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Sarawak

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Sarawak Divisions

Betong Division · Bintulu Division · Kapit Division · Kuching Division · Limbang Division · Miri Division · Mukah Division · Samarahan Division · Sarikei Division · Sibu Division · Sri Aman Division

Cities

Kuching (capital) · Miri

Districts

Belaga · Bintulu · Limbang · Meradong · Sarikei · Song · Sri Aman · Tatau

Sub-Districts

Sebauh

Towns

Asajaya · Ba'kelalan · Bau · Beladin · Betong · Bintangor · Bintulu · Dalat · Daro · Debak · Engkilili · Julau · Kanowit · Kapit · Kota Samarahan · Lawas · Limbang · Lingga · Lubok Antu · Lundu · Maludam · Matu · Mukah · Marudi · Oya · Pakan · Pusa · Saratok · Sebuyau · Serian · Serikin · Selangau · Sibu · Siburan · Simunjan · Spaoh · Sungai Tujuh · Tanjung Kidurong · Tatau · Tebedu

External links

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Economy

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Sarawak has an abundance of natural resources. LNG and petroleum have provided the mainstay of the Malaysia federal government's economy for decades while State of Sarawak only get 5% royalty from it. Sarawak is also one of the world's largest exporters of tropical hardwood timber and is the major contributor to Malaysian exports. This has led to wide scale deforestation of Sarawak's rainforest. The last UN statistics estimated Sarawak's sawlog exports at an average of 14,109,000 m³ between 1996 and 2000 ^[5].

With such vast land expanse, Sarawak has large tracts of land suitable for commercial agricultural development. Approximately 32% or about 40,000 km² of the state's total land area has been identified as suitable agricultural land. Nevertheless, less than 9% of this is planted with productive permanent crops, while the balance is still under shifting cultivation for hill paddy (rice) which is estimated at more than 16,000 km². The main commercial crops are oil palm, which has been increasing steadily over the years, sago, and pepper.

Since the 1980s, Sarawak has started to diversify and transform its economy into a more industrialised one. This endeavour has been seeing continuing success, with manufacturing and high-tech industries now playing a significant role in shaping the economic expansion of the state.

As the largest state in Malaysia, Sarawak aims to be a fully developed state along with the rest of the country by 2020. Sarawak has identified four sectors as key sources of growth:

manufacturing
commercial agriculture
construction
services sectors

The availability of vast competitively-priced land and rich reserves of natural resources has made Sarawak an attractive choice for manufacturing operations among investors.

Malaysia portal

Agriculture, logging and land usage

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Sarawak's rainforests have been gradually depleted by the demand driven by the logging industry and the following introduction of palm oil plantations. Many of Sarawak's rural communities have felt changes affected by the economic activity of these industries. Peaceful protests and timber blockades between native communities and logging companies are common, often resulting in preventive police action. The Penan, Borneo's nomadic hunter gatherers have been most affected by these changes, complaining of illness through polluted rivers, game depletion resulting in widespread hunger and loss of traditional medicines and forest products. Their resistance to logging companies culminated in a series of protests and timber blockades in the 1990s, of which many were dismantled by the Police, within the remit of the Law. The Penan claim that their rights are not respected by the State nor by logging companies ^[4]. Another example, the native customary rights court case of Rumah Nor in the Kemena Basin gave rural communities engaged in subsistence farming hope for continued communal use of land reserves. Although the Court of Appeal ruled against Rumah Nor on the grounds that they had not produced sufficient evidence for their claim, it nevertheless upheld the principles stated by the lower court. These principles are the basis of not only Rumah Nor's claim, but of the claims of all Sarawak's native communities, namely, (i) that native customary rights are NOT created by legislation, although they can be extinguished by legislation, on condition of adequate compensation, and (ii) that these communities have a territory including forest reserves and rivers, and farmland, including land under fallow. Thus, although the Court of Appeal ruled against Rumah Nor's specific claims, it upheld the lower court's ruling in favour of Rumah Nor with regard to the general principles. In this sense, it represents a significant blow to the state's claims that native customary rights comprise only those rights recognised by the state through its legislation.

The problems caused by logging in Sarawak were starkly illustrated in Bruce Parry's BBC TV series, Tribe in 2007 (Series 3). He spent time living with the Penan and was shown some of the effects and heard them voice their concerns. No response or defence has been offered by any of the political elite. What remains clear is that entering politics remains a route to wealth in Sarawak, as in Malaysia more generally, so long as one remains subservient to those at the 'top' (unless one is at the 'top')

Demographics

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Ethnic groups

A Modern Iban Longhouse, built using new materials and preserving essential features of communal living

Iban girls dressed in full Iban (women) attire during Gawai festivals in Debak, Betong region, Sarawak

Sarawak has more than 40 sub-ethnic groups, each with its own distinct language, culture and lifestyle. Cities and larger towns are populated predominantly by Malays, Melanaus, Chinese, and a smaller percentage of Ibans and Bidayuhs who have migrated from their home-villages for employment reasons. Sarawak is rather distinctive from the rest of Malaysia in that there is only a small community of Indians living in the state.

[edit] Dayak Iban

Sea Dayaks (Iban) women from Rejang, Sarawak, wearing rattan corsets decorated with brass rings and filigree adornments. The family adds to the corset dress as the girl ages and based on her family's wealth.

The Ibans comprise the largest percentage (almost 34%) of Sarawak's population. Formerly reputed to be the most formidable headhunters on the island of Borneo, the Ibans of today are a generous, hospitable and placid people.^{[citation needed]} Because of their history as pirates and fishermen, they were conventionally referred to as the "Sea Dayaks". The early Iban settlers who migrated from Kalimantan (the Indonesian part of Borneo south of Sarawak) via the Kapuas River and crossed over the Kelingkang range and set up home in the river valleys of Batang Ai, the Skrang River, Saribas, and the Rajang River. The Ibans dwell in longhouses, a stilted structure comprising many rooms housing a whole community of families.^{[citation needed]}

An Iban longhouse may still display head trophies or antu pala. These suspended heads mark a tribal victory and were a source of honor. The Dayak Iban ceased practicing headhunting in the 1930s.^{[citation needed]}

The Ibans are renowned for their Pua Kumbu (traditional Iban weavings), silver craft, wooden carvings and bead work. Iban tattoos, which were originally symbols of bravery among Iban warriors, have become amongst the most distinctive in the world.^{[citation needed]} The Ibans are also famous for their tuak, a sweet rice wine which is served during big celebrations and festive occasions.

A majority of Ibans practice Christianity. However, like most other ethnic groups in Sarawak, they still observe many of their traditional rituals and beliefs. Sarawak celebrates colourful festivals such as the Gawai Dayak (harvest festival), Gawai Kenyalang (hornbill, or the god of war festival), penuaian padi and Gawai Antu (festival of the dead).

[edit] Chinese

The Chinese first came to Sarawak as traders and explorers in the 6th century. Today, they make up 26% of the population of Sarawak and consist of communities built from the economic migrants of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The first Chinese (Hakka) migrants worked as labourers in the gold mines at Bau or on plantations. Through their clan associations, business acumen and work ethic, the Chinese organised themselves economically and rapidly dominated commerce. Today, the Chinese are amongst Sarawak's most prosperous ethnic groups.

The Sarawak Chinese belong to a wide range of dialect groups, the most significant being Hakka (dialect|Hakka), Hokkien(dialect|Hokkien), Teochew(Dialect|Teochew), Hailam(dialect|Hailam), Foochow(dialect|Foochow) and Henghua(Dialect|Henghua). Whereas Hakka is spoken predominantly by the farmers in the interior, Hokkien and Teochew are the dominant dialect spoken within the major trading towns and among early traders and businessmen. Hailam were well-known as coffee-shop operators, the Henghua is famous as fishermen. (Notable differences from those who presided in West Malaysia, the most common spoken dialect among all the differing groups was Cantonese). Mandarin however was and still is the unifying language spoken by all the different dialectic groups.(Both East and West Malaysia) The Chinese maintain their ethnic heritage and culture and celebrate all the major cultural festivals, most notably Chinese New Year and the Hungry Ghost Festival. The Sarawak Chinese are predominantly Buddhists and Christians.

[edit] Malay

The Malays make up 21% of the population in Sarawak. Traditionally fishermen, these seafaring people chose to form settlements on the banks of the many rivers of Sarawak. Today, many Malays have migrated to the cities where they are heavily involved in the public and private sectors and taken up various professions. Malay villages (kampungs) - a cluster of wooden houses on stilts, many of which are still located by rivers on the outskirts of major towns and cities, play home to traditional cottage industries. The Malays are famed for their wood carvings, silver and brass craftings as well as traditional Malays textile weaving with silver and gold thread (kain songket).

Malays are Muslim by religion, having been converted to the faith some 600 years ago with the Islamification of their native region. Their religion is reflected in their culture and art and Islamic symbolism is evident in local architecture - from homes to government buildings.

[edit] Melanau

The Melanaus have been thought to be amongst the original settlers of Sarawak. Originally from Mukah (the 10th Administrative Division as launched in March 2002), the Melanaus traditionally lived in tall houses. Nowadays, they have adopted a Malay lifestyle, living in kampong-type settlements. Traditionally, Melanaus were fishermen and still today, they are reputed as some of the finest boat-builders and craftsmen.

While the Melanaus are ethnically different from the Malays, their lifestyles and practices are quite similar especially in the larger towns and cities where most Melanau have adopted the Islamic faith.

The Melanaus were believed to originally worship spirits in a practice verging on paganism. Today most of them are Muslim and some are Christians, though they still celebrate traditional animist festivals such as the annual Kaul Festival.

[edit] Dayak Bidayuh

Concentrated mainly on the West end of Borneo, the Bidayuhs make up 10% of the population in Sarawak are now most numerous in the hill counties of Bau and Serian, within half an hour drive from Kuching.

Historically, as other tribes were migrating into Sarawak and forming settlements (particularly the Malays from the neighbouring archipelagos as they shore up along the coastal areas and riversides) the peace-loving, meek-natured Bidayuhs retreated further inland, hence earning them the name of "Land Dayaks n land owners". The word Bidayuh in itself literally means "land people" in Biatah dialect. In Bau-Jagoi/Singai dialect, the pronunciation is "Bidoyoh" which also carry the same meaning.
The traditional community construction of the Bidayuh is the "baruk", a roundhouse that rises about 1.5 metres off the ground. It serves as the granary and the meeting house for the settlement's community. Longhouses were typical in the olden days, similar to that of the Ibans.
Typical of the Sarawak indigenous groups, the Bidayuhs are well-known for their hospitality, and are reputed to be the best makers of tuak, or rice wine. They also do arak tonok,some kind of moonshine.
The Bidayuhs speak a number of different but related dialects. Some Bidayuhs speak either English or Malay as their main language. While some of them still practice traditional religions, the majority of modern-day Bidayuhs have adopted the Christian faith.

[edit] Dayak Orang Ulu

Young Sarawakian playing the sape.

The phrase Orang Ulu means upriver people and is a term used to collectively describe the numerous tribes that live upriver in Sarawak's vast interior. Such groups include the major Kayan and Kenyah tribes, and the smaller neighbouring groups of the Kajang, Kejaman, Punan, Ukit, and Penan. Nowadays, the definition also includes the down-river tribes of the Lun Bawang, Lun Dayeh(mean upriver/far upstream), Berawan, Saban as well as the plateau-dwelling Kelabits. The various Orang Ulu groups together make up roughly 5.5% of Sarawak's population. The Orang Ulu are artistic people with longhouses elaborately decorated with murals and woodcarvings. They are also well-known for their intricate beadwork and detailed tattoos. The Orang Ulu tribe can also be identified by their unique music - distinctive sounds from their sape, a stringed instrument not unlike the mandolin.

A vast majority of the Orang Ulu tribe are Christians but traditional religions are still practiced in some areas.

Some of the major tribes making up the Orang Ulu group include :

Kayan

There are approximately 15,000 Kayans in Sarawak. The Kayan tribe built their longhouses in the northern interiors of Sarawak midway on the Baram River, the upper Rejang River and the lower Tubau River, and were traditionally headhunters. They are well known for their boat making skills, which they carve from a single block of belian, the strongest of the tropical hardwoods.

Although many Kayan have become Christians, some still practise paganistic beliefs, but these are very rare today^{[citation needed]}.

Lun Bawang

The Lun Bawang are indigenous to the highlands of East Kalimantan, Brunei (Temburong District), southwest of Sabah (Interior Division) and northern region of Sarawak (Limbang Division).Lun Bawang people are traditionally agriculturalists and practise animal husbandry such as rearing poultry, pigs and buffaloes. Lun Bawangs are also known to be hunters and fishermen.

Kelabit

With a population of approximately 3000, the Kelabit are inhabitants of Bario - a remote plateau in the Sarawak Highlands, slightly over 1,200 meters above sea level. The Kelabits form a tight-knit community and practise a generations-old form of agriculture. Famous for their rice-farming, they also cultivate a variety of other crops which are suited to the cooler climate of the Highlands of Bario. The Kelabits are closely related to the Lun Bawang.

The Kelabit are predominantly Christian, the Bario Highlands having been visited by Christian missionaries many years ago.

Kenyah

With the population about ~22,000, the Kenyah are inhabitant of Upper Belaga and upper Baram. There are few findings on the exact origin of the Kenyah tribe. Their heartland however, is Long San, along the Baram River and Belaga along Rajang River. Their culture is very similar to that of the Kayan tribe with whom they live in close association. The typical Kenyah village consists of only one longhouse and the people are mainly farmers, planting rice in burnt jungle clearings. With the rapid economic development, especially in timber industry, many of them work in timber camps.

Penan

The Penan are the only true nomadic people in Sarawak and are amongst the last of the world's hunter-gatherers.[2] The Penan make their home under the rainforest canopy, deep within the vast expanse of Sarawak's virgin jungle. Even today, the Penan continue to roam the rainforest hunting wild boar and deer with blowpipes. The Penan are skilled weavers and make high-quality rattan baskets and mats. The traditional Penan religion worships a supreme god called Bungan. However, the increasing number who have abandoned the nomadic lifestyle for settlement in longhouses have converted to Christianity.

Sebob/Chebob

One of the least known tribes in Sarawak and can be found in upper Tinjar river. Sebob are the first Tinjar settlers along the Tinjar river and it is said that the other tribes came later(migrated) The sebob/chebob tribes occupies up to 6 six longhouse in Tinjar namely; Long Loyang, Long Batan, Long Selapun, Long Pejawai,and Long Subeng.(All these names come from small stream where they lived) Amongst the longhouses, Long Luyang is the longest and most populated Sebob/Chebob settlement.It comprises almost 100 units. Most of these people have migrated and found work in the cities.

[edit] Religions

Sarawakians practice a variety of religions, including Islam, Christianity, Chinese folk religion (a fusion of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and ancestor worship) and animism. Christianity is the largest religion in culturally and religiously-diverse Sarawak. Religion plays a significant role in nurturing the culture of decency and modesty among Sarawakians. It also reflects and strengthens the identity among various ethnics. For example, Islam reflects the identity of Malay, Chinese religions and Buddha reflects the identity of Chinese and Christianity reflects the identity of most Dayaks (while some still practising animism).

