Little was known about Rosli Dhoby before he was arrested for the assassination of the Governor Steward Duncan in 1949.
I was born that year in Pulau Kerto, delivered by a China born midwife at home. Two of my friends were also born in Sibu that year, Rosalind Assan (4.12.1949)and Leo Michael Toyad (in Lau King Howe Hospital) In later years Rosalind told me how busy her father was because of the assassination. Hermanus Assan was one of the first Iban officers in Sibu at that time. He did not get to see his new born baby until the next day.
Excerpted from Wikipedia :
On 4 December 1949, Duncan George Stewart, the second governor of Sarawak, was murdered by the Rukun 13 members, Rosli Dhoby, Awang Ramli Amit Mohd Deli, Morshidi Sidek and Bujang Suntong in Sibu.
Rosli Dhoby and Morshidi Sidek were among the crowd that welcomed the governor on his arrival to Sibu. After inspecting an honour guard the governor was meeting a group of local school children in near proximity of Rosli. Morshidi began to pretend to take pictures of the governor with a broken camera. The governor stopped to allow Morshidi to photograph him. At that moment, Rosli stabbed the governor.
Rosli was arrested on the spot and sent to Kuching for trial and later into imprisonment. Despite suffering a deep stab wound Stewart is reported to have tried to carry on until blood began to seep through his white uniform.[1] The governor was flown back to Kuching for treatment and later to Singapore, where he died a week after the incident.
The group met at the wooden house in the photo and it was known that lots were cast on who should stab the Governor. Rosli Dhoby was the one who picked the lot and thus the fate of the Governor was sealed. This piece of land, next to the Methodist Children's Home, Sibu, was eventually sold to the Methodist Church. Many years later, the Wesley Church was built on it.
Rosli Dhoby was just a youth, below 18 years of age and yet he had been a teacher (age 15) of the People's School in Sibu. He had worked in the government too.
The mystery was why he was so quickly executed and why the hands of the law did not consider the fact that he was not YET an adult.
Was it a case of miscarried justice. May his soul rest in peace.
2 comments:
In today's context, he would have been considered a child but we must remember that he is a teacher at the time and thus assumed to have reached a level of maturity to that of an adult. At the age of 18, we cannot argue that he did not consider the ramifications of his actions. He committed murder, pure and simple.
It was a politically motivated assassination.
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