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Alexander Hare, the first ‘White Rajah’ in Borneo

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James Brooke might be widely known as the first ‘White Rajah’ of Sarawak. However, did you know that he was not the first man to be known as the first ‘White Rajah’ in Borneo?

About 30 years before Brooke established his dynasty in Sarawak, British merchant and adventurer Alexander Hare founded an independent fiefdom in the south of Borneo called Maluka.

It was located around the Maluka river, southeast Banjarmasin on the Borneo island.

With the title of Rajah of Maluka, Hare’s kingdom even had a flag, coinage and custom duties.

Alexander Hare, the Merchant

Born in 1775 in London, Hare was the son of a watchmaker.

He joined a trading company in Portugal around 1800 and moved to Calcutta, India.

In 1807, he settled as a merchant in Malacca. During his stay in Malacca, Hare made acquaintance with Stamford Raffles of the British East India Company (EIC).

From 1811 till 1816, the Dutch briefly passed the control over Dutch Indies to Britain with Raffles as the newly appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Java.

Raffles, in turn appointed Hare as the Resident of Banjarmasin and Commissioner of the Islands of Borneo.

864px Nicolaes Visscher Indiae Orientalis
Indiae Orientalis, 17th century map of Southeast Asia. Credit: Public Domain.

Alexander Hare, the Rajah of Maluka

As for Hare, he was already familiar with Banjarmasin as he visited the place as a merchant.

On behalf of EIC, Hare arrived in Banjarmasin in 1812 to negotiate a treaty with the Sultan.

Somehow during the negotiation, the Sultan granted Hare a present.

According to Tim Hannigan in his book Raffles and the British Invasion of Java, a resident was not supposed to receive any kind of gift from a king.

But Hare accepted a gift from the Sultan of Banjarmasin – 1,400 square miles of territory, six times the size of Singapore.

He received it not as an accession to British domains but as a personal fiefdom in his own name.

By right, Raffles should have demanded Hares return the territory to the Sultan.

Instead, Raffles developed an even closer relationship with Hare as he hoped that an English fiefdom in the south of Borneo might provide a strong British foundation against the Dutch one day.

Hannigan stated, “The land that Alexander Hare ruled was swampy morass. It never had many native inhabitants and Hare’s habits seem to have scared off the last of the locals as soon as he moved in.”

Alexander Hare and his harem

So Hare was in need of ‘subjects’ in order his kingdom to flourish.

He turned to Raffles asking for ‘people’. Raffles being a good friend, provided Hare the people he needed.

“In early 1813, Raffles had signed an order that all convicts could legitimately be sentenced to transportation in Java were to be shipped to Banjarmasin for Alexander Hare to do with them as he saw fit. Hare even received a subsidy of 25 rupees a head for every criminal he received,” Hannigan stated.

Although Hare minted his own coins, he didn’t pay a single cent to his labourers, making them nothing more than unpaid slaves.

On top of the male convicts that were sent to Maluka, Hare demanded women so that he could breed more settlers.

He preferred women “of loose morals”, he said.

And again Raffles sent ‘women of loose morals’ to Hare. They were homeless women on the streets of Batavia or women who were caught for petty theft.

As it turned out, the women’s first duty was to satisfy the huge sexual appetite of the ‘White Rajah’.

Today, a handful of Indonesian web portals today refer to him as the man who owned a harem in Banjarmasin.

Alexander Hare and the Banjarmasin Enormity

Author Ferdinand Mount in his book The Tears of the Rajas: Mutiny, Money and Marriage in India 1805-1905 called Hare ‘the dissolute wanderer’ who ‘might have stumbled out of a Conrad novel’.

Mount added, “He was a Lord Jim without the good intentions.”

Lord Jim is a character in Joseph Conrad’s 1900 novel. The novel was inspired by English mariner Austin Podmore Williams and Sarawak’s first rajah, James Brooke.

Unlike Brooke, Hare’s dream of an independent state started to crash after the signing of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814.

After rounds of negotiations between EIC and the Dutch, Hare was at first allowed to keep his little kingdom in Banjarmasin.

However, Hare reportedly antagonised the Dutch. They believed that Hare was planning to use Maluka to enhance British intrusions in the region.

In the end, the Dutch government declared that Hare had no legal right in Borneo and the Rajah of Maluka was no longer a king.

Mount pointed out, “When Hare was finally kicked out by the returning Dutch, they forced him to total up the number of his wretched slaves. There were 907 men, 462 women and 123 children crouching in his filthy huts.”

These numbers did not include the possibly hundreds of others who died or were lucky to have fled into the jungle.

Making another reference to Conrad’s work, Mount stated, “If Hare had not yet plunged as deep into evil as Conrad’s Mr Kurtz, it was only because he did not stay there long enough.”

Kurtz is a character in Conrad’s 1899 novella Heart of Darkness. He is an ivory trader and commander of a trading post in Africa. The book was inspired by Congo Free State, a territory personally owned by Belgium’s King Leopold II from 1885 to 1908. It is also known for its brutal history; losing up to 50 per cent of its population due to forced labour system.

Hare’s four-year reign as the first White Rajah in Borneo came to be known to Dutch historians as ‘De Bandjermasinche Afschuwelijkheid’ or ‘The Banjarmasin Enormity’.

Life after Maluka

After being kicked out of Banjarmasin, Hare drifted around the archipelago bringing along some of his slaves and women while trying to get back to his properties in Java.

However, the Dutch banned him from entering the island. He then shipped around and found himself in Cape Town, South Africa.

According to Hannigan, what Hare really wanted was a desert island on which to live out his dreams of debauched despotism undisturbed.

Then in 1826, he brought his household to an uninhabited coral atolls called the Cocos Islands.

Located a thousand miles west of Java in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Hare first found out about the place from one of his former employees John Clunies-Ross.

Clunies-Ross eventually also moved to Cocos Islands bringing his family and workers.

The two did not see eye to eye with each other.

After five years in Cocos Islands, Hare left again and now headed to Bengkulu.

Some reports stated that most of his slaves left Hare to join Clunies-Ross, while others said it was because Hare’s money was dwindling and he could not afford to bring everyone to Bengkulu.

Either way, the former Rajah of Maluku died in Bengkulu in 1835 after falling off his horse.

Reportedly, his remaining estate went to a woman named Dishta – a dancing girl whom Hare picked up from Calcutta.

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Salak fruit: 5 things you might not know about this unique fruit

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Some people call salak fruit ‘snake fruit’ because of its reddish brown scaly skin which reminds one of snakeskin.

However, the salak tree belong to the palm tree family and is native to Malaysia and Indonesia.

The fruit can be peeled by first pinching the pointed tip of the fruit, and then peeling the skin away to reveal pearly edible cloves which closely resemble a peeled garlic.

As for the flavour, it tastes acidic and sweet with an apple-like texture.

