Kuching - Page 3

Do you know that about a century ago three submarines actually made their ways into Sarawak waters?

On Mar 1, 1922, The Sarawak Gazette reported that HM Submarines L1, L2 and L3 arrived in Kuching on Feb 24 under the command of Lieutenant-Commander A.B Greig of L3.

“They berthed alongside the Ban Hok Wharf and through the courtesy of the officers, a number of people including the Datus and other natives, were enabled to go over the ships during their stay,” the report stated.

Rajah Vyner Brooke even organised a ‘most enjoyable dance’ at the Astana in honour of their visit on Feb 25.

The locals also managed to get in few rounds of football matches with the visiting submarine crew.

During their stay in Kuching, the Hockien School at the head of Jalan Tabuan was converted into shore quarters for them.

These submarines were bound for Jesselton (present-day Kota Kinabalu) before making their ways to Manila.

The submarine L2 left Sarawak on Feb 28 while the other two submarines on Mar 1, 1922.

If camera phones were exist back then, we bet there would be tonnes of photos coming out from this historical visit.

So what happened to these submarines in the end?

HMS L1, L2 and L3 were L-class submarines built for the Royal Navy during World War I. All three survived the war.

By 1923, all of the three submarines placed in the reserve flotilla in Hong Kong.

In March 1930, HMS L1 was stranded at Penanwell Cove in Cornwell England while being towed to Newport.

She was scrapped where she lay and some of her metal remains can still be seen there today on low spring tides.

Meanwhile, HMS L2 was also sold for scrapping in March 1930. About a year later, HMS L3 found herself in similar fate being sold for scrapping in February 1931.

All images are under public domain.

Sir Frank Swettenham (1850-1946), who was responsible for bringing Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang together under the Federated Malay states, once called Malaya the ‘land of pirates and the amok’.

This is because the amok syndrome is believed to have derived from Malaya, eventually leading to the English phrase of ‘running amok’.

Even the word ‘amok’ came from the Malay word ‘mengamuk’, meaning ‘to make a furious charge’.

It is basically an aggressive dissociative behavioral pattern which was once considered as a culture-bound syndrome.

Here at KajoMag, we take a look on some of the amok cases that happened in the olden days of Sarawak:

1.When a policeman went amok in Sibu

Here is an undated case recorded by John Beville Archer in his memoir Glimpses of Sarawak between 1912 and 1946:

“The amok was unpleasant. A policeman suddenly went wild in Sibu bazaar and before we could stop him he killed five persons and wounded twenty-five. As it all took place in semi-darkness there was a certain amount of panic among the inhabitants of the packed bazaar. All I know is that I tumbled over a corpse in the dark and found myself entangled up in yards of intestines. There is a bit of humour in everything; hearing someone running towards me through the darkness I had to think quickly. I did so and brought crashing down one of my own policemen. However, we got our man at last and spent all night helping the doctor to patch up the wounded. It was here I saw a miracle – or thought I did – a severed ear just clapped on again and it stuck.”

2.Kuching Police in 1889: No ammunition to stop an amok? It is okay, use some spears instead.

On Aug 30, 1889, The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser reported a terrible amok that took place in Sarawak.

What intrigued us is how the police handled it.

“The S.S Normanby arrived from Sarawak yesterday and we have been enabled to obtain particulars of a very tragic occurrence which took place there on Sunday last 25th, at about half-past six. When the Normanby left here about a week ago for Sarawak she took over four Dyaks who were returning to their country. One of these men on Sunday morning ran amok and dashed along the whole length of the bazaar cutting and slashing at each person he met with a huge parang.

“The amok went into several shops and cut at the occupiers. The Chinamen seemed perfectly paralyzed and did not try to arrest the murderer. At the corner of Rock Road the Dyak met an old Chinaman; he made a cut at him and inflicted a terrible wound, drawing his knife across the man’s stomach disemboweling and killing him instantly. He went along in his mad career and passed the Police Station where although the constables had rifles they had no ammunition.

