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The tabloid version of Bujang Senang you probably never heard about

Legend has it that Bujang Senang was not just a mere crocodile, but the reincarnation of a fierce warrior who died 200 years ago.

Simalungun was a brave Iban fighter known for his skills, especially in headhunting. His prowess was so great that one day, his wife was kidnapped by his enemies, and they both died at enemy hands as he attempted to save her.

Fueled with vengeance, Simalungun returned in the form of a 20-foot crocodile with a white stripe on its back to seek revenge on their killers and their descendants.

The crocodile which the locals nicknamed Bujang Senang, brought terror to the people of Batang Lupar from 1975 up to 1992.

His reign of terror ended in May 1992 after the attack of his 14th victim, a 20-year-old-woman who was on her way to a paddy field at the Pelaban River in Batang Lupar.

After the attack, the final hunt for Bujang Senang began. Bujang Senang was eventually shot and killed using 10cm nails as bullets on May 21, 1992. This was after several failed attempts of killing him using normal bullets and even javelins.

Another version of the story is that Bujang Senang was the friendly neighbourhood crocodile. His job was to patrol Batang Lupar against other gigantic crocodiles, but when the people of Batang Lupar allegedly began to disturb crocodiles’ nests and take their eggs, Bujang Senang began to take action against humans.

Bujang Senang

Bujang Senang, the ‘crocodile that choked to death on bone in witch doc’s nose’

Out of all the stories that we have heard about the mighty Bujang Senang, one tale has stood out for its overall absurdity.

It is also a version that most of us have never heard of and it is apparently the story of how Bujang Senang was caught.

Written by Irwin Fisher for the tabloid Weekly World News on Apr 11, 1989, the report included an excerpt taken from AP news that stated, “A 23-foot crocodile called Bujang Senang or King of Crocodiles by river bank people attacked and ate a fisherman – its 13th victim in 10 years.”

Quoting a wildlife official named Yahay Maidin who talked to reporters in Kuala Lumpur, the alleged crocodile in the report was choked to death on the bone in a witch doctor’s nose.

Yahay reportedly said, “It was the damndest thing I have ever seen. When we found the croc by the bank of a river it was belly up and bloated, with two human legs sticking out of its mouth. We didn’t know what was going on until we split open the carcass to free the man’s body. That’s when we found the witch doctor’s nose bone, a big two footer, stuck in the croc’s throat.”

The nose bone wearing witch doctor in the story was a 76-year-old man and the incident took place allegedly in ‘Sungei Antek River’.

Fisher included a testimony from a witness who claimed to hear the old man screaming. Unfortunately, it was too late and the witness saw ‘the monster dragged him into deep water’.

The witness’ story did not end there. He continued, “I didn’t think we’d ever see him again but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Within seconds the croc had swum back through shallows and was up on a dry land.

“The witch doctor’s legs were sticking out of the croc’s mouth and it was acting real crazy. It would run a few feet, then it would stop and shake its head. It finally rolled over on its back and started kicking its legs. That’s where it was when it died.”

According to the report, the poor witch doctor suffered massive head and neck injuries during the attack and died in the crocodile’s throat.

And yes, the writer did not fail to mention the specific location of where the victim breathed his last.

Meanwhile, the alleged wildlife officer admitted that the death of the killer croc itself was “just a stroke of luck.”

He said, “The crocodile could have snapped the old man’s nose bone like a twig if it had gotten it in his jaws. By some strange twist of fate it didn’t. That’s why it got stuck in the croc’s throat. That’s why the monster is dead.”

Fisher did not fail to point out that the killer croc’s death was welcome news to the river people.

Bujang Senang, the crocodile that made headlines in a US tabloid

Before you lay judgement on the tabloid, The Weekly World News was known for publishing mostly fictional news stories.

It is known for its outlandish cover stories often based on supernatural or paranormal themes.

Hence, do no expect any fact-checking from the publication.

As ridiculous as the story might sound, it is not a common occurrence to have a piece of Sarawak news come out in an American tabloid.

Sarawakian readers should just take it the fictional tabloid report as a piece of entertainment and applaud the writer for his colourful imagination.

‘Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’, the first book ever printed in Sarawak

Imagine being sent to a company function with your fellow colleagues and ended up stuck at the airport due to a flight delay, what would you do?

While you may strike a conversation or two with your colleagues, most of us would definitely find some solace through our phones.

Now, imagine it is the year 1874 having stuck with your colleagues on a river, unable to reach your destination because of the low tide, what would you do?

For a group of outstation Brooke officers who were supposed to be in Kuching but stuck somewhere along the Sarawak River, they came up with a book.

To kill time, these men shared and made up stories among themselves so enthusiastically until one of them raised an idea to publish a book together.

Waiting for the Tide or Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak

‘Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’

The book is befittingly entitled ‘Waiting for the Tide, or Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’.

On the preface, they go,

“We start this annual with fear and trembling, as we are aware it has no pretensions to be skilled literary production, but simply what it is entitled – Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak life, which is in itself strange, wild and romantic. Written by men whose jungle life more or less unfits them for literary pursuits, the pictures being lithographed in Singapore, and the work printed by a Chinese boy educated in the Mission School here, we trust these facts may be taken into consideration, and that the sharp blasts of criticism may be tempered to this our first-born.

There was an established rule which originated in the time of Sir James Brooke, that all officers who could leave their stations should keep up the old English custom of meeting to celebrate Christmas and the New Year in Kuching.

A party of outstation officers happened to meet on a Christmas eve in one of the small streams which intersect the two branches of the Sarawak river, which is generally used as a short cut; being detained by the failing tide, they were unable to reach the capital that night, and to beguile the time these stories were sketched out whilst ‘Waiting for the tide’.”

Fraser’s story is about his encounter with pirate while A. Perry tells the story of a jungle heroine named Pya.

Meanwhile, T. Skipwith shares the story of men with tells and O.C. Vane narrates a story of rescuing a Dayak from a Monster. H. Roscoe and W.H. Don tells stories of their encounters with an alligator and wolves respectively.

But here is the thing; all of the six stories in the book were contributed under assumed names.

Optimistic Fiddler and ‘Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’

Fortunately about 75 years later, a Sarawak Gazette writer under the pen name ‘Optimistic Fiddler’ figured out all the identities of these authors…or did he?

Optimistic Fiddler, was actually John Beville Archer. He held several posts in Sarawak service including as the Chief Secretary in 1939.

In an article which was published on the Sarawak Gazette on March 1, 1948, Archer shared that he came across the book more than 25 years earlier in the Officers’ Mess at Fort Alice, Simanggang.

IMG 20170225 143425
Fort Alice

According to Archer, as far as he knew, it was the only copy in existence.

When Archer returned to Simanggang a decade later, however, the rare book had disappeared.

After World War II, he found the book in a cupboard in the Sarawak Museum Offices.

“From the gist of the first story it seems that the two boats, one containing three, and the other two, officer meet in the mosquito ridden ‘trusan’ near Kuching just as the tide turned against them and night fell. This would be probably be up the Santubong entrance. The party, who came from outstations decided to go back to the fire and spend the night there, and from the descriptions in the tales I think we may take it that Santubong was the camp of the story-teller; the picture on the outside cover supports this.”

There is no spoiler here on what these short stories about but our curiosity as well as Archer’s remain on who were the authors behind ‘Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’.

A Pirate Story by W. Fraser

Archer believed that W. Fraser was William Maunder Crocker. He was the father of Harold Brooke Crocker.

Harold worked in Sarawak for almost 40 years since he joined the service in 1900, holding various positions including, Superintendent of Lands and Surveys, Director of Agriculture, Food Control Officer, residents, judge and Chief Secretary.

Meanwhile, Crocker worked in the Sarawak service from 1864 to 1880 except for a period of four years when he according to Archer, ‘engaged in mercantile pursuits’.

Crocker brought Chinese pepper and gambier planters into Sarawak and made one of the first few reliable maps of the state.

In 1887, he became the Acting Governor of British North Borneo but only for a year. Crocker Range in Sabah that separates west and east coast of Sabah was named after him.

Here in Sarawak, the remnant of Crocker’s work can be found in Mukah.

The old brick chimney in Mukah town is all that remains of a sago factory Crocker started there (when he was trying to be a merchant in that four years).

A Jungle Heroine by A. Perry

As for the writer of the second story ‘A Jungle Heroine’, Archer guessed it is written by Alfred Robert Houghton.

When Houghton first came to Sarawak in 1862 as Treasurer, he was paid $70 per month.

He held that appointment until August 1866 when he became the Magistrate of Upper Sarawak.

Houghton then subsequently became the Resident of Bintulu. When the first Council Negri was held at Bintulu on Sept 8, 1867, he was there as an appointed member of the council.

After that, he was promoted to Resident Second Class in charge of Sadong and transferred there on June 1, 1873. Then in July 1875, Houghton was appointed Resident Rejang District.

Archer was correct with the timeline of Houghton’s career as he stated, “At the time he appears to have been in charge of Sadong district.”

The youngest son of a physician in London Dr James R. Houghton, he studied for the Bar and also the medical profession before coming to Sarawak.

At some point of his career before Sarawak, Houghton was also a newspaper correspondent.

One of the highlights of his service in the state was when he accompanied Rajah Charles Brooke on the first Mujong Expedition of 1880.

After the expedition, Houghton fell sick and had to return to Kuching. He died somewhere in the Red Sea on the way home on Mar 20, 1881 at the age of 43.

Men with tails by T. Skipwith

Archer wrote, “’Men with Tails’ is no doubt Thomas Skipwith Chapman, 1864-96 who did all his service in the Kalaka district. He was a spirited artist and most of the illustrations are his.”

Chapman took part in a punitive expedition at upper Batang Lupar in 1875 under the command of Rajah Charles alongside 300 Malays and 6000 Dayaks.

Beside ‘Waiting for the Tide, or Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’, Chaoman also published another book of his illustrations “A Short Trip to Sarawak and The Dayaks”

On top of that, he was one of Brooke officers along with Houghton who attended the first Council Negri meeting in Bintulu.

To the Rescue by O.C. Vane

“O.C. Vane who writes ‘To the Rescue’ is Oliver St. John 1860-84. He has the distinction of being the first Postmaster in Sarawak,” Archer stated.

However, that was not his first job in Sarawak.

According to Sarawak Gazette archivist Loh Chee Yin, Oliver Cromwell Vane St. John first joined the Sarawak Service on Aug 17, 1860 as Midshipman.

He was then appointed first clerk in the Treasury on May 1, 1861.

