Politics and Helicopters

When was the first time you saw a helicopter?

During the Confrontation helicopters were already flying over the skies of Sibu. Wessex helicopters were the normal ones. They made a loud noise and they looked menancing. The often stopped at the King George VI memorial grounds.

Wessex - popular during the Confrontation time in Sarawak.

Familiar sight in the 70's in Sibu

Sarawak is hard to traverse so many armed forces were transported by helicopters into the interior and dropped into the forest in this way.

Sarawak Politicians love flying around Sarawak in Helicopters



Now we are under Movement Control Order, politicans are flying food supplies to the rural people so that they would not starve during this period. The government is giving "Sarawakku Sayang Special Assistance Package".

Sarawak Cession Day : 1st July 1947

Sarawak's Brooke rule ended on lst July 1947.

The last rajah, Charles Vyner Brooke had given the idea of ceding Sarawak to the UK, serious thought, probably throughout the whole of the Second World War and later, the two years after the war.

According to some historians, Vyner Brooke had announced his intention to cede Sarawak to Britain in early 1946. 

Indeed, the British government sent two Malay-speaking Members of Parliament to Sarawak to ascertain whether the people were in favour of cession. It was found that there was sufficient support for cession to be put before the Council Negri. This motion was subsequently debated for three days in the Council Negri. The Bill of Cession was read for the third time on 17 May 1946 and was passed by 19 votes against 16.

Photo shows Charles V. Brooke signing the Instrument of Cession at the Astana, May 1946.

In his Cession Message, he mentioned that he had the best interests of the people of Sarawak in his heart. As he believed that British rule would benefit Sarawak. Most importantly, he believed that the financial standing of the British government would enable Sarawak to develop.

He also said, "the Rajah who was your Father, is now transferring your loyalty to a greater father, the King. In the near future, you will also reach self governance...." He was very paternalistic, the way he looked at his subjects, the Sarawakians.

10 years later, in November, 1957, Sarawak saw its first local government election. 

The Indian Muslim Merchants of Kuching

Yes there is an India Street in Kuching.

It is a pedestrian walkway of variety of colorful textiles, clothing, crockery and other essentials in a manner not changed much in the past decades. Jalan India is lined with shops selling all kinds of goods, particularly textiles. Mid-way down Jin India (if you can find it!) there is a narrow passageway that leads to Jin Gambier, where the fruit, vegetable and fish markets and the spice merchants are located.

What is very interesting is a small hidden gem right in the middle of this busy part of the city. If you follow this passageway you'll pass a small Mosque hidden away in the middle of the city. The Mosque's structure has undergone many changes since it was originally built by Kuching's Indian Muslim community in the mid 19th century.

The mosque is very unique and you will be able to observe closely as it is open to the public. But do show due respect when you look around.


Gambier Street is also near the waterfront


There are a number of Indian Muslim shops on Gambier Street selling spices and Muslim produce. This is an interesting place to catch the sights and smell of old Kuching.

It is a good place to spend an enjoyable afternoon.

Sarawak Rubber History : Tapping Holiday

There was indeed a Rubber Restriction Committee in Sarawak.

In 1934, Sarawak joined the International Rubber Regulation Agreement, (IRRA) under pressure from the British Colonial Office. All new planting was forbidden and rubber tapping holidays were declared every fourth month.

Together with the Sarawak Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Rubber tapping holidays could be declared, for example up to 16 days to control the production of rubber and to keep the prices high.

One such rubber tapping holiday was declared between 27 October and 16th Nov 1935 (Sarawak Gazette)






The Foochows called Rubber Tapping Holiday as Ding Kak (Stop tapping) and the farmers would concentrate on their rice and vegetable farming.

The words of the Rajah was law, and it was quite difficult for the Foochows to make sense of everything. It was hard going for most of those who depended on rubber for a living. some even had





to buy more land to cultivate rice.


Another restriction for rubber industry was the  introduction of Export Coupon. It was not easy as what people think about the Foochows getting very rich by leaps and bounds. Much of their efforts were curbed too by law and regulations of the Rajah and the International Community.