[edit] Christianity

Main article: Christianity in Malaysia

Christianity is the largest religion in Sarawak. Sarawak is the state with the highest percentage of Christians in Malaysia. Major Christian denominations in Sarawak are the Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, Borneo Evangelical Church (or Sidang Injil Borneo, S.I.B.) and Baptists. Many Sarawakian Christians are non-Malay Bumiputera, ranging from Iban, Bidayuh, Orang Ulu and Melanau.

Denomination of Christians in Sarawak may vary according to their race, although not necessarily true. For example, most Chinese Christians are Methodists, most Ibans and Bidayuhs are either Roman Catholics or Anglicans, while most Orang Ulu are S.I.B.'s. Church plays an important part in shaping morality of the communities, while some Christians views the church as a religious place. Professing Christianity has led to abolishing of some previous rituals by indigenous ethnics such as headhunting, improper disposal of dead bodies, etc. Christians among indigenous ethnics have also embraced many Christian values such as preserving modesty and dedication to God.

Despite being denied aid financially and administratively by the Sarawak government, Christianity has continued to expand the number of followers. Official statistics show that percentage of Christians in Sarawak has increased faster than that of Muslims in Sarawak. In 1960, Muslims outnumbered Christians in Sarawak; over the past half-century, the number of Christians has grown tremendously, due to foreign missionary efforts.

Christianity has also contributed to the betterment of the education system in Sarawak. There were a lot of missionary schools built during 1950s to early 1980s. It has gained popularity throughout Sarawak urban citizens transcending race and religion. Due to federalization of education system, most of these missionary schools have been converted into government national schools. Participation of church in these schools have been reduced, and intake of teachers have been liberalized to follow other national schools. The Malaysian government has allowed the schools to continue using religious symbols on school buildings and teaching Christian values to non-Muslim students.

Christians in Sarawak observe Christian festivals just like their counterparts in other part of the world, namely Christmas, Good Friday, Easter Monday and Ascension of Jesus Christ. However, only Christmas and Good Friday are public holidays in Sarawak.

[edit] Islam

Main article: Islam in Malaysia

Islam is the second largest religion in Sarawak. Many Muslims in Sarawak are ethnic Malays. All Malays are designated Muslim by the Malaysian Constitution. Malay culture contributes significantly to Sarawakian Muslim tradition as a whole especially for wedding, circumcision (coming of age ritual), 'majlis doa selamat' etc.

Other ethnic groups which have strong Islamic influence in their traditions are Melanau and Kedayan. Melanaus, depending on region or kampung they live in, are normally either Muslim or Christian (while very little practising pagan). Most of them live in Kuching, Matu, Mukah, Igan and Bintulu. Majority of Melanau profess Muslim.

Kedayan, is another distinct ethnic from Malay and Melanau, but traditionally Muslim. Although small in number, they contribute to a majority of Muslim population in Sibuti and Bekenu district in Miri. Penan, on the other hand, which is part of Orang Ulu tribes, has gradually contributed to rising Muslim population in Sarawak.

Administratively, Islam is under the authority of state Islamic council, which is Majlis Islam Sarawak (MIS), a state government agency. Under MIS, there are various agencies dealing with various aspects of Islam such as Jabatan Agama Islam Sarawak (JAIS), Majlis Fatwa, Baitulmal Sarawak etc. Muslims in Sarawak are very well taken care of in their religious aspect of their life, despite not being the majority in Sarawak.

Although the population of Muslims has increased over the past 40 years, their rate of growth has not matched that of Christians. In 1960, Islam was the largest religion in Sarawak. Apostasy among Muslim converts is common throughout Sarawak. Despite being the state with highest growth of Muslim population in Malaysia, Sarawak may has the highest growth of apostasy among Muslim converts in Malaysia.

Muslims in Sarawak observe all Islamic festivals, such as Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Puasa), Hari Raya Aidiladha (Haji), Awal Muharram and Maulidur Rasul. All these celebrations have been commenced as public holidays in Sarawak. However, Israk Mikraj, Awal Ramadhan and Nuzul Quran, although observed, are not public holidays.

[edit] Buddhism

Main article: Buddhism in Malaysia

Buddhism is regarded as the main religion of Chinese ethnic in Sarawak. Many of the Sarawakian Chinese community, which comprises the bulk of the Buddhist population, actually practise a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism and Chinese folk religion. As there is no official name for this particular set of beliefs, many followers instead list down their religion as Buddhism, mainly for bureaucratic convenience. Buddhists from other ethnic especially Bumiputera are rare and almost insignificant to be related with.

Buddhism in Sarawak observe Wesak Day. It is a public holiday in Sarawak.

[edit] Animism

Many Dayak especially Iban continue to practice traditional ceremonies, particularly with dual marriage rites and during the important harvest and ancestral festivals such as Gawai Dayak, Gawai Kenyalang and Gawai Antu.

Other ethnics who still have trace number of animism followers are Melanau and Bidayuh.

[edit] Hinduism

Unlike their fellow Peninsular Malaysians, Sarawak Hindus are very small in number. Almost all Hindus in Sarawak are Indians, while some are Chinese. There are less than 10 Hindu temples throughout Sarawak, most of them are located in Kuching and Miri.

Hindus in Sarawak observe Deepavali and Thaipussam. However, none of these festivals are public holidays.

[edit] Baha'i

Baha'i is one of the recognized religions in Sarawak. Various races embraced the Baha'i Faith, from Chinese to Iban and Bidayuh, Bisayahs, Penans,Indians but not the Malays or other Muslims.In towns, the majority Baha'i community is often Chinese, but in rural communities, they are of all races, Ibans,Bidayuhs, etc. In some schools, Baha'i associations or clubs for students exist. Baha'i communities are now found in all the various divisions of Sarawak. Baha'i communities do not accept assistance from government or other organisations for activities which are strictly for Baha'is. If, however, these services extend to include non-Baha'is also, e.g. education for children's classes adult literacy, then sometimes the community does accept assistance. The administration of the Baha'i Faith is through local spiritual assemblies. There is no priesthood among the Baha'is. Election is held annually without nomination or electioneering. The Baha'is should study the community and seek those members who display mature experience, loyalty, are knowledgeable in the Faith. There are more than 40,000 Baha'is in more than 250 localities in Sarawak.

Environment

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Sarawak features vast areas of both lowland and highland rainforest. However, Sarawak has been hit hard by the logging industry and the expansion of monoculture tree plantations and oil palm plantations. Malaysia's deforestation rate is increasing faster than anywhere else in the world. Statistics estimate Sarawak's primary forest has been depleted by around 50%.^{[citation needed]} Malaysia's rates of deforestation are among the highest in Asia, jumping almost 86 percent between the 1990-2000 period and 2000-2005. In total, Malaysia lost an average of 1,402 km² —0.65 percent of its forest area—per year since 2000.^[3] By comparison, South East Asian countries lost an average of 0.35% of their forest per annum during the 1990s.

Geography

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Having land area of 124,450 km² spreading between latitude 0° 50′ and 5°N and longitude 109° 36′ and 115° 40′ E, it makes up 37.5% of the land of Malaysia. Sarawak also contains large tracts of tropical rain forest home to an abundance of plant and animal species.

Sarawak is currently divided into eleven Administrative Divisions: Kuching Division, Samarahan Division, Sri Aman Division, Betong Division, Sarikei Division, Sibu Division, Mukah Division, Kapit Division, Bintulu Division, Miri Division and Limbang Division.

The state stretches for some 750 km along the north east coastline of Borneo, interrupted in the north by about 150 km of Brunei coast. Sarawak is separated from the Indonesian part of Borneo (Kalimantan) by ranges of high hills and mountains that are part of the central mountain range of Borneo. These get higher to the north and culminate near the source of the Baram River with the steep Mount Batu Lawi, Mount Mulu in the Park of the same name and Mount Murud with the highest peak in Sarawak.

The major rivers from the south to the north include Sarawak River, the Lupar River, the Saribas River, the Rajang River with 563 km the longest river in Malaysia with the Baleh River branch, the Baram River, the Limbang River that drains into the Brunei Bay as it divides the two parts of Brunei and the Trusan River that also flows into the Brunei Bay.The Sarawak river 2459k2 in area and is the main river flowing through Kuching(the capital).

Sarawak can be divided into three natural regions. The coastal region is rather low lying flat country with large extents of swamps and other wet environments. The hill region provides most of the easily inhabited land. Most of the larger cities and towns have been built in this region. As the swamps make up much of the coast, the ports of Kuching and Sibu have been built some distance from the coast on rivers, while Bintulu and Miri are close to the coast at the only places that the hills stretch right to the China Sea. The third region is the mountain region along the border and with the Kelabit and Murut highlands in the north.

history of sarawak

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The eastern seaboard of Borneo had been charted (though never settled) by the Portuguese in the early 16th century. The area of today's Sarawak was known to Portuguese cartographers as Cerava. Sarawak had been a loosely governed territory under the control of the Brunei Sultanate in the early 19th century, although for a brief time in the early 17th century Sarawak was self-governed under its first and last Sultan, Sultan Tengah. During the reign of Pangeran Indera Mahkota in 19th century, Sarawak was in chaos^{[citation needed]}. Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin II (1827–1852), the Sultan of Brunei, ordered Pangeran Muda Hashim in 1839 to restore order and it was during this time that James Brooke arrived in Sarawak. Pangeran Muda Hashim initially requested assistance but James Brooke refused. In 1841, James Brooke paid another visit to Sarawak and this time he agreed to assist. Pangeran Muda Hashim signed a treaty in 1841 surrendering Sarawak and Sinian to James Brooke. Thereafter, on 24 September 1841, Pangeran Muda Hashim bestowed the title Governor to James Brooke. He effectively became the Rajah of Sarawak and founded the White Rajah Dynasty of Sarawak, later extending his administration through an agreement with the Sultan of Brunei.

Sir James Brooke, Raja of Sarawak.

Brooke was appointed Rajah by the Sultan of Brunei on August 18, 1842; originally this territory was just the western end of later Sarawak, around Kuching. He ruled Sarawak until his death in 1868. His nephew Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke became Rajah after his death; he was succeeded on his death in 1917 by his son, Charles Vyner Brooke, with a provision that Charles should rule in consultation with his brother Bertram Brooke [1]. The territory was greatly expanded under the Brooke dynasty, mostly at the expense of areas nominally under the control of Brunei. In practice Brunei had only controlled strategic river and coastal forts in much of the lost territory, and so most of the gain was at the expense of Muslim warlords and of the de facto independence of local tribes.

The Brooke dynasty ruled Sarawak for a hundred years and became famous as the "White Rajahs", accorded a status within the British Empire similar to that of the rulers of Indian princely states. In contrast to many other areas of the empire, however, the Brooke dynasty was intent on a policy of paternalism to protect the indigenous population against exploitation. They governed with the aid of the Muslim Malay and enlisted the Ibans and other "Dayak" as a contingent militia. They also encouraged the immigration of Chinese merchants but forbade the Chinese to settle outside of towns in order to minimize the impact on the Dayak way of life. They also established the Sarawak Museum, the first museum in Borneo.

In the early part of 1941 preparations were afoot to introduce a new constitution, designed to limit the power of the Rajah and give the people of Sarawak a greater say in government. Despite this democratic intention, the draft constitution contained defects and improprieties, not least by reason of a secret agreement drawn up between Charles Vyner Brooke and his top government officials, by which he was to be financially compensated for this gesture out of treasury funds.^{[citation needed]}

Japan invaded Sarawak and occupied the island of Borneo in 1941, occupying Miri on December 16 and Kuching on December 24, and held it for the duration of World War II until the area was secured by Australian forces in 1945. The Rajah, Charles Vyner Brooke, formally ceded sovereignty to the British Crown on July 1, 1946, under pressure from his wife among others. In addition the British Government offered a healthy pension to sweeten the negotiations. His nephew Anthony continued to claim sovereignty as Rajah of Sarawak.

After the end of the Second World War, Anthony Brooke then opposed the cession of the Rajah's territory to the British Crown, and was associated with anti-secessionist groups in Sarawak. Anthony was banished from the country. He was allowed to return only seventeen years later, when Sarawak became part of Malaysia. Sarawak became a British colony (formerly an independent state under British protection) in July 1946, but Brooke's campaign continued. The Malays in particular resisted the cession to Britain, dramatically assassinating the first British governor.

Sarawak was officially granted independence on July 22, 1963,^[2] and was admitted into the federation of Malaysia on September 16, 1963, to the initial opposition from parts of the population. Sarawak was also a flashpoint during the Indonesian Confrontation between 1962 and 1966

Limbang Gets Mesra

2010-07-31T01:04:00.001-07:00

What to expect from Limbang? Lots of energy! Warm and friendly faces! Kind and helpful people! That was the feeling and impression I got from the 54 participants representing government departments, heads of community, councillors, and hoteliers from Limbang town after the 2 day tourism workshop held at a town hotel.

All the best to you and the 'Bahasa Rojak' was fun. What do you call 'dabai' again? And I had no chance to try the Ikan Tahai but hopefully next time.

Tourism Workshop

2010-07-31T00:46:00.000-07:00

Pada 26 dan 27 july 2010..aku telah menghadiri kursus yang dikenali sebagai 'MESRA MALAYSIA' yang dihadiri oleh jabatan kerajaan yang beperanan secara langsung dan secara tidak langsung...Ketika Kursus ini kami telah diajar atau Facilitator kami Yang Dikenali Sebagai Madam Sim ling ling dan Kursus ini Telah Diadakan Di Hotel Purnama Limbang.....dan Dianjurkan Oleh Kementrian Pelancongan Malaysia..
Dalam 2 hari menghadiri Kursus ini, Aku Telah mendapat segala Tentang penarikan Pelancong Ke negara kita Ini.....kata Madam sim kita Hanya Perlu berbekalkan 'Smile"kata2 itu selalu diingatkan kepada semua Peserta yang telah menghadiri Kursus ini....
Tanpa Ragu Facilitator kami mengendalikan Kursus ini Dengan kemahiran Yang dimilikinya kepada kami...Walaupun Facilitator kami seorang Perempun namun Beliau mempunyai kreativiti tersendiri....setakat Ini saja.....

Cipta rekod dunia timang Jabulani

2010-07-03T03:40:00.001-07:00

HAVANA, Cuba - Seorang rakyat Cuba, Erick Hernandez mendakwa mencipta rekod dunia menimang bola Jabulani, yang digunakan di Piala Dunia sambil duduk.

Hernandez berkata: ''Saya telah menimang bola Jabulani yang dikritik hebat oleh bintang bola sepak dunia dengan sempurna, tanpa sebarang halangan dalam masa tiga jam, tiga minit dan 14 saat di sebuah hotel di Havana.

''Saya melakukannya dengan sedikit kepenatan selepas banyak melakukan pertunjukan sempena Piala Dunia,'' katanya yang berumur 43 tahun dan menggunakan nama samaran The Dominator.