St. John became the first postmaster on New Year’s day 1864.

In fact, his post as the postmaster was in addition of his Treasury duties.

He was the Resident of Upper Sarawak from 1872 until his retirement in 1884. The former postmaster died in Mexico in 1898.

Adventure with an Alligator by H. Roscoe

The ‘Adventure with an Alligator is the fifth story in the book and whose author Archer did not confirm.

In the Sarawak Gazette, Archer wrote, “This may be Oliver St. John too, but that is merely a guess and I do not know enough yet to say who it is.”

It is understandable why Archer guessed so, H. Roscoe might be a pseudonym in reference to Oliver’s  uncle.

That particular uncle was Horace Stebbing Roscoe St John but Oliver had another more famous paternal uncle.

Oliver’s father, Percy St. John was the son of English journalist James Augustus St. John.

Three of James’s sons; Percy, Bayle and Horace all became journalists and authors.

James also introduced one of his sons, Spenser St. John to James Brooke.

Spenser came to Sarawak in 1848 as the first Rajah’s private secretary. He then became the British Consul General in Brunei. During his tenure in Brunei, he made two ascents of Mount Kinabalu with Hugh Low.

One of the peaks of Mount Kinabalu, ‘St. John’s Peak’ is named after him.

However, there is one problem with Archer’s assumption that H. Roscoe is Oliver St. John.

In the introduction of the book as the authors narrating how the book came about, it is stated Vane and Roscoe are two people.

After arriving at the stream where they were unable to move on, ‘Perry’ heard another boat was coming and he said he even heard ‘Skipwith’ singing ‘The Hardy Norsman’.

To that ‘Don’ replied, “I wonder if they have dined? If not, we had better join mess, there must be ‘Vane’ and ‘Roscoe’ with him, as I know they intended coming round together. Here they come.”

Another theory is H. Roscoe was Horace’s son and Oliver’s cousin but there is no record found that Horace had a son who worked in Sarawak.

Nonetheless, the mystery remains who is H. Roscoe?

Don’s Story by W.H. Don

Finally, the last story is believed to be written by William Henry Rodway. Yes, Jalan Rodway in Kuching was named after him.

We understand from the book that it was Don who suggested the idea to have each of them to tell a story that would keep them awake.

He was the first Commandant of the Sarawak Rangers, a para-military force founded in 1862.

Rodway died on Jan 11, 1924 in Torquay, England and according to his obituary, he joined the Sarawak Civil Service in 1862 and retired on pension in 1883.

Apart from the role of the commandant, he had also worked as the Resident of the First Division as well as the President of the Committee of Administration.

Is ‘Waiting for the Tide or Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’ the first book published in Sarawak?

The book clearly stated it was edited, printed and published in Kuching and the year of publication on the book is 1875.

Unless there is any other book that was published here earlier than this, it is safe to say that ‘Waiting for the Tide or Scraps and Scrawls from Sarawak’ is the first illustrated book printed in Sarawak.

Since it is a fictional book, perhaps it is also one of the firsts if not the first fiction that came out from the state.

Nearly 150 years have passed since the book was published, is the book worth your read?

Well, we leave you with the words of one of its readers who perhaps read it at least dozen times when entertainment was scarce in Simanggang.

“I recommend this book to readers, especially to newcomers to Sarawak. It has no great literary merit but it has considerable charm. As an insight into old Sarawak it is well worth reading and digesting with care.”

The book is available through Pustaka Sarawak and Singapore National Library Board.

KajoReaders, do you agree on the real identities of the authors or do you have any thoughts especially who is H. Roscoe? Let us know in the comment section.  

What you need to know about all the great fires of Sarawak

Sarawak has been through quite a number of great fires throughout its history.

Just like the Great Fire of London which took place from Sept 2 till 6 in 1666 which gutted the medieval City of London, Sarawak has experienced fires so ‘great’ that have taken down whole bazaars or large sections of a town. Moreover, some places in Sarawak were unfortunate enough to have more than one great fire

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Illustration only. Image by Pixabay.

So here are some of the historic fires that have taken place in Sarawak:

1.The Great Fire of Kuching

Sarawakians might have heard about the Great Fire of Kuching that broke on Jan 20, 1884 at 1.05am.

What most people may not be aware of is the looting that happened during the incident.

If the same case happened in Kuching today, the looters would, without a doubt, be condemned on social media.

Here is a report from the Straits Times which was published on Feb 2, 1884:

“Private advices received from Kuching, Sarawak and from Captain Joyce of the S.S. Ranee, inform us that a great fire occurred there on the morning of Sunday, the 20th January, which nearly proved the destruction of the entire town. The fire originated in Carpenter Street, entirely consisting of wooden houses, which were quickly consumed, and the fire soon spread into China Street and Bishopsgate Street, in which latter thoroughfare ten wooden buildings were also consumed.

The houses were old, and the fire ran from one to the other so rapidly that in a very short time from the first alarm the the three streets above named were one mass of flame, and it was thought the entire town of Kuching be destroyed.

Some of the principal merchants’ houses in the main Bazaar were connected through their back premises with these three streets, and at one time great apprehensions were entertained that the entire Bazaar and the merchants’ premises would be absorbed in the conflagration. The brick houses of Messrs. Seng Keng and Kong Wan were entirely gutted; but further damage was stopped by an opportune downpour of rain, which fell in torrents and effectively subdued the fire.

One hundred and thirty-two houses had, in the meantime, been destroyed, including the whole Carpenter Street, China Street, and Bishopsgate Street, and some new houses built in Nochi Road by Mr Ken Wat.

The Chinese residents and coolies stood looking at the fire, and not only refused any assistance, but devoted their attention entirely to looting.”

2.The Great Fire of Lundu

The common solution for all fire incidents in the past was to rebuild the town in ironwood.

Here is a report from Straits Times on Oct 17, 1893 that showed the Brooke government had another precaution to prevent fire from spreading.

“At Lundu, a town in Sarawak, a fire which broke out in the bazaar on the 3rd September consumed fifteen shops with property valued at $40,000. The Resident paid a visit to the town a few days afterwards, and on the shopkeepers proposing to rebuild the bazaar with ironwood, he advised that it should be built for the future in blocks, with plantains or some quick growing trees planted between which would serve as a screen in case of fire in the future.”

3.The Great Fire of Bau

The fire that engulfed Bau Bazaar in 1909 was so huge that the glare was reportedly distinctly visible from Kuching.

“Shak Lung Mung Bazaar Bau, was totally destroyed by fire early on the night of the 3rd. The shops on both sides of the Bazaar road were built of most inflammable materials, wood frames, attap and kajang roofs and walls, while many of the shops contained kerosene oil in tins. In such circumstances it only remained to try and save what could be got at from the shops not burning as nothing could possibly save the Bazaar when the fire had once obtained a hold, which it did in a few minutes,” The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser reported on Dec 30, 1909.

According to the report, the loss was estimated at $50,000.”

Meanwhile, a Chinese correspondent wrote to his Singaporean friend about how Bau town was destroyed by fire, causing panic among ita inhabitants.

The content of the letter was reported on The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser on Dec 16, 1909 under the headline ‘The Gods Send Fire’.

According to the correspondent, the flames rose hundreds of feet and, together with the crackling of wood, the smoke and frantic shouting, it was likened to a day of judgement for them.

He also attributed the cause of the fire to the ‘High Gods’ to whom, the writer stated, “the people have not prayed regularly for the last ten or twelve years.”

Hence, according to writer, the only way to wreak vengeance on the ungodly was, like Sodom and Gomorrah, to devour the town with flames.

4.The Great Fire of Simanggang

“From private advices we learn that on Tuesday last, at two o’clock in the morning, fire broke out in the bazaar, at Simanggang, Sarawak.

In a short time the whole bazaar was ablaze, and seventy-five shops were demolished, in the daylight.”

This was what Malaya Tribune reported on Dec 20, 1927 about the fire.

5.The Great Fires of Matu

Matu town was first established in 1885 by a group of Chinese who came directly from China to trade with the Melanaus.

According to Chang Pat Foh in his book Legend and History of Sarawak, Matu went through two great fires in which the whole bazaar was burnt down.

The first fire took place in 1897 and the second one 30 years later in 1927.

The Straits Budgets, however, reported on Feb 18, 1909 that another fire happened a month prior.

With the headline ‘Serious Fire in Sarawak’, this is what the paper reported:

“News was received in Sarawak, on January 21, that the whole Matu Bazaar had been destroyed by fire a few days previously and the Chinese shopkeepers there were destitute of goods and provisions.
The Government dispatched the steamer Alice Lorraine direct to Matu the following morning, with stores. The Sarawak Gazette understand that the loss to the Chinese is somewhere about $99,000 at the lowest computation.”

6.The Great Fires of Sibu

Sibu was burnt to the ground twice. The first fire happened on the night of Feb 10, 1889. About 60 shophouses were razed to the ground.

At that time, the cost of the damage was estimated at $15,000.

Then another bigger fire took place on Mar 7, 1928.

According to the report on the Straits Budget which was published on Mar 22, 1928, the blaze lasted for some hours but ‘the ruins were still smouldering three days afterwards.

The report continued, stating that “The only building that escaped in the bazaar was Messr. Soon Seng and Company’s retail premises. The premises of two British firms in Sibu, the Borneo Company and the Sarawak Steamship Company were destroyed. The former company had $50,000 in notes in a Chubb safe but the money and documents were untouched, and another firm which had $100,000 in notes in a fireproof safe was equally fortunate. The total damage was estimated at about $4,000,000, several hundred houses being destroyed together with other property and merchandise.”

What you should know about the Dayak woven mats of Borneo

Did you know that mat weaving is one of the most ancient hand-woven arts of human civilisation?

Archaeologists believe that the earliest portable floor coverings were made as far back as 25,000 years ago.

Weaved straw called rushes, were the first form of mat found in Mesopotamia about 6,000 years ago.

Even during biblical times, woven mats were used as sleeping pads to provide a little bit of warmth from the cold earth floors of their homes.

Here in Borneo, the Dayak peoples are famously known for their plaitwork, including woven mats.

Depending on the different Dayak languages, mats have different names in their respective dialects such as tikai in Iban, berat in Kayan and krese’ in Bidayuh Sadong.

Today, the art of weaving mats in Borneo is a dying art.

First of all, the Dayak communities do not use woven mats as much as they used to unless there are special occasions such as the harvest festival.

Moreover, weaving was an activity performed in between farming work.