Here are five things you might not know about the salak fruit:

1.It has been featured on the Malaysian stamp

On Feb 27, 1999, a Malaysian stamp was issued featuring the salak fruit.

It was under the rare fruits series of stamps.

The species that was featured on the stamp was Salacca grabrecens.

2.There are many types of salak cultivar out there

Overall, there are at least 30 salak cultivars (which is short for ‘cultivated varieties’) out there.

Some of the popular cultivars are salak pondoh and salak Bali.

In Indonesia, salak Bali is the most expensive type: It is smaller than the normal salak and apparently the sweetest of its kind.

Meanwhile in Malaysia, the most famous type is salak madu (honey).

3.The health benefits of salak fruit

Many studies have been done on the nutritional values of salak fruit.

A study by Thai researchers published in 2013 for instance, showed that salak plum possessed antioxidant properties.

Other studies showed that the tropical fruit contains vital nutrients such as calcium, iron, potassium, vitamin C and beta caroteene.

It is estimated that 100gm of salak fruit can provide approximately 82 calories and contains 4 per cent fat and 1 per cent protein.

4.Place that is named after the salak tree

Pasir Salak is a riverside town located in Perak, Malaysia.

Legend has that the town was named after the sandy riverbank that was once covered by salak fruit skins.

Hence the name ‘Pasir Salak’, ‘Pasir’ as in sand in Malay.

Some history buffs would recognise the place as where British colonial official J.W.W. Birch was assassinated in 1875, and event which would later caused British intervention in local conflicts leading to the outbreak of the Perak War.

Meanwhile, in Malaysia’s neighbouring country of Indonesia in West Java, there is an eroded volcano called Mount Salak.

Contrary to popular belief that the name is derived from the salak tree, Mount Salak’s name actually comes from a Sanskrit word.

According to Sundanese tradition, the name comes from the Sanskrit word ‘Salaka’ which means ‘silver’.

Hence, Mount Salak can also be referred to as Silver Mountain.

5.Some of the salak products you should try

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Image by Pixabay.

Salak candies, salak juice and pickled (jeruk) salak are some of the yummy delicacies made from this fruit.

Thanks to modern technology, you can order these products through online shopping if you cannot find them in your local stores.

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What to know about pig liver divination in Iban culture

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If you are not familiar with the term ‘haruspex’, it is a term to describe one who is trained to practice a form of divination called ‘haruspicy’.

In ancient Rome, haruspicy involved the inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals, especially the livers of sacrificed sheep and poultry, to divine omens and communicate with the gods.

The reading of omens specifically from the liver is also known by the Greek term hepatoscopy or hepatomancy.

However, the Greeks of ancient Romans were not the only one who practiced divination using animal livers.

The Iban people in Sarawak have also been known to practice liver divination, specifically from pigs.

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Photo from Pixabay.com

Pig liver divination in Iban culture

One of the earliest records of pig liver divination in Iban culture was recorded by Leo Nyuak in a paper called ‘Religious rites and customs of the Iban or Dyaks of Sarawak’ in 1906.

In the paper, Nyuak explained how the ceremony was performed more than 100 years ago.

“The pig is bound and placed on the open air platform that fronts the house. A portion of rice which has been offered to the spirits is given by the women to the animal to eat.

The women then wash it and rub its body over with aromatic herbs and comb its hair; it is then rubbed over with oil. Offerings to the spirits are then ranged near the pig and the owner of the sacrifice leads the chief or other important member of the village who is to perform the ceremony, to his place, having beforehand put on his wrist a brass ring, and in his hand a barbed spear, which are supposed to preserve him from any evil the awful rite might bring upon him.

White and yellow rice is then sprinkled over the pigs body with the following imprecation; ‘May the eyes of our enemies be blinded, and may they fall on easy prey into our hands.’

Whilst the offering and invocations are being made, the pig is killed, the liver and gall extracted and placed in a plate and covered with the red leaves of the Sabang plant.

If on examination the auspicium is not bad, but there is something wanting to it, a fowl is killed and it is sprinkled with the blood to make up for what is wanting. If the auspicium is bad, a second pig is killed, and that failing, also a third. If the third auspicium proves bad it is accepted as final.”

The interpretation of pig liver divination before headhunting trip

“If small excrescences or pimples are seen on the liver, these are called igi sabang and foretell that the heads of enemies will be obtained. If the folds of the liver have some resemblance to the barb of a spear, the owner of the sacrifice will become renowned for bravery.

Should any portion of the liver ulcerated, the sign is bad. If it exhibits blood spots, it foretells wounds on the war path.

A liver the appearance of which is not pronounced as good or bad, is a sign of cowardice, but as this words is honourable, this sign is called ‘far from the enemy’.

If the gall does not lie flat on the liver but that is somewhat turned up, this is a sign of deceit that the owner of the sacrifice falsely claims to have obtained heads of the enemy: but if his bravery is well known the above sign foretells that he will soon add to the number of his trophies.”

Pig liver divination performed on the sick

Apart from foretelling the outcome of headhunting trips, the Iban people performed pig liver divination on the sick to predict the outcome their health.

“When the auspicium is taken on behalf of the sick, the following are the signs.

If the veins of the liver are at right angles with the gall it is a bad sign.

If the lobes of the liver come very close to one another it is also a bad sign, for the spirit of disease who dwells in one of the lobes is then said to be very near its victim and will capture him.

If the liver is bright and healthy looking, it is a sign of returning health.

However, if the left lobe where the evil spirit is supposed to dwell, is higher than the right, this shows that the spirit is stronger than the sick man and the patient will die.”

As not many Iban people perform this ritual nowadays, reading omens using pig’s liver has now become a rare heritage or tradition of Iban culture.

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Escaping POW camps during WWII under Japanese occupation

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The Geneva Conventions are four treaties and three additional protocols which establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war.

Basically, the treaties define the basic rights of wartime prisoners for both civilians and military personnel.

In other words, just because you have conquered a country, it doesn’t mean that you can do whatever you want to the people who live there.

The first treaty was signed by international committees in 1864.

For the next century, the Geneva Conventions are negotiated over and over again.

In 1907 for instance, the convention added the standards for the ‘humane treatment’ of Prisoners-of-Wars (POWs).

Then in 1929, the Geneva Conventions Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was signed by 47 governments including Japan.

But then why did so many POWs died during World War II (WWII) in the hands of Japanese forces?

This was because the Japanese government never ratified the 1929 treaty.

In 1942, the Japanese government stated it would follow the terms of the Convention mutatis mutandis (changing what has to be changed).

Escaping POW camps according to the Geneva Conventions

The Convention recognised that a POW may have the duty to attempt escape.

In fact the Geneva Convention prohibits a captor nation from executing a POW simply for attempting escape.

Under the authority of the senior official, a POW must be prepared to escape whenever the opportunity present itself.

In a POW compound, the senior POW must consider the welfare of those remaining behind after an escape.

However, as a matter of conscious determination, a POW must plan to escape, try to escape and assist others to escape.

