What 57 years under Malaysia has meant for me

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ON Sept 16, 1963, I was about ready to sit for my Form 1 year-end exams at St Thomas’s Secondary School in Kuching when Sarawak gained its independence within the Federation of Malaysia together with Sabah and Singapore in merging with Malaya.

For most teenagers like me at 13, it was no big deal but it had felt personal in my case as my uncle Ong Kee Hui and his political party Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) was in the thick of it all, having opposed the formation at the very start and had been the main opposition force behind the very public protests against going straight from being a British colony to become part of a perceived colony of Malaya; his party’s stand was that Sarawak should first become independent before committing to a new federation.

A year earlier on Aug 1, 1962, the Cobbold Commission, which was formed to determine whether the people of Sarawak and Sabah had wanted Malaysia, had published its findings which had said, “About one-third of the population of each territory strongly favours early realisation of Malaysia without too much concern about terms and conditions. Another third, many of them favourable to the Malaysia project, ask, with varying degrees of emphasis, for conditions and safeguards varying in nature and extent: the warmth of support among this category would be markedly influenced by a firm expression of opinion by governments that the detailed arrangements eventually agreed upon are in the best interests of the territories. The remaining third is divided between those who insist on independence before Malaysia is considered and those who would strongly prefer to see British rule continue for some years to come.

“If the conditions and reservations which they have put forward could be substantially met, the second category referred to above would generally support the proposals. Moreover once a firm decision was taken quite a number of the third category would be likely to abandon their opposition and decide to make the best of a doubtful job. There will remain a hard core, vocal and politically active, which will oppose Malaysia on any terms unless it is preceded by independence and self-government: this hard core might amount to near 20 per cent of the population of Sarawak and somewhat less in North Borneo.”

In other words the consensus was neither unanimous nor overwhelming.

But still Malaysia came about on Sept 16, 1963.

Stephen Kalong Ningkan became the first chief minister and Abang Openg the first governor, now renamed Yang di-Pertua Negeri.

Suddenly our classmate in Form 1, Abang Johari Openg had become the first governor’s son. These were exciting and heady days indeed.

But in truth our lives did not change much, our daily school routines remained the same and the excitement among the school kids about this new found ‘independence’ eventually died off as we found out that in general there wasn’t much going on that was going to alter our lives.

We continued our studies and all our normal syllabi continued to be taught in English and all our teachers had remained the same.

I remember too that throughout my entire secondary school life of seven years we had an almost Commonwealth of teachers insofar as their nationalities were concerned. We had Adrian Johnson, Stan Robertson, Arthur Cotterell and Beryl Chapman from England; Walter Herring and Ian Gamble from Canada; Father Thomas, Kumaran, Y John, Thampi, and V George from India; Julia Marsden and Fred Black from Australia; Zygmos Zamoiski from Poland; and many others whose names have been long lost in the mist of time.

English was still the language of instruction; Bahasa Malaysia was only taught as an optional second subject starting from 1967 when I was in Form 5 – I remember that it had started as an optional night class. It was like an extra tuition class in the evening and we were joined by an assortment of junior staff from the civil service as well as students from other schools.

I can only remember that we didn’t learn much as the teachers were not well trained and there was no real incentive for us to study hard as the tests given were not taken into account in our school records. But in the process we did get to meet many new friends among the other students.

For me the real changes came about around the time that we were about to leave school in 1969 when there were visible signs of more real development in terms of new roads, more infrastructure, and more buildings and construction going on or being announced.

Abdul Rahman Yakub became the third chief minister from 1970 till 1981 and it was during this period that the timber industry had boomed and the money from it had enabled us to progress speedily from around his era. It was after the surrender of the communists led by Bong Kee Chok in October 1973 that the country was at peace after years of Indonesian confrontation, communist insurgency, and the early troubled political dealings with Kuala Lumpur that we could see some real development and progress in Sarawak.

I shall not dwell on the ethical side of our Sarawak politics as well as the cronyism and the financial scandals both perceived and real during the years that had followed; but from around the 1980s till the 2000s, we saw a period of massive changes as the country boomed and our lives were forever changed.

There was a huge transformation as the urbanisation and modernisation of the towns of Kuching and Miri into cities (later Sibu and Bintulu), as the rural population swiftly migrated towards the urban areas causing a housing boom, which in turn led to a growth in the retail businesses and commercial malls and complexes started to mushroom in the cities and suburbs. This in turn boosted the transportation and manufacturing sectors and by the start of the new millennium we were well into a strong and growing economy.

Roads, bridges, and highways were built to connect most of the towns; even a coastal highway came about to link all the many coastal villages previously only reachable by rivers and sea.

Taib Mahmud’s politics of development had really seen the light of day and it also boosted the fortunes of many landowners whose previously held land banks had exploded in value after newly constructed roads had made them easily accessible.

Fifty-seven years after 1963 when we became independent within Malaysia we have seen many advances, developments, and physical changes in Sarawak, mostly good and beneficial to all its citizens. There are also some negative aspects of which I would personally like to comment on.

We have lost our greater sense of racial unity and harmony especially among the young; we have placed more emphasis on material wealth and well-being and have disregarded our long held respect for all things right, good, and truthful.

In our pursuit of the almighty twin-gods of status and material gain, have we lost sight of what we as Sarawakians hold dear and close to our hearts – our true spirituality and our true identity as sons and daughters of the land of our fathers and mothers – the land we all love so dearly, our own Sarawak. Let us all pray that we will never lose this special identity and our closeness to the land that we love so much. Amen.

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