“They however took up spears and after a hot chase of about one mile captured the amok who was nearly exhausted and had been wounded by a brick flung at him by some one trying to arrest him. When quiet was restored and the Dyak was safely lodged in jail enquiry was made and it was found that fifteen men had been wounded, four of them so dangerously that their life is despaired of and that one man had been killed outright. Through the courtesy of Mr Daubeny, Inspector of Prisons, our informant was enabled, with several other gentlemen, to see the amok in jail. He seemed quite sensible and only complained of pain from a cut over his eye caused by the brick thrown at him.”

3.When a policeman went amok in Kuching bazaar in 1925

According to this news report by The Singapore Free Press on Oct 14, 1925, an amok was a rare case and even considered ‘almost unprecedented’ if it was committed by a Dayak back then.

“An unusually tragic and disturbing incident occurred in Kuching on Sept 17, about 1.45pm, when Panggi, a Dyak policeman, who had been queer in his behaviour for some days, suddenly seized his parang, in the bachelors’ barracks, slashed at two fellow constables and then ran amok into the most densely crowded thoroughfare of the bazaar, Carpenter street. An immediate pandemonium ensued while Panggi rushed hither and thither, in and out of shops, hacking at anyone within reach, killing outright one man and two children, and seriously wounding twenty-eight others including three women, mostly Chinese. Another victim succumbed in hospital.

“An amok is not common even amongst Malays in Sarawak, and almost unprecedented for a Dyak, and we tender our deep sympathy to the relatives of the unfortunate victims, and to those now in hospital.”

4.A cured leper went amok in Simanggang in 1935.

On Oct 1, 1935, the Sarawak Gazette reported an amok case which took place in Simanggang bazaar.

A man confronted the perpetrator in order to stop him attacking more people. The courageous man was later deservedly rewarded by the government with a medal and a monetary reward for his bravery.

Here is how the report goes,

“On August 20th an amok occurred in Simangang Bazaar. The man responsible was a Dayak named Tingkay, a discharged leper who had apparently been brooding over the fact that his relatives refused to consider him cured of his disease in spite of ample proof too the contrary. He attacked and severely wounded a Dayak and a Chinese, and then chased a Malay woman, who took refuge in a shop. The owner of the shop, a Chinese Named Ong Kee Poh, was having his midday meal with his family when he heard someone shouting – ‘Dayak bunoh China!’ He immediately sent his family into the back premises and arming himself with a carrying pole, waited behind the door. The Malay woman rushed in screaming, closely followed by a Tingkau, who had parang in his head. The woman fell down, and Ong Kee Poh hit the Dayak on the head with the pole. The Dayak then turned on him but Ong Kee Poh hit him on the hand and disarmed him, after which he struck the man until he collapsed. He then called the police, who took him into custody.”

5.A prisoner went amok in a gaol and attacked fellow inmates in Saratok.

The then Acting District Officer of Kalaka, H. E. Cutfield reported on the Sarawak Gazette about an amok that happened on May 3, 1927.

The man responsible for the case was an Iban named Ubam who was sentenced to a term of three years in prison for stealing $553.

On his first night in the prison, Ubam went amok.

“The gaol was only inhabited by two female prisoners and one other man who was lame. Ubam had evidently thought out his actions and after braking his way on his own cell, bolted the main doors from the inside, to prevent interruption, and first wounded the other male prisoner very seriously with a 6-inch wound in the stomach and then broke into the female cell and attacked the women. One was seriously wounded with eight stabs with a knife and the other woman I regret to say died soon after my arrival.”

If courtroom battles were all boring, there would be no legal dramas like Suits or The Practice.

The truth is, anything can happen during a legal proceeding or else no one will make movies or television series out of it.

In Sarawak, our courtroom dramas are even more colourful due to our multi-ethnic communities and various cultural practices.

Here are some Sarawak courtroom stories from the past which you might find intriguing today:

1.A court interpreter delivered the most straightforward translation ever.

“There is the story of the Justice in Kuching who delivered a death sentence of unusual length upon a Chinese. He had no knowledge of anything but English and at the end said to the interpreter, ‘Tell the prisoner what the learned judge has said’. The interpreter turned to the unfortunate man and said in a loud voice, “Lu mati!” (which translates to ‘You gonna die!’)

