A slice of history

MANY personalities in Sarawak have been accorded official recognition by the government for personal gallantry in battles, for statesmanship in politics, for philanthropy in public life, or for any service considered important to society by the government of the day. Don’t forget that there are also many individuals who are not counted or recognised as highly, even though they have rendered some exemplary service to society, often unnoticed. In the eyes of their own respective community, however, they are equally important figures, deserving the esteem and honour all the same.

OKP Kalong

I shall name one: the late Orang Kaya Pemancha Kalong Anak OK Jemat of Lundu. He was born in 1910 and died at the age of 93. This column today is a belated memorial to his life.

The late Orang Kaya was the descendant of a distinguished line of ancestors. The first printed genealogy of the Sea Dayaks known as Sebuyau in Sarawak, written by DC Walker, District Officer, Serian, in 1949, records that the ancestors of the late OKP Kalong Anak Jemat of Lundu had hailed from Simunjan, Sarawak, of the line of Merajan and Miang. His direct paternal ancestors were Empan, whose son was the OK Nyambong. Nyambong had a son called Temengong Juga, who settled in Stunggang near Lundu, and Juga had a son who also inherited the title of Orang Kaya (OK) by the name of OK Palong (Kalong?). Palong or Kalong’s son was OK Baja, the father of OK Jemat, and OK Jemat was OK Kalong’s father.

Digressing a bit here, I remember meeting OK Jemat in his house at Sungai Lundu sometime in 1949. I was crying – protesting against being separated from my mother as she was ushered into a room full of women where I was obviously not wanted.  The old man picked me up consoling me that everything would be all right. My mum had been summoned by the Orang Kaya to cure his daughter, Tiong, of some strange sickness. Years later, I was told that Tiong was fully cured of this condition.

At the time, the importance of my mother’s service as a manang treating a daughter of an important person, the chief of Lundu Sebuyau, and former Member of the Council Negri, was immaterial as far I was concerned. My mum was taken away from me without my approval – that’s what mattered!

From Stunggang to Kadaong

No one knows exactly when the Sejugah family had moved down from Stunggang and settled at Munggu Tebelian at Kadaong near the present village of Sungai Lundu.

A clue, however, as to the period during which the family might have moved down to Kadaong can be discerned from an account of the visit to Lundu by Ranee Margaret, wife of the Second Rajah of Sarawak, Sir Charles Brooke (1868 to 1917).

In her book ‘My Life in Sarawak’, originally published by Methuen & Co Ltd London 1913, she describes how she was welcomed by the local dignitaries, “When we arrived at Lundu, our friend Mr Bloomfield Douglas, Resident of the place and living in the comfortable Government bungalow situated a few yards from the river, came to meet us at the wharf, accompanied by a number of Dyaks. A Dyak chief styled the Orang Kaya Stia Rajah, with his wife and relations, came on board with Mr Douglas to take us on ashore … The next evening the chief of the village invited us to a reception at his house, situated a short distance from the bungalow …”

Party over, Margaret writes, “Our hosts escorted us back to Mr Douglas’s bungalow. I led the way, hand in hand with the chief, and Bertram followed, hand in hand with the chief’s son …”

This indicates that Kalong’s ancestors and their followers could have moved from Tungong (Stunggang) to Kadaong during the rule of the Second Rajah.

There’s another clue. The name ‘Sejugah’ is mentioned in James Brooke’s journal, as published in Henry Keppel’s book ‘The Expedition to Borneo of HMS Dido’ OUP Singapore 1991. James spent the night of Aug 31, 1839 at the longhouse whose chief was Sejugah.

One more clue is this: in February, 1851, Bishop McDougall of the Anglican Church visited Lundu, where the chief was a friend of the Rajah, and supported him against the pirates further north.

That chief could have been either the old Sejugah; or his son, the man referred to as ‘Temenggong Juga’ in the genealogy drawn up by Walker.

Obviously, the late OK Kalong descended from a long line of chiefs who had been bestowed titles, presumably by a Sultan of Brunei, well before the arrival of James Brooke.

No one has discovered why they had to move to town. Whatever the reason, starting from Temenggong Juga (spelt ‘Sejugah’ by James Brooke) down to Kalong himself, the family was entrusted with power and authority by the Brunei’s Regent at Sarawak (Kuching) and later by the colonial government to administer the customary laws of the Sebuyau Dayak Iban Community in Lundu.

Kalong had three sisters, Henggi, Tiong, and Elin. He had no brother. Kalong married Puhi (nee Goh) and Mermaid is their daughter by adoption. They had no son. After his wife died, he married Ngingit Anak Apok. The later marriage produced no issue.

Had there been a son, I’m sure he would have inherited the title of Orang Kaya too, whether or not the present government would officially recognise it as the colonial government did.

I remember being in the crowd during Kalong’s installation as Orang Kaya in 1951. A government clinic’s assistant Simpoh, wearing an all-white suit, was responsible for raising the yellow flag on a mast erected in front of Kalong’s house at Sungai Lundu. I did not really understand the full significance of the ceremony and the panjung (shouts).

His education

After leaving school at the Christchurch School at Stunggang in 1932, Kalong worked in the Land and Survey department as a chainman; as a rubber checker in 1933 to 1934 and, in 1941, he was recruited by the Australian-run administration of Sarawak for the Special Police. He was appointed Orang Kaya in 1951 and upgraded to Orang Kaya Pemanca the following year. At the same time, he was a councillor of the Lundu District Council and a member of the First Division Advisory Council (1952 to 1954).

For his service to Malaysia, Kalong was awarded the honours such as Malaysia Commemorative Medal, Sijil Kehormatan Negeri and Long Service Medal, while retaining his position now styled ‘Penghulu’ under the new terms of appointments of Ketua Masyarakat or Kaum.

At his funeral, a small yellow umbrella was used to protect the coffin from the sun – an unusual scene at a Christian funeral. He was buried at the Anglican Cemetery, Kuching-Lundu Road.

Thus ended a line of hereditary chiefs of the Sebuyau community in Lundu.

Certain aspects of his life may be of interest to his relatives and friends. In one incident, a Rajah’s servant went to his mother, Jelia, seeking her consent for Kalong to study at St Thomas’ School in Kuching; the permission was reluctantly given. On leaving the house, however, his mother was crying and yelling – protesting against her boy being taken away. The trip was cancelled out of respect for the mother’s feelings – crying at the time of someone alive leaving home was considered a bad omen. This was related to me by Kalong himself in 1969. He regretted that he did not go for further studies in Kuching.

The public in Lundu regarded him as a simple and friendly man though his family is known to own a lot of land on the outskirts of the town. It is said that part of the family’s land was given to government for the site of the present bazaar. He was a humble man, never presuming upon having a hereditary title. He would be seen cycling around town and stopping at the fish market and chatting to the vendors. People would address him by the name Orang Kaya (Rich Man) to which he smilingly responded with, “Orang yang kaya” (It’s other people who are rich, not me!) and cycled on.

I miss a good friend.

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