When it is raining and farmers, especially women can’t go out, they usually stay at home doing something productive such as weaving mats or baskets.

In the present with less Dayak people committed full-time to agriculture like their ancestors did, weaving has also become a less-widely practiced skill, coupled with the depletion of rattan in the wild.

Here are five things you should know about the Dayak woven mats of Borneo:

1.Dayak woven mats can come in different sizes and functions.

Generally, there are three functions of Dayak mats. They serve as sleeping mats, as floor coverings for guests to sit on, as well as to dry farm or jungle produce such as pepper.

Bernard Sellato in his 2012 paper ‘Rattan and Bamboo Handicrafts of the Kenyah’ here explained more about purposes of Dayak woven mats taking example from the Long Alango community in North Kalimantan.

“Pat uwai is used to sleep on or or to seat guests. According to size of the mat, the men prepare eight hundred to one thousand strands of split and sliced uwai seka (rattan) – but it is the women who do the plaiting. Half of the strands are dyed black. The strands are laid crosswise, all undyed strands placed at the bottom and all those dyed black on the top so that the motif is created in white against black. Motifs (kalong) are rather large such as kalong ela and kalong surat. The plaiting begins in the middle of the strands and of the mat and widens to both sides, until all the strands are used. Over two weeks of work are needed to complete this type of mat.

“The pat suloh (floor mat or tikar lampit), or varying size, is used for seating in the guest room. The rattan canes are not plaited but split in two, smoothed and neatly arranged in parallel. At intervals of 10 centimeters, thinner rattan strands are inserted in holes punched through the half canes with an awl, so as to string together the half-canes into a mat. The edges of the mat are locked with a 2/2 plaitwork. This simple mat takes a man about one week’s work.

“Maken uwai – a mat that is longer, wider and coarser than the pat uwai – is used for drying rice, mung beans, or coffee. From eight hundred to a thousand strands, made of 4 meter-long uwai samule canes split into four, are plaited in a 2/2 plait (belata) by six to eight women. Each plaiter begins with two sets of strands placed at right angles and the separate pieces of the various plaiters are connected until the total length is sufficient. The plaiting then spreads out to both sides, until only the tips of the strands remain, which are then folded back into the plaitwork to form the edges.”

2.In the olden days, mats were used to wrap dead bodies.

The use of woven mats was not restricted to the living.

Noel Denison in his book ‘Jotting made during a tour amongst the Land Dyaks of Upper Sarawak, Borneo during the year 1874’ had this explained about the Bidayuh from the Mount Sentah area.

“These Dyaks burn their dead of the higher class; the poor are wrapped in a mat and cast out in the jungle though always in the same spot, where also the corpses are burnt.”

Denison also once encountered a Bidayuh funeral procession during his visit to Mount Serambu.

“The sexton or peninuch carried the corpse (wrapped in what appeared a mat) on his back, bearing a flaming bamboo torch in his hand, and following him came a number of women clothed in white, with dishevelled hair, shrieking and crying.”

Meanwhile among the Kayan people in the olden days, mats were used to place the dead body before putting them into the coffin.

This is what James Brooke observed among the Kayans:

“When a man dies, his friends and relatives meet in the house, and take their usual seats around the room. The deceased is then brought in attired in his best clothes, with a cigar fixed in the mouth, and being placed on the mat in the same manner as he would have arranged himself when alive, his betel box by his side. The friends go through the forms of conversing with him, and offer him the best advice concerning his future proceedings, and then having feasted, the body is deposited in a large coffin.”

3.In some Dayak cultures, you needed to make an offering before weaving the mat.

The Dayak Ngaju of Kalimantan reportedly made one of the most attractive Dayak mats in Borneo.

According to Harry Wiriadinata in his paper ‘Amak Dare, An Ornamental Sleeping Mat of the Ngaju Dyak, Central Kalimantan’, the patterns on the their mats are in fact an expression of the Dayak Ngaju’s daily life.

Wiriadinata stated, “Their houses lie along the river bank, in front of the virgin forest. In the forest live some animals – deer, mouse deer, pig, birds, bears and clouded leopard, kinds of fruit trees used for their food, as well as and poisonous plants which are dangerous and harmful. There are also spirits which are invisible, but which influence the lives of the people. All of these aspects of daily life are expressed in the sleeping-mat.”

Explaining more about the ritual behind making the Dayak Ngaju’s mat, he stated, “The mat is called Amak dare (amak is a mat, dare is decorative). It is made of woven strips cut from the stems the sigi rattan (Calamus caesarius), some of which have been dyed black by lamp-black mixed with oil, and with others dyed red with ‘dragon’s blood obtained from the fruits of another rattan, Jerenang (Daenonorops draco). Before making this sleeping-mat, the weavers must take part in a ceremony to make an offering to the gods. They must offer the blood of a chicken if they are making a simple mat, or the blood of a pig and an offering of incense if they want to decorate the mat with figures of the gods.”

4.The motifs on Dayak mats can be both simple and complex.

1033px Sarawak three native Kalabit women. Photograph. Wellcome V0037427
Three Kelabit women sitting on a mat in an undated photo by Charles Hose. Copyright expired.

Speaking of the mat decorations, the patterns of Dayak mats can be as simple as checkerboard or a beautiful compositions of interlocking geometric patterns.

The ones with intricate patterns are normally for personal or ritual purposes while those with simple designs are typically used for drying produce.

Fascinatingly, Jonathan Fogel and Bernard Sellato in their paper ‘Decorated Mats of the Peoples of the Borneo Hinterland’ pointed out that mats with very similar pattern can be found in two different parts of Borneo despite the huge distance between the two communities.

The paper stated, “Mats with very similar patterns are found among the Iban of the northwest and the people of Sabah, two groups that had little interaction before the mid twentieth century. Whereas for complex patterns, diffusion would seem more likely, an alternative rationale could be that such patterns belong to an ancient common Bornean legacy that survived separately in diverse groups.”

5.The significance of laying out or rolling up the mat in Dayak culture.

In Iban culture specifically, the acts of spreading and rolling up the mat are symbolic.

Beranchau tikai (spreading the mats) signifies a symbolic opening ceremony for Gawai celebration.

In the meantime, ngiling tikai or rolling up the mat means the end of the festivity.

During Gawai Dayak, special mats are laid on the ruai (common corridor) of a longhouse for the celebration.

When the fun and festivities end, the woven mats are then rolled up and put away.

This symbolic act is still significant among the Ibans that they practice it outside the longhouse.

Nowadays, there are ‘ngiling tikai’ celebrations held in hotels whereby the people particularly the VIPs rolling up the mat just to mark the end of Gawai celebration.

50 very random historical facts about Kuching you need to know

Here are 50 very random historical facts about Kuching you need to know

1.Kuching is not the first capital of Sarawak.

The first capital of Sarawak was Santubong which was founded by Sultan Pengiran Tengah in 1599 and then Lidah Tanah founded by Datu Patinggi Ali in the early 1820s.

2.There were geographical and political reasons on why Kuching was chosen as the capital.

Kuching was founded in 1827 by the representative of the Sultan of Brunei, Pengiran Indera Mahkota.

Craig A. Lockard in his paper The Early Development of Kuching 1820-1857 explained why Mahkota chose Kuching.

“Selection of Kuching as the site for a new administrative centre allowed Mahkota to avoid the jealousy and resentment his appearance would arouse among the local elite at Lidah Tanah while at the same time insuring him settlement in which he would have full control. The decision also made geographical sense, as few good existed between Lidah Tanah and the sea, most of them either too exposed to the sea-going raiders then infesting the coast, or suffering from poor soils and lack of fresh water. Located just south of the coastal swamp, Kuching was convenient to both the river mouth 21 miles away, and the antimony mines 25 miles upriver. Finally, distance from the sea, availability of hills on which to build forts, and narrowness of the river all made Kuching easily defensible.”

3.The largest archaeological site in Malaysia is in Santubong

According to the Sarawak Museum website, Santubong is in fact the largest archaeological site in Malaysia, compared to Lembah Bujang in the Peninsular Malaysia.

“ Thousands of ceramic shards were excavated in 1949 under the curatorship Tom Harrison. Other than Chinese ceramics, about 40,000 tons of iron slag formed another salient discovery. It is believed that this area was once an important centre of traders and iron mining in the region between 11th century A.D. to 13th century A.D.”

4.One of the earliest censuses recorded there logged 8000 people living in the entire Sarawak river basin in 1839.

They were mostly Dayaks with perhaps 1,500 to 2,000 Malays and a few Chinese.

5.There were Dayak who settled in Padungan

Speaking of the Dayaks, columnist Sidi Munan once highlighted the existence of Iban settlers in Padungan before the arrival of James Brooke in his 2019 column in The Borneo Post:

“I didn’t know about all this until I read an account of the early missionaries. The Rev William Henry Gomes had been working in the Mission station in Lundu. On Dec 24, 1859, while resting in Kuching, he wrote to his boss in London talking about the Dayaks of Padungan. Beautiful handwriting the Rev had, I’ve seen copies of some of his correspondence. He was familiar with the longhouse at Padungan, and must have visited it at least a few times.”

The ‘firsts’ in the History of Kuching

6.The ‘first’ library of Sarawak was burnt down during the Bau Rebellion.

It was perhaps Sarawak’s first library, although it was never officially announced as one. James Brooke had a library in his house in which he allowed his fellow European residents to use. Unfortunately, everything was burnt down during the Bau Rebellion.

Harriette McDougall in her book Sketches of Our Life at Sarawak described the incident.

“And then the library! a treasure indeed in the jungle; books on all sorts of subjects, bound in enticing covers, always inviting you to bodily repose and mental activity or amusement, as you might prefer. This library, so dear to us all because we were all allowed to share it, was burnt in 1857 by the Chinese rebels. It took two days to burn. I watched it from our library over the water, and saw the mass of books glowing dull red like a furnace, long after the flames had consumed the wooden house. It made one’s heart ache to see it.”

7.The first Chinese settlers called Main Bazaar road as Hai Chun Street (meaning lips of the sea).

According to International Times, Chinese settlers usually named the first street near river as Hai Gan Street which means ‘at the edge of river or sea’.

This is because the early transportation in Southeast Asia were heavily dependent on rivers.

When the Chinese first came to Kuching, they named the first street in Kuching as Hai Chun Street instead. The name can be translated as lip of the sea.

Today, it is more popular known as Main Bazaar Road and it is known to be the oldest street in Kuching.