During WWII, the POWs died in Germany at a rate 1.2 per cent. Meanwhile in the Pacific theatre, the rate was 37 per cent. In the Philippines alone, the death rate of POWs was 40 per cent.

One of the many motives contributing to these death rates was execution for escaping POW camps.

Selarang Barracks Incident
Photograph taken during the Selarang Barracks Square Incident when Japanese General Fukuye concentrated 13350 British and 2050 Australian prisoners of war because of their refusal to sign a promise not to escape. The picture shows external excavations for latrines made necessary because of overcrowding in the barracks. Courtesy of Australian War Memorial (Copyright expired-Public Domain).

The Selarang Barracks Incident

In August 1942, four POWs escaped from the Selarang Barracks in Singapore. The barracks was used to house a British Army infantry regiment.

After the British surrender of Singapore on Feb 15, 1942, one of the places used by the Japanese as Allied POWs for internment was the Selarang Barracks.

The four escapees Australian Corporal Rodney Breavington and Private Victor Gale and British soldiers Private Harold Waters and Private Eric Fletcher were recaptured.

The newly arrived Japanese Commander General Shimpei Fukuye wanted every POWs intered at Selarang Barracks to sign a pledge to prevent any escaping attempts.

The pledge stated, “I the undersigned, hereby solemnly swear on my honour that I will not, under circumstances attempt to escape”

Only three agreed to sign while the rest refused to since it clearly against the Geneva Convention which stated the POWs had the right to attempt to escape.

General Fukuye then ordered all prisoners except the three who signed to gather at the parade square in Selarang Barracks.

The result? Almost 17,000 men had to cram themselves into the square which was designed to hold 800. (Some reports stated 15,000 men cramped into a space for 1,200).

Meanwhile, the four escapees were executed on Sept 2 with rifles. The initial shots were non-fatal and the poor men had to beg the Japanese to be finished off.

Despite the execution, the rest of the POWs stood firm and did not sign the oath.

However without food and little water available, and cramping under the hot sun, dysentery broke out among the POWs.

Slowly, those who were already sick before began to perish.

Before more men would die, Lieutenant Colonel Holmes ordered his men to sign the oath.

Taking advantage that the Japanese were not familiar with British names, the POWs signed them using false or meaningless names.

Finally on Sept 5, the Japanese allowed the prisoners to disperse and went back into the barrack buildings.

Escaping POW camps in Sandakan

Sandakan Death Marches
The cemetery at Sandakan POW Camp after the war.

Among the first to escape from Sandakan POW camp in Sabah were Herb Trackson and Matt Carr.

However, they were recaptured six weeks after their escape at the end of August 1942.

When being interrogated, they told that their commanding officer Major G.N. Campbell and Captain J.G. Scribner had ordered them to take any opportunity to escape.

The two officers then were also arrested. Due to this, the commandant in-charge Captain Susumi Hoshijima gathered all POWs to sign a contract.

The contract contained three demands; ‘we will attempt to accomplish any order given the Japanese, we will not attempt to escape and we are aware that we will be shot if we we attempt to escape.’

After back and forth debate between Hoshijima and the POWs about how the contract was not in line with the Geneva Convention, the POWs finally did signed the contracts.

However just like in Singapore, the Allied POWs signed them using fake names and even actors’ names.

Escaping POW camps – success stories

So did any of these POWs manage to escape Japanese POW camps without being captured?

The only successful mass escape from a Japanese camp during WWII was not as massive as 400 POWs that were rescued by Steve Rogers in Captain America (2011).

On April 4, 1943, US Air Force pilot Samuel Grashio, US Air Force Lieutenant William Dyess, US Marines Austin Shofner and Jack Hawkins, six other Americans and two Filipinos escaped from a camp in Davao, the Philippines.

Before their historical escape, they spent two months smuggling food and equipment to a jungle cache.

After wandering for three days in the swamp, they made contact with a group of Filipino guerrillas.

Over the course of the few months, seven of the men were transported using a submarine to Australia while three stayed behind with the guerrillas to fight.

Unfortunately, one of the three was killed by the Japanese.

The Berhala Eight

4069257 Berhala Island
One of the Berhala Eight, Jock McLaren (at left) returning to Berhala Island in October 1945. Awm121749. Credit: Public Domain (Copyright Expired).

Another group of POWs that managed to escape from Japanese camp was the Berhala Eight.

The Berhala island in Sandakan was made a temporary camp before the POWs were sent to a more permanent camp at Sandakan.

Eight men realised that it would be harder to escape from the permanent camp so they decided to escape from the island before they were to be transferred.

They managed to steal a boat and set off to the Tawi-tawi islands in the Philippines.

Their escape from Berhala Island save their lives as they then missed the infamous Sandakan Death Marches.

Speaking of Sandakan Death Marches, these were a series of forced marches from Sandakan to Ranau which resulted in the deaths of 2,434 Allied POWs.

There were only six survivors and they survived because they managed to escape.

The last POW to be alive at Sandakan camp was Australian John Skinner.

He was executed five hours before Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s unconditional surrender marking the end of WWII.

Understanding the Japanese laws behind escaping POWs

Whether in it Singapore or Sandakan, what was with the Japanese obsession to have the POWs sign contracts stating that they would not escape?

Japanese historian Yuki Tanaka did some explanation in his book Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II.

Generally, the contract incident was an example the distinction between Japanese and Western attitudes to law and the contradictions between the Geneva Convention and the principles of Japanese military law.

Tanaka stated,

“The seventh article of the Japanese law on punishment of prisoners states that the leader of a group of prisoners who had been captured while attempting to escape would be punished by death or between ten years and life imprisonment and all other members of the group would be imprisoned for a minimum of one year.

“The regulation on the treatment of POWs stipulates that POWs must sign a contract promising not to escape and that any prisoner who did not sign a contract would have thereby expressed an intention to attempt to escape and therefore be subject to heavier surveillance.

“If a prisoner did sign such an oath and subsequently attempted to escape, he would also be subject to a minimum sentence of one year’s imprisonment.”

Plus, a Japanese law dating from 1904 gave Japanese prison guards the right to shoot at escaping prisoners when such action was necessary to prevent a prisoner from successfully escaping.

Since their law did not define ‘when such action was necessary’, the Japanese guards would just shoot anybody who tried to escape.

The Japanese and Geneva Convention

The truth was actually simple; many of these Japanese commandants and POW camp guards were unaware of the contents or even the mere existence of the Geneva Convention and if their country had anything to do with it.

The commandant of Java POW camp Major General Saito Masazumi testified to the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal after the war that and issue of international law in relation to POWs was never raised in a meeting.

Furthermore, he himself had no knowledge of any international law regarding to POWs and so he did not ask about it.

The same thing with Lieutenant Colonel Yanagida Shoichi, the commandant of a POW camp on the Burma-Thailand Railway. He testified that he never heard of the Geneva Convention.