Source : Sarawak Gazette and other reference books.

Thankful to all my pioneering elders for telling me stories.

Satok Bridge First Visit - 1973

It was in 1973 when I first walked across the Satok Bridge with my cousin. She was Kuching born and was very chatty about everything Kuching.

A visit to Kuching then would include a lovely visit to the Sarawak museum, a walk around the museum grounds and having Ice Kacang after that. We did not walk towards the cemetery as she had her pantang.

Then she drove to the Satok Bridge which she said was a must see. She was proud and happy that Kuching had a bridge. Being a ticketing agent then, she was very informative about everything and I was glad to absorb everything she said, as I was getting ready to be a graduate teacher.

Interesting, I was a little surprised that the bridge was a wooden bridge as I did not expect that. I was thinking of all the concrete bridges I have seen in Singapore. No I wasn't being snooty, but I should have been attentive since the suspension briedge was built in 1926.

The bridge took three years to construct and was opened in 1926. It spanned 700 feet and was only 7 feet wide. The company that built it was British, A.S. Lowe.

The suspension bridge took three years to construct and was officially opened in 1926. It was 700 feet long and 7 feet wide. The architect was an A S Lowe.

during the Japanese War, many people from "Across River" had to bring food to the town on their backs. So the bridge was really a boon to the people of Kuching. And many people also walked across the bridge to forage for food while the Japanese soldiers were every where.

The bridge was mainly built to carry two 12 inch pipes across the river, in order to supply fresh water from the Matang Hills to Kuching Town.

The Satok Bridge could only handle pedestrains and small vehicles up to 3000 pounds. Passengers of small buses had to alight from the bus (6 passengers) while the bus drove ahead, with the passengers walking behind the bus.


the bridge seemed to be well built and lasted 80 years. After a stormy night on 7th October 2004, it finally collapsed.

Wooden Motor Launches of Sarawak

Reverend James Hoover was the man who brought the first engine to Sibu and started to encourage the local Foochows to use motor launches.  At the beginning of the Foochow settlement in 1901 in Sibu every one walked on land and to travel across a river, everyone could paddle a boat.

By 1922 my paternal grandfather with Rev Yao Shiao King and Ling Ming Lok initiated the development of Bintangor under the guidance of Rev James Hoover. It was a very successful settlement and my grandfather built three motor launches to service the Sibu- Bintangor route and the rubber sales and marketing.

At about the same time, my own maternal grandfather started to exploit the west bank of the Rajang, he would paddle a small boat from Ensurai (where they originally lived) every morning to slash and burn the nang Chong rubber land. In 1926, the year my mother was born, they moved to Chieng Nang Chong where they stayed for a few years to wait for his rubber trees to be mature and start tapping. Ngie Gung then applied for a few men to be sent out from Bang Dung in Minqing. He built three coolie houses for them in preparation. Not long after that in 1938 when my mother was 12, they moved to their own new house in Nang Chong. It was a big double storeyed wooden house with 5 units (like a small longhouse with 5 bilik)

Hence by `1938 the Foochows and their rubber gardens were dotted all along the east and west banks of the Rajang River and motor launches were busy plying up and down the river.



By the 1930's more and more people had rubber gardens and soon it was necessary for more motor launches to be built and more engines to be imported from Singapore.


1960 - 1990


1






1990-2010's Era:







There are many changes in the last 20 years when roads have been introduced by the ruling government. Roads were denied the settlers in the past because the ruling government did not want easy mobility for the population. But curtailing ease of movement, the government was able to hold a tight rein on the communists who were against Malaysia, and the British.

Crocodiles in Borneo

The crocodile obtains its meals by the simple expedient of lying motionless just beneath the surface of a pool where the natives are accustomed to bathe or where they go for water. The unsuspecting brown girl trips jauntily down to the river-bank to fill her amphora – usually a battered Standard Oil tin. As she bends over the stream there comes without the slightest warning the lightning swish of a scaly tail, a scream, the crunch of monster jaws, a widening eddy, a scarlet stain overspreading the surface of the water – and there is one less inhabitant of Borneo.