8.The oldest temple in Kuching city is the Tua Pek Kong Temple, Kuching

Also known as Siew San Teng Temple, Tua Pek Kong Temple is a Chinese Temple situated near Kuching Waterfront.

Although its history can be traced back to 1843, it is believed to had been in existence before 1839.

9.The oldest mosque in Kuching is also the oldest mosque in Sarawak.

The mosque was built in 1847 by Datu Patinggi Ali and his family. In the beginning, the structure was simple and made from wood. When cement was imported in Sarawak in 1880, the mosque was reinforced using bricks and concrete. The first imam was Datu Patinggi Abdul Gapur who was the son in-law of Datu Patinggi Ali.

10.The courtyard at Fort Margherita was used as an execution ground.

Built in 1879, the position of the fort was carefully chosen to defend Kuching from possible attacks.

While it is beautiful from the outside, Fort Margherita carries a dark secret on the inside.

The courtyard reportedly was used to execute prisoners right up to the Japanese occupation during World War II.

11.The Square Tower was a dancing hall at one point.

Lucas Chin in his paper Cultural Heritage of Sarawak pointed out that the tower was built for the detention of prisoners and later used as a fort and dancing hall during the Brooke era.

An impressive building filled with past stories of prisoners and dancers since 1879, it has now become a mere restaurant.

1200px Kuching Sarawak a square towered building and the jail. Ph Wellcome V0037399
The Square Tower building located at the Kuching waterfront. It was built in 1879, the same year as Fort Margherita was built. Orginially it was used as a prison but it was later turned into a fortress and later a dance hall. Photo: Creative Commons.

12.The Astana hosted fancy balls every now and then during the Brooke administration.

While the Square Tower had its role as a dancing hall, the Astana witnessed its own fair share of fun during the Brooke era.

Former Brooke officer John Beville Archer recalled in his book ‘Glimpses of Sarawak between 1912 and 1946’,

“Now and again there was a fancy dress ball at the Astana. Ingenuity in thinking out and making fancy dresses will never cease, but I remember two cases in which realism to do the thing properly overcame prudence. One gentleman, desiring to go as a Dayak, had himself painted all over with iodine. The result of course was a bed in the hospital. The other was the cases which the guest insisted on going as a Negro – he spent days in experimenting with dyes and pigments until he thought he had the right mixture. It certainly was a triumph of make up but it did not please his little wife at all. For days afterwards suspicious smears disfigured her face. The would-be Negro was eventually given a few days leave to become a pale-face again.”

Once known as the Government House, the Astana was built by Charles Brooke as a gift to his wife Margaret.

991px Kuching Sarawak the Astana a partly castellated building. Wellcome V0037394
The Astana in 1896. Photo by Charles Hose (Creative Commons)

13.The Round Tower was originally planned to built as a fort.

According to Chang Pat Foh in the book Legend and History of Sarawak, the Round Tower was planned as a fort but never fully completed.

It was used as a dispensary for a while and later it was used by the Labour Department.

14.Kuching’s first ever hotel was the Rajah’s Arm.

It was first opened on Dec 1, 1872. The hotel was mentioned in a book by American taxidermist and author, William Temple Hornaday.

The Man Who Became A Savage: A Story of Our Own Times (1896) is a fictional account of how a man became a headhunter in Borneo.

In the book, Hornaday described the hotel as a ‘comfortable lodgment’ but with an ‘indifferent cook’.

Hornaday visited Southeast Asia including Singapore, Malaya and Sarawak in 1878 and stayed at the Rajah’s Arm Hotel during his visit in Kuching.

15.The first church bell of St. Thomas church was cast by a Javanese from broken gongs.

Harriette McDougall in her book Sketches of Our Life At Sarawak explained how the church bell was made.

“The church bell was a difficult matter. Nothing larger than a ship bell could be found in the straits. At last, a Javanese at Sarawak said he could cast a bell large enough if he had the metal; so Frank (Bishop Frank McDougall) bought a hundredweight of broken gong – there is a great deal of silver in gong metal – and with these the bell was cast. Then an inscription had to be put round the rim – “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” in large letters; and the date, Sir James Brooke’s name on one side and F.T. McDougall on the other.”

16.The first Malay house in Kuching to be built using stones and concrete was the Rumah Warisan Datuk Bandar Abang Haji Kassim located at Jalan Datuk Ajibah Abol, Kampung Masjid.

Built in 1863 by Kuching mayor Datuk Bandar Abang Haji Kassim, this was the biggest palatial size Malay house in town at that time.

Since it was the first Malay house built using stones and concretes, the locals called it ‘Rumah Batu’.

Kassim died in Mecca in 1921. His son Datu Patinggi Abang Haji Abdillah was a prominent community leader known for his protest against the cession of Sarawak to the British Empire.

17.The first Roman Catholic school in Kuching, St Joseph’s School only had 20 students when they first started.

When the first group of Mill Hill Fathers came to Sarawak in 1881, they realised there were not many formal school in Kuching.

The following year in April in 1882, the priests started a school catering for children regardless of their racial backgrounds.

They named it St Joseph’s School after the patron of the Mill Hill Fathers.

When they first started, there were only 20 boys studying there.

18.In 1921, Kuching’s Roman Catholic Parish owned at least 30 acres of rubbers as a means of support.

The Roman Catholic Mission in Sarawak began in 1881, Fathers Edmund Dunn, Aloysius Goosens and David Kilty from the Mill Hill Mission arrived in Kuching from London.

When they first arrived on the afternoon of July 10, 1881, they were met by the private secretary of Rajah Charles Brooke who arranged them to live in the hotel.

In the paper ‘A History of the Catholic Church in East Malaysia and Brunei (1880-1976)’, John Rooney described what happened when the priests first arrived.

“The Rajah had set aside ten acres of land for the use of the mission in Kuching but he suggested that its main efforts should be directed to Upper Sarawak and the Rejang. The site granted by the Rajah was a very fine one and had already been cleared by jungle but there were no buildings on it and the Fathers, worried about the costs of a long stay at the hotel, asked for the temporary loan of a government bungalow until such time as proper accommodation could be provided. The Rajah agreed to this request, but he suggested they should first pay a visit to the Rejang and arranged for them to make the trip in his own yacht. On they return to Kuching a fortnight later, they discovered that the Ranee Margaret had already furnished the bungalow for them and they were able to settle very quickly into their new home.”

During the early days of the missionary, funds were limited.

Msgr. Dunn, who was the Apostolic Prefects of Sarawak (1927-1935), encouraged each mission to plant rubber gardens to raise funds.

By 1921, Kuching mission owned 30 acres of rubbers while Kanowit 40 acres, Sibu 27 acres and the Baram mission 30 acres.

19.The first rubber trees planted in Sarawak was at the Anglican bishop’s garden in Kuching.

According to Henry Nicholas Ridley in his article which was published in the Agricultural Bulletin of the Straits Settlements in 1905, the first rubber trees in Sarawak was planted by Bishop George Frederick Hose at his garden.

He brought them over from Singapore’s Botanic Garden in 1881.

20.The first Gurdwara Sahib in Sarawak was built with all Sikhs in Kuching had to contribute at least one month’s salary towards the building funds.

According to history, the Sikh community in Kuching decided to build a Gurdwara Sahib on Oct 1, 1910.

The government agreed to contribute 0.37 acres to serve this purpose.

As for the building fund, all Sikhs in Kuching were made mandatory to contribute at least one month’s salary.

The double storey wooden building was finally open on Oct 1, 1912.

Then this building was demolished to make way for the new golden-domed temple in 1982.

21.Kuching Central Prison was older than Kuala Lumpur’s Pudu Prison.

Kuching Central Prison was built in 1882 while Pudu Prison was built in phases by the British between 1891 and 1895.

Kuching’s prison was demolished in 2010. By December 2012, all buildings within the Pudu Prison complex were completely demolished.

22.The Sarawak Club was first established as a public club and an accommodation house.

Being established in 1876, the club is now one of the oldest private membership clubs in Malaysia.

However, the Sarawak Club used to be both a club and a lodging house.

“The Club, a comfortable stone building, was founded by the Government a few years ago, and contains bedrooms for the use of outstation officers when on a visit to Kuching. A lawn-tennis ground and bowling alley are attached to it, and serve to kill the time,” Harry de Windt wrote in his book On the Equator (1882).

23.There was a ladies club which was located at the corner of Khoo Hun Yeang Street and Barrack Road.

Archer in his book pointed out that the club in those days was very masculine, stating “rather in the style of the famous notice in the Jesselton Club ‘No dogs or women admitted’”.

Hence, the very few women of Kuching formed a club on their own in 1896.

They even had a place to play croquet. Then in 1908, the building was demolished to make way for the Government Printing Office.

Then the ladies was given another club house; between back then Aurora Chambers and Sarawak Museum.

24.Kuching is the second town in Malaysia to have urban water supply after Penang.

When two small lakes were dug out in 1895 to serve as reservoirs, Kuching became the second town in Malaysia to have piped water supply after Penang.

According to Ho Ah Chon in his book Kuching in Pictures 1841-1946, before this all water had to be carried by the tukang ayer (water carrier) in kerosine tins from the nearest little stream before.

The reservoirs stopped operating in the 1930s.

25.The first ice factory in Kuching was opened on Aug 18, 1898.

At that time, one pound of ice cost two cents to ordinary residents, and one and a half cents to ice cream vendors.

26.The first building in Sarawak to use a precast concrete floor system is the Old Government Treasury and Audit Department Building.

Completed in 1927, the building is similar to the Old Kuching Courthouse architectural-wise.

The building was later used by Bank Negara Malaysia.

27.Meanwhile, the first building in Sarawak to use reinforced concrete is the Pavilion Building.

Completed in 1909, the Pavilion Building was used as Medical Headquarters as well as hospital for the Europeans until the mid 1920s.

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The Pavillion. Photo: Creative Common.

28.Hong Leong Bank was first started in Kuching back in 1905.

It was first registered under the name of Kwong Lee Mortgage and Remittance Company.

The company granted loan against the security of export commodities such as pepper and rubber.

29.CIMB has its origin roots in Kuching.

Bian Chiang Bank was established in Kuching by Wee Kheng Chiang in 1924. In its early days, the bank focused on business financing and the issuance of bills of exchange. It was renamed Bank of Commerce Berhad in 1979.

It is one of the various bank that formed CIMB (Commerce International Merchant Bankers).

Wee also founded United Chinese Bank in 1935. It is now known United Overseas Bank or UOB.

