An Omen? Mom remembers 48 years ago..

It rained heavily this afternoon and the thunder was so scary! Whenever it cracked, the house reverberated! In once instance, I could have sworn the thunder exploded right above our house. I hate thunder... I turn into a wuss whenever there is thunder..

Having nothing better to do and to distract myself from the 'mayhem', I sat down with my mother. Then my mom started reminiscing. She told me to close the front doors. She said, "In the old days, the old folks say you must close the door whenever there is thunder. They say the thunder could come into the house in a ball of lightning. Betul bah tu. Old folks swore that it happened before and the house was burned down. Luckily the occupants escaped in time!"

Cabo What Policy?

A West Malaysian acquaintance of mine called me up this morning. He said, “Justin! I'm still in KL but I called up one of my friends who is in the shipping line and asked him whether he knows anything about the Cabotage Policy and he said he has no idea what it is!” Before I proceed further, allow me to give a shoutout to this West Malaysian acquaintance of mine who will remain nameless in this writing to protect his privacy. This man is in semi-retirement. He has been visiting Sabah frequently for the past 30 years and has decided to make Sandakan his retirement abode. He embedded himself among the Orang Sungai in some remote area in Sandakan and took it upon himself to learn their way of living, to research on their history and culture because he said most of the Orang Sungai he encountered did not know their own history and he wants to help improve their socio-economy! Kudos to you sir!

My acquaintance told me that something must be done about the high cost of living in Sabah and Sarawak. His zeal and conviction for the poor natives of Sabah moved me. So I went plunging in into the subject. I must admit that I do not have an in depth knowledge of this National Cabotage Policy (NCP). It is a dry subject and I am more of a history buff than a business policy kind of guy.

Size of States in Malaysia

Someone said something yesterday that had me interested in the subject. It was about the size of our states. This is what I got.

Sarawak
Land area : 48,050 Sq Mile
Population : 2,420,009

Sabah
Land area : 28,429 Sq Mile
Population : 3,117,405

Pahang
Land area : 13,953 Sq Mile
Population : 1,443,365

Perak
Land area : 8,122 Sq Mile
Population : 2,258,428

Johor
Land area : 7,420 Sq Mile
Population : 3,348,283

Kelantan
Land area : 5,830 Sq Mile
Population : 1,459,994

Terengganu
Land area : 5,033 Sq Mile
Population : 1,015,776

Penang (Seberang Prai is not shown here)
Land area : 3,800 Sq Mile
Population : 1,520,143

Kedah
Land area : 3,700 Sq Mile
Population : 1,890,098

Selangor
Land area : 3,129 Sq Mile
Population : 5,411,324

Negeri Sembilan
Land area : 2,581 Sq Mile
Population : 997,071

Malacca
Land area : 642 Sq Mile
Population : 788,706 (2010)

Perlis
Land area : 317 Sq Mile
Population : 227,025 (2010)

Note : I have checked and rechecked the land areas to the best of my available resources. Admittedly, for example Sarawak, some claim its size is this size and some by that size. However, these differences are noarmally by 100 to 300. So I think it is safe to say we have at least very close proximity of its actual size.

Sarawak, at  48,050 Sq Mile, is the largest state in Malaysia. While Sabah takes second place. You could fit Pahang, Perak, Johor, Kelantan, Terengganu, Penang and Kedah into Sarawak. That is about 64% of the Peninsula Malaysia! Did you know that? I didn't! I never thought of looking at it that way. 

Meanwhile, Sabah at 28,429 Sq Mile, could take in the remainder four Peninsula States, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Malacca and Perlis and still have extra room of 21,760 Sq Mile to wiggle. Therefore, Sabah and Sarawak combined, are bigger than the Peninsula Malaysia. However, according to TV1's display, the Peninsula Malaysia is bigger than the two Malaysian Borneo states :P 

Note the map at the background?

Now let us look into the districts in Sabah. 

Beaufort
The district of Beaufort is 670 Sq Mile in size with a population of 75,900 (2000). The district is bigger than present day Malacca and also Perlis. Malacca has 788,706 population and Perlis has 227,025!

Kinabatangan
Kinabatangan is 2,550 Sq Mile big! Population - 86,783 (2000). It is only about 31 Sq Mile smaller than Negeri Sembilan and definitely way way bigger than Malacca and Perlis combined!

Lahad Datu
At 2,562 Sq Mile big, need I say more?

Nabawan
2,351 Sq Mile. 

So that concludes this post.