Thus, just about all Japanese POW guards at every camp would shoot prisoners who made unsuccessful escape attempts.

Escaping POW camps under the Japanese was a gamble of life.

If they didn’t died being shot during the recapture, they were either executed later or died while being tortured.

Were there any justice for these men who were executed because they tried to escape after the war?

Generally, yes. For instance, General Fukuye who was responsible for the Selarang Barrack Incident was sentenced to death during the Singapore War Crimes Trial in 1946.

He was executed by firing squad on April 27, 1946 on the same spot where the four escapees were shot three years earlier.

Fortunately for the general, he died instantly and did not need to plead to be killed off.

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Captain Lionel Matthews, the hero of Sandakan POW Camp

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Captain Lionel Matthews might not be a familiar name for Sarawakians but during World War II (WWII) he was executed by a firing squad on Mar 2, 1944 in Kuching.

After the war, he was posthumously awarded the George Cross. It is the highest award for heroism or courage in the face of the enemy that could be awarded to the Australian armed forces at the time.

Lionel Colin Matthews
Captain Lionel Colin Matthews. Credit: Public Domain.

Captain Lionel Matthews and the beginning of World War II

Matthews arrived in Singapore on Feb 18, 1941. In August, he arrived in Malaya and wqs posted as the signals officer there.

He served during the Malayan campaign and the Battle of Singapore.

After the Fall of Singapore on Feb 15, 1942, Matthews, like many other prisoners-of-war (POWs) was initially interned in the Changi POW camp, Singapore.

Then in July, ‘B’ Force which consisted nearly 1,500 Australian POWs including Matthews was sent to the Sandakan POW Camp, in then occupied British North Borneo.

Captain Lionel Matthews and the Sandakan Underground

Once in Sandakan, Matthews managed to set up a complex intelligence-gathering network.

This is because during the early days of the internment, the security at the POW camp was fairly lax and no guards accompanied the officers who worked outside in the garden.

Matthews first succeed in making contact with a Malay man who went by the name Dick Maginal while he was out in the garden.

Through Maginal, Matthews made contact with local constabulary Sergeant Ahbin.

Subsequently, Ahbin managed to organise communication between Sandakan Camp and another camp at the nearby Berhala Island as well as Dr James Taylor in Sandakan town.

Matthews and a number of Australian soldiers would go out in the garden. There, they would leave messages for Dr Taylor in some trees and would collect replies and small quantities of medicine from him in the same way.

Dr Taylor also supplied information on Japanese movements through the same method.

At the same time, Matthews made contact with a local Eurasian family, the Funk brothers. The three brothers Alex, Johnny and Paddy (Patrick) Funk served as the eyes and ears in what was later known as the Sandakan Underground.

Alex even provided Matthews with important maps of the Sandakan area, pinpointing the Japanese barracks, machine-gun posts and communication posts.

Through Alex, Matthews also made contact with anti-Japanese guerrillas operating in the southern Philippines.

These guerrillas then arranged for the supply of two machine guns, 27 rifles and 25 hundred rounds of ammunition to the POWs.

In May 1943, the Matthews group decided to build a radio transmitter. They received some radio parts that had been smuggled in by ‘E’ Force which had arrived the previous month.

Their plan was to obtain the remainder of the radio parts from the Sandakan Underground members outside of the camp.

This time, things did not go the way that they had planned.

Betraying Captain Lionel Matthews and the rest of Sandakan Underground

The Sandakan Underground group was betrayed. The motive behind the betrayal was “banal” according to Paul Ham in his book Sandakan.

“Neither fear or nor loyalty to the Japanese inspires the betrayal, just money. It is a tawdry act of extortion,” Ham wrote.

A member of the Sandakan intelligence group Heng Joo Ming had an argument with a sweeper named Dominic Koh at the airfield over illegal dealing of rice on the black market.

In anger, Koh told another friend named Bah Chik about Heng’s involvement with the POWs.

Koh and Bah Chik took this opportunity to blackmail Heng for a little money. Bah Chik who was a close friend of a local Japanese spy named Jackie Lo Ah Fok, threatened to betray Heng to the Japanese unless he paid him money.

Heng called Bah Chik’s bluff and paid nothing.

Breaking down under the kempeitai

However, the price was heavy for his actions. Bah Chick told Lo about Heng and soon enough the Kempeitai came for Heng.

Heng and his father were arrested before dawn on July 18, 1943 and were taken to a bungalow.

There, a guard who was skilled at jujitsu threw the father and son pair around the room. Still, Heng revealed no names.

They were then subjected to the ‘water torture’.

A large amounts of water were forced down into their throats. When their stomachs were bulging full of water, the interrogator jumped from a chair onto their stomachs.

Hearing the sounds of his father wailing in pain, Heng broke down and admitted his involvement with the Sandakan Underground.

He also spilled some names including the Funks, Dr Taylor and Matthews.

Captain Lionel Matthews and his Sandakan Underground members arrested

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The ruins of huts in the prisoner of war camp, Sandakan, North Borneo, October 1945. Those who were too ill for the march were eventually murdered here. Courtesy Australian War Memorial: 120457

All members of the Matthews intelligence group as well as Dr Taylor and police officer Ahbin were subsequently arrested.

On July 22, the camp was searched and they found two pistols and some maps. The Japanese did not find the radio.

Then on July 24, another search was made and this time they found a list of the radio parts smuggled into the camp.

The Japanese continued to arrest anybody who they suspected had been involved throughout August and September.

A total of 65 men were captured, all subjected to interrogation and torture by the kempeitai.

The interrogation and Morse Codes conversation

The means of interrogation were brutal and extreme. Matthews and his friends endured vicious beatings and the water tortures.

Still, they all refused to talk.

Lieutenant Gordon Weynton described the scene,

“We were placed in a triangular formation, all facing the sentry whose instructions were to watch and make sure there was no talking. Matthews communicated using Morse. He would come back from interrogation, sit down, cross his legs as we were instructed to and tap his fingers. He would go through the topic of which he’d been interrogated that morning and the answers he’d delivered.”

These messages that Matthews tapped, for the prisoners, “not only enabled prisoners to avoid accidental incrimination but they boosted confidence.”

The trial and execution in Kuching

On Oct 25, 1943, after more than three months of torture, the twenty or so members of the Matthews group were taken to Kuching, Sarawak.

There, the Japanese held a military trial to prosecuted the members.

In his book Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II, Japanese historian Yuki Tanaka pointed out a very unlikely event that happened during the trial.

He stated,

“Colonel Suga, commandant of the Borneo POW camp system, was present at the trial and made an open plea to the judges in the courtroom. He asked them to give the accused prisoners and civilians in trial in accordance with international law and to be merciful in their sentencing.

“This would have been an uncommon act even in a court-martial of Japanese soldiers; in a trial of enemy prisoners it was extremely unusual and courageous. Clearly Suga was aware that the trial of POWs by a Japanese military court was, to say the least, in potential conflict with the rules of international law.”