Hernandez, yang merupakan penyokong Brazil, menyatakan Jabulani mempunyai lantunan yang baik dan amat sesuai untuk digunakan.

Beliau sebelum, dia memegang rekod dunia melakukan tandukan sebanyak 319 kali dalam masa seminit.

Dia juga mencatat rekod menyepak sebiji bola ke garisan penamat dalam satu pertandingan maraton, sejauh 42 kilometer dalam masa tujuh jam 17 minit.

Kemahiran menimang bola yang diwarisi daripada keluarganya turut melibatkan abangnya, Dauglas, yang turut melakukan sesuatu yang menarik ketika menyentuh bola sebanyak 100,026 kali dalam masa 15 jam pada tahun 1997.

Sekarang, Erick mengatakan dia mahu mencuba dalam masa 24 jam tahun ini.

Tuah Komano dapat pingat

2010-07-03T03:34:00.001-07:00

TOKYO - Pemain pertahanan Jepun, Yuichi Komano (gambar) dipertimbangkan untuk diberikan pingat, selepas dia gagal menyempurnakan sepakan penalti sekali gus menyebabkan Jepun tersingkir dari Piala Dunia pada pusingan kedua.

Gabenor tempat kelahiran pemain itu, Wakayama memberitahu media semalam bahawa beliau mahu menganugerahkan pingat kepada Komano atas usahanya di Afrika Selatan.

"Kami mahu menganugerahkan Komano pingat untuk memberikan orang ramai impian dan emosi," kata Yoshinobu Nisaka, yang menyaksikan kekalahan Jepun di tangan Paraguay di kawasan awam bersama ibu Komano.

Pingat itu lebih kepada untuk menghiburkan Komano selepas dia gagal menyempurnakan sepakan penalti ketiga Jepun ketika menentang Paraguay.

"Saya hanya menundukkan kepala ke lantai selepas itu tetapi rakan sepasukan memberi sokongan kepada saya.

"Tulio (Pemain Pertahanan) turut memberitahu saya bahawa dia mungkin akan melakukan perkara sama jika diberi tanggungjawab besar itu. Ia sekurang-kurangnya membolehkan saya boleh mengangkat kepala ketika pulang ke tanah air," jelas Komano.

03/07/2010 Sneijder robek hajat Brazil

2010-07-03T03:28:00.000-07:00

Pemain Belanda, Giovanni van Bronckhorst (kiri) dan Wesley Sneijder meraikan kejayaan melangkah ke separuh akhir Piala Dunia selepas menewaskan Brazil 2-1 Port Elizabeth, semalam. - AFP

PORT ELIZABETH - Brazil terpaksa menangguhkan impian untuk menjulang Piala Dunia buat kali keenam, sekurang-kurangnya sehingga edisi 2014 di bumi sendiri setelah rebah kepada Belanda 1-2 dekat Stadium Nelson Mandela Bay, semalam.

Bintang AC Milan, Wesley Sneijder merupakan individu yang bertanggungjawab menunjukkan jalan pulang kepada Brazil setelah menjaringkan gol kemenangan pasukannya pada minit ke-67.

Terdahulu, hantaran panjangnya ke kotak penalti lawan pada minit ke-53 menjadi punca Felipe Melo tertanduk bola ke gawang sendiri untuk gol penyamaan Belanda setelah Brazil mendahului melalui gol awal Robinho pada minit ke-9.

Sneijder ketika ditemui wartawan selepas perlawanan memberitahu pasukannya mempunyai kelebihan ke atas Brazil ekoran lawan ditemui sebelum ini mengamalkan permainan terbuka, sama seperti wakil Amerika Selatan itu.

"Sejak dari perlawanan pertama di sini, kami telah bertemu dengan lawan yang mengamalkan corak permaianan terbuka dan membuka ruang untuk kami bergerak. Ia merupakan satu kelebihan.

"Beza antara Belanda dengan Brazil amat tipis. Saya fikir kami boleh menang dan mempunyai segala yang diperlukan untuk ke separuh akhir walaupun sedar akan berdepan lawan yang gagah," katanya.

Brazil bagaimanapun lebih dulu melaung amaran pada minit ke-7 apabila Robinho mudah menolak bola ke gawang tidak dikawal setelah penjaga gol Belanda, Maarten Stekelenburg tewas dengan gerakan diatur Dani Alves.

Namun, keraian Brazil terhenti setelah penjaga garisan berjaya mengesan kedudukan ofsaid Alves sewaktu menanti bola hantaran rakan sepasukan di tengah padang.

Cuma dua minit berselang, kem Brazil kembali gamat setelah hantaran terus Melo kepada Robinho mudah disudahkan penyerang lincah itu dengan tolakan yang memperdaya Stekelenburg.

Jika tidak kerana kecemerlangan Stekelenburg melayangkan badan untuk menepis bola, Brazil mungkin memperoleh gol kedua menerusi sepakan lencong bintang tengahnya, Kaka pada minit ke-30.

Kerancakan permainan bersambung sebaik selepas rehat dan Belanda tidak menunggu lama untuk menyamakan kedudukan menerusi gerakan Sneijder.

Hantaran panjangnya ke dalam kotak penalti lawan membawa kekeliruan kepada penjaga gol Brazil, Julio Cesar dan Felipe Melo yang bersaing sesama sendiri bagi menyelamatkan keadaan. Kekalutan itu menyaksikan Melo akhirnya tertanduk bola ke gawang sendiri untuk gol pertama Belanda.

Minit ke-67, Sneijder sekali lagi menjadi racun buat Brazil apabila menanduk masuk bola tandukan ke belakang Dirk Kuyt hasil sepakan sudut Arjen Robben untuk gol kedua Oranje.

Luka Brazil kian parah setelah Melo dilayangkan kad merah pada minit ke-73 kerana memijak paha Robben meskipun pengadil telah meniup wisel bagi menghentikan perlawanan. Keputusan tersebut sekali gus menyukarkan skuad samba untuk mencari gol penyamaan sehingga tamat perlawanan. - Agensi

JHS akan siasat kes Long Sebayang

2010-07-01T06:11:00.000-07:00

Status syarikat pembalakan akan dikenal pasti sebelum tindakan diambil

KUCHING: Jabatan Hutan Sarawak (JHS) memberi jaminan akan menyiasat dakwaan penduduk di Long Sebayang Ulu di Limbang mengatakan hak mereka dicabuli oleh sebuah syarikat pembalakan terkemuka di daerah itu.

Pengarahnya, Datuk Len Talif Salleh berkata statussyarikat pembalakan dan kawasan terbabit perlu dikenal pasti terlebih dahulu sebelum sebarang tindakan sewajarnya diambil.

“Jabatan Hutan akan membuat siasatan berhubung dakwaan ini tetapi sebelum itu kita harus mengetahui lokasi sebenar dan syarikat pembalakan yang dimaksudkan.

“Buat masa ini kita tidak boleh mengatakan sama adapembalakan haram wujud di situ, siapa salah atau siapa benar kerana siasatan terperinci harus dilakukan sebelum sebarang keputusan dibuat,” katanya.

Len Talif berkata demikian apabila ditanya mengenai dakwaan kaum Lun Bawang,Tabun, Kelabit dan Penan (LTKP) yang mendiami Long Sebayang Ulu, Limbang, bahawa mereka ditindas syarikat pembalakan yang beroperasi di daerah itu.

Menurut Ketua Masyarakat dan Kaum LTKP Penghulu Anderas Etong dalam kenyataannya kepada Utusan Borneo Isnin lepas, syarikat berkenaan telah membina dua pagar besi dan rotan di kawasan tanah yang dikatakan tanah Hak Adat Bumiputera (NCR) milik penduduk di situ sehingga menghalang urusan harian mereka.

Malah Anderas mendakwa syarikat berkenaan menebang dan menjual kayu belian dalam kawasan itu secara haram.

Mengenai dakwaan penduduk di situ mengatakan syarikat balak terbabit membina pagar dalam kawasan tanah NCR mereka Len Talif yang juga Timbalan Setiausaha Tetap Kementerian Pengurusan dan Perancangan Sumber menasihati penduduk di kawasan terbabit menyemakstatus tanah (NCR) mereka dengan Jabatan Tanah Dan Survei (JTS)

Tangani penularan seks bebas

2010-07-01T06:07:00.000-07:00

Peningkatan kes jenayah seks di kalangan remaja dorong Perema adakan Bengkel Pembangunan Remaja I’m In Control

KESEDARAN: Manaf (duduk lima kiri) dan pegawai lain merakam kenangan bersama peserta Bengkel Pembangunan Remaja I’m In Control semalam.

LIMBANG:Peningkatan jumlah kes jenayah seks di kalangan remaja di seluruh negara mendorong Pertubuhan Pembangunan Remaja Malaysia (Perema) untuk mengadakan Bengkel Pembangunan Remaja I’m In Control bagi menangani penularan seks bebas.

Pengerusinya Datuk Manaf Daud berkata bengkel berkenaan amat bersesuaian untuk memberi kesedaran dan pengetahuan kepada golongan remaja mengenai kesihatan reproduktif dan seksualiti.

Selain itu katanya, mereka juga diberi kemahiran untuk menangani dan mencegah tindakan berisiko tinggi yang mengundang kepada kehamilan yang tidak dingini serta masalah seksualiti remaja seperti penyakit jangkitan seksual.

“Melalui bengkel ini kami mensasarkan untuk menjadikan kumpulan sasar melibatkan golongan remaja sebagai pembimbing dan penasihat rakan sebaya.

“Peranan mereka adalah untuk memberi nasihat dan motivasi kepada golongan remaja lain agar tidak terlibat dengan salah laku seksual yang boleh memporak-perandakan kehidupan anak remaja,” katanya ketika ditemui Utusan Borneo dalam Bengkel Pembangunan Remaja I’m In Control di sini semalam.

Seramai 50 remaja di daerah ini menyertai bengkel tersebut yang berlangsung selama dua hari dan berakhir semalam.

Hadir sama ialah wakil Lembaga Penduduk dan Pembangunan Keluarga Negara, (LPPKN) Sarawak Helman Penie dan fasilitator bengkel iaitu Mohd Badrulzaman Suhaili, Alpijun Ali dan Syarifah Nurul Azah Syeikh Ahmad.

Manaf menambah Limbang dipilih sebagai destinasi pertama bagi kawasan Malaysia Timur untuk mengadakan bengkel tersebut sekali gus mendedahkan remaja di sini agar jangan melakukan seks bebas sebelum kahwin.

“Pemilihan Limbang amat bertepatan dengan usaha kerajaan untuk menangani penularan jenayah seks yang dikaitkan dengan pelbagai hiburan yang ada.

“Malah usaha untuk membendung dan menangani perbuatan tersebut amat perlu kerana ia boleh menyebabkan kesan negatif lain termasuk hamil di luar nikah, pengguguran haram, pembuangan bayi dan kes-kes lain,” ujarnya.

Katanya bengkel tersebut juga akan diperluaskan dan diadakan lebih kerap kepada golongan remaja di seluruh negara.

“Diharap golongan remaja dapat membendung jenayah seks melalui pendedahan dan kesedaran tentang bahaya dan natijah jenayah seks bebas,” jelasnya.

Housewife lodges police report over missing husband

2010-07-01T06:05:00.000-07:00

SIBU: A housewife from Rh Pagang, Nanga Nyimpoh, in Katibas, Song is pleading to her husband to return home for the sake of their son.

Dominic Chan Ing Hiang

Lemie Engkiran, 33, lodged a police report saying her husband Dominic Chan Ing Hiang, 40, from Mukah had been missing for seven months.

“We were married six years ago,” she said, but admitted that they were not properly registered.

“We have a six-month-old boy now.”

Lemie told police that her husband had previously said he wanted to work offshore in Terengganu.

“The last text message (SMS) from him was on May 4.

“Until now, I have received nothing from him,” she said.

Lemie said her husband had not given her money for three months.

Anyone who knows Chan’s whereabouts can contact Lemie at 0145760229 or the nearest police station

sejarah negeri sarawak

2010-06-28T01:44:00.000-07:00

Negeri Sarawak atau juga dikenali sebagai Sarawak Bumi Kenyalang merupakan salah satu daripada 14 negeri (termasuk Wilayah Persekutuan yang membentuk Persekutuan Malaysia. Sarawak merupakan negeri yang terbesar di Malaysia. Kedua-dua Sarawak dan Sabah yang terletak di pulau Borneo biasanya digolongkan bersama sebagai Malaysia Timur.

Latar belakang

Asal nama sebenar Sarawak tidak dapat dibuktikan secara saintifik dan mutlak. Bagaimanapun menurut beberapa pendapat nama Sarawak asal seperti berikut:-

* Nama Sarawak berasal daripada nama Batang Sarawak atau Sungai Sarawak. Batang Sarawak meliputi kawasan di sekitar Kuching hingga ke seluruh Sarawak.
* Nama Sungai Sarawak adalah diambil dari nama sejenis galian batu bijih iaitu "serawak" yang mengandungi belerang dan antimoni (Rujuk Kamus Dewan edisi 3). Ini bertepatan sekali dengan sejarahnya iaitu semasa Sarawak di bawah pemerintahan Kesultanan Brunei, wilayah Sarawak ketika itu kaya dengan antimoni.

Nama Sarawak berasal daripada nama Batang Sarawak atau Sungai Sarawak. Batang Sarawak meliputi kawasan di sekitar Kuching hingga ke seluruh Sarawak.

Penemuan arkeologi seperti tulang manusia, alat perkakas, tembikar, dan bekas perkuburan di Gua Niah serta lukisan yang diconteng pada dinding gua membuktikan bahawa manusia telah mendiami Sarawak sejak sebelum Masihi lagi. Kewujudan manusia di Sarawak bermula kira-kira 40,000 tahun dahulu. Penemuan ini telah membuktikan bahawa Sarawak sebagai salah sebuah negeri terawal yang didiami oleh manusia di Asia Tenggara.

Sarawak dikatakan berada di bawah kekuasaan kerajaan Srivijaya pada kurun-10 hingga kurun-13, Penguasaan kerajaan Srivijaya ke atas wilayah pesisiran Sarawak telah membolehkan orang-orang Melayu dari Sumatera berhijrah dan menetap di kawasan pesisiran Sarawak. Orang melayu telah membuka penempatan mereka di Santubong yang merupakan antara pelabuhan entrepot terpenting di Nusantara. Ini telah dibuktikan dengan dengan penemuan bahan artifak seperti pasu zaman dinasti Han Cina di Santubong.

Setelah kejatuhan kerajaan Srivijaya pada kurun-13, Sarawak dikuasai oleh kerajaan Majapahit. Seorang putera Raja Majapahit iaitu Raden Menteri Dipati Jepang atau Datu Merpati Jepang telah berhijrah ke Sarawak pada kurun ke-15. Baginda telah berkahwin dengan Datu Permaisuri anak perempuan Raja Jarom Jawa di Johor sebelum berhijrah ke Sarawak.