30.The first branch of Chartered Bank in Borneo island was opened up in Kuching back in 1924.

The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China established its first branch in Malaysia on Beach Street, Penang in 1875. Today, it is the oldest branch of any bank in Malaysia.

Then in 1888, they opened another branch on Jalan Raja, Kuala Lumpur.

When the bank opened its branch in Kuching in 1924, it was their first branch on Borneo island.

In 1985, the Chartered Bank in Malaysia changed its name to Standard Chartered Bank that we know today.

31.The first wireless station was installed in 1916.

The first wireless station in Kuching was established when two large steel pylons were put up not far from St. Joseph’s School.

Then, the first messages were transmitted from Kuching to Penang and Singapore on Oct 25, 1916.

32.The first Kuching Airport was only consisted of two grass-surfaced runways, each 800 yards long.

The airfield was officially opened on Sept 26, 1938. When the Japanese invaded Kuching, the runways were slightly destroyed. Although the Japanese rebuilt them, the airfield was destroyed by Australian bombing.

33.Bako National Park is the oldest national park in Sarawak and the second oldest in Malaysia.

Established in 1957, Bako National Park covers an area of 27.27 square kilometers at the top of the Muara Tebas peninsula at the mouth of the Bako and Kuching Rivers.

However, the area has been a reserve since 1927 when it was formerly known as Muara Tebas Forest Reserve.

Before this, these places in Kuching were…

34.Jalan Taman Budaya was originally named Pearse’s Road.

The road first named after Charles Samuel Pearse who worked in the Treasury. He joined Sarawak Service as a cadet on July 5, 1875 and later appointed cashier on Sept 1 the same year. He was appointed as Treasurer on May 1, 1877. Pearce retired on pension on 1898 and passed away in 1911.

35.Jalan Stephen Yong was originally named Jalan Wee Hood Teck.

From 1968 to 1973, the road was named Jalan Wee Hood Teck. He was the son of United Overseas Bank founder Wee Kheng Chiang.

It was later renamed as Jalan Stephen Yong after Tan Sri Datuk Amar Stephen Yong Kuet Tze. He was a former Malaysian cabinet minister.

36.Kuching High School was first known Min Teck Middle School.

The school was founded in 1916 by Kuching Teochew Association as Min Teck Junior Middle School.

37.Kai Joo Lane was known as sa lee hung or lane of zinc sheets in Teochew or Hokkien.

According to a report by The Borneo Post, the two rows of 32 shops along Kai Joo Lane were built by a Teochew businessman named Teo Kai Joo (1870-1924) in 1923.

When these shops were first built, the buildings were made of red-brown bricks with zinc sheet roofing. Hence, the name sar lee hung.

38.The site of Kuching’s Open Air Market was a reclaimed tidal creek.

While most people often referred it as Open Air Market, the building is in fact named Tower Market.

It derived its name from the remnant tower belonging to the Old Kuching Fire Station.

Even before there was a fire station, there was small creek named Sungai Gartak flowed through the area.

The creek was reclaimed in 1899.

The road Jalan Gartak was named after it.

39.The site of Old General Post Office building was once served as a police station and Rajah’s stable.

Built in 1931, the majestic building which served as a post office was designed by Singapore’s Messr. Swan & Maclaren Architects.

Swan & Maclaren were responsible of designing many Singapore’s historical buildings including Raffles Hotel (1899) and Saint Joseph’s Cathedral (1912).

Before this, the site was a police station and Rajah’s stables.

40.Padang Merdeka was once called ‘The Esplanade’.

According to John Ting in his paper Colonialism and the Brooke Administration Institutional Buildings and Infrastructure in 19th Century Sarawak, the area was established in 1920.

“It was originally reclaimed from swampy land and configured as a municipal park called ‘The Esplanade’. The rectangular park had paths that ran diagonally from the corners and a bandstand. The bandstand’s location made it in appropriate for parades and it was demolished when Sarawak became a colony,” Ting stated.

41.The site of Kuching Old Courthouse once stood a Lutheran church building.

A reverend named Father Rupe from the German Lutheran Communion built a two-storey wooden building on the site in 1847.

He planned to have the ground floor as a place of worship while he lived in the upper floor.

Just right after the building was finished, Rupe returned back to Germany.

James Brooke took over the building then and turned it into a hall for the administration of justice.

The remains of the brick steps of Rupe’s original building is still under the floorboard.

Kuching during and after Japanese Occupation

42.During WWII, the first Allied submarine in Pacific to sink a warship was the Royal Netherlands Navy HNLMS K XVI and the incident took place in Kuching.

On Christmas Eve 1941 about 65km off Kuching, the submarine torpedoed and sank the Japanese destroyer Sagiri.

The destroyer’s aft magazine caught was fire and exploded sinking the ship with 121 of the 241 personnel aboard killed.

43.Batu Lintang Camp was unusual because it housed both Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and civilian internees.

Operated from March 1942 until the liberation of the camp in September 1945, the site was originally British Indian Army barracks.

44.St Thomas School was used as a labour camp.

The Japanese reportedly even tried to built a swimming pool there but it was never completed.

45.There were four military brothels in Kuching during the Japanese occupation.

According to Ooi Keat Gin in the book the Japanese Occupation of Borneo 1941-1945, these four locations were Borneo Company Limited manager’s bungalow, Chung Wah School Pig Lane (now Park Lane), St Mary’s School Hostel and Chan’s family mansion at Tabuan Road.

The inmates of these brothels were Korean, Japanese as well as Javanese.

46.Yokohama Specie Bank opened a branch in Kuching during the occupation in early 1942 in the former building of Chartered Bank.

The Yokohama Specie bank was a Japanese bank founded in Yokohama, Japan in the year 1880.

After the end of WWII in 1946, its assets were transferred to The Bank of Tokyo. Naturally, the branch in Kuching closed down after the war had ended.

47.The Sarawak Museum thankfully suffered little damage during the war because the Japanese official in charge.

1025px Kuching Sarawak the museum building. Photograph. Wellcome V0037397
The Sarawak Museum in 1896. Photo: Creative Commons.

In the book ‘Glimpses of Sarawak between 1912 and 1946’, John Beville Archer recounted what took place after WWII.

“At first, I was given the Sarawak Museum office and become involved in listening to all sorts of requests and appeals. One of duties was trying to collect what I could of the Rajah’s property. Strange enough, the Japanese had done no damage to the Astana and its contents were almost intact but scattered. For instance, I managed to find the Rajah’s insignia, the State Sword and other relics. The Museum lost very little; this was because the Japanese official in charge of it for the last two years was, it is said, an Oxford University graduate.”

48.Darul Kurnia was the site where anti-cession movement protesters demonstrated against ‘Circular No.9’.

Picture
Anti-cession protesters on the ground of Darul Kurnia. Photo by Ho Ah Chon.

After the war ended, many joined Datu Patinggi Abang Haji Abdillah and Datu Patinggi Haji Kassim to fight against cession of Sarawak to Britain.

After realising that most of the members of the movement were civil servants, the colonial office issued ‘Circular No.9’ on Dec 31, 1946.

The circular warned civil servants that it was illegal to join in political movements.

The peak of the anti-cession movement took place on Apr 2, 1947 when 338 civil servants submitted their resignation letters.

On the same day, they all stood on the ground of Darul Kurnia to show their protest.

Located at Jalan Haji Taha, Darul Kurnia is a colonial style mansion built in the 1930s by Datu Patinggi Abang Haji Abdillah.

49.There are at least five war and hero memorials in Kuching.

These memorials include the Clock Tower at Jalan Padungan, the Sarawak Volunteer Mechanics and Drivers at Tabuan Laru, Heroes Monument at Sarawak Museum ground, World War II Herous Grave at Jalan Taman Budaya and Batu Lintang Camp Memorial at the Batu Lintang Teacher’s Education Institute.

50.Fort Margherita has flown four different flags under four different administrations.

The first flag was of course Brookes’ Sarawak flag, then the Rising Sun during WWII.

When the state became a crown colony, it was the Union Jack and now our very own Sarawak flag.

Looking back at Labuan War Crimes Trials during World War II

After the Second World War (WWII) ended, Labuan became one of the locations where war crime trials took place.

From December 1945 and January 1946, 16 war crime trials took place at Labuan.

Some of the cases trialed at Labuan were the ill-treatment of prisoners of War (POW) at Batu Lintang Camp, the Sandakan Death Marches and the final executions of POWs at Ranau.

Labuan War Crimes Trials 1
Two military policemen guard four Japanese officers outside the Labuan court. Courtesy of Australian War Memorial. Copyright expired-public domain.

Why hold the war crimes trials in Labuan?

According to Georgina Fitzpatrick in the book Australia’s War Crimes Trials 1945-51, Labuan was the location of Australia’s 9th Division headquarters.

“There was a large garrison of Australian soldiers there to guard a war criminal’s compound and to provide other ancillary staff needed for war crime trials. Labuan was also the location of an Australian General Hospital (AGH) where those liberated Allied prisoners of war who were not well enough to be evacuated to Morotai had been sent to recuperate from their ill-treatment in Kuching camp. This placed them in proximity to the Japanese war criminal compound, where they could assist in identifying war criminal suspect,” Fitzpatrick stated.

Bearing witness at Labuan War Crimes Trials

It was rare to have former POWs of the Japanese to be present in person at these trials as a witness.

However, it did happen in the Labuan War Crimes Trials.

One of the six survivors of Sandakan Death Marches Warrant Officer William Sticpewich appeared at three different trials at Labuan.

Athol Moffitt was the jurist who was involved with the Labuan War Crimes Trials.

After the war, Moffitt reveal in his diary that Sticpewich had been flown back to Labuan at the request of the Japanese defence team.

The Japanese thought that he might be a friendly witness.

Unfortunately for them, this particular move became the defense team’s ‘greatest mistake’.

According to Moffitt, Sticpewich ‘got on the right side of the Japs and can speak quite a lot of Japanese – being very handy as a carpenter and good at fixing machines he made himself invaluable to the Japs during his imprisonment.

“He had the run of the camp and got a little extra food from the Jap leavings. He also poked his nose into things and can now tell us all sorts of things as to what food they had and what medicines they had etc.”

During his return to Borneo, Sticpewich was not only providing evidence against the Japanese. He also retook the Sandakan Death Marches route to help locate the graves of Allied forces.

Interpreters of Labuan War Crime Trials

Since the Australian prosecuting team spoke in English and the Japanese military obviously spoke in Japanese, the court needed interpreters to carry on with the trials.