Regardless of Suga’s plea, Matthews, Ahbin, Alex Funk, Heng Joo Ming and five others were sentenced to death by firing squad and executed immediately after the trial on Mar 2, 1944.

Meanwhile, Dr Taylor was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment in Singapore’s Outram Road prison and the remainder were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months to 15 years.

The funeral of Captain Lionel Matthews

Batu Lintang Camp FOSM
Flying over the prisoner of war camp (POW) in Batu Lintang at a low height, RAAF Beaufighter pilots reported sighting white POWs, clad in khaki shorts, who excitedly waved as the RAAF aircraft flew over to drop leaflets announcing Japan’s surrender. Credits: Public Domain (Copyright expired). https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C242106

On the same day of the execution, the Australian POWS in Batu Lintang Camp, Kuching found out that one of their officers had been executed.

Lieutenant Jim Fraser remembered that he was standing near the gate of their compound when Colonel Suga passed by.

Looking very depressed, he reportedly said with a tear in his eyes, “I have just executed the bravest man I ever met.”

A small number of Australians were allowed to attend the funeral. Those who attended the funeral remembered that the coffin was oozing blood as it arrived at the cemetery.

Afterward, Suga gave permission to make a wooden cross for Matthews. They made one, inscribing his name and unit.

Then a day or two later, Suga drove one of the Australian officers out to the cemetery where they planted the cross at the head of the grave.

According to author Charlotte Nash, this event surely bolstered the determination of the rest of the Australians to survive their ordeal.

Remembering Captain Lionel Matthews

Dr Taylor survived the war and he remembered the day when Matthews was executed.

“I had never met Captain Matthews until we lay side by side in the hands of the kempeitai. Tall and thin and bearded, his appearance was – there is no other word for it but Christ-like.

“He knew he was going to be killed, yet even when he was racked with pain from the fearful beatings and tortures, his constant thoughts was for others. No man ever wore the uniform of an Australian officer more honourably.

“I remember him, on the morning he was to die, calmly dividing his food with his prisoners and he called back to them as he was taken out to be shot: ‘Keep your chins up, boys. What the Japs do to me doesn’t matter – they can’t win!’

“He faced a Japanese firing squad with eight of my loyal Asiatic helpers, they were buried in a common grave and I believe that he tore the handkerchief from his eyes and went to his death unflinchingly. I should call Captain Matthews the hero of Sandakan Camp. I have never met a man so unselfish and so unafraid.”

On Nov 22, 1950, Australian newspaper The Advertiser reported on the union between Johnny Funk and Captain Matthews’ widow.

In the meeting, Johnny shared to the attendees, “I was sitting next to Captain Matthews at the trial and we are not allowed to speak to each other. But he tapped with his feet in Morse code: ‘Johnny if you ever get to Australia, please tell my wife that I have died for my country.’

He also told Mrs Matthews, “I feel happy I have seen you, although it is a little sad. I would like to tell you what a brave man your husband was. He inspired the local boys to have no fear.”

The aftermath

After the war, Lieutenant Rod Wells, who had been sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for his part in the Sandakan Underground, filed a report of the trial to the Australian War Crimes Section.

He argued that the trial was clearly in breach of international law, as the accused had had no intention of starting a revolt in the prison.

Moreover, Wells claimed that the evidence had been distorted by prosecutors, that the defendants had no opportunity for legal representation.

This caused nine people including Matthews to have been unjustly executed.

According to Tanaka, the War Crimes Section did not prosecute the one surviving judge, Captain Tsutsui Yoichi (the other two had died during the war).

Meanwhile, the prosecutor Captain Watanabe Haruo, and the officer who authorised the executions, Lieutenant General Yamawaki Masataka, were tried but acquitted.

So was Matthews’ trial legal and in accordance with International Law or not?

Michelle Cunningham in her book Hell on Earth: Sandakan-Australia’s Greatest War Tragedy stated, “The court ruled that even though Japan had not signed the Geneva Convention the trial had been conducted according to Japanese military law, which was recognised under International Law.”

While the fact was hard to accept, Captain Matthews and others were trialed legally and they had received punishments according to the law, at least in the eyes of the Japanese.

After the war, Matthews’ body was exhumed and reinterred in the Labuan War Cemetery.

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What causes the lunar eclipse, according to Dusun mythology

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According to Dusun mythology, Kinharingan is a creator deity who came from a rock in the middle of the sea with his sister/wife Munsumundok.

In one version of the legend, Kinharingan and Munsumundok walked across the water, perhaps like Jesus in the Bible, until they arrived to the house of the god Bisagit.

Bisagit gave the pair earth and there, Kinharingan created the Dusuns.

The Dusun legend of Kinharingan and the snake

Kinharingan once pounded rice and made flour from it. After he made the flour, he called all the animals in the world together and ordered them to eat it.

When their mouths were so full they could not speak, Kinharingan asked them, “Who can cast off his skin?”

The snake, who had only been putting his mouth into the flour and pretending to eat, was the only one able to answer because his mouth was not full.

The snake answered, “I can.”

“Very well,” said Kinharingan, “if that is so, you shall not die.”

That is how a legend started that the snake would not die unless a man killed it.

The Tarob and the Lunar Eclipse

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Here is a Dusun legend of how the lunar eclipse came about.

The children of Kinharingan were pounding rice when a spirit called Tarob came and ate it all up.

It became so that very time they pounded rice, the Tarob would come and eat it again.

Finally, they had enough and went to complain to their father.

Then Kinharingan told them, “If he comes again order him to eat the moon.”

When the Tarob came over wanting to steal the pounded rice again, Kinharingan’s children told him the exact thing that their father told them to.

Sure enough, the Tarob went to eat the moon, swallowing it and making it disappear from the night sky.

And that was how the lunar eclipse came to happen, accordin to Dusun mythology.

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From Sandakan POW Camp to Singapore Outram Prison

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Outram Prison was one of the earliest prisons in Singapore.

Originally, it was known as Pearl’s Hill Prison before being called Outram Prison or Outram Road Prison.

Completed in 1882, the jail complex had five blocks for male criminals; four for natives and one for European.

Other buildings housed the female prisons, hospitals, employees’ quarters, execution room and morgue.

By January 1937, the long-term prisoners were transferred to the-then new Changi prison while leaving the short sentenced prisoners in Outram Prison.

During World War Two (WWII), Singapore was occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army. Immediately, the infamous Japanese military police known as Kempeitai took over Outram Prison.

They used the gaol to punish all those who broke their laws; prisoners of war (POWs), civilian internee and local people alike.

From Sandakan POW Camp to Singapore Outram Prison

The inmates jailed at Outram Prison were coming in from not only in Singapore but surrounding areas such as Malaya and Borneo.

They were transported by sea using Japanese hell ships. As if their journey to receive their sentences were not hellish enough, another form of hell welcomed them at Outram Prison.