Daripada keturunan Datu Merpati Jepang, muncullah golongan bangsawan Sarawak yang bergelar Abang. Golongan tersebut atau perabangan Sarawak telah memegang jawatan terpenting seperti Datu Patinggi, Datu Temenggong, Datu Bentara pada zaman pemerintahan Brooke di Sarawak. Kehadiran keluarga Brooke sedikit sebanyak menstabilkan keadaan di Sarawak kerana tetangan hebat dari penduduk asal Dayak terhadap pencerobohan tersebut di mana petempuran di antara pejuang Dayak dengan golongan pendatang tercatit dalam 'Papan Turai'.

Sejarah purba

Sarawak ialah salah satu negeri di Asia Tenggara yang diduduki oleh manusia.Ia berlaku kira-kira 40000 tahun dahulu. Penemuan arkeologi seperti tulang manusia, tembikar, dan bekas perkuburan membuktikan bahawa manusia telah mendiami Sarawak sejak sebelum Masihi lagi.

Kurun-10 hingga kurun 19

Sarawak dikatakan berada di bawah kekuasaan kerajaan Srivijaya pada kurun-10 hingga kurun-13. Penguasaan kerajaan Srivijaya ke atas wilayah pesisiran Sarawak telah membolehkan orang-orang Melayu dari Sumatera berhijrah dan menetap di kawasan pesisiran Sarawak. Orang Melayu telah membuka penempatan mereka di Santubong yang merupakan antara pelabuhan entrepot terpenting di Nusantara. Ini telah dibuktikan dengan dengan penemuan bahan artifak seperti pasu zaman dinasti Han Cina di Santubong.

Setelah kejatuhan kerajaan Srivijaya pada kurun-13, Sarawak dikuasai oleh kerajaan Majapahit. Seorang putera Raja Majapahit iaitu Raden Menteri Dipati Jepang atau Datu Merpati Jepang telah berhijrah ke Sarawak pada kurun ke-15. Baginda telah berkahwin dengan Datu Permaisuri anak perempuan Raja Jarom Jawa di Johor sebelum berhijrah ke Sarawak. Daripada keturunan Datu Merpati Jepang, muncullah golongan bangsawan Melayu Sarawak yang bergelar Abang. Golongan Melayu perabangan Sarawak telah memegang jawatan terpenting seperti Datu Patinggi, Datu Temenggong, Datu Bentara pada zaman pemerintahan Brooke di Sarawak.

Penglibatan Inggeris

Apa yang diketahui secara pasti, Sarawak terletak di bawah penguasaan Kesultanan Brunei pada awal abad ke-19.

Sarawak merupakan sebuah wilayah yang dikawal secara tidak rapi oleh Kesultanan Brunei pada awal abad ke-19. Kemudian pada 1839, James Brooke datang untuk menghantar surat pada Gabenor Sarawak, Rajah Muda Hasim. Beliau meminta bantuan James Brooke untuk membantu menenangkan keadaan Sarawak yang kacau bilau. Pejuangan Dayak menentang penjajah Brunei terbukti hebat manakala James Brooke yang mempunyai angkatan perang yang lengkap dan beberapa kali cuba menenangkan pejuang Dayak. Sebagai balasan, James Brooke dilantik menjadi gabenor Sarawak pada 24 September 1841, dan seterusnya Rajah pada 18 Ogos tahun berikutnya.

Pada asalnya, wilayah ini cuma merupakan hujung barat Sarawak yang kemudian, yakni kawasan di sekitar Kuching. Sewaktu kematiannya pada 1868, anak saudara Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke menjadi Raja. Beliau pula diwaris oleh anakandanya, Charles Vyner Brooke.

Wilayah Brooke diperluaskan dengan pantas di bawah ketiga-tiga raja itu, kebanyakannya melalui penjejasan kawasan yang pada nama sahaja di bawah kawalan Brunei. Sebenarnya, Brunei cuma mengawal kubu-kubu sungai dan pantai di kebanyakan wilayah yang telah lenyap. Oleh sebab itu, kebanyakan keuntungan yang dicapai adalah melalui penjejasan pembesar Islam dan puak tempatan yang hilang kemerdekaan de factonya.

Dinasti Brooke memerintah Sarawak selama seratus tahun dan mencapai kemasyhuran sebagai “Raja Putih” ("White Rajahs"), dan diberi taraf yang serupa dengan raja-raja India dalam Empayar British.

Berbanding dengan banyak kawasan empayar yang lain, keluarga Brooke bermaksud pengamalan dasar paternalisme untuk melindungi penduduk tempatan daripada eksploitasi oleh empayar Brunei dan pendatang asing. Mereka memerintah dengan bantuan pemimpin tempatan dan menggaji pahlawan Dayak sebagai askarnya. Mereka juga menggalakkan imigrasi kelas perdagangan Cina.

Sejarah moden

Jepun menyerang Sarawak pada 1941 dan menguasainya sepanjang Perang Dunia II sehingga kawasan itu diperoleh oleh tentera Australia pada 1945. Di bawah tekanan isterinya, Raja Sarawak menyerahkan kedaulatan kepada takhta kerajaan British pada 1946. Anthony, anak saudaranya, berlanjut penuntutan kedaulatan sebagai Raja Sarawak. Khususnya, orang Dayak menentang penyerahan kedaulatan kepada Britain dan membunuh gabernor British yang pertama.

Sarawak merupakan salah satu daripada punca utama Konfrontasi Indonesia pada antara 1962 dan 1966. Ia menjadi sebuah negara merdeka dan kemudian menjadi negeri autonomi Persekutuan Malaysia pada 16 September 1963 sungguhpun pada awalnya, ia mengalami penentangan daripada sebahagian penduduknya kerana tidak mahu Sarawak diperintah oleh Kerajaan Malaya.

Senyata Iban kelia

2010-06-28T01:41:00.000-07:00

Dalam section tu, aku deka nguji mandang ka sakeda senyata ke dikena bansa kitai Iban nyaga menoa kitai kelia. Nyadi penemu ka dibantai aku ditu nya ulih aku mutik ari article ti udah dipublish orang bukai tauka penemu ulih aku betanya sabelah menoa lalu ukai penemu ti ulih ngumpul ari orang ke landik pasal senyata kitai Iban. Nya alai enti kita bisi penemu ti dalam pasal senyata ti dikena kitai Iban nyaga menoa diri empu, kita tau e-mail ngagai aku di Ank_iban@yahoo.com ngambi ka disimpan aku ba website aku ditu.

1. Nyabur

Nyabur tu senyata ti pemadu iya besai reti ba pengawa kitai Iban. Nyabur tu ukai semina dikena kitai nyaga menoa, tang senyata tu mega dikena kitai ngadu ka pengawa gawai kitai Iban baka pengawa bebunoh babi (leboh niki ka orang mati ngagai rumah, leboh ngadu ka orang jadi salah serak, leboh munoh manok leboh meri anak mandi ba pendai, dikena mayar ukom tunggu ti berat, etc).

Nyabur tu enda tau digaga orang sengapa enti orang nya nadai kala badengah. Kabuah pia laban nyabur tu bisi sigi ukir keruit ti dikumbai “Butuh Kunding” (fern shoot). Nyadi ukir tu ditempa ba baruh rekong nyabur lalu ukir tu semina tau ditempa orang ke udah badengah (basah jari). Ulu iya juring serta panjai ari baruh. Nyabur tu nadai diukir baka duku ilang.

2. Langgai Tinggang tauka Nyabur Indu.

Enti orang nadai udah basah jari, iya semina tau ngaga mata nyabur nya aja lalu enda tau ngaga “butuh kunding”. Nyabur nya dikumbai orang “Langgai Tinggang” tauka “Nyabur Indu” lalu tau diukir baka duku ilang.

Langgai Tinggang (means the longest tail of a hornbill) tu senyata ti nyau deka sabaka enggau nyabur. Ulu iya sabaka enggau ulu duku ilang. Keruit iya segala lalu ditempa kira dua tunjok penyauh ari rekong duku. Enti iya nadai ditempa ka orang keruit, nyabur nya dikumbai nyabur indu. Keruit segala tu nadai pemali di tempa orang ke apin basah jari. Tang taja pia, jarang orang ke baru nemu ngamboh deka nguji ka bulu diri nempa keruit t

Pengawa Enggau Main Asal Iban

2010-06-28T01:39:00.000-07:00

Nyabong - Iban Favorite Pastimes

In this section I hope to compile as much as possible, all the traditional and favourite pastimes of the Iban people. I will attempt to discuss in detail its origin and its role in the Iban way of life. Such pastimes includes playing marbles (guli), playing catch with river stones (serimban or selingkut), spinning tops (gasing), sword dance (bapencha), Iban martial art (kuntau), fighting with knees (pangka attak), wrestling of various forms (bechekak, bibat, bibat lengan, bepancha), war dances of various forms (ngajat), cock-fighting, body tattoo, batak lampong, ngayap (Iban traditional form of courting), various methods of hunting, fishing & trapping, and many others that anyone can think of. This section is to be kept open to all who wants to contribute their article for preservation.

Leka Biau Piring

2010-06-28T01:37:00.000-07:00

Sa, Dua, Tiga, Empat, Lima, Enam, Tuuuuujoh.

Enda aku busong ilang laya,
Megai langgai manok banda,
Kena aku miau ading piring pinang saleka,
Laban aku tu nampong jako sera nyawa,
Enggi aki kitai Rekaya,
Iya endang landik ngajar kitai bebasa,
Ka semua bala pengabang.

Enda aku busong laya pambu,
Megai langgai manok kelabu,
Kena aku miau ading piring kapu,
Laban aku tu endang nitih ka ajar nampong jako,
Enggi aki kitai Rekaya Jamban Atu,
Iya landik ngajar kitai bebasa ngena jako,
Nadai kala saru bekalih tunsang.

Aku tu miau sida Dara Santih bunsu Sirih ke tumboh betumbok takang,
Dara Chelum Bunsu Tum Sedi lulun atas bedilang,
Dara Bagau Bunsu Semakau rendang dagang,
Dara Sandu Bunsu Gentu daun pisang,
Sida tu sama udah digempuru ditu datai magang.

Aku tu mega miau sida Kumang Dara Simbut,
Bunsu Pulut Jantan Jentawang,
Bunsu penganan baka bulan rerak rumpang,
Dara Letup baka tangkup bunga kejumpang,
Enggau Endu Tematu Tali Betabu,
Bunsu Telu Manok indu kepayang mekang.

Nya alai letup pan udah ga chukop,
Asi pan udah ga bisi,
Pinang udah ga chukup magang,
Samoa perengka pan udah ga sedia,
Ditiap genap nadai timpang.

Nya baru aku ngangau ka sida ke tindok nakal singit,
Bejalai ngena burit,
Nya ga Bunsu Chapak Burak,
Ba-ukir ilak kesulai tandang.
Kita nya meh ka diasa nerima bala pengabang,
Diasoh nabi samoa orang.

Ooooooooooooooha! x 1

Tak lalu ketawa balat gaga,
Ading piring pinang saleka,
Udah dibiau enggau selanjau ijau manok banda,
Gaga diasoh nabi meri basa ngagai Petara,
Ke datai ari Tuchong Sandong Gemala,
Di bukit lilit Gerija,
Alai semuka dudok sembayang.

Nya orang ngembuan batu sedan bulan pernama,
Enggau batu takang bintang tiga,
Ambi ka ubat penyangga nyawa maioh pampang saribu guna,
Ngasoh panjai umor nguan menoa.

Lalu ketawa gaga rindu,
Pamping ading piring kapu,
Udah dibiau enggau selanjau ijau manok kelabu,
Nganti Apai Migu,
Datai ari munggu madang engkajang.
Nya orang ngembuan batu pupu gigi gumbang,
Ubat landik bejako ba gulu tugong orang.

Tak ketawa tuchum Dara Chelum,
Bunsu Tum Sedi Lulun atas bedilang,
Udah dibiau enggau selanjau ijau manok sigon,
Gaga nganti penatai Liba apai Dom,
Datai ari pun kara nurun maioh betunjang.

Tak depan-depan ketawa ading piring penganan,
Udah dikebau enggau selanjau manok jelayan,
Gaga nganti penatai Ini Andan,
Datai ari bulan ke meruan tuang-tuang,
Nya orang ke ngembuan ubat jadian mali langkang.

Tak lalu ketawa gagit deh piring pulut mit,
Udah dikebau enggau selanjau ijau manok kunchit,
Nganti penatai sida Apai Sabit Bekait,
Ari punggang tisi langit.
Nya orang ngembuan batu pengait,
Dikena ngulih ka duit mata wang.

Ketawa gaga amat asi ketupat,
Laban udah kena biau enggau selanjau ijau manok kepiat,
Nganti Kumang Dayang Sambat,
Indu orang di urat dandi nentang,
Nya ga indu pandai di pechunggai tunjok empat,
Landik ngebat tukang tengkebang.

Ketawa chaie-chaie ading piring sungki,
Udah kena kebau enggau selanjau ijau manok pungka laki,
Gaga nganti penatai Keling Aji,
Datai ari tuchong engkeraji padi,
Munyi negeri maioh orang.
Nya orang ke berani ati mutus kempang.

Piring rendai pan ketawa terai-terai,
Udah dibiau enggau selanjau ijau manok tawai,
Gaga nganti Raja Selampandai,
Datai ari menoa iya di Tatai Tanah Nyadai,
Redai terabai rampai temiang.
Nya orang ke ngembuan batu nyiur nyuntai,
Enggau batu bingka lia mulai,
Nya ga ubat besai ngasoh gerai,
Tau mudah bulih utai,
Ngasoh gayu guru gerai nyamai.

Ketawa gaga ading piring penganan jala,
Udah dikebau enggau selanjau ijau manok banda,
Gaga nganti Raja Simpulang Gana,
Datai ari Letong Jalong Temaga,
Tinggang bunga nuyan meranggang,
Nya orang ti ngembuan leka sesangga tepang,
Enggau taring uting babi menoa,
Kena kitai ngintu simpuli padi paya,
Ngambi ka tak sebaka manah magang.

Lalu taong-taong munyi ketawa ading pimping piring tepong,
Udah di kebau enggau selanjau ijau manok tuntong,
Gaga nganti penatai Aki Lang Menaul Buban,
Ari engkeleman bulan mandang,
Aki Lang Menaul Tuntong,
Ari Kebong Langit Ngeruang,
Nya orang ke ngembuan batu pugu danau kampong,
Pengantong upong balang beraang,
Enggau ubat mali rampong,
Ngasoh betampong tau serang.

Panjai ai, panjai kekira,
Luas langit, luas dunya,
Pegai tegoh batu indu gemala,
Ngambi ka tampak nama,
Jelai berita dinga orang bap dunya bumi belinggang.

Gayu ko antu,
Nadai apa ko Petara,
Semua kitai bulih pengelantang.