One of the interpreters at Labuan reportedly went an extra mile to do his job.

Lieutenant Joseph da Costa was considered one of the most fluent of the Allied Translator and Interpreter Service (ATIS) interpreters at Labuan.

Despite that, da Costa was still concerned that the suspects did not understand what was going on.

Before the war broke out, he was studying in Japan and later onboard one of the last ships to leave to Australia in 1941.

While his spoken Japanese was fluent enough, da Costa was not familiar with military or medical terms in Japanese.

He then started a practice of visiting the specific prisoner in the evening to go over the day’s proceedings to make sure the suspect knew what had been said during the day.

Sergeant Donald Mann was another interpreter provided by ATIS at the Labuan trials.

Born to English parents, Mann was a former resident of Kobe.

Like da Costa, he too had been evacuated from Japan in 1941.

Since these two interpreters provided by ATIS were actually living and studying in Japan, their Japanese language proficiency was considered at higher standard compared to at other trials.

The Japanese defence counsel in Ambon war crime trials Somiya Shinji for instance argued that the accused were ‘unable to defend themselves sufficiently’ because they could not express ‘in an exact and accurate manner what they wanted to state’.

Defending the war criminals at Labuan War Crimes Trials

Batu Lintang Camp

Speaking of the defence counsel, their competence was an issue which was raised many times during the trials.

The defending officer in one of the Labuan trials actually said this during his closing statement:

“The only thing for which I should like to make an apology and to beg your understanding is the problem of language. My English knowledge is extremely limited. Besides that, I am not will informed in jurisprudence at large and am quite ignorant about the Australian laws and regulations which this case is charged with. I am afraid this weakness will let me feel not only inconvenient but also to feel a kind of irritation of not being able to express my mind fully, like to scratch an itchy spot from outsides shoes.”

One of the defending officers in Labuan was Colonel Yamada Setsuo.

Even though he had been the Chief Legal Officer at Kuching during the Japanese occupation, there are some doubts that Yamada actually had legal qualifications.

Reporting on Labuan War Crimes Trials

More than 75 years passed since the war ended and the current generation roughly know about the atrocities committed by the Japanese during WWII.

However when the war literally just ended, the public, particularly the families of war crimes victims, had no idea the heinousness that their loved ones went through.

Now came in the question of how much the public should know.

According to Fitzpatrick when the Labuan trials started, the press entered into ‘a gentleman’s agreement with the military authorities to reveal only general details of what had happened to and to refrain from publishing the names of victims’.

During that time, the readers were give some amount of detail about conditions of starvation and brutality in the camps as well as about the death marches and massacres.

By doing this, the Australian military believed that they were trying to protect the families.

On the contrary, they were accused of cover-up.

Still, some of the news reports published by the Argus and the Sydney Morning Herald gave more than enough details on the cases that they must have frightened any relatives of men missing in action.

Eric Thornton from the Argus for example reported, “Shots entered the house where sick POWs were lying, and they began to move out. Those too sick to walk started to crawl toward the grass, and all were slaughtered on the spot. When asked why he did not stop the slaughter, Sugino said he was so excited he did not think of it.”

Japanese Sergeant Major Tsurio Sugino was from the Borneo Prisoner of War and Internee Guard Unit.

He was charged with ‘having caused to be killed 46 Australian, British and Indian POWs (survivors from Labuan POW Camp) at Miri on Oct 6, 1945. Sugino was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Any convicted Japanese war criminals who received a death sentence and whose sentence was confirmed were executed where they had been tried.

Those who were sentenced to terms of imprisonment were initially held where that had been tried before they were moved to other places such as Rabaul.

The last trials

The last Australian-run trial held on Labuan was a mass trial of 45 guards.

These guards were suspected of ill-treating prisoners at the Batu Lintang Camp.

The trial was completed on Jan 31, 1946. After that, any other trials on Labuan were conducted by the 32nd Indian Brigade.

Overall, the Australians conducted 16 trials in Labuan between Dec 3, 1945 and Jan 31, 1946, in which 145 accused were involved, 17 were acquitted and 128 were found guilty.

In the end of the Australian trials, 39 Japanese had received death sentences, 36 by shooting and three by hanging.

So what the survivors thought of these results?

Victims’ Responses to the Trials’ Results

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The Survivors of Batu Lintang Camp.

Michelle Cunningham in her book Defying the Odds: Surviving Sandakan and Kuching published some accounts on the victims’ point of view on the trials’ verdicts.

She wrote, “Some months after the war a British officer, Captain H.D.A. Yates, who had remained in the army in Borneo wrote to his former prison mates to update them on the war crimes trials and the questioning of the guards. He commented on the fate of several of the guards, suggesting that some sentences might be a bit harsh and lamenting that those for the most hated guards might not be harsh enough. He was pleased that Tadao Yoshimura, the assistant quartermaster at Batu Lintang, had escaped prosecution, for he had been one of the ‘good’ boys.”

The parting gift

While there were many horrific accounts that were revealed during the Labuan War Crimes Trial, there was one unexpected story that was disclosed many years after.

According to an article by the Journal of the New South Wales Bar Association, Russell Le Gay Brereton was the first investigate and prosecute Japanese guards during the Labuan trial.

An event that would stay with him forever was witnessing the formal surrender of General Masao Baba.

He formally turned over his sword to Australian Major General George Wootten at Labuan on Sept 10, 1945.

As part of his job as an investigator, Brereton flew to Kuching and stayed at The Astana. He found the Astana to be ‘the last word in luxury. Marble bathrooms and all’.

He also flew to Sandakan which for him the worst POW camp.

Brereton was then appointed as prosecutor in the first of the Labuan War Crimes Trials particularly the trial of Sgt Major Sugino.

During the trial, he impressed the Japanese defenders and officers with his concern for justice. The defending officer Yamada reportedly invited Brereton ‘to be his guest in Japan’ after things have settle down.

Brereton left Labuan on New Year’s Day in 1946 with a parting gift from General Baba.

The general presented him a Japanese calligraphy written in thick brush strokes on rice paper with translation and dedication on the reverse side read, “True heart is the core of everything.”

Baba was brought to Rabaul for trial and was found guilty with command responsibility for the Sandakan Death Marches.

He was executed by hanging on Aug 7, 1947.

Masao Baba

4 books to read to know more about life during Crown Colony of Sarawak (1946-1963)

After World War II had ended in 1945, Sarawak was under the British Military Administration for seven months.

Then in 1946, the Crown Colony of Sarawak was established as part of the British Crown Colony.

The cession officially became effective on July 1, 1946. On the same day, the last White Rajah of Sarawak Vyner Brooke gave a speech on how he took this decision as ‘it was in the best interests of the people of Sarawak and that in the turmoil of the modern world they would benefit greatly from the experience, strength and wisdom of the British rule’.

If you want to know about life during Crown Colony of Sarawak especially from colonial officers’ point of views, here are KajoMag’s book suggestions:

1.Fair Land Sarawak: Some recollections of an Expatriate Officer by Alastair Morrison

Alastair Morrison joined the British Colonial Service in 1947 and was sent to Sarawak in the same year.

He served as a district officer for a number of years before being transferred to the Secretariat in Kuching in 1954.

In 1959, he was transferred to the Government Information Office. During his time as a District Officer, he also wrote extensively for the Sarawak Gazette.

After his wife Hedda died in 1991, Morrison busied himself writing. His first memoir is about his service in Sarawak, Fair Land Sarawak: Some recollections of an Expatriate Officer (1993).

In his word to explain about the memoir, Morrison stated wrote, “This is a book of personal recollections about nineteen happy years which my wife and I had the good fortune to spend in Sarawak. It does not attempt to provide a complete account of that period of Sarawak history but will, I hope, convey something of the way of life that we enjoyed and of some of the people, both Asian and European, whom we came to know.

“The narrative may appear lighthearted in places, but this is not due to any lack of serious side to life in Sarawak. Rather it seeks to reflect the good nature and humour which are some of the most abiding impression those who know Sarawak have always taken away with them.”

His other books include The Road To Peking (1993) and A Bird Fancier: A Journey to Peking (2001).

2.Sarawak Anecdotes: A Personal Memoir of Service 1947-1965 by Ian Urquhart

From the beginning of the book, this former British colonial service reminded readers that his book is ‘not the place to write a thesis on the evils and good points of British colonialism in the past and in my lifetime’.

He added, “I stress that what I have written NEITHER meant to convey a typical picture of this history of my life NOR of the life anyone else in Sarawak NOR to provide a balanced image of the development of that friendly country. If you want a book to give a proper picture of colonial Sarawak – this is not the book for you. I hope that ‘Anecdotes’ will leave my readers with an impression of what a delightful place Sarawak was to live and work in.”

Ian Urquhart arrived in Sarawak in 1947 and then continued spending 18 years here as a colonial officer.

Some of his views which he had written in his memoir are quite controversial, especially his criticism of both federal and state governments.

Nonetheless, it is always interesting to read different points of view.

3.A Servant of Sarawak: Reminiscences of a Crown Counsel in 1950s Borneo by Peter Mooney

In 1953, Peter Mooney was offered the appointment of Crown Counsel in Sarawak.

Here, he first became the Public Prosecutor. One of his memorable cases saw him going against Lee Kuan Yew who was then a barrister in Singapore.

The case involved violations of several section of the Forestry Ordinance and also the Customs Ordinance.

The accused, according to Mooney, was the managing director of the exporters named Mr Lau who also happened to be a timber tycoon in Sibu.

‘Mr Lau’ hired Lee to defend him but in the end, the court found him guilty of all charges.

This particular case was written in a chapter of Mooney’s memoir.

In the preface of his memoir, Mooney wrote this about Sarawak, “This was the country in which I arrived. It was happy and peaceful. I thought that I had come to civilize the people. It was they who civilized me. They were friendly, warm and most hospitable, ever willing to share what little they had. Moral standards were high. It was hardly necessary to close windows or doors at night. Theft was almost unknown.”

But obviously, customs fraud had already existed back then.

Anyway, Mooney was eventually appointed the Attorney General of Sarawak as well as serving on the Supreme Council and Council Negri.

Then in 1960, he left Sarawak for Malaya to join a law firm in Kuala Lumpur.

4.Lawyer in the Wilderness by Kenelm Hubert Digby

Kenelm Hubert Digby
Kenelm Hubert Digby

Kenelm Hubert Digby came to Sarawak to work for the last of the White Rajah of Sarawak in 1934.

He returned to England at the end of his contract in 1939.