These men and were punished for many reasons, from espionage to rebellion.

For a group of POWs from Sandakan POW camp in former British North Borneo, their crime against the Japanese circled around a radio.

From Singapore to Sandakan POW Camp

The Battle of Singapore or Fall of Singapore is till known today as the largest British surrender in history.

The intense fight took place lasted from Feb 8 to 15, 1942 which resulted in the Japanese capture of Singapore.

After the battle ended, about 80,000 British, Indian and Australian troops in Singapore became POWs along with 50,000 men who were taken by the Japanese during the earlier Malayan Campaign.

As for the Japanese, they were not entirely ready with this large influx of POWs.

One of the POWs who arrived in Sandakan POW camp to work on the airfield in July 1942 was Lionel Colin Matthews.

While many were taken prisoner in Changi Prison, thousands were transported to be used for forced labour on constructions like the Burma-Siam Railway and Sandakan airfield in North Borneo.

There, Matthews founded an intelligence network among the POWs. They collected information, weapons, medical supplies and radio.

The secret group even made contact with the local police as well as Filipino guerrillas.

Unfortunately in July 1943, four local Chinese members of Matthews’ underground group were betrayed to the Japanese.

After being tortured by the kempetai, they confessed to providing radio parts to Matthews and his team.

Matthews and his second in-command, Lieutenant Rod Wells as well as the members of the underground group were captured, beaten, tortured and starved during their interrogation.

After that, the group was sent to Kuching, Sarawak to stand for trial.

In Kuching, Matthews was sentenced to death along with two members of the British North Borneo Constabulary and six other local Sabahans.

Meanwhile, Wells and 18 others were sentenced to Outram Prison.

Rod Wells’ account on his experience at Outram Prison

Wells, who received 12 years of solitary confinement, said goodbye to Matthews with a handshake and a few personal message from Matthews to his wife.

Two days after departing Kuching, Wells arrived in Singapore where he had been captured two years before.

In Singapore, he was imprisoned at Outram Prison and here is his account as recorded by Christoper Somerville’s Our War: Real Stories of Commonwealth soldiers during World War II.

“On entering Outram Road Jail I found the most terrible sights of dejected people with absolutely no will to live, just slowly walking around. From the back you could see their reproductive organs hanging down between their legs – there was no flesh on them. It made sitting very hard. The hip bone would be pressing into bare skin. But you just had to sit and put up with the pain.

“Everything was done to order. No talking was allowed. When no order was given, you were silent and just stayed in the same position you were in when the last order was given. At nine o’clock at night you were sent back to your cell. There was a light on all night inside the cell, so that there was not a second of the twenty-four hours you were in darkness. And this went on, for me, for twenty-three months, including my period in Kuching. Twenty-three months in solitary.

“We worked at picking strands of hemp out of old ropes, to make a new ones. The strands were too tough to break with your hands; you had to follow them to find out where they started. If you left any of those knots untouched you got a belt across the back with a sword in its scabbard. And as an added incentive, if you didn’t do a hundred of these lengths of rope in day by picking out about 200 lengths of hemp from each – you got no rice that day.

“Meals were roughly five ounces of cooked rice and a bit of stewy water with a bit of weed in it, green grassy stuff. Tea – that was like a hundred to one whiskey and water, pale discoloured stuff that was always cold when you got to it.

“The little pair of shorts you had on had your number on it. 641, that was me. You had to learn that number in Japanese pretty quick, because that was your name and address and everything else. I lost all identity. I was no longer a POW – I was a criminal; just a number. That was the worst thing of the lot. Just a number.”

Bill Young’s account on his experience at Outram Prison and ‘The Postman’

Not all POWs who were sent from Sandakan POW Camp to Outram Prison belonged to Matthews’ group.

William Young or better known as Bill Young, was captured and trialed in Kuching for escaping Sandakan POW Camp.

They were captured by the Formosan guards an hour after their escape and then Young and his friend M.P Brown were severely beaten.

The duo both ended up with broken arms, a leg and an ankle.

In Kuching, Brown was sentenced to eight years of hard labour in Outram Prison while Young was sentenced to four years because of his age. Young was around 16 years old, making him one of the youngest Australian POWs during WWII.

One of the many things Young remembered about Outram Prison was a guard which the prisoners nicknamed ‘The Postman’.

“And there was one guard in particular we used to call ‘The Postman’, he was very, very particular about it. He’d open the door and come and bash you if you weren’t sitting properly. Some of the guards you knew were lazy or indifferent and you could get away with standing up, resting your legs out, reading the graffiti. Morse code. And there’s some guards you would never send a message or anything like that, you’d never read graffiti and you’d never not sit cross-legged, and the worst one was the bloke we called ‘The Postman’.

And sometimes, I know on one particular time, probably one of the first times I was caught by him. I didn’t realise he was on duty. I’m sitting back, with my back on the wall with my legs stretched and I’m shaking them and one thing and another, relaxing, and I heard the knock and that was the signal, only one knock, bang!, just one knock like that. There was about two or three minutes, which seemed to be hours in time, and you knew he was outside, you knew.

“Now after that you’d hear the key’d go in the lock, now it wouldn’t turn, you’d hear the key go in the lock, and then for another two or three minutes there’d be silence, but you’d know he was outside there, and then he’d turn the lock and you’d hear it turned and there’d be nothing else. Two, couple of minutes.

“And then all of a sudden, bang! The door’d be slammed back. Frightened the life out of you. And there would be The Postman. And they all had swords. But it was an old-fashioned jail and the locks were old-fashioned and the keys were great old-fashioned things. And he’d come in and you’d be looking up and you’d be at attention, as if you were like that all the time, you’re willing your hair to grow bit thicker because you know what’s coming.

And he’d stand just a little bit behind you on the side. Not much room between you but he’d get there, wasn’t a very big bloke actually, and then he’d be giving you a lecture or something like that and all of a sudden, while he’s doing this, he’s raising this flaming great big key and then bang! down it comes. And oh God, flaming lump or a cut, sometimes blood come down, and you couldn’t do anything and you’re sitting there and the tears come into your eyes because when you have lost all your weight, your food, your muscles go down, it’s not mentally, everything goes down too. Your resistance to pain, your resistance to everything.”

Surviving Sandakan POW Camp and Outram Prison

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The ruins of huts in the prisoner of war camp, Sandakan, North Borneo, October 1945. Those who were too ill for the march were eventually murdered here. Courtesy Australian War Memorial: 120457

After the war ended, Young returned to Sydney, Australia. He revealed to ABC news in 2016 at that time he couldn’t wait to reunite with his old mates from Sandakan.

But Young couldn’t find any of his friends. He told ABC, “I waited and waited and waited. It took me ages to find out.”

The sad truth was there were only six survivors from Sandakan POW camp and they had survived because they escaped.

After the war ended, 1,787 Australians died in Sandakan with many of them perishing during the 250km-long Death Marches from Sandakan to Ranau.