Ooooooooha ! x 3

Note:
Udah tembu miau tu, perengka piring pan lalu dibagi ba dalam siti-siti chapak. Udah genap piring dibagi, nya baru nyampi ngangau ka petara, bunsu antu enggau petara aki petara ini ke udah parai. Sida tu diasoh datai ngabang nitih ka bansa pengawa gawai kitai.

Perengka dikena ngaga piring biasa:

Semakau & daun apong (Tobacco & wrapper)
Perengka pinang (pinang, sirih, kapu, gambir) dalam baku
Asi Amat (Cooked rice)
Garam (Salt)
Asi Manis (sweet fermented rice)
Ketupat (glutinous rice cooked in palm leaves)
Asi pulut burak, merah, kuning & chelum (white, red, yellow & black glutinous rice cooked in bamboo)
Penganan iri (rice cake)
Sagun (made of coconut powder & rice flour)
Beras Kuning (yellow rice – for sprinkling the piring)
Letup or rendai (puffed rice or pop rice)
Telu manok (hard boiled egg)
Telaga (a small cup containing rice wine)
Bulu manok kena nyampi & bebiau, dichabut lalu diunsut enggau darah manok nya empu (a feather from fowl used during prayer is plucked out and dipped in its blood when it is killed)

Chara magi tauka mela piring:

Tabur ka letup (digaga ari beras pulut) enggau beras kuning.
Bagi pinang, sirih, kapu enggau gambir.
Bagi insap – rukok apong enggau semakau.
Bagi asi enggau asi pulut – asi burak, pulut burak, pulut chelum, pulut merah enggau pulut kuning.
Bagi tumpi (kuih digaga ari tepong mulong), penganan penyaran, sungkui (digaga ari beras tutok dibungkus enggau daun pisang), ketupat (tau enda ibuh enti bisi asi pulut), sagun (digaga ari tepung beras enggau nyiur parut).
Bagi pisang.
Bagi garam ngagai tiap iti pinggai tauka sarang piring.
Bagi telu manok.

Udah nya baru ngambi manok dikena nyampi. Leka sampi mesti nitih ka bansa gawai. Tembu nyampi lalu tabur ka letup beras pulut enggau beras kuning. Selamat ngintu ari gawai ngagai kita semua.

Keeping Languages Alive

2010-06-28T01:33:00.000-07:00

The world’s diverse languages should be spoken, celebrated, and preserved, writes SHELDON SHAEFFER (pic above).

Not a week passes without the report of a species – ranging from Bornean orangutans to Australian spiders – being threatened, endangered, or newly extinct. Large amounts of resources, both human and financial, and considerable passion, of both environmentalists and developers, are expended in the fight over whether to save the species or let it die. The preservation of biodiversity, seen as essential for a sustainable future, has become a major battleground of this century.

If only so much passion were devoted to another kind of diversity – that of languages and cultures! For languages – and the cultures they transmit – are in serious trouble. Ninety-seven percent of the world’s people speak only 4% of the world’s languages, which means that only 3% of the world’s people speak 96% of its languages.

In 1992, the linguist Michael Krauss predicted that, if nothing were done, 90 percent of the world’s 6,000 or so living languages (1/3 of which are in Asia) would become extinct over the next hundred years. Fifty percent of these he classified as “moribund” (where the language is not being taught to or learned by children of the language group) and another 40% as “endangered” (where the conditions exist that, if not changed, will result in the language not being passed on to the next generation). Thus, only 10% of the world’s total languages can be reasonably classified as “safe” – in other words, languages which have very large numbers of speakers and official state support. Linguistic and cultural diversity is under serious threat around the world.

“If nothing is done” is the key phrase here. If nothing is done, these languages and their cultures will die; the result will be an unprecedented loss of linguistic and cultural diversity over the course of this century. But what actually is lost – not only to scholars but also to the world as a whole? Since every language has within it a unique world view and culture, when it dies, we lose something which can never be replaced – among other things, of course, traditional knowledge, history and wisdom.

The world’s small ethnic minority language communities represent a relatively large percentage of the worlds illiterate population. Why? In part, because ethnic minorities are frequently marginalised from the mainstream of their nation’s social, economic and political life and institutions. They are allowed into that mainstream life – if at all – only by leaving behind their own ethnic and linguistic identity and taking on the language and culture of the dominant society. This is not a new process. It is the long, well-known, well-documented, and sad history of minority communities throughout the world.

This history is happening now in Thailand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Linguists estimate that over 70 languages (not dialects, by most definitions) are spoken in Thailand (with hundreds more in the other nations of ASEAN), and that perhaps up to 50% of children in Thailand do not speak standard Thai as a mother tongue at home. But few recognise these facts and fewer still are willing to see such diversity as a source of richness rather than of confusion, as an opportunity rather than a problem. And very few understand that official recognition of, and support to, minority languages (rather than their neglect and even suppression) can help to raise the prestige of the government among minority communities and thus enhance (rather than subvert) their loyalty to the nation.

But to ensure that language remains the “strength” of ethnic minorities, their languages must often be further developed or revitalised to save them from extinction. Another noted linguist, Eric Crystal, suggests several steps to be taken to protect languages from extinction For example, an endangered language will develop if its speakers can increase their prestige within the dominant community, increase their wealth relative to the dominant community, and increase their legitimate power in the eyes of the dominant community. Even more important, perhaps, are the ability of the speakers of the language to be able to write their language down and a strong presence of the language in the education system. In other words, it is essential to ensure that the only schooling experience of children who speak a minority language is not in a language they do not speak and often cannot understand.

Education systems therefore play a critical role in whether languages become extinct – or are able to survive and thrive. Because the education systems of nation-states reflect the values and aspirations of the dominant society, the ethnic minority children encounter a major barrier to their participation in the life of the nation when they arrive at the door of their school. Most formal education systems, in fact, are inappropriate for, or even hostile to, indigenous groups and their languages. This is especially true in relation to the use of such languages in school. In many countries of the world, in fact, mother tongues are forbidden to be spoken in the classroom.

It is therefore critical, both for cultural and linguistic development and for academic achievement (including mastery of the national language and of international language) that early education and initial literacy – even for adults – be conducted in the learners first language or mother tongue. There are many reasons for this. Among others, the science of learning asserts that it is necessary to begin school from where the learners are; the starting point of learning how to read and write is the language spoken and understood by the learner – in other words, begin with the known and move to the unknown. More practically speaking, it is impossible to teach the majority of children how to read and write in a language they do not understand.

The results of research overwhelmingly support bilingualism or multilingualism. A recent study by the International Institute for Educational Planning of UNESCO in Paris showed that a strategy of bilingualism produces better learning outcomes and higher rates of internal efficiency in schools; that using the language understood by learners as the medium of instruction not only builds trust, initiative, and participation in the learning process but also promotes participatory teaching method; that encouraging the use of an (ethnic) language as the medium of instruction stimulates the production of school and cultural materials in that language, broadens the body of knowledge to be learned to include local knowledge, and facilitates learners integration into national social and cultural life; and, most importantly, that education in local languages can contribute very much at the political level to improving relations between national political leaders and the base of the societys multilingual population.

Papua New Guinea, not a rich country by any means, is particularly famous for both its biodiversity, with exotic new species found every year, and its cultural and linguistic diversity, with over eight hundred languages spoken both, no doubt, because of its unique geography of isolated mountain valleys and small islands. Yet Papua New Guinea is able to provide initial literacy in the first three years of primary education in over 400 languages. More and more countries in the Asia and Pacific region are making a similar effort, in far less challenging contexts. The net result, I would argue, will be greater mastery of both mother tongues and, eventually, national and international languages and revitalised ethnic minorities communities, more able to play their appropriate role in supporting and enriching the nation as a whole.

Note: Dr. Sheldon Shaeffer is currently Director of UNESCO’s Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, located in Bangkok. A citizen of Canada, he was educated in history (B.A.), anthropology (M.A.), and comparative international education (Ph.D.) at Stanford University. He has taught, done research, and worked in development programmes in Southeast Asia for over 20 years – as a high school teacher in Malaysia, as an anthropologist and an education programme officer for the Ford Foundation in Indonesia, and as the regional education advisor for UNICEF in Bangkok. He was also for 10 years the Director of Education and Population Programmes for the International Development Research Centre in Canada and later was a senior research fellow at the International Institute for Educational Planning (UNESCO) in Paris. Before moving back to Bangkok over six years ago, he was chief of UNICEF’s global education programme in New York.

WC2010 Poll Who will win the World Cup 2010?

2010-06-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

Brazil (30%, 387 Votes)
Argentina (29%, 373 Votes)
Germany (9%, 117 Votes)
England (8%, 98 Votes)
Spain (6%, 78 Votes)
Portugal (5%, 69 Votes)
Other (5%, 66 Votes)
Netherlands (4%, 56 Votes)
Italy (4%, 27 Votes)

Berita Iban

2010-06-27T09:45:00.001-07:00

SUPP mantah judi ba lumba enggau main
posted on June 27, 2010, Sunday

Meri lisin bejudi nadai ulih ngemunaska judi enda beradat, ku Chan

Helina menang Kumang Gawai Everly taun 2010
posted on June 27, 2010, Sunday

BINTULU: Helina Sarani Saba siku indu dara bansa iban ari Bintulu dipadu nyadi Kumang Gawai Everly taun 2010 sitak Bintulu musim ke tiga laban mujur ngalahka 15 iku indu dara ke sama bela ngambi bagi ba pekit nya kemari.

Bilun engkabang labuh, siku bansa Amerika bebadi
posted on June 27, 2010, Sunday

MIRI: Sebuah bilun engkabang bansa Sikorsky ke diempu siti kompeni kayu balak ke bepangkalan ditu udah labuh ba tengah kampong semak enggau menua Long Akah, Baram lemai kemari, sereta naban ka nyawa driba bilun nya, siku orang ke bansa Amerika, ku nitihka ripot polis.

S’wak nambah 224 iti kelas prasekula taun tu: Muhyiddin
posted on June 27, 2010, Sunday

SRI AMAN: Sarawak deka nambah 224 iti kelas prasekula perintah ba taun tu kena nampung penyampau kelas ti udah bisi baka kediatu, ku Sapit Menteri Besai Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Kaul ti rapit nunjuk penyerakup ke chukup tinggi
posted on June 27, 2010, Sunday

Perintah amat nguna saup tauka sukung ari rayat sereta gerempung, ku Salang

Masuk gerempung kena ngerapitka kaul, ku Yong
posted on June 27, 2010, Sunday

KUCHING: Mensia mayuh ari genturung pendiau ba sepemanjai Jalai Penrissen dipinta negapka kaul entara sama diri kena napi penyampau tubuh ti majak mayuh nguan menua nya.

S’wak bedau ulih ngerembus arus ‘broadband’
posted on June 27, 2010, Sunday

KUCHING: Sarawak dipelaba bedau ulih nyapai tagit 50 persin ngerembus arus broadband taun tu.

Perintah meri bantu PTPTN penuh enti penatai pemisi sebilik baruh RM4,000
posted on June 26, 2010, Saturday

KUALA LUMPUR: Bala nembiak ti ulih nampung pelajar sekula ngagai Palan Belajar Tinggi (IPT) sereta sida iya sebilik ke semina ngembuan penatai pemisi ninting bulan RM4,000 ke baruh ulih nerima duit pinjau penuh ari perintah

Heli Terhempas Seorang Maut

2010-06-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

Juruterbang warga AS terbunuh, sementara pembantunya parah dalam tragedi itu

BEDAH SIASAT: Mayat Scott diangkat oleh anggota paramedik sejurus tiba di Hospital Umum Sarawak pada jam 4.10 semalam.

MIRI: Seorang juruterbang terbunuh manakala pembantunya cedera parah apabila pesawat helikopter jenis Sikorsky milik sebuah syarikat pembalakan di negeri ini terhempas di tengah hutan kira-kira 50 batu dari selatan kawasan Long Akah di Ulu Baram, petang Jumaat.

Juruterbang pesawat, William Charles Scott, 52, warganegara Amerika Syarikat (AS) maut di tempat kejadian sementara pembantu juruterbang yang juga rakan senegaranya, David William Bergin, 49, cedera parah.

Dalam kejadian yang berlaku kira-kira jam 4.30 petang itu, kedua-dua mangsa dikatakan sedang menjalankan rutin harian mereka, membawa balak dari hutan ke kem pembalakan syarikat di Kilo-meter 10, Ulu Baram.

Ketua Polis Baram, Deputi Superintenden Polis (DSP) Abu Bakar Mokhtar ketika dihubungi berkata bilik gera-kan mencari dan menyelamat (SAR) telah diaktifkan pada hari kejadian bagi membawa mangsa keluar dari hutan.

Beliau bersama lima lagi pegawainya dari Marudi dan Long Lama yang dimaklumkan dengan kejadian itu kemudiannya bergegas ke lokasi kejadian yang mengambil masa perjalanan selama lima jam.

Beliau seterusnya menambah, mayat William telah berjaya dikeluarkan oleh pasukan SAR tengahari semalam dan telah dibawa terus ke Kuching untuk dihantar pulang ke negara asalnya.

“Mayat mangsa berjaya kita keluarkan dan kini kita sedang dalam perjalanan untuk membawa mayat William ke Kuching sementara siasatan terhadap nahas itu diteruskan,” katanya semalam.

Kejadian yang berlaku dalam hutan simpan antara Long Pelutan dan Long Akah tersebut adalah kawasan operasi syarikat pembalakan bagi mengeluarkan balak.

Dalam perkembangan berkaitan, pembantu juruterbang helicopter itu, David William Bergin telah dikeluarkan oleh pekerja syarikat pembalakan yang turut berada di lokasi kejadian.

Utusan Borneo diberitahu bahawa David William yang mengalami kecederaan kepala dan lengan sedang menerima rawatan susulan di Pusat Rawatan Colombia Asia Miri.

Dalam pada itu, Balai Polis Marudi ketika dihubungi semalam memberitahu pihaknya menerima laporan kejadian itu kira-kira jam 7.19 petang Jumaat.

Sementara itu di KUCHING, mayat mendiang William tiba di Hospital Umum Sarawak (HUS) untuk bedah siasat kira-kira jam 4.15 petang semalam.

Mayat juruterbang itu diterbangkan dari Miri Ke Kuching turut dengan diiringi oleh DSP Abu Bakar.

Abu Bakar yang ditemui di HUS semalam, mayat mendiang Scott hanya akan dihantar pulang ke negara asalnya selepas selesai bedah siasat.

Ia adalah kes pertama yang melibatkan kematian warga asing dan tragedi kedua yang berlaku di negeri ini. Nahas pesawat yang pertama berlaku pada Januari tahun ini di Simunjan yang turut mengorbankannya juruterbangnya.

Jenayah Dalam Negeri

2010-06-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

Sindiket pemerdagangan manusia tumpas

PETALING JAYA 26 Jun – Satu sindiket pemerdagangan manusia yang didalangi oleh warga Afrika dan Filipina tumpas ekoran penahanan seorang ibu ayam dan seorang lelaki dalam dua serbuan berasingan di Bandar Sunway dan Puchong, dekat sini tengah malam tadi.

