Borneo, my roots

I came from an island called Borneo which lies 400 km east of Singapore. 20% of this island were British colonies: Sabah, Brunei and Sarawak. I was born in Sarawak. 80% of Borneo belongs to Indonesia. When the British lowered the Union Jack in the Far East, the queen advised the three colonies to join Singapore and Malaya to form a federation and call ourselves Malaysia.

远方的家

Natives land rights

I am very shocked to hear that a Dayak activist, Bill Kayong was murdered in Lutong yesterday. Previously there had been other similar cases; but this is the most outrageous one. He was shot, in broad day light, as he stopped at a traffic light.

http://www.theborneopost.com/2016/06/21/pkr-candidate-bill-kayong-shot-dead-in-drive-by/#ixzz4CB82JzQK

https://m.malaysiakini.com/news/346141

http://www.theborneopost.com/2016/06/21/outpouring-of-sorrow-outrage-from-opposition-leaders-for-bill-kayong/

Dear queen

LETTER TO QUEEN ELIZABETH II
14 February 2016
Her Majesty the Queen
Buckingham Palace

London SW1A 1AA
United Kingdom.

Your Majesty,


THE “UNFINISHED BUSINESS OF DECOLONIZATION” OF SARAWAK AND SABAH

(NORTH BORNEO) UNDER UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTIONS (GAR):

GAR 1514 (1960), GAR 1541 (1960) AND GAR 217A (1948)


1. May we humbly refer to the above-mentioned ‘Unfinished Business of Decolonization’ and seek Your Majesty’s kindest consideration to redress the plight of the peoples in the former British Borneo colonies from the subjugation, domination and exploitation over the territories of Sarawak and Sabah since the formation of the Federation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963.

2. It is within our desired interest to respectfully and peacefully pursue our Sarawak and Sabah peoples’ inalienable right to self-determination in accordance with the Principle of Self-Determination under UN GAR: 1514 (1960), 1541 (1960) and 217A (1948).

Kuching in the 60's

I came across this old video on Facebook.

Stop the dams

James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak

(contributed by Desmond Leong)

Until 1930’s, the White Rajahs were still deploying their headhunting army in punitive expeditions. The existence of this army had forced the indigenous people to fight among themselves.

It was the Third Rajahs who curtailed the use of his headhunting troops. He must have felt the world’s civilized communities did not approve of Sarawak’s barbaric and shameful national policy. Suddenly, the headhunters had lost their jobs. By the 1950’s the warriors from the conflicting sides were dying of old age not in battles.

Here we have a headline to remind us of what took place during the reign of the barbarous tyrants. It is a newspaper report on the demise of a member of the Brooke militias. The guy had collected 26 skulls and he wanted all his war trophies be buried with him.

History of Sarawak

Here's a brief account of our ancient history summarized from my various readings. I also stand to be corrected ... About 5,000 BCE, Borneo was connected to mainland South East Asia by a land bridge which became covered with water as the Ice Age ended. Since early settlements have been found in Vietnam that dated back to 10,000 BCE, it is possible that Borneo was inhabited then, but no remains have been found. Since the early inhabitants tended to build settlements near the coast, rising waters would probably have destroyed any indications of settlements from that time.

Log jam on the Rejang

I receive these pictures from a friend today. It shows the extent of the log-jam on the Rejang river, one of our major means of communications in Sarawak.

But these following 3 photos of the same river are even more scary than the previous 2 photos. I saw them on a friend's blog and borrowed them. It seems that they have managed to steal our river!

This is not the first time I saw rivers like this. Here are two photos taken  in 1986, showing what  harm, long term tin mining has done to Sungei Lembing, Pahang. The effect is permanent. Today, you can simply walk across the river. When it rains, this river will burst its banks and you were wondering why there were always floods  in that general area. The blocking of the river in Sarawak was due to indiscriminate logging, whereas Sungei Lembing in Pahang was blocked by sand from years of tin mining.