Those who were sent out from Sandakan to Outram Prison for their punishment had a narrow escape from death. If they were to stay in Sandakan, chances were high that they did not survive just like their friends.

Still, all of them did not escape from suffering caused by the Japanese at Outram Prison.

According to Australian War Memorial website, the prison was a place of starvation, torture and terror, a place of madness and for many, death.

Since these prisoners were sentenced to prison and not death, the Japanese couldn’t legally execute them.

Instead, the Japanese purposely trying to starve the prisoners to death by providing little food for them.

It is estimated about 1400 prisoners died at Outram Road Prison during Japanese occupation in Singapore.

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5 things you should know about sumpit or blowpipe of Borneo

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‘Sumpit’ or ‘sumpitan’ are what we call the blowpipe or blowgun in Borneo. Some communities in the Philippines and Sulawesi also refer to the blowpipe as ‘sumpit’.

In fact, the first written description of sumpit can be found in the works of Italian scholar and explorer Antonio Pigafetta in 1521 who visited the Palawan people.

He wrote, “”Those people of Polaoan (Palawan) go naked as do the others: almost all of them cultivate their fields. They have blowpipes with thick wooden arrows more than one palmo long, with harpoon points, and other tipped with fishbones, and poisoned with an herb; while others are tipped with points of bamboo like harpoon and are poisoned. At the end of the arrow they attach a little piece of softwood, instead of feathers. At the end of their blowpipes they fasten a bit of iron like a spearhead; and when they have shot all their arrows they fight with that.”

Just like the Palawan’s sumpit, the blowpipe in Borneo commonly has a spearhead attached to the end.

Putussibau 16
A traditional blowpipe which also works as a spear.

Traditionally, the sumpit is used for hunting and in fights against the enemy. Today, they have become souvenirs or treasured family heirlooms.

Here are five things you should know about sumpit or blowpipe of Borneo:

The pagan tribes of Borneo a description of their physical moral and intellectual condition with some discussion of their ethnic relations 1912 14598123498
Kenyah man lashing spear-blade to a blowpipe. Circa 1912. Credit: Copyright expired.

1.The reason why people of Borneo use sumpit

Have you ever wondered why the Borneo natives chose the blowpipe over the bow when it came to hunting?

According to author Peter Metcalf, in the nineteenth century, ethnologists were curious why people who advanced using iron tools did not adopt or come up with the bow.

The reason lay on topography and landscape. Metcalf wrote “For hunting, they (bows) are ineffective because the dense vegetation seldom allows a clear shot.”

“For pigs or deer, a combination of dogs and spears brings the best results. In regard to small game in the lower branches of trees, such as birds and monkeys, they are easily shot with darts.”

Furthermore, the bow is difficult to shoot at such steep angles. And once you lose your arrows, it is impossible to recover them in the thick Bornean thick jungle.

2.The materials of the blowpipe

Generally, blowpipes are made from bamboo. However, there are some made from wood.

A blowpipe can be made from one to three pieces joined together.

The length of this weapon usually depends on the user. The typical length is about 1.2 to 1.6m and 2 to 3cm in diameter.

Danau Sentarum Festival 4

3.How to make blowpipe darts

Thick wooden or palm leaf-rib darts are generally used in war.

Also known as damak, the dart is basically a single pointed sharp needle.

The needle is plugged into a cork-lie cushion with bird feathers to allow the blowgun to float constantly toward the target.

Then the tip of the damak is dipped in poison.

4.How to make blowpipe dart poison

According to Herwig Zahorka in his paper “Blowpipe dart poison in Borneo and the secret of its production”, the poison is generally produced from the latex of the Antiaris toxicaria tree which belongs to Moraceae (fig family).

He started, “This latex contains a variety of toxic chemical compounds. The principal toxic agent is a steroid glycoside known as beta-antiarin. A lethal dose is only about 0.1mg per kg weight of a warm-blooded animal.”

On how to make them, Zahorka explained, “To dehydrate the milky latex into a paste, a long, carefully implemented procedure is essential because the steroid glycoside compound is extremely heat-sensitive.

“Therefore, hunters perform the dehydration of the latex by using a young leaf from the small Licuala spinosa palm. The leaf is folded into a boat-shaped container to hold the latex at a carefully determined distance over a small flame for one week. This is possible because the young Licuala leaf is astonishingly fireproof and durable. If the latex were heated at too high a temperature, the glycoside compound would crack and its toxicity would be lost.”

5.How long does it take to kill using the blowpipe

Andrew Horsburgh who was in Sarawak from 1852 to 1856 as a missionary published a book called Sketches in Borneo (1858).

Regarding our local sumpit, he wrote, “The arrows are dipped again into the poison immediately before using and are used in hunting as well as in war, and kill not only birds and squirrels, but also large animals such as orangutans. To animals the poison proves fatal, because they cannot pull the arrow out of the wound; but men suffer little inconvenience from it, as their comrades can always extract the missile before the poison has been absorbed by the system. Squirrels and small animals drop a few minutes after they have been struck, but orangutans frequently clamber about among the trees for a whole day before the poison takes effect upon them as to bring them down.”

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Remembering the attack on Semporna town in 1954

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The attack on Semporna town in March 1954 is considered one of the major incidences of Sabah cross-border crimes.

A group of 30 armed Filipino pirates with two policemen and four others were killed.

The news of the attack travelled fast, especially among European communities.

In a news report by Reuters published on Mar 31, 1954, stated that, “One European, one police sergeant and two constables were killed when an unknown number of men in two boats, believed to be Filipino pirates from the South Philippines, raided the small town of Semporna, on the east coast of North Borneo, last night.

“The pirates, who were well armed with automatic weapons, tried to rob the town but were opposed by the small police force of 14 men.

“The European killed in the exchange of fire was the Assistant Conservator of Forests of Tawau (Mr Barnard).

“The North Borneo police, headed by residents of the east coasts, are scouring surrounding waters for the pirates.

“Semporna has been raided a few times by pirates in the past but last night’s raid was the most serious.

“Nearby waters are haunts of murderous Sulu and Moro pirates who find protection in the multitude of islands.”

Semporna police station

The beginning of the attack on Semporna town

So what actually happened on that fateful day? How did the European Mr Barnard get caught in the fire between the police and the pirates?

The answer lies in a special report by Sabah Forestry Department.

Mr Barnard or Thomas Robert Barnard, to be precise, was the District Forestry Officer (DFO) of Lahad Datu.

He was in Semporna to carry out grading work at a log pond, about half a mile from town, owned by a prominent timber merchant Pua Din Kok.

Barnard went there with Timber Inspector Ahmad Nawi, along with boatman Damsik and his assistant.

They arrived at 5.30pm and they moored their boat at the Customs jetty where the Police Station and the Forestry Checking Station were also located.

While Ahmad was securing the boat to the jetty, he suddenly noticed two suspicious boats.