Juruteknik berjudi ditahan

SUBANG JAYA 26 Jun – Helah seorang juruteknik yang menukar sebuah laman web judi bola sepak kepada laman filem ketika diserbu polis gagal mengabui mata pihak berkuasa apabila dia dicekup dalam serbuan di pangsapuri Seri Mekar, Puchong Jaya di sini, malam tadi

Cerita luar Negara

2010-06-27T09:33:00.001-07:00

Sertai latihan tentera AS

WASHINGTON 26 Jun - Malaysia dan Thailand buat kali pertama menyertai latihan ketenteraan yang diketuai oleh Amerika Syarikat (AS) di Lautan Pasifik.

Tinjauan pertama jangka Gillard menang besar

SYDNEY 26 Jun – Penyingkiran Kevin Rudd sebagai Perdana Menteri Australia oleh timbalan beliau, Julia Gillard ternyata langkah bijak, apabila tinjauan pendapat umum pertama selepas penggulingan itu menunjukkan Gillard akan memenangi pilihan raya umum dengan kelebihan undi yang besar.

Myanmar bakar dadah RM243 juta

NAYPYIDAW 26 Jun - Pihak berkuasa Myanmar hari ini membakar dadah bernilai kira-kira AS$76 juta (RM243 juta), sementara junta tentera memberi amaran mengenai tanda-tanda melonjaknya pengeluaran dadah di wilayah timur laut negara ini.

Rekod baru ulasan Piala Dunia dalam Twitter

SAN FRANCISCO 26 Jun – Twitter semalam melaporkan kejohanan Piala Dunia di Afrika Selatan melonjakkan bilangan ‘tweet’ yang dikirim menerusi perkhidmatan mikroblog itu ke paras tertinggi iaitu 3,283 mesej sesaat.

Brunei Gugur Limbang

2010-06-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

BANDAR SERI BENGAWAN 16 Mac – Brunei Darussalam hari ini secara rasmi menggugurkan tuntutan ke atas Limbang di Sarawak selepas Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah dan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi menandatangani Surat Pertukaran bagi menyelesaikan isu sempadan dan tuntutan bertindih.

Berita menggembirakan itu dinyatakan oleh Abdullah kepada pemberita Malaysia selepas upacara tersebut yang ditanda tangani pada kira-kira pukul 12.05 tengah hari di Istana Nurul Iman di sini.

Peristiwa bersejarah itu turut disaksikan oleh Tuanku Mahkota Brunei, Al-Muhtadee Billah; Menteri Luar, Datuk Seri Dr. Rais Yatim dan rakan sejawatnya, Putera Mohamed Bolkiah; Menteri Pelajaran, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein; Ketua Menteri Sarawak, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud dan Ketua Menteri Sabah, Tan Sri Musa Aman.

“Hari ini adalah hari yang cukup bersejarah kerana Brunei telah menggugurkan tuntutan ke atas Limbang dan dengan ini Limbang akan menjadi sebahagian dari wilayah kita.

“Apa yang lebih menggembirakan lagi ialah isu-isu sempadan dan perkara-perkara pokok yang berlarutan begitu lama sejak 1995 telah dapat diselesaikan,” kata Perdana Menteri kepada pemberita Malaysia di pejabat Suruhanjaya Tinggi Malaysia di sini.

Isu Limbang selama ini meletakkan kedua-dua negara dalam keadaan dilema kerana wilayah itu agak unik kerana memisahkan dua kawasan daratan di Brunei.

Selain masalah persempadanan darat di Limbang, penemuan sumber baru minyak di kawasan seluas 150 kilometer oleh Petronas turut mencetuskan masalah persempadanan maritim kedua-dua negara berjiran itu.

Pada sidang akhbar yang sama, Perdana Menteri berkata, penyelesaian kepada perkara-perkara pokok dalam isu-isu berkaitan sempadan dan tuntutan bertindih itu akan membawa banyak kebaikan kepada kedua-dua negara.

Menurut beliau, hubungan Malaysia dan Brunei selepas ini akan melalui era baru dalam kerjasama dua hala tanpa dihantui lagi oleh perkara-perkara yang boleh menimbulkan prasangka.

“Oleh itu, saya dan kerajaan Malaysia mengucapkan terima kasih kepada Sultan Brunei atas kerjasama yang diberikan atas semangat yang sama iaitu tidak mahu isu-isu tersebut menghantui hubungan sesama negara anggota ASEAN,” tegas Abdullah yang terpaksa pulang ke tanah air segera kerana ada acara lain di Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA), petang ini.

Abdullah yang tiba di sini malam tadi diiringi oleh isteri, Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah.

Sementara itu, dalam pernyataan bersama oleh pemimpin kedua-dua negara yang dikeluarkan sempena majlis menandatangani Pertukaran Surat tersebut menyebut antara lain persetujuan mengenai isu persempadanan maritim, penentuan kawasan komersial (CAA) bagi sumber minyak dan gas.

Turut dipersetujui adalah memberi hak (unsuspendable rights) kepada penduduk Malaysia menyeberangi sempadan perairan Brunei - dari atau ke arah destinasi di Sarawak - tapi masih terikat dengan undang-undang serta peraturan negara jiran itu.

Malaysia dan Brunei juga mencapai penyelesaian kepada perkara-perkara yang sebelum ini menimbulkan ketidaktentuan di sempadan maritim dan di Zon Ekonomi Eksklusif (EEC).

Melalui persetujuan itu, kedua- dua negara boleh menguatkuasakan undang-undang atau peraturan sendiri di kawasan zon maritim masing- masing.

Pemimpin kedua-dua negara itu berharap penyelesaian kepada isu-isu tersebut akan merintis kerjasama lebih besar dalam pelbagai bidang terutama perdagangan, pelaburan, sumber tenaga dan hidrokarbon, pelancongan, industri halal dan sebagainya.

Pada perkembangan sama, Ketua Menteri Sarawak melahirkan rasa gembira dengan penyelesaian isu-isu sempadan yang bakal memberi banyak manfaat kepada penduduk kedua-dua negara.

Menurut Taib, Limbang akan dimajukan termasuk membangunkan sumber tenaga melalui pembinaan empangan

Tempat menarik di Limbang

2010-06-27T09:28:00.001-07:00

Muzium Wilayah Limbang terletak di sebuah kubu lama yang dibina oleh Charles Brooke pada 1897. Muzium yang telah dibuka pada 1994 ini mempamerkan sejarah dan kebudayaan rakyat di wilayah ini seperti alat buluh, cara pembuatan garam, seni manik, pakaian daripada kulit kayu, barangan logam, bakul dan sebagainya.

Bukit Mas terletak berhampiran dengan Muzium Wilayah Limbang tempat ini merupakan tempat menarik untuk dukunjungi. Bukit Mas adalah tempat yang sesuai untuk beriadah bersama keluarga ,rakan-rakan mahupun bersendirian. Tempat ini mempunyai pemandangan sejuk mata memandang. Terdapat trek menaiki puncak Bukit Mas. Biasanya sempena Hari Bukit Mas pertandingan naik ke puncak Bukit Mas akan diadakan!

Tuntutan Brunei

2010-06-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

Sejak penubuhan Malaysia pada 1963, Brunei terbahagi dua , dipisahkan oleh Limbang. Sejak itu dikatakan Brunei menuntut wilayah Limbang daripada Malaysia.^[1]

Perjanjian 16 Mac 2009 antara Malaysia dan Brunei rupa-rupanya menyebabkan Malaysia kehilangan medan minyak Blok L dan Blok M yang terletak di luar pantai Limbang / Brunei. Berikutan itu Petronas menamatkan usaha carigali dengan syarikat Murphy Oil Corp dari Amerika Syarikat kerana ia bukan lagi milik Malaysia.

Konvensyen Undang-undang laut Pertubuhan Bangsa-bangsa Bersatu (UNCLOS) 1982 menetapklan bahawa kawasan luar pantai Brunei itu milik Brunei . Kawasan itu yang selama ini bertindih sempadan akan dibangunkan secara usahasama dengan Malaysia. ^[2]

Mengenali limbang

2010-06-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

Limbang merupakan sebuah bahagian dan juga ibu kota bahagian di negeri Sarawak. Bahagian Sarawak ini terletak di sebelah utara, dan mempunyai kawasan seluas 3,978.1 kilometer persegi dan jumlah penduduk 42,600 orang (banci tahun 2000). Anehnya Bandar Limbang diapit oleh Brunei Muara dan Temburong. Bahagiah luar pantai banyak petroleum dan gas. Bagi meneroka petonsi itu, Perjanjian 16 Mac 2009 antara Malaysia dan Brunei telah diadakan.

8 Values 1 malaysia

2010-06-27T09:19:00.000-07:00

Perseverance

Culture of Excellence

Kita mesti mengenali siapa Perdana Menteri Kita???

2010-06-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

Impian sepanjang hayat Perdana Menteri Malaysia Ke-6, Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Bin Tun Hj Abd Razak, ialah satu Malaysia yang bersatu padu, aman dan makmur, dengan peluang yang bukan sedikit untuk semua rakyat.

Sebagai putera kepada Perdana Menteri Malaysia Ke-2, Allahyarham Tun Abd Razak, Najib dilahirkan di tengah-tengah gelanggang politik. Najib membesar dengan memerhatikan bapanya serta memahami kehendak politik arus perdana. Beliau sentiasa mengerti bahawa bila sampai waktunya beliau juga mahu berbakti kepada masyarakat dan negara. Namun pemergian bapanya pada ketika yang tidak dijangka, 14 Januari 1976, ketika menjejaki usia 54 tahun, telah menyorongkan Najib ke hadapan sehingga menjadi tumpuan utama. Lima minggu selepas pemergian bapanya, pada usia 22 tahun, Najib telah terpilih untuk mengisi kekosongan kerusi Parlimen Pekan, menjadikan beliau Ahli Parlimen yang paling muda dalam sejarah Malaysia. Pada 2004, beliau telah menyandang jawatan kedua tertinggi dalam negara sebagai Timbalan Perdana Menteri, 47 tahun setelah bapanya dilantik ke jawatan yang sama.

Dato' Sri Mohd Najib dilahirkan pada 23 Julai 1953 di Kuala Lipis, Pahang. Beliau telah mendapat pendidikan di St. John’s Institution, Kuala Lumpur dan Malvern Boy’s College, Worcestershire, England sebelum menamatkan pengajian peringkat ijazah dalam bidang Ekonomi Perindustrian daripada Nottingham University. Sekembalinya ke Malaysia pada 1974, beliau telah menyertai dunia korporat bila berkhidmat untuk satu waktu yang singkat dengan Bank Negara, kemudiannya beralih ke PETRONAS (perbadanan petroleum negara) sebagai Pengurus Hal Ehwal Awam. Namun pemergian Tun Abd Razak secara tiba-tiba itu telah merobah corak kehidupan beliau secara dramatik.

Najib pantas menyesuaikan dirinya dengan kehidupan umum sebagai Ahli Parlimen, dan kemudiannya mendapati kemahiran berpolitik itu begitu serasi dengan dirinya. Tidak lama kemudian, Najib yang masih muda belia telah memperlihatkan bahawa beliau ialah seorang ahli politik yang boleh dipercayai dan berkebolehan serta berhak dipanggil pemimpin atas keupayaan dirinya sendiri. Pada tahun pertamanya sebagai Ahli Parlimen, beliau telah dilantik sebagai Timbalan Menteri Tenaga Telekomunikasi dan Pos, dan kemudiannya menjawat jawatan Timbalan Menteri Pelajaran dan selepas itu Timbalan Menteri Kewangan. Pada 1982, Perdana Menteri yang baru, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad telah mencalonkan Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib untuk bertanding kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri bagi kawasan Pekan. Berikutan dengan kejayaannya, Najib yang berusia 29 tahun ketika itu dilantik menjadi Menteri Besar Pahang, negeri terbesar di Semenanjung Malaysia. Pahang pada ketika itu hampir-hampir terjebak dalam satu krisis politik disebabkan oleh perbezaan yang serius antara bekas Menteri Besar dan Sultan Pahang. Tetapi Najib bukan sahaja sebutir bintang yang sedang bergemerlapan, beliau juga ialah salah seorang daripada Pembesar Berempat Istana Pahang (kerana mewarisi gelaran turun temurun sebagai Orang Kaya Indera Shahbandar). Dengan yang demikian diterima dengan tangan terbuka oleh pihak Istana. Krisis yang melanda itu dengan cepat dapat diredakan, memastikan perpaduan dalam UMNO Pahang. Selanjutnya Najib memulakan langkah untuk mengukuhkan pendidikan di dalam negeri.

Pada 1992 Najib telah memainkan peranan utama dalam penubuhan Yayasan Pahang, sebuah yayasan yang membaktikan kepada penggalakan pendidikan dan sukan di kalangan belia Pahang melalui biasiswa dan pembiayaan. Najib telah memperkukuh perusahaan negeri untuk memaksimumkan pendapatan daripada sumber kekayaan semula jadi negeri Pahang. Dengan kerjasama FELDA, Perbadanan Pembangunan Tanah Persekutuan, beliau telah merintis jalan kepada pembentukan skim penempatan tanah baru, memberikan peluang-peluang pendapatan baru kepada mereka yang tidak mempunyai tanah dan berada dalam kelompok yang berpendapatan rendah.

Dato Sri Mohd Najib mula menyandang jawatan Timbalan Ketua Pemuda UMNO pada 1982, dan naik sebagai ketua pergerakan tersebut pada 1987. Pada 1988, setelah satu pergolakan menguasai parti, satu UMNO baru yang telah disusun semula diwujudkan dan Najib telah dilantik sebagai Ketua Pemuda, jawatan yang disandang beliau sehingga 1993.

Dalam pilihan raya 1986, Najib dikembalikan sebagai Ahli Parlimen kawasan Pekan, dan dilantik sebagai Menteri Kebudayaan, Belia dan Sukan. Sebaik sahaja dilantik beliau terus memberikan tumpuan kepada penggalakan sukan dan memperkenalkan Dasar Sukan Negara pada 1988. Pada 1989, Malaysia telah mencapai kejayaan yang terbaik pernah dicapainya di Sukan Asia Tenggara (Sukan SEA), yang diadakan di Kuala Lumpur pada tahun itu.

Pada 1991, Dato’ Sri Najib telah dilantik sebagai Menteri Pertahanan. Najib telah mencergaskan semula sebuah Kementerian yang dilihat sebagai tidak bermaya dan lembap. Beliau telah memodenkan Angkatan Tentera Malaysia melalui peningkatan keupayaan, pemerolehan dan latihan strategik. Pada 1995, Dato’ Sri Najib mengalami perubahan dalam portfolio kabinet, yang mana beliau telah dilantik sebagai Menteri Pelajaran. Beliau telah mengambil cabaran untuk menyambut aspirasi Malaysia yang baru sahaja diumumkan ketika itu, untuk menjadi sebuah negara maju yang sepenuhnya pada tahun 2020. Sepanjang tempoh lima tahun perkhidmatannya, Najib telah mewujudkan mekanisme yang dapat membolehkan generasi rakyat Malaysia menghadapi cabaran masa mendatang. Beliau telah menstrukturkan semula Kementerian ini, memperbadankan universiti dan institusi awam, serta menggalakkan kerjasama dengan universiti dan institusi luar negara. Langkah ini telah memberikan lebih banyak peluang pendidikan kepada rakyat Malaysia dan meletakkan Malaysia sebagai satu hab pembelajaran serantau. Dato' Sri Najib juga telah meningkatkan sijil perguruan kepada status diploma, supaya guru-guru dalam kategori tersebut dapat menerima gaji permulaan bulanan yang lebih tinggi.

