IN THE 1950s, two bright young men from Betong studying at the Secondary School of the Batu Lintang Teachers’ Training Centre were recommended to continue with their studies at St Thomas’ School in Kuching. In the boarding house, they continued to experience a regimented life. Ever wonder why they chose a life of discipline?
WARRIORS: Major Wilfred Busu (left), Major Edmund Abitt (right) and bottom picture shows Sarawak Rangers in mufti.
Where else would they go for the fulfilment of that mission of service to King and country except through the famous Sarawak Rangers, a military outfit with origins way back to the Brooke Raj?
From serving as soldiers at the lower echelon in the army, they rose to higher ranks and became a source of pride to their community and to Sarawak.
In 1961, Edmund Abitt Anak Bedindang, 28 years of age, started as an education instructor in the old Sarawak Rangers after undergoing a six-month course with the Royal Army Education Corps at the Gilman Barracks in Singapore.
Earlier, Wilfred Busu Anak Mingkat, 24 years old, was recruited as a clerk in the Quarter Master department at Nee Soon British Army Training Centre in Singapore.
Both were recruited into the British Far East Land Forces and were selected to join the Federation Military College (now Royal Military College, Malaysia). They were commissioned as 2nd Lieutenants in the First Battalion Malaysia Rangers in February 1964.
After the formation of Malaysia in September 1963, they were the first Sarawakians to graduate as 2nd Lieutenants from the Federation Military College (now Royal Military College), Sungai Besi. Kuala Lumpur in February 1964. They were commissioned into the First Malaysian Rangers.
The origin of Sarawak Rangers
The younger generations of Malaysians especially those serving in the Malaysian Rangers now may be interested to know their relationship with the old Sarawak Rangers, before that relationship is blurred by time. And Abitt and Busu, and Lieutenant Francis Bucking and Lieutenant (later Lt Col) James Tomlow, before them, together provided that relationship.
Although the Sarawak Rangers (formalised in 1862) were disbanded and merged with the Constabulary in 1931, the old soldiers refused to die (possibly where the slogan ‘Agi Idup Agi Ngelaban’ originated from). Instead, they metamorphosed into a loose group of keen Sarawakians after World War II, when they joined the British Army at a time when the Iban trackers were required to help the British Forces in the jungle warfare in Malaya in 1948.
The first elements of what later formally became the Sarawak Rangers as a paramilitary outfit in 1862 had its beginnings in 1846 under the command of a “native officer of the Ceylon Rifles” (‘History Of Sarawak Under Its Two White Rajahs’ by Baring-Gould and Bampfylde, OUP, Singapore, 1989).
Old photographs and other documentary records show that the battalion was “composed of some 275 Sea Dayaks, 200 Sepoys, 50 Malays, 25 Javanese, 20 Philippines bandsmen, under an English Commandant and an Instructor”.
The Brunei Rebellion
The patriotic spirit of Agi Idup Agi Ngelaban that had been part of the lives of Abitt and Busu continued to live on when the Brunei or Azahari Rebellion broke out in December 1962.
They saw active duty as part of the British Forces then stationed in Malaya, which were deployed there until Brunei was liberated.
By now both had been promoted the rank of Major, they saw more action during the Indonesian Confrontation and the Communist Insurrections — all during the 1964 to 1966 period.
The Malaysian Rangers which Major Abitt and Major Busu are proud to have served until retirement have earned reputation for being professional and impartial during troubled times, for instance, during the Penang Hartal in 1967 and in the Racial Riots of May 13, 1969 in Kuala Lumpur.
In 1968, I went to Penang with some friends. People came to enquire if we came from Sarawak and the mention of Sarawak invariably was followed by praise and admiration for our soldiers during the hartal. Once we were embarrassed to be told that all the drinks and the noodles we had taken had been paid for by some stranger sitting at the next table.
Thanks to the boys from Taiping.
Happy retirement
In 1976, Edmund Abitt and Wilfred Busu retired with the rank of Major in the Malaysian Armed Forces.
For services rendered to the Britain, Brunei and Malaysia, both men were amply awarded with campaign medals by those governments.
While Busu went on to become a member of the Federal Service Commission (1985 to 1992) and of the State Service Commission (1992 to 2007), Abitt got himself involved in commerce and industry.
Now both enjoy quality time with their respective families surrounded by grandchildren, obliging them to take them for a drive, if not acting as babysitters.
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