Sarawak After Confrontation CAN DYAKS, MALAYS, CHINESE BECOME A SINGLE SOCIETY?

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31145, 23 August 1966, Page 16

Sarawak After Confrontation CAN DYAKS, MALAYS, CHINESE BECOME A SINGLE SOCIETY?

(By

ERIK JENSEN

in the “Guardian’’, Manchester)

i ßeprinted bp arrangement >

My office in Sarawak was in an old fort which commands the middle reaches of the Batang Lupar river. It was built just over a hundred years ago as a bastion against marauding Dyak tribesmen. The fort is still surrounded by ancient cannon, but during the last three years the helicopter hovering outside above the broad river thoroughfare has been a more realistic defence against Indonesian confrontation. More difficult to define is the appropriate weapon to use in the continued struggle against communism.

Confrontation seems to be at an end, but the internal problem, in Sarawak and other States of Malaysia, remains. While Indonesian aggression continued, the real fear was not that armed raids across the frontier would eventually defeat the British and Malaysian security forces. In spite of difficulties of climate, terrain, and communications, they were quite capable of warding off military incursions. The real fear was that in the long run confrontation and the “Crush Malaysia” campaign would disrupt the economy and orderly life of the people to such an extent that they would become dissatisfied and turn against the Malaysian Government. This was what the Communists were ready and waiting to exploit. Clandestine Corps Before the inauguration of Malaysia and during the years since, the Communist fifth column in Sarawak, known as the Clandestine Communist Organisation (the C.C.0.). has presented a far more serious problem to the Administration than military defence of the border. The movement has strong racial overtones. In prewar Sarawak society there was a neat division between the main racial groups and their spheres of activity. The Iban, or Sea Dyaks, who constitute over one third of the total population, were left undisturbed to practise shifting agriculture on a subsistence basis in the interior. Subordinate Government officials were recruited from among the Malays (about one fifth of the total); and virtually all trade and commerce was in the hands of the Chinese (just under one third). In theory, both Malays and Chinese looked down on the Dyaks, but they were frightened of them. Both the Chinese and the Dyaks resented the Malays, but respected their position. Both Dyaks and Malays disliked the Chinese, but depended on them. Dyaks Advance There have been some important changes since. The Dyaks have received schooling in many areas and a seri-

ous attempt is being made to encourage their active participation in national life. The present Chief Minister, Stephen Galong Ningkan, is a Sea Dyak or Iban, and Dyaks have already been found to fill a number of important posts in politics and the Administration. Even among progressives, however, the transition from a seminomadic Iron Age economy to settled agriculture and the twentieth century is not made overnight. Largely because of Indonesian confrontation, the Dyaks have become loyal Malaysians. But they remain extremely sensitive to treatment as sub-standard Malays. The Dyaks are a proud race, and in the past were more suspicious of arrogant Malays than of the Chinese and more convinced of the service rendered by Chinese hawkers in the interior than Malay officials. Education in the colony of Sarawak has made them literate in English (where they are literate at all) and they resent the disadvantage it would be to have Malay as the medium of instruction in schools. Even more they resent militant Islam, a religion entirely foreign to pig-eating rice-wine drinkers with no tradition of personal piety. Boost for Malays For the Malays, Malaysia meant a special boost to their own position and racial pride, but the present tendency is for the Malay minority to realise its natural advantages and exploit these discreetly. The Chinese problem is altogether more serious. They have gradually become aware of their political as well as economic power, resent what they consider to be discrimination, and want a bigger share in government. Immigrants used to come from China as coolies with nothing except their Chinese pride. In a remarkably short space of time most were able by their industry and ingenuity to build up successful businesses. This is true, at least, of the Hokkien, Teochew, and many Foochow. The Hakka Chinese, however, have continued as small-scale market gardeners in Sarawak. They rarely engage in trade. To protect the Dyaks from exploitation in the early days, legislation made it impossible for the Chinese to own land except in certain defined areas. As the Chinese popula-

tion increased —and it increases very rapidly—there was insufficient land for them to cultivate and they have become dissatisfied. The Young Chinese Dissatisfaction is spreading among the younger generation in particular. They have not known China in the old days, nor have they the pioneering experience of their parents. Instead they have attended Chinese “Middle Kingdom” schools in Sarawak, where, until quite recently, they were only taught to read and write Mandarin, to sing Chinese songs, and to understand something of Chinese history and traditions, often by school-teachers who came straight from China and had neither knowledge of, nor interest in, Sarawak. Needless to say, on maps produced for Chinese schools, China appears in the centre, and these young Chinese have emerged from their schooling with a pronounced sense of the central importance of their race and culture and virtually no qualifications to suit them for official employment in a State of Malaysia. It is hardly surprising that many young Chinese with a China-oriented education and only limited prospects in the country where they live have become Communist. Crossed the Border During the early stages of confrontation about 1500 young Chinese from Sarawak, under the auspices of the Clandestine Communist Organisation, crossed the border into Indonesia for training in terrorist techniques with the Indonesian forces even though the Communists from Sarawak had nothing in common with Indonesian confrontation except a desire to end the present Government within the Federation of Malaysia. The immediate threat to Malaysia presented by external aggression from Indonesia is over, but the danger of internal subversion remains. Rapid economic and social development benefiting all races is essential to the political stability and internal peace of Sarawak. Meanwhile the Communist Chinese are Still trying to aggravate and exploit the confused loyalties and partly conflicting ambitions of the various racial groups. Militant communism is not a paper tiger.