Pada 1999, berikutan pergolakan politik pada tahun sebelumnya, Najib memenangi pemilihan semula kerusi Parlimen Pekan. Beliau telah dilantik sebagai Menteri Pertahanan buat kali keduanya dan meneruskan usaha untuk meningkatkan dan memodenkan Angkatan Tentera Malaysia. Apabila beliau dilantik sebagai Timbalan Perdana Menteri pada 2004, Dato’ Sri Najib telah diserahkan dengan portfolio tanggungjawab yang banyak dan besar, termasuk mengawasi FELDA, Suruhanjaya Hak Asasi Manusia (SUHAKAM), dan Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR). Beliau mempengerusikan 28 Jawatankuasa Kabinet yang membincangkan pelbagai isu.

Dato’ Sri Najib telah berkahwin dengan YABhg. Datin Sri Rosmah Mansor, dan bapa kepada lima orang anak.

Pada 3hb April 2009, Dato; Sri Mohd Najib Tun Razak dilantik sebagai Perdana Menteri Malaysia di hadapan Yang di-Pertuan Agong, dalam satu proses peralihan kuasa yang lancar oleh YAB Datuk Seri Abdullah Hj Ahmad Badawi.

MENGIBARKAN PANJI-PANJI NEGARA.

2010-06-27T09:07:00.000-07:00

SAYA TETARIK DENGAN HUJAH PERDANA MENTERI MALAYSIA....JADI SAYA TELAH MENGISINYA KE DALAM BLOG SAYA SENDIRI SEBAGAI PERINGATAN KEPADA SAYA DAN KITA SEMUA RAKYAT MALAYSIA....

Semasa kunjungan saya ke negara-negara ASEAN tempoh hari, saya gembira memerhatikan bahawa bendera Malaysia kita benar-benar berkibar dengan megahnya di negara-negara ini. Tenaga kerja dan juga perniagaan kita yang diwujudkan oleh syarikat-syarikat Malaysia di negara-negara ini menjadi bukti bahawa Malaysia berada di landasan kemajuan yang betul. Ketika saya sedang meneliti kerja-kerja saya yang bertimbun di pejabat minggu ini, saya terfikir alangkah baiknya jika saya berkongsi peta minda yang terdapat di atas meja saya, melalui blog ini, seperti mana yang telah saya lakukan dengan rakyat Malaysiadi luar negara semasa lawatan saya di Laos.

Kenyataannya, kita boleh berbangga kerana telah membuatkan kehadiran negara kita terasa di banyak negara termasuk di kota raya yang maju dan sedang membangun di serata dunia. Saya berharap ini akan menjadi perangsang kepada rakyat Malaysia di seluruh dunia – bahawa semangat keusahawanan itu sangat jitu dan mestilah sesuatu yang boleh kita gerakkan dengan penuh rasa bangga. Kita melihat segala kemungkinan di banyak tempat – waima di tempat-tempat yang jauh terpencil, dan tidak diketahui benar sekali pun – tetapi memberikan banyak peluang kepada kita. Dan rakyat Malaysia mestilah mencari peluang itu di mana sahaja mereka berada, sama ada di negara-negara maju atau sedang membangun.

Cabaran yang kita hadapi agak berbeza daripada cabaran yang diterima oleh negara-negara lain, namun kita tidak boleh berpuas hati dengan kejayaan kita disebabkan persekitarannya telah berubah dengan jelas sekali. Sebagai contoh, pada tahun 70-an dan awal 80-an, saat kita sedang menikmati kadar pertumbuhan yang tinggi sebelum krisis kewangan Asia, banyak negara mengamalkan ekonomi tertutup. Mereka tidak bersedia untuk berubah, tidak juga bersedia untuk meliberalisasi. Tetapi hari ini, hampir setiap negara telah menerima dasar mesra pasaran. Satu-satunya perkara yang tidak berubah ialah sistem tadbir urus. Dan negara-negara ini seperti RDR Laos, Kemboja, Vietnam dan lain-lain lagi yang dahulunya tidak terlibat dalam ekonomi terbuka pada tahun 70-an - mereka hanya ikut serta pada tahun 80-an dengan kenyataan rasmi Deng Xiapong yang terkenal itu: tidak menjadi persoalan apa warna kucing itu asalkan ia boleh menangkap tikus. Ini ialah orang-orang yang sangat pragmatik.

Jadi dunia telah berubah. Malaysia tiada pilihan lain; sama ada terjerat sebagai negara yang berpendapatan sederhana dan jika kita terjerat, maka ada kemungkinan juga negara lain akan melompat lebih jauh ke hadapan daripada kita. Ini kerana mereka tidak melihat kepada perubahan tambahan; mereka melihat kepada perubahan teknologi besar-besaran yang mana akan membolehkan mereka melompat lebih jauh ke hadapan mengatasi negara lain.

Itulah sebabnya kenapa kita tidak harus berpuas hati dengan kejayaan kita. Kita seharusnya tidak memikirkan bahawa dasar-dasar yang sama ini, yang baik bagi kita pada tahun 70-an dan 80-an akan berterusan, jika suasananya sudah berubah. Kita mesti mara ke hadapan, dengan dasar-dasar baru yang akan membuatkan kita berdaya saing di peringkat dunia. Kata kuncinya adalah berdaya saing di peringkat dunia. Kita tidak akan berjaya jika kita tidak berdaya saing di peringkat dunia.

Jika kita berdaya saing di peringkat dunia maka itu, Malaysia boleh mencapai Wawasan 2020. Kita mahu menjadi negara maju, kita bercita-cita untuk menjadi negara maju. Kita telah mentakrif apa maknanya negara maju dari segi pendapatan per kapita. Kita mahu meningkatkan pendapatan setiap orang daripada secara kasarnya sekitar USD7,000 kepada USD15,000 dalam tempoh 10 tahun. Dan itulah caranya kita mentakrifkan sebuah negara maju seringkas-ringkasnya.

Namun per kapita bukanlah segala-galanya; ia perlu merangkumi semua. Hasil kejayaan kita sebagai satu negara ekonomi mestilah dikongsi bersama oleh semua rakyat Malaysia. Ia tidak boleh hanya segolongan elit sahaja yang menikmati hasil kejayaan kita itu; ia seharusnya disebarluaskan merata-rata secara saksama. Oleh yang demikian, keterangkuman atau keterlibatan itu penting dan tiada sesiapa pun yang akan dipinggirkan. Itulah sebabnya kenapa kita menghasilkan kata-kata azimat 1Malaysia, Rakyat Didahulukan, Pencapaian Diutamakan. 1Malaysia adalah tentang kebersamaan, tentang berkongsi kejayaan ekonomi Malaysia, yang seharusnya semua orang mendapat manfaat daripadanya dan ia adalah pengagihan yang adil dan saksama.

Kami juga percaya bahawa transformasi ekonomi ini ialah satu perjalanan yang penuh cabaran juga keseronokan, kerana rakyat Malaysia boleh melakukannya. Dan kita telah membuktikan dalam tempoh satu tahun sahaja dengan dua kejayaan besar. Sungguhpun diperkecilkan atau dianggap tidak serius disebabkan beberapa isu dari semasa ke semasa, namun dalam tempoh setahun sahaja kita telah mengubah ekonomi dari satu kemelesetan kepada satu ekonomi yang berjaya mencapai pertumbuhan sebanyak 10.1% dalam satu suku tahun.

Satu lagi kejayaan yang telah kita capai dalam tempoh setahun ialah indeks daya saing dunia kita telah melompat ke tangga 10 dari tangga ke-18. Kita kini berada dalam golongan 10 negara teratas di dunia, dan kita boleh berbangga dengan kejayaan itu. Sekali lagi, ketika kita sedang memupuk budaya kecemerlangan, kita tidak akan berhenti pada kedudukan 10 teratas itu. Saya mahukan kita berada dalam golongan lima teratas; saya mahu kita berada di peringkat yang lebih tinggi.

Kita kini sedang mencuba sedaya upaya kita. Saya sedang berusaha. Saya telah menyebutnya di Twitter saya sebelum ini, "Saya terasa tekanannya sekarang, sejak siang saya menjadi semakin panjang dan malam saya menjadi semakin singkat." Saya tidak kisah bekerja keras; pada saya kerja keras itu baik kerana saya akan terdorong melakukan yang terbaik. Sebagai sebuah Kerajaan kita perlu lakukan yang terbaik. Saya perlu mendahului kepimpinan untuk menunjukkan bahawa saya serius, komited, dan berdedikasi dalam perkara ini. Saya jamin, sebagai Perdana Menteri, saya akan melakukan sedaya upaya saya untuk mentransformasikan Malaysia.

Tentulah dalam perjalanan ini saya tidak boleh lakukannya bersendirian; saya memerlukan rakan-rakan seperjuangan saya dalam Kerajaan, kesemua yang berada dalam sektor swasta dan swasta awam. Saya memerlukan setiap rakyat Malaysia, di mana sahaja anda berada, untuk bersama-sama saya, berganding bahu untuk mencapai sesuatu yang luar biasa. Semuanya adalah untuk mencapai kejayaan. Ia mestilah untuk mentransformasikan dan membawa Malaysia ke arah sesuatu yang lebih baik, ke arah pencapaian matlamat yang lebih tinggi. Dan itulah perjalanan yang saya mahukan semua rakyat Malaysia merasakan bahawa mereka ialah sebahagian daripadanya, satu keluarga dalam 1Malaysia. Dan Insya-Allah, kita akan sampai ke situ. Dengan sokongan anda semua, kita akan sampai ke situ.

Origin of Adat Iban Part 1

2010-06-27T02:41:00.000-07:00

In the beginning of Iban genealogical times, in the times of Bejie, we lived in the world whose state was in chaos and characterized by supernatural calamity and disaster like floods, storm, diseases and petrification (kudi). Fish and turtles came out of the water, their “natural element” and attack our ancestors living on land. Then, out of these chaos eventually, comes an order and created a more habitable universe regulated by the rules of adat.

For the Iban, it is the adat, above all, that embodies universal order. In its most general sense, the term adat refers to the normative rules and understandings that regulate human affairs and govern relations between humankind and the unseen supernatural and everyday visible worlds.

Adat also supplies the moral order that makes Iban people living as a human society possible. Indeed, for every longhouse is perceived of as an adat community. Here the personal independencies so highly valued by the Iban are tempered by mutual economic and ritual interdependencies, expressed chiefly in obligations of kinship and community. For example, the shared responsibilities of defending our territory (mantau menoa), bedurok during farming season, samakai gawai etc. These interdependencies are further buttressed by complex code of adat – a notion, which subsumes behavioral norms, rules, procedures and injunctions, and the legal mechanism, modes of redress, and sanctions by which these are preserved and enforced. These are evident in various rites and rituals performed in Iban way of life from cradle to grave, in procedures in settling disputes, rules in governing one’s conduct under various social or moral settings, appraisal system to accord level of respect for individual achievement on various aspect of life (e.g. war leader, manok sabong, tuai adat, lemambang, manang, etc).

The chief social function of adat is to assure harmonious relations between longhouse members. But more generally, adherence to adat is thought to sustain a moral order that makes human society possible, while at the same time, it preserves its members in a state of ritual well-being in relation to the gods, spirits and powers of nature. Thus the correctness of adat, when properly followed, is demonstrated by the continued well-being of all those who adhere to its rules. Expressed outwardly, these well being takes the form of social harmony and can be seen in the health, fertility and material prosperity of longhouse members and in the condition of their crops and in the plants, animals and natural features of their domain. Any serious breach of adat is said to threaten this well-being and so jeopardize not only the moral order, but also relations with the natural and unseen worlds as well. Thus, serious breaches of adat lay the community open to spiritual attack, social discord, crop failure, succumb to floods and natural calamities. The myth that follows tells essentially the story of adat’s creation.

The Adat Creation – Adat Berumah

In the mythic past, in the times of Bejie, the Iban people lived in caves and they live by hunting, fishing and gathering fruits. While living in caves they started to develop tools for their daily use and learn to utilise certain plant or animal skin for clothing to protect them from cold or tropical heat. Better equipped, they began to wander further from their cave and started to meet other people who settled at the edge of the forest and coastal areas.

It was at this time that Bejie and his followers met coastal traders who wanted to change their nomadic way of lives to a more settled communal lifestyle and also to introduce islamic teachings to them. This prompted Bejie to build ladders up a tall enchepong tree in order to meet the mohamedian god whose domain is in the sky as told by a muslim cleric. While Bejie was busy building ladders on the tallest enchepong tree to visit god, he asked his brother named Bada to lead his people.

Bada led his people to hunt, fish or gather fruits as usual getting further and further away from their cave. One day, while they were returning from a long hunting trip, they were caught in a heavy rain and thunderstorm. While the women rushed towards the cave in the heavy rain, the men who were left behind began to build temporary shelter called dunju made of leaves to protect themselves from the heavy rain and cold. When they arrived in their cave later, the womenfolks were surprised to see that they were home dry despite the heavy rain. From then onward, the Iban started to build temporary shelter to protect themselves from bad weather whenever they wander further from their domain.

Soon, from temporary shelter, they learn to appreciate the comfort of living in a temporary hut called langkau and started to leave their cave. From langkau, their ideas expanded and started to build a temporary communal longhouse called dampa. This enable them to live and work together. The first dampa was built small and it was soon congested. They had to expand it bigger and longer to accomdate everyone and also to accomodate daily domestic activities like cooking, indoor work space, sleeping, food and material storage. This gave way to the building of the first longhouse.

When Bada and his men built the first longhouse, they were faced with a mysterious problem. Everytime they planted the poles on the ground, it fell off again the next day. This happens every time when they wanted to continue their construction work the next day. While they were puzzled by what is happening, a stranger appeared at the edge of the forest.

The stranger asked Bada what they were doing. Bada explained to the stranger the mysterious happening they encountered when constructing their longhouse. The stranger asked if they observed certain rules or adat when constructing a house. Bada told the stranger that they do not have any established rules and procedures for building a longhouse. The stranger then replied that it’s no wonder they encounter problems and difficulties in their construction work, as they do not have any established rules and procedures.

