Sabah[1] is a state in Malaysia situated on the north of the Borneo island, its former name was North Borneo. It has a very long history, much of which is not documented. Although it is part of Malaysia, it does not share many common cultural characteristics with the states of the Peninsula Malaysia. For example, according to the 1980 census, it has over 50 language groups and over 80 dialects, even a fraction of such complexity cannot be found on the Peninsula. The Peninsula is dominated by the Malay people, making just over half of the population, they also form the dominant power in the multi-party government. Malay is a minority group in Sabah but politically the every day affairs of political life is very much overshadowed by that of the Peninsula[2].
So much for a very brief description of the background, I shall now begin by saying that the condition of musical life in Sabah is on a critical balance: not only at the moment, but for most of its independent days. There are many contributing factors towards this critical balance. The first phenomenon is that musical life is dominated by the Chinese people. They are the second largest race in Sabah and dominate the economy. In contrast to the largest people group, the Kadazan, the Chinese prefers to live in cities. In the major cities, most of the houses are occupied or owned by Chinese folks. The domination of Chinese in musical life can not be explained fully by the fact that they are the second largest people group, because the proportion is not right, and the Kadazan people (the largest group) are rarely represented. .
The second phenomenon is probably best coined by the phrase "I have a piano", or put in a more original flavour, "I own a piano at home". Nowadays, the nearest equivalence in Britain probably is "I've got a computer game machine" or "I've got a virtual reality machine". It is the pride of having a piano sitting in the lounge, because it speaks of being rich and of high social status.