As the boats came closer, Ahmad realised the men on board were armed with automatic firearms and parangs.

Realising that the men were Filipino pirates, Ahmad immediately warned Barnard and the others.

Together with the boatmen, Ahmad jumped into sea and swam towards the mangrove trees nearby to hide.

Barnard, however, took out his shotgun to fire at the pirates, who at this moment already started to shoot at the police station.

While he managed to kill a pirate and wound another, Barnard was unfortunately shot in the back and died on the boat.

The shootout at Semporna Police Station

The pirates then proceeded to attack Semporna police station with intent to take control of it.

At the same time, the police who had heard the gunshots from the jetty were returning fire.

During the attack, the officer in-charge, Sergeant Sagar Singh was slashed in the neck. In other reports, it was stated that he was shot.

Regardless, Sergeant Singh was attacked while trying to unlock the firearms safe to retrieve more weapons and ammunition.

With the attack on the sergeant, the pirates got hold of the weapons and ammunition in the safe.

For the next three hours, the pirates looted the town, robbing the locals at gunpoint.

They finally left at about 8.45pm that same evening.

Besides Barnard and Sergeant Singh, the attack took the lives of a Chinese tailor, a 12-year-old Bajau boy and another two police constables.

The aftermath of the attack on Semporna town

After the bloody incident, BNBC set up an armed force of marine police in North Borneo.

They proved themselves to be an efficient organisation as they successfully patrolled and kept order in North Borneo waters in subsequent years.

Meanwhile, Barnard’s courageous and selfless act was posthumously awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery.

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3 things we learn from W.H. Treacher’s British Borneo: Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan and North Borneo (1891)

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Sir William Hood Treacher (1849-1919) was a British colonial administrator in Borneo and the Straits Settlements.

In Selangor, he was at the Anglo Chinese School in Klang on Mar 10, 1893.

His career in Borneo started in 1871 when he arrived in Labuan to be the acting Police Magistrate.

In 1873, Treacher became Colonial Secretary of Labuan before going on to be the first Governor of North Borneo (1881-1887).

Based on his career in Borneo, Treacher wrote a book ‘British Borneo: Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan and North Borneo’.

His writings circled around his own experience as a colonial officer as well as the books and research that had been previously written about Borneo.

However, Treacher’s spellings for Malay words might take a second or two to understand.

For example, ‘chukei basoh batis’ is actually ‘cukai basuh betis’ or ‘the tax of washing feet’. Similarly, ‘mantri’ is menteri (minister).

Sir william hood treacher

Here are three things we learn from British Borneo: Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan and North Borneo (1891) by William Hood Treacher:

1.The important role of Chinese immigrants in British Borneo

In 1881, the British North Borneo Company (BNBC) ran a census on North Borneo and found the native population was considered to be unsuited to meet the requirements of modern development.

They estimated the number of indigenous people to be 60,000 to 100,000.

In order to increase the population, the government realised they needed to push on immigration, particularly from China.

Noting the importance of Chinese immigrants, Treacher stated,

“The frugal, patient, industrious, go-ahead, money-making Chinaman is undoubtedly the colonist for the sparsely inhabited islands of the Malay archipelago. Where, as in Java, there is a large native population and the struggle for existence has compelled the natives to adopt habits of industry, the presence of the Chinaman is not a necessity, but in a country like Borneo, where the inhabitants, from time immemorial, except during unusual periods of drought or epidemic sickness, have never found the problem of existence bear hard upon them, it is impossible to impress upon the natives that they ought to have “wants,” whether they feel them or not, and that the pursuit of the dollar for the sake of mere possession is an ennobling object, differentiating the simple savage from the complicated product of the higher civilization.

[…]“The Chinaman, too, in addition to his valuable properties as a keen trader and a man of business, collecting from the natives the products of the country, which he passes on to the European merchant, from whom he obtains the European fabrics and American “notions” to barter with the natives, is also a good agriculturist, whether on a large or small scale; he is muscular and can endure both heat and cold, and so is, at any rate in the tropics, far and away a superior animal to the white labourer, whether for agricultural or mining work, as an artizan, or as a hewer of wood and drawer of water, as a cook, a housemaid or a washerwoman.

“He can learn any trade that a white man can teach him, from ship-building to watchmaking, and he does not drink and requires scarcely any holidays or Sundays, occasionally only a day to worship his ancestors.

2.How famous Hugh Low was among the locals

Sir Hugh Low (1824-1905) was another British colonial administrator and naturalist.

From 1848-1850, he was the Colonial Secretary of Labuan.

Then in 1851, Low made the first documented ascent of Mount Kinabalu.

For Treacher, being associated with Low was a life-saving thing.

“His (Sir Hugh Low) name was known far and wide in Northern Borneo and in the Sulu Archipelago. As an instance, I was once proceeding up a river in the island of Basilan, to the North of Sulu, with Captain C. E. Buckle, in two boats of H. M. S. Frolic, when the natives, whom we could not see, opened fire on us from the banks.

I at once jumped up and shouted out that we were Mr. Low’s friends from Labuan, and in a very short time we were on friendly terms with the natives, who conducted us to their village.

They had thought we might be Spaniards, and did not think it worth while to enquire before tiring.”

Read about Hugh Low here.

3.The origin of the name ‘Sabah’?

How the name ‘Sabah’ remains uncertain to this day. Some believe it came from a type of banana called ‘pisang saba’.

Treacher may not provide the definitive answer either, but he worked hard to explore the possibilities.

“Some explanation of the term “Sabah” as applied to the territory—a term which appears in the Prayer Book version of the 72nd Psalm, verse 10, “The kings of Arabia and Sabah shall bring gifts”—seems called for, but I regret to say I have not been able to obtain a satisfactory one from the Brunai people, who use it in connection only with a small portion of the West Coast of Borneo, North of the Brunai river.

“Perhaps the following note, which I take from Mr. W. E. Maxwell’s “Manual of the Malay Language,” may have some slight bearing on the point:—”Sawa, Jawa, Saba, Jaba, Zaba, etc., has evidently in all times been the capital local name in Indonesia. The whole archipelago was pressed into an island of that name by the Hindus and Romans.

Even in the time of Marco Polo we have only a Java Major and a Java Minor. The Bugis apply the name of Jawa, jawaka (comp. the Polynesian Sawaiki, Ceramese Sawai) to the Moluccas. One of the principal divisions of Battaland in Sumatra is called Tanah Jawa. 

Ptolomy has both Jaba and Saba.”—”Logan, Journ. Ind. Arch., iv, 338.”

“In the Brunai use of the term, there is always some idea of a Northerly direction; for instance, I have heard a Brunai man who was passing from the South to the Northern side of his river, say he was going Saba.

“When the Company’s Government was first inaugurated, the territory was, in official documents, mentioned as Sabah, a name which is still current amongst the natives, to whom the now officially accepted designation of North Borneo is meaningless and difficult of pronunciation.”

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