However, Digby returned to Sarawak in 1940 where he was appointed as Legal Adviser to Brooke.

During the Japanese occupation of Sarawak, he was among the Europeans who were interned at the Batu Lintang Camp.

After the war has ended, he returned to Sarawak as Legal Adviser. Digby then rose to become Attorney-General and later a circuit judge.

In 1980, he published a memoir based on his life in Sarawak Lawyer in the Wilderness.

Although it was published in 1980, Digby pointed the content of the book was written in 1952 when ‘events were comparatively fresh in memory’.

It is based on his experience in Sarawak from the middle of 1934 to the end of 1951.

According to Digby, the period covered saw the decline and end of ‘Brooke rule’, the trauma of the Japanese occupation and the establishment of the authority of the Colonial Office.

These words are the perfect summary of what the state had gone through as the Crown Colony of Sarawak.

What happens in the afterlife according to various Dayak traditional beliefs?

What happens in the afterlife? There are so many various ideas to explain what takes place in life after death.

One of the most common belief systems is that the dead go to a specific place or realm after death based on divine judgement based on their actions when they lived.

Another common belief is that the dead start a new life but in different forms after death. This concept is what we know as reincarnation.

As for the Dayak people of Borneo, what happens in the afterlife really varies according to each ethnic group.

Each Dayak community has its own interpretation of where the dead goes after the soul leaves the body.

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With that, here are some of the Dayak beliefs on what happens in the afterlife:

1.Iban

James Brooke in his diary stated that, “The Sea Dayaks in general have a distinct notion of a future state which is often mention in their conversation. There are different stages before reaching it – some agreeable, and others the contrary and their final abode, or as it appears dissolution, is a state of dew. Their burial rites all tend to support the idea of a future state; but oral traditions being so liable to alteration, there is now no very clearly defined account, as different people give different statements, but nevertheless agree in the main points, and fully expect to meet each other after death.”

2.Kayan

According to Spencer St John, the Kayans believe in a future state and in a supreme being -Laki Tengangang.

He stated, “When the soul separates from the body, it may take the form of an animal or a bird, and as an instance of this belief, should a deer be seen feeding near a man’s grave, his relatives would probably conclude that his soul had taken the form of a deer, and the whole family would abstain from eating venison for fear of annoying the deceased.”

Charles Hose in his paper Mount Dulit and the Highlands of Borneo (1893) explained even further about Kayan people and their afterlife.

“There is another strange ceremony at which I was once present, called ‘Dayang Janoi’, in which the dead are supposed to send messages to the living, but to describe it would take too much of this paper. It proves, however, that spiritualism is of very ancient practice among the Kayans, but it would perhaps be interesting to mention the various abodes of departed spirits, according to Kayan mythology. ‘Laki Tengangang’ is the supreme being who has the care of all souls. Those who die a natural death, of old age or sickness, are conveyed to ‘Apo Leggan’, and have much the lot as they had in this world.

‘Long Julan’ is the place assigned to those who die a violent death, e.g., those killed in battle or by accident, such as the falling of a tree, etc. Women who die in child-bed also go to ‘Long Julan’, and become the wives of those who are killed in battle. These people are well-off, have all their wants supplied; they do no work and all become rich. ‘Tan Tekkan’ is the place to which suicides are sent. They are very poor and wretched; their food consists of leaves, roots, or anything they can pick up in the forests. They are easily distinguished by their miserable appearance. ‘Tenyu Lallu’ is the place assigned to still born infants. The spirits of these children are believed to be very brave, and to require no weapon other than a stick to defend them against their enemies. The reason given for this idea is that the child has never felt pain in this world, and is therefore very daring in the other. ‘Ling Yang’ is the place where people go who are drowned. It is a land of plenty below the bed of the rivers, and these are the spirits upon whom riches are heaped in abundance, as all property lost in the waters is supposed to be appropriated by them.”

3.Melanau

Meanwhile, the former Baram resident Claude Champion de Crespigny (1829-1884) had this recorded about the Melanau people’s afterlife.

“The Melanaus believe in another world which is like this, having rivers, seas, mountains and sago plantations. There is one supreme deity named Ipu. All people who had met with a violent death, except those just alluded to, had their paradise in different place from that which constituted the abode of those dying naturally, a country further back. The Melanau believe that, after a long life in the next world, they again die but afterwards live as worms or caterpillars in the forest.”

4.Dayak Embaloh

According to Victor King, a professor in Borneo studies, the Embaloh people are a subdivision of that complex of peoples which their close neighbours the Iban and the Kantu call ‘Maloh’ or ‘Memaloh’ and ‘Maloh’ is derived from the word ‘Embaloh’.

They inhabited mostly the Upper Kapuas region of West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

As for their belief in the afterlife, King explained, “Embaloh believe that every human being has a main spirit or soul (sumangat) which is usually thought to reside in the head. People say that this spiritual essence cannot be seen, although they know it is there while a person is healthy, awake and working. A person becomes sick when the soul leaves the body and wanders abroad. If it should reach the Land of the Dead (Telung), then the person will almost certainly die.

“The soul leaves the body during dreams, and at this time it is very susceptible to being enticed away be evil spirits (antu ajau), which usually inhabit caves, uplands, tree-trunks and jungle. It is the task of the village medical expert to retrieve this lost soul in order to cure sickness.”

5.Dayak Modang

Modang is a generic term covering a complex of culturally related groups living in the Kutai Regency of Kalimantan Timur, Indonesia, along the Mahakam River and its tributaries.

They are comprised of five river-based groups including Long Gelat, Long Belah, Long Way, Wehea and Menggae.

When Norwegian explorer Carl Bock (1849-1932) visited Dutch Borneo from 1878-1879, he had the opportunity to visit the Dayak Long Way.

This is what he recorded about their afterlife in his book The Headhunters of Borneo.

“Immediately after death the spirit goes to a certain tree called Patoeng, or Wateng Ladji, resembling a carved idol, which lies in across his path. Going on further, the spirit comes to a kampung, the head of which is a woman named Dijon Ladji. Proceeding still further, the departed comes to another village, where the chief is also a woman, named Dikat Toewan Ballang. Still wandering, the dead arrives at the third village, the name of whose chief, also a female, is Longding Dakka Patai. On the spirit goes to another kampong, whose chief is named Kapung Lunding Dakago, and again to a fifth village, where another female chief is met, by name Longding Dahak.

“We have followed the departed through no less than five villages or kampungs. The scene now changes to a river running from a mountain called Long Mandin; this stream is of course sacred and is guarded by two women, one named Talik Bong Daong, the other Sasong Luing Daong. The country where the river runs, and wherein all these kampongs are situated, is known by the general name of Long Luing. As the confused story here ends, I presume the dead is now lodged in Paradise.”

How little we know about Joseph Middleton, Sarawak’s first police officer

Joseph Middleton might be an unfamiliar name to Sarawakians today, but he was actually the first police officer of Sarawak.

He was one of the two boys who departed England with James Brooke on the Royalist in 1838.

Unfortunately, there is a little we know about Middleton during his first arrival to Sarawak.

However, we do know that he was referred to in 1852 as ‘Constable’.

It is also known that he married a local woman. One record showed that he had a son named Peter who was baptised in Kuching on Dec 3, 1848.

Apart from this, we know that he was almost killed during the Bau rebellion.

Joseph Middleton was one of the three targets of the Bau Rebellion

On Feb 18, 1857, some 600 Chinese came down through the Sarawak River to attack the White Rajah in Kuching.

By the time the group had reached Kuching, Brooke already fled from his home.

This did not stop the rebels from burning down properties including Brooke’s house.

According to The Gospel Missionary issued in June 1884, the Chinese announced they did not want to make war on the English or the Malays, only on the Rajah’s government.

The report stated, “It did seem as if it was chiefly a rebellion of revenge, for the only three people they had been anxious to kill were the Rajah himself, and Mr Crookshank, and Mr Middleton, who were the chief constable and the magistrate who had sentenced the offending Kunsi and actually done the flogging. If they could kill these three they did not seem to care how many others they killed.”

Joseph Middleton during the Bau Rebellion

Bau rebellion
Illustration depicting the Chinese Insurrection from Harriette McDougall’s Sketches of Our Life at Sarawak. Credit: Public Domain.

The rebels certainly did not care how many they killed that fateful night as in the end, they took the lives of Middleton’s two young children.

The Sarawak Gazette revisited the event in an article published on Mar 1, 1929.

It stated, “Two little boys, John and Charles Middleton, aged six and four years, were killed and ‘the fiends kicked the little heads with loud laughter from one to another’. Richard Wellington, a clerk in the Borneo Company, lost his life in gallantly attempting to defend Mrs Middleton and her children.”

So where was Middleton when his house was attacked?

According to Brooke who published his own narrative of the event in the Wellington Independent on Sept 5, 1857, Middleton’s house was one of the earliest places where the attack took place.

The Rajah wrote, “He (Middleton) escaped with difficulty. His poor little wife hid in a bakery till the burning rafters fell about her, and from her concealment saw the assailants kicking about the head of her eldest child. The mother was paralyzed; she wished, she said, to rush out but could not move. The youngest child was murdered and thrown into the flames.”

Joseph Middleton and the second class Europeans in Sarawak

Other than the Middleton family’s tragic fate during the rebellion, there was no significant information about the constable.

According to archivist Loh Chee Yin who wrote for the Sarawak Gazette in 1960-70s, Middleton presumably still held the roll of Constable until his death in Kuching in 1866.

Middleton is unlike some of Brooke’s early officers whose names are immortalised through street names in Kuching such as Crookshank.

Hence, it is easy to forget there was a man named Middleton who came to Sarawak from England as a boy and lived here till his death.

Perhaps it was because Middleton was considered a “second-class European” in Sarawak at that time.

During the resistance led by Syarif Masahor in 1857, Bishop Francis McDougall wrote a letter to his brother in-law.

McDougall narrated in the letter, “I hear that there has been a regular panic at Sarawak among the wives of the second-class Europeans, who all packed up and wanted to start for Singapore, but their fears have been allayed, and only Mrs Middleton, who suffered so much in the insurrection, persists in going.”

The so-called ‘caste system’ among the Europeans in Sarawak is believed to have started due to the different systems of salutes during Brooke time.

At that time, there were three forms of salutes given. The first class was full arms salute, the second class was arm across body to rifle butt, and third class was simply attention.

Those who were entitled for the first class salute included the Bishop, the Commandant of Sarawak Rangers, the Treasurer and the Principal Medical Officer.