But instead of proceeding to devour its victim then and there, the crocodile carries the body up a convent creek, where it has the self-control to leave it until it is sufficiently gamey to satisfy its palate. For the crocodile, like the hunter, does not like freshly killed meat. Hence, the crocodile swimming up-stream with a native in its mouth is by no means an uncommon sight in Bornean rivers.

“But it is a quick death,” as an Englishman whom I met in Borneo philosophically observed. “They don’t play with you as a cat plays with a mouse – they just hold you under the water until you are drowned.”

[E. Alexander Powell, Where the Strange Trails go Down: Sulu, Borneo, Celebes, Bali, Java, Sumatra, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Cambodia, Annam, Cochin-China (New York : C. Scribner’s Sons, 1921), 107-108.]

In light of these comments, I found the following entry in the Sarawak Gazette for April 1, 1895 remarkable:

“On the 28^th of February a girl of about 17 or 18 years of age, Boloh by name, went down early in the morning to bathe at the landing place in front of her mother’s house at Sejejak; she had no sooner entered the water than she was sized (i.e., seized) by a crocodile by the elbow and hand. The landing stage was moored with posts and to one of these Boloh clung with her other hand; her cries for help attracted several men to the spot and the beast becoming scared let go his hold. The girl was severely lacerated by the sharp teeth of the crocodile.”

Boloh was tough!! You go girl!!

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1949 - Mourning for the Assassinated Governor

4th Dec 1949

Duncan Stewart was assassinated in Sibu on Dec 4th 1949. There was a lot of commotion and exchanges of telegrams but things came under control. The two assassins were arrested in no time.


Mrs. Duncan Steward was stressed and inconsolable and had wanted all the culprits execuited immediately.




When it was announced he had passed away in the hospital in Singapore, a circular was sent out to all civil servants as regards how to mourn the loss of a Governor. Every one started their official mourning and grieving in Kuching and throughout Sarawak. Civil servants were "ordered" to wear a black arm band as a mark of mourning. A few examples of official mourning could be taken from the history of British Empire regarding the wearing of a black arm band.

the January 7th 1950 issue of Sarawak Gazette stated in its first paragraph on the front page, "..the year 1949 was darkened by the assassination of the Governor.......the unique event in the history of Sarawak.. ,have been viewed with abhorence by the people of Sarawak..."

The funeral took place with full military honours in Singaore on the 11th December. The pall-bearers were the Commissioner- General (Mr. Malcolm MacDonald), the High Commissioner for the Federation of Malaya (Sir Henry Gurney) and the Officers Administering the Governments of Singapore (Mr. P.A.B. McKerron) and Sarawak (Mr. C. W. Dawson). TheCommissioner-General was also present as the personal representative of His Majesty the King. The funeral service wa broadcast over Radio Malaya and' many in Sarawak were able to hear it. 

"Mr. Stewart was in Sarawak for so short a time that we were hardly able to assess his qualities as a Governor. Those, however, who were privileged to meet him were impressed by his youthfulness, his keenness and his unassuming manner. We could not doubt that he would have made a worthy successor to Sir Charles Arden-Clarke, and that Sarawak is the poorer for his untimely death. We cannot do better than reproduce the words spoken over Radio Malaya" (Commissioner-General on the 10th December:)

Some points about the Governor from Wikipedia: -

a. His service record was viewed as exceptional

b. He was announced as the new Governor and Commander-in-Chief for Sarawak by Lord Listowel, Minister of State for Colonial Affairs, to replace Charles Arden-Clarke.

c.he had only been in the new role as Governor of Sarawak for a couple of weeks and was in fact on his first official visit in the colony, to the town of Sibu on 4 December 1949.

The Dollar Princess of the Baram

The British Governor General of South East Asia,  Malcolm MacDonald was the one who called her the Dollar Princess as she was the wealthiest person of the Baram before the Second World War. Her long house was visited by the third Rajah of Sarawak, Sir Charles Vyner Brooke and  later by Sir Malcolm MacDonald and the Governor of Sarawak Sir Arden Clarke after World War Two.

