It was just under 4 kilometers when the knee decided to play precious.
I always say if Najib put down the price of cigarettes, from 17 to five Riggit, which was the normal price before Mahathir hiked the prices over a decade ago, he'd win by a landslide.
After that, I took it real slow.
It was when I detoured across the road and walked past an office building, that the Dyak security guard came running over to me like a lap dog.
He was drunk.
'Nothing to do,' he says.
He's John-Simon and is a Dyak. He moans about Najib, 'he's a crook' and the Sarawak local government, 'they are all Muslims.'
He says Sarawak is the best state in Malaysia.
I tell him I'm getting goosebumps.
'Here we have no extreme Muslims.'
Only drunk security guards who run after tourists to tell them what a fucked up leader he has.
It is the voting season and leaders can be voted in and out.
I played dumb for a change.
The eight-kilometer walk yesterday had put too much pressure on the knee.
But four kilometers isn't nothing to sneeze at I tell Bung, a Malay who hangs out at the Long House.
We compared prices and cigarettes. He prefers Menthol over regular. We are both smoking Vess, the cheapest of the smuggled cigarettes. I have no idea where they come up with these names, Parkway and Luffman are others, but they must be costing the government a fortune in lost taxes.
Noone buys the official cigarettes. The price is about half a Malaysian's daily salary. No one is going to work four hours for a packet of cigarettes. This isn't Singapore or Australia - who get away with blue murder cheating smokers - it's Malaysia and so far the high prices haven't been very sustainable, for obvious reasons.
Noone buys the official cigarettes. The price is about half a Malaysian's daily salary. No one is going to work four hours for a packet of cigarettes. This isn't Singapore or Australia - who get away with blue murder cheating smokers - it's Malaysia and so far the high prices haven't been very sustainable, for obvious reasons.
Everyone complains about the GST tax. But you never hear the government complain or even jail people for smuggling and smoking illegal cigarettes.
Even the coppers smoke them.
Even the coppers smoke them.
It's always giving and taking and where the government loses, it's always winning with it's GST.
Sarawak has been offered the biggest present if the ruling party win the election in the next few weeks, access to the royalties of their oil and gas.
That security guard might just have to vote for Najib if he wants an even better and more autonomous Sarawak.
I always say if Najib put down the price of cigarettes, from 17 to five Riggit, which was the normal price before Mahathir hiked the prices over a decade ago, he'd win by a landslide.