Posts such as Magistrates, Superintendent of Works and Surveys Department, Medical Officers, Inspector of Police and Prisons were given the second class salute.

Finally, the third class salute was given to the junior officers and cadets.

The Sarawak Gazette reported, “It is said that this system of salutes caused a sort of caste system among the Europeans since the local people began to refer to them as first, second and third class Europeans instead of officials.”

Middleton, who was sometimes referred to as the Police Inspector, fell into the second-class European category.

Regardless, as Loh pointed out, Middleton had “the distinction of being the first police officer in Sarawak.”

Kenelm Hubert Digby, the ‘communist’ who was the Attorney General of Sarawak

One of the most interesting figures that ever graced Sarawak’s service during the reign of the Brooke family was none other than Kenelm Hubert Digby.

He joined as a district officer under Rajah Charles Vyner Brooke in 1934 and returned to England in 1939 at the end of his contract.

Digby returned again to Sarawak as Legal Adviser to the rajah in the spring of 1940.

When the Japanese invaded Sarawak during World War II, Digby was among the civilian internees held at the Batu Lintang camp.

After the war, Digby returned to Sarawak where he resumed the role of Legal Adviser under the Sarawak Civil Service.

From there, he rose to become the Attorney-General as well as the editor of the Sarawak Gazette.

His last post in Sarawak was as a circuit judge which ended in 1951.

Kenelm Hubert Digby and the MI5

So what made Digby ‘a colourful figure’ during his time in Sarawak?

It all started when Digby was still a student at St John’s College, Oxford.

During a debate in the Oxford Union in 1933, Digby proposed the motion “That this House would in no circumstances fight for its King and country.” The motion was passed with 275 votes for and 153 against it.

The ‘Oxford pledge’, as it became known, was controversial at the time, causing friction between older and younger generations, idealisms of pacifism and patriotism. The motion was passed and followed by a nationwide furore.

Thanks to the debate, Digby was a figure of interest for various security intelligence organisations.

In the book MI5, the Cold War and the Rule of Law by Keith Ewing, Joan Mahoney and Andrew Moretta, it is stated that MI5 ‘had scouts in both the Labour and Communist clubs at Oxford at the time, Digby appearing as a member of both’.

It is reported that his mail was routinely inspected in Singapore while en route to Kuching when he was working in Sarawak.

Digby’s move back to Sarawak in 1940 had also caused MI5 some anxiety.

“This anxiety was fuelled in part by the fact that Digby had joined the secret Communist Party Lawyer’s Group (CPLG),” wrote Ewing, Mahoney and Moretta.

After the war, Digby was still under surveillance even when he was working in the Colonial Office.

When the Sarawak colonial government was re-organising their judiciary system in 1951, it gave them the opportunity to get rid of Digby. The governor did not renew his service in Sarawak, obviously due to his political views.

Years later, Digby published an interesting memoir about his life in Sarawak entitled ‘Lawyer in the Wilderness’ (1980).

He shared some funny encounters he had, and his work life as well as getting caught in Sarawak political scene before and after the war – including getting sued by Anthony Brooke.

Was Digby’s service in Sarawak terminated because he was a suspected communist?

In the last part of his book ‘Lawyer in the Wilderness’ (1980), Digby told his part of the story in terms of his political views.

He stated, “Since the day I had first landed in 1934 , I had been notorious for my somewhat unorthodox views on public questions, but nobody had ever suggested that they unfitted me for the duties which were entrusted to me. The most stupid of the Residents, who ruled my early life, had once asked me seriously whether I was a ‘communist agent’, and the Rajah had on one occasion laughingly inquired whether I was a ‘communist.’

“Sir Charles Arden Clarke once kept the Chief Secretary and myself back from a Supreme Council meeting, and informed me that there was an unfortunate rumour in Sarawak that I was a communist, and that it would be so disagreeable if it should be breathed abroad that the Attorney-General of Sarawak was a ‘red’, that he would be obliged if I would refrain from airing my opinions publicly.”

Digby also revealed that Sir Clarke once called him an hour or two before he gave a talk at St. Thomas Secondary School on ‘The Meaning of Democracy’.

During the phone conversation, the governor reminded Digby to ‘not get too far away from the Government’s line’.

Ultimately, Digby wasn’t a communist, but he was a proud socialist. He believed that everyone should have the freedom to express their own views especially if their personal opinions didn’t affect their jobs.

He added, “… it is rubbish to pretend that judges and other civil servants are wholly at liberty to hold their own views so long as those views do not interfere with their duties. Judges and other civil servants are independent; they are free to form their own opinions and to indulge in discussions with their friends; but they are independent and free only so long as those opinions and discussions conform with the ‘Government line’.”

Even though his Oxford pledge past had haunted and dogged Digby, it’s important to remember how it is this same courage and belief in individual freedom that made him stand out for Vyner Brooke and his vision of empowering Sarawak with a constitution that promoted self-government. If it wasn’t for the Second World War, Sarawak may have seen the fruits of Vyner’s labour in the 1941 Sarawak Constitution which was drafted to realise the Nine Cardinal Principles.

Besides his political views, Digby shared a number of colourful stories in his memoir. Here are some of the tales from Kenelm Hubert Digby’s memoir:

1.When he confessed to pronouncing the bride’s name wrongly when officiating a marriage in Miri

“Towards the end of February 1935, I returned to Miri. Shortly after my arrival there it fell to my lot, in the temporary absence of the District Officer, to perform a civil marriage between two Indians. The prospective husband, with some such name as Govindasamy, was employed as a clerk in Seria by the oil company.

The prospective bride, Naoomal, hailed from some unpronounceable village in India. Strange though it may seem this was the first wedding which I had ever attended and I was naturally a little confused and embarrassed.

Influenced, I suppose, by the fact that Seria is obviously a more appropriate name for a girl than Naoomal, I misread the form in front of me by assuming that the names of the parties followed one another horizontally instead of vertically.

Consequently I married the bridegroom to the town in which he lived instead of to his bride. It was as if a registrar in England had said, “I declare you, Horatio Pifflington, and you, Stow-on-the-Wold, man and wife together.”

The mistake was pointed out to me after the ceremony was over. The marriage certificate did not repeat the error and I hope that it has continued to sanctify a union not nearly marred at its birth by a blunder of officialdom.”

2.On becoming a ‘real’ Sarawakian

“Some administrative officers never got tired of pointing out to me that Miri was not ‘the real Sarawak’ and that short visits to Sibuti, Niah, and the Limbang river did not compensate me for the degrading effect of the flesh-pots.

There was a horrible old saying that a man did not become ‘a real Sarawakian’ until he had “had the clap twice and been sick in his soup three times.”

That, of course, was a fantastic exaggeration of the attitude adopted by some of the older officers, but it cannot be disputed that that attitude, to a substantial degree, not only condoned but encouraged hard drinking and other minor vices, and, to some extent, despised the appearance in Sarawak of amenities imported from Europe.

In particular, a bachelor officer was considered to be a little queer if he did not ‘keep’ a native or Chinese mistress, but the critics were honest enough to admit that this omission was more excusable in Miri than in the lonelier out-stations.

A cadet, on his first arrival in Kuching, was interviewed by a doctor, who gave him a lecture on ‘tropical hygiene’ and presented him with a little box labeled “Outfit B,” the contents of which were designed to protect the user against incurring venereal disease.”

3.When Digby’s census in Sarawak didn’t quite add up

“There was the answer which the interpreter gave me on his own initiative, and without interpreting my question, when I attempted to ask a Chinese father, who reported six boys and no girls, what he had done with his daughters: ‘Sold them; I bought one myself, but as I didn’t really want it, I gave it away to a policeman.’

Lastly there was the other Chinese father, who, strangely enough, reported five daughters, and then chased me across ten acres to inform me that since my departure from his house he had lined the girls up and re-counted them and now made the total six.”

Can you imagine telling the officer from Department of Statistics today that you sold your daughter off or you miscalculated how many children you actually had?

4.Digby’s favourite prisoner in Simanggang

“My favourite prisoner was Benito Sosa, a Filipino, who was about half-way through a ten-year sentence, which was a commutation of the death penalty imposed on him for murdering a constabulary sergeant, who had been misconducting himself with Mrs. Benito Sosa, by thrusting the stem of an ordinary tobacco pipe through one of his eyes.

Benito was a skilled musician, who, prior to his misfortune, had played some instrument or other in the Constabulary Band. His official prison appointment was that of green-keeper on the golf-course , but he was seldom to be found on the job when I made my daily round of the gangs.

Faint, melodious sounds from the direction of the Resident’s stables would denote that Benito had once again rigged up a violin from a piece of wood and a few strands of wire, and was now sitting on a box beside the ponies entirely lost in his own musical dreams. He would grin cheerfully when reproached for his inattention to duty, and return temporarily to his greens.”

According to the Sarawak Gazette, Sosa’s sentence was commuted from death sentence to fifteen years’ imprisonment by the Rajah. He was found guilty for the murder of Delfin Arca, his fellow bandsman for the Sarawak Rangers.

5.How life as a civilian internee during the war had changed him

“Internment had by no means been pure loss. We had all of us learnt at least a little for our own good. It would be presumptuous to suggest to what extent others had improved themselves, but it was commonly agreed that three or four hard drinkers had been given a new lease of life.

I myself had learned how to count up to ten in Japanese, and a few Japanese military expressions; how to ‘Use an axe and a changkol; how to grow the easier kind of vegetables; how to play bridge; more chess openings than I had ever known before; a smattering of short hand; how to walk along stony roads in bare feet with a heavy load on my back; that I could perform hard manual labour, three-quarters naked, in the tropical sun, without any covering for the head even at noon; the dispensability of whisky and all other strong drink a few miles from the Equator; and how to walk warily before power and adapt myself to the military mind. I had read every play of Shakespeare’s once and most twice and I had studied many commentaries on them.

Above all, I had learned a great deal more about the behaviour of my fellow-men in adversity. My years of internment immensely improved my opinion of human nature.”

For his service in Sarawak, Digby was awarded the Companions of the Star of Sarawak in 1941.

In 1955, he migrated to New Zealand with his family. Digby passed away on Aug 5, 2001.

52755 Round Derek Barbed Wire Between Us A Story of Love and War
Digby’s relationship with his wife Mutal Fielding was the center of Derek Round’s book Barbed Wire Between Us (2002). While Digby was interned in Batu Lintang, Mutal was interned at the Stanley Internment Camp in Hong Kong.
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