This story was shared John Beville Archer in his book, Glimpses of Sarawak between 1912 and 1946.

2.A magistrate who ran around the court fleeing an attacker

In the same book, Archer talked about a norm no longer practiced in the Sarawak courtroom and how the practice came about.

“The people rather liked coming to Court. It was held with very little pomp and much friendliness. One thing which is missing nowadays are the Policemen sitting in a row behind the principals – these were always armed with native swords, with colourful corded belts and the senior N.C.O, similarly armed sat behind the magistrate. This, they say, became the practice after an attempt many years before to attack the magistrate who was run around the Bench by an aggrieved suitor.”

3. The difference between ‘Butang’ versus ‘Butang Rangkai’

Kenelm Hubert Digby was a district officer, judge and eventually the Attorney General in Sarawak.

Around 1934 in Limbang, he tried his first case under the native customary law.

“Clad in sarong I sat on a mat on the ruai, the long communal verandah, with the Native Officer and the penghulu on either side of me, and the hundred or so inhabitants of the longhouse gathered around us. The case was concerned with a complaint of a married woman that a man had committed butang rangkai (literally ‘dry adultery’) with her. Her story was that, during the absence of her husband, the accused had entered her mosquito net, but had been virtuously and successfully repulsed by her before any damage had been done.

“The accused hotly denied this allegation. He admitted that he had formed the intention of having intercourse with the complainant and that he had entered her mosquito net in pursuance of his enterprise. On the contrary he said, the woman had welcomed him and he had entirely achieved his purpose. This case had been brought only because the woman’s husband had come to hear the incident.

“The Sea Dayak fine for butang (adultery) was fifteen dollars, while butang rangkai the fine was only twelve dollars. Gathering together all the shreds of my English legal training I informed the accused that since his defence amounted to a confession of the completed offence and since every willful act must include an attempt to commit the act, he could have no reasonable objection to being convicted in accordance with the complainant’s allegations, and required to pay twelve dollars instead of the fifteen for which according to his own story, he was really liable. I was surprised at the fuss which he made.

“I turned for enlightenment to the Native Officer, who explained to me that the accused did not mind paying the extra three dollars but he did object very strongly to the suggestion that, having made advances to the woman, he had been rejected by her. If this allegation received the stamp of truth from the court it might be a considerable time before the accused managed to live it down.”

4.Using a cane to summon a Dayak to court

Have you ever wondered how court summons were delivered?

Arthur Bartlett Ward who once a Sarawak Resident and member of Council Negri in his memoir, Rajah’s Servant (1966) explained,

“The method of summoning Dyaks to Court was peculiar. Paper documents would have been useless, so a ‘tongkat’ or a Malacca cane walking stick with a brass head and a government mark, was sent abroad from village to village with a verbal message, until it reached the person named who forthwith hurried to Simanggang. The system was effective and I never heard of a ‘tongkat’ going astray or being abused.”

5.The two historical Singaporean politicians who had appeared as lawyers in Sarawak courtroom.

Peter Mooney was Sarawak Crown Counsel in Sarawak in the 1950s. In his memoir A Servant of Sarawak (2011), Mooney named two formidable opponents he had encountered in Sarawak courtroom.

The first one was the former Chief Minister of Singapore, David Marshall.

About Marshall, Mooney narrated, “I encountered him in many criminal trials and appeals in Sarawak. He fully deserved his reputation. He prepared his cases meticulously. Every fact was at his fingertips and he had thoroughly mastered the relevant law. He was flamboyant in nature and given to rhetoric. I remember him saying in an appear, ‘…and suspicion settles, like a cloud of atomic dust, over the prosecution witness!’ He could have made a name as an actor.”

Beside Marshall, Mooney also had faced Lee Kuan Yew in Sarawak courtroom battles.

“Like David Marshall, as counsel he was always thoroughly prepared. Unlike David he was never histrionic but presented his client’s case most persuasively with cool and inexorable logic. Had he not abandoned the Bar for politics he would undoubtedly have made a great name for himself as an advocate. He had brilliant intellect and his presentation was quite flawless.”