Her wealth came from the ownership of many birds' nest caves in the middle Baram. Many birds' nest caves can be found along the small tributaries of the Baram like the Anau, Kejin, Meterek, Sepayang, Malaoi, Temala and Salai.

She was the late Penghulu Lalang Batang from Long Laput Baram. She was also the mother in law of the late Temengong Oyung Lawai Jau of the Kenyah people.

In 1956 Malcolm MacDonalt published a book called "Borneo People" which describes his travels in Sarawak, a land he called, "rivers are the highsways and byways in roadless Sarfawak.." It was a very apt and accurate description of Sarawak then.

Loin cloth and bra

Ancient Greek and Roman women wore a binding cloth called 'strophiae' as a bra and 'subligaculae' - a form of loincloth.




In Sarawak, according to "cultural watch dogs", loin cloth can only be worn by men, not women. Thus there is a big storm over a special loin cloth design worn by some beauties at a beauty pageant.

Many politicians have come out to speak against the sad situation.

From Police Force to Royal Malaysian Police?

Sarawak Police was established in 1831.




Inspector Nathan Ha. 1962  



Sibu 1962

Before 1963, the Sarawak Constabulary was the name of the force which guarded local law and order.
In 1963, the Sarawak Constabulary joined the Malayan Police Force to form the Royal Malaysia Police.

Almost a year after Independence Day, on 24 July 1958, the King of Malaysia, Tuanku Abdul Rahman Ibni Almarhum Tuanku Muhamad, bestowed the title Royal to the Malayan Federations Police Force.

 In 1963, the Royal Federation of Malayan Police (RFMP), the North Borneo Armed Constabulary and the Sarawak Constabulary were merged to form the Royal Malaysia Police.

The Singapore Police Force became a component unit of the RMP until Singapore's independence in 1965.

Governor of Sarawak

Wallace of Sarawak

Wallace arrived in Sarawak at the invitation of Rajah Sir James Brooke in 1854 and spent the 15 months exploring and collecting enormous specimens of flora and fauna.

The specimens included 2,000 beetle species, 1,500 moth species and 1,500 other insect orders along the Sarawak River valley from Santubong to Bau as well as the peat swamps of Simunjan.

The collections, which he sold to private collectors and institutions in the United Kingdom to finance his travels in the region, are now kept at the Natural History Museum in London and Tring.

From January to February 1955, Wallace also wrote his first major paper on evolution, which became known as “The Sarawak Law” in Santubong, followed by another major publication on the Orangutan in Simunjan the following year.

Recognising the danger that such specimens might be in great demand as collectors’ items, the Rajah Brooke Birdwing butterfly, for which Wallace was more widely known, had been declared a protected species under the Sarawak Wildlife Protection Ordinance.

Radio Sarawak Radio Iban Announcer :: Gerunsin Lembat

The Iban Radio Announcer and the then Chief Minister of Sarawak. Datuk Kalong Ningkan

When Uniformed Men Wore Knee Length Socks

Australian soliders



Sarawak Constabulary 1960's.

The Police uniform changed very often from 1950's to the present days.

In the 1960's Police (whether ordinary corporals) or top guns, all wore shorts and knee length socks with well polished boots.

We recognised their ranks by their pips, and crowns, and sometimes by their caps or berets.

As we had our own careful langauge, we seldom mentioned the police men by name . We called them The Two Star Moustache, The Three Crown Guy, The One Star Thin Man.

Those were days when we were terrified by the khaki coloured uniformed men who could outrun any rascal in Sibu.

Cannons of Sarawak, a legacy of a past kingdom

Canons have been the symbols of authority during the time of the Brooke Rule.

They usually were placed at the forts , as if to guard the official seat of authority.

the canons of Fort Alice in Sri Aman, are still there, as if they continue to guard and help provide "security" for the administrators,


For Alice, Sri Aman.


Canon in Kuching.


Canon of Fort Hose, Marudi


Canons of Fort Sylvia, Kapit