The stranger then taught Bada the proper rules of constructing a longhouse. He started by explaining that the land is owned by Petara Semarugah (God who created the land). Offerings and permission must therefore be sought from him before anyone can use the land for any purpose. This is done by following the procedures:

Every head of a family who wants to build an apartment in a longhouse must take part in the ngerembang ceremony (to locate the suitable site and location of the longhouse).
The longhouse chief, whose pole will be constructed first, must look for 5 right hand call nendak omen bird plants (tambak burong Nendak Kanan) and 3 left hand call of nendak omen bird plants to be placed on the hole of the first pole.
Offerings (piring) must be made before planting the first pole.
A pig or chicken must be sacrificed on the first hole and the first pole.
Rock crystal (batu kuai) and a piece of iron must be placed inside the first hole.
After the first pole is in placed, a mumban plant must be planted on the first hole next to the pole.

The offering (piring) and pig blood or chicken blood are the payment (tasih tanah) made to Petara Semarugah which is followed by prayers (sampi). The reason for placing the rock crystal, iron piece and mumban plant is to signify that the longhouse built will be strong and will not be washed away by flood of other natural disaster.

After finished teaching Bada and his men the rules to be followed, the stranger informed that his name is Puntang Raga and is actually sent by Petara Semarugah himself to teach them the proper rules and procedures to be followed. He then disappeared from their sight. After this, the Ibans grew in numbers and lives a more settled life. Cultures, arts and way of life developed rapidly in the next generations to come.

Adat Berumah Nyerangkong Penti Pemali, Atur Pendiau Enggau Ulah Di Rumah Panjai.

2010-06-27T02:38:00.000-07:00

Nyekang ka rumah nya mali, mali ka rumah angat. Reti nya nginsor buka rumah ari pamesai iya ke lama enti rumah lama apin darumpang dulu.
Nikup ka pemesai buka rumah enda tau, mali enggai betuboh.
Ngangkat ka peninggi rumah enda mali.
Rumah baru enda tau digaga ba tanju rumah lama, nya benama tebak sengkilu, mali rumah angat.
Ba ujong rumah lama enda tau ngaga rumah baru, nya benama layar daun, rumah deka angat.
Rumah baru enda tau digaga ari ili rumah lama enti iya enda digaga dua rantau dua lubok ari ili. Semak ari nya, nya ke benama mandi daki. Pemali iya, kitai deka mati orang ke tuai megai pengawa rumah panjai.
Ngaga rumah beseberai enggau rumah lama enda tau laban iya bejengok pendai, mali rumah angat.
Enti berumah kili, burong dikena kitai nendak kanan siko enggau nendak kiba dua iko.
Leboh nganjong tambak burong ngagai tanah endor berumah, dulu kitai ngiga nendak kanan dua enggau nendak kiba siko, udah nya baru ngerembang.
Tiga bulan udah ngerembang, ramu enda tau enda nuntong ba endor ka deka alai berumah. Enti ramu enda nuntong leboh dalam kandang nya, orang nya deka salah ngelaban adat balang rembang. Kena ukom babi siko, Sigi panding ambi ka sangkar babi , nyabor tudoh ambi ka kering samengat.
Enti orang udah nuntong ka ramu ba putting setak, lalu iya enggai agi dia, lalu deka pulai ka puting setak meraka ramu orang, enda tau enda meri genselan manok siko, besi sabilah ka kering samengat. Tu dikumbai nyunggah ka ramu.
Enti tiang udah nuntong lalu enda dientak ka lepas tiga bulan, nya ngelaban adat balang entak. Ukom babi siko, sigi panding ka sangkar babi, lalu duku sabilah ka kering samengat.
Enti tiang udah dientak lalu enda dikebat dalam kandang 3 bulan, nya ngelaban balang kebat ke dikumbai meragai tiang. Ukom babi siko, sigi panding ka sangkar babi, duku sabilah ka kering samengat.
Enti udah dikebat lalu enda ditiki atap lepas 3 bulan, nya dikumbai rangkah rumah. Ukom genselan enggau babi siko, sigi panding ka sangkar babi, nyabur tudoh ka kering samengat.
Enti udah diatap tang enda diwan nya naju ka rumah enti lepas 3 bulan. Ukom genselan enggau babi sepa siko, sigi alas ka sangkar, nyabur sabilah ka kering samengat.
Enti rumah udah diatap, tang enda digaga ka dapur enggau para tauka enti dapur udah digaga, iya enda tau enda alai berapi tiap anak bulan. Enti enda pia, kena ukom manok siko enggau duku sabilah. Tang enti orang bisi sakit laban dapur enda dipandok ka, orang ka bepenyalah nya kena tunggu babi siko, sangkar sigi panding lalu kering samengat duku sabilah.
Enti orang sakit lalu mati laban bisi dapur enda ditungkun ka dalam rumah panjai nya, iya ke bepenyalah nya kena tunggu babi sepa, sigi alas ka sangkar, nyabur tuduh sabilah kena ngering ka samengat. Tu dikumbai tungkal.
Enti orang diri sabilik belaya begagai meraka ruai orang, mai besi tauka kayu, orang nya salah kena ukom sigi alas.
Enti orang belaya lalu mantap sabang orang ke enggau belaya, enti nya sabang gawai burong, kena ukom sigi alas, genselan enggau babi sepa, nyabor sabilah ka kering samengat. Enti nya sabang gawai umai tauka sabang gawai batu iya kena salah sigi alas, babi siko, nyabur tudoh sabilah.
Enti orang bisi ningkil ka antu pala ari bengkong nadai kabuah, penyalah nya diukom enggau babi siko, sigi panding ka sangkar babi enggau duku sabilah ka kering samengat.
Enti rakup laboh enda tau enda genselan ngena manok siko.
Enti orang bisi mati ari luar rumah, bangkai iya ditiki ka rumah ngena babi siko, sigi panding ka sangkar, sabilah nyabur tudoh ka kering samengat. Enti iya temuai tauka kuli mati ba rumah kitai, nya benama tinggang bangkai. Genselan siko babi, sigi panding ka sangkar babi, sabilah nyabur tudoh ka kering samengat. Enti iya disengai ba ruai kitai, sasingkap pinggai ambi ka anchau tikai, panti gelegar bari skayu. Enti tiki sentubong genselan babi siko, sabilah duku ambi ka kering samengat. Enti singgah bangkai, genselan enggau babi ke udah tumbuh taring. Enti ngena babi indu, enda tau enda ngena iya ke udah sakali sepa, sigi alas ka sangkar, laban iya ukai empu rumah.
Enti orang terap ba rumah kitai laban lubang tauka sawang enda dialit ka, orang ke bempu ruai nya deka kena ukom sauta lalu di iring manok siko. Enti orang telih, ukom ditambah ka enggau pinggai sasingkap ambi ka sakap darah, kering samengat duku sabilah.
Enti orang bekerik mansa ruai orang, kena tunggu sigi panding, genselan enggau manok siko. Enti rumah bisi ngulit angkat orang bisi bagendang mansa rumah, rumah orang ka bagendang nya kena tunggu sigi panding.
Enti orang bisi perau, tauka buah, tauka utai ditupi kena bunuh pangan, iya ke empu utai rusak lalu muchau nyumpah orang ke dirumah nya bejalai niti rumah, iya kena tunggu sigi alas, genselan enggau manok dua iko, dua bilah duku ambi ka kering samengat. Penyalah orang ti ngerusak serta munoh utai nya endang tau didakwa ka iya ba tuai rumah.
Enti orang bisi ngandong ngampang lalu enda dipansut ka apai-indai iya, enti orang bukai nyau ngelala kandung, iya diasoh dulu munoh manok ambi ka gadai, awak ka kandung iya chelap, enggau enti orang bisi sakit kena pandang kandung nya, tau gerai. Udah apai-indai nemu orang enggau anak sida beleman, nya baru nuntong ka kandong. Rumah enda berat agi laban hal nya, laban manok gadai udah dibunoh.
Udah lelaki enggai diambu, indu enda tau enda munoh manok dua iko kena mansut ka ampang. Darah disadong ngagai rumah orang ti udah ditiki indu nya sakumbang iya udah ngandong. Bangkai manok tu enda tau diempa, buai ka ai – mali lungau.
Enti rumah bisi belian, rumah nya enda tau enda digantung ka tambai. Enti temuai datai enda iboh ka tambai, iya deka kena tunggu orang ke empu pengawa nganti tambai manang. Reti nya nganti adat manang.
Enti orang bisi najar kayu semak rumah orang, pengawa nya dikumbai nyakap rumah orang. Adat tu sigi panding, manok siko enggau kering samengat.
Enti nemu utai orang enda ingat tauka berayan ba jalai beri ngagai orang ke empu. Enti enda, udah nya temu orang ngelalai ka utai tu, iya ngaki pulai sigi jabir.

Ensera Jubang

2010-06-27T02:36:00.000-07:00

NYADI PUN jerita tu bedudok ari Keling ke sakit laban iya merampau deka betemu enggau Satik kelandik bala nyerang, Sudan kelindan lambar benang; bunsu Jubang Betengelang Bulu Burong, Jali datai ari kaki ujan ngerunong.

Udah nya sakit meh Keling kenu, nadai utai ngemalat nya. Deka diberi sida Endu Rikok Papan Pelangka makai, enggai ga iya makai. Tak ngenying enggai meda asi enggau lank. Deka dibai sida Simpurai bengkerebap pan enggai ga iya. Udah nya deka dibai sida Laja bekesuling enggai ga iya. Dibai sida Pungga beruding pan enggai ga iya; tak dikenggai ka iya magang samoa main enggau pengawa sida ke sama berambau angkat bujang.

Nyadi iya semina tak seruran gali lading-lading baka tinting maring muang, seruran tak gali lengau-lengau baka pintu kamarau langkang. Seruran tak gali betunjur apus baka batang mulong lamus udah dibunang. Nyadi gamal iya nyau kurus sakurus laban ke lama udah enda makai; semina tinggal kulit ngelamun tulang agi dipeda. Ditanya ka orang pemedis nadai ga pemedis ko iya.

Meda iya bakanya, dia deh Buat Simpurai Muntigerai lancham disimbang, Patu Buloh Antu lanting tekejang, Bunga Nuing manok Biring ke disabong mali lenyang mai samoa sida sarumah ngaga tuak sarumbang sapintu. Udah mansau kenu tuak sida tadi, dia kenu Simpurai lalu ngasoh orang ngambi ngabang, ngambi samoa sida ke sama samakai gawai.

Ngambi Orang Gelong Batu Nakong Nyingit Nyengong Ngelentik Punggang; lalu ka Merau Nyagu nyabong ka ulu Sikop Bengkang; lalu ka Lempa Merawa Lama munyi ke berimba buong nebang, lalu ngambi sida Engkeranji Padi Richah rami munyi nengeri maioh orang. Ngambi sida di Jeludong Kandis baka dara lis bentemu lalang, lalu ngambi sida di Selaku Tinggi ka gelong bingkai tibang. Udah nya baru ngambi sida Sanggol Labong di tuchong Biru Nakong taja demuong munyi tempukong sarang gamang; lalu ngambi sida Unggal Renggan ka Melaban Mipau Umbang. Udah nya lalu ngambi sida Balu Gawa di keresik Ngua lantar sinia ular kendawang; lalu ngambi Balu Mudoh ka menoa sida di Buloh bauh Rejang Belambang, lalu ngambi sida Balu Juntan ka menoa sida di munggu madang Ruan Puntang Kenyalang. Udah nya lalu ngambi sida Sampang Gading di menoa sida di tinting madang Manding ke beduri juring nancham ka batang, lalu ngambi sida Balu Juntik di Batu Ngelentik Merabong Kajang.

Nyadi Simpurai ngajar samoa sida ke ngambi ngabang. “Kita ke diasoh ngambi ngabang, samoa indu dara kitai ke samakai gawai tu enda tau enda enggau ngabang magang.”

Udah nya nyau datai ba timpoh ke ngabang, lalu ngabang meh samoa orang, lalu samoa sida ke dara pan sama ngabang abis, sama ngabang lengis nitih ka jako orang ke ngambi ngabang, ngagai sida Simpurai di Panggau Libau menoa ke sigi luchak lunyau kena biau jila isang. Udah samoa bala pengabang datai magang di Panggau Libau, nya baru Buat Simpurai lalu bejako ngasoh samoa indu dara pansut ka ruai ka magang samoa ke datai ngabang. Udah nya lalu pansut kenu samoa indu dara ka ruai ka magang nitih ka jako Simpurai; sereta lalu dudok bedijir baka tingkil maram samadang, bulih tiga belah ruai rintai indu dara tu tadi.

Sereta udah tembu sida ke ngadu ka penudok sida ke dara tu tadi, lalu malik kenu Duat Bulan Menyimbang, sereta lalu meda adi Simpurai tak nadai enggau orang dudok dia.

“Bah ni adi nuan deh Buat Simpurai? Adi kami udah dudok ditu magang,” ko iya.

“Eh! Enda iboh pansut pan Endu, ukai iya baka ke bisi pengawa dikereja enggau orang, deh iya,” ko Simpurai.

“Adi kami pan nadai meh pengawa enggau orang,” ko Bulan Menyimbang.

“Hah deh! Lagi aku ngambi adi Buat ka bilik,” ko Bulan Menyimbang.

“Eh! Enda iboh nuan ngambi iya Buat, lak ka aku ngambi iya ka bilik. Nuan dini nya nemu ngambi iya,” ko Simpurai.

Udah nya lalu nyau kenu Simpurai mansang ngambi adi iya ka bilik. Datai iya di bilik, dia iya lalu bejako enggau adi iya Endu Perepau Patu Umat, Endu Perunu Tating Sirat, Endu Menyeti long sarat, Dayang Ketupang Bungai Lensat.

“Nyadi aku tu diasoh orang ngambi nuan pansut ka ruai ka Endu,” ko Simpurai bejako enggau adi iya, “laban enda tau enda ga ko orang,” ko iya.

“Ti iya enda tau enda ko jako kita, nya pansut ga meh aku,” ko saut adi iya.

Udah nya Adi Simpurai lalu beradu mansang deka pansut ka ruai, lalu dipasok ka iya kain anyam bepakan ka jadam mau gempanang, dipasok ka kain kebaraya ke bebunga jera mansau benyang. Udah nya baru iya ngadu ka rawai mua pemanah nya utai nyimpai di kerigai rusok marang, lalu ngadu ka tumpa mau ke taja liau-liau baka rerai nibong bemayang. Udah nya iya lalu ngadu ka antin ke bemain dua betentang, ngadu ka tensang pending baka kaling ngambi perenching matahari bekalih tumbang. Di-tanggam iya enggau peit sabit lampit baka ke dirarit tukang dagang. Lalu ngadu ka rupoh sabit piuh gaga Memaloh Langgai Tawang. Udah nya lalu diserak iya enggau tampang pirak ke beberak tampak bebendang. Udah nya baru iya ngadu ka tali una delapan belas kali bekumbang, sereta lalu dikaki iya enggau sabit runti baka kaki rajang nunggang. Udah nya Ialu dilepi ka iya sakali sanggol gantung ke begamal renjong-renjong baka tangkong burong kenyalang. Lalu dilepi ka iya sakali sanggol silai baka penerebai burong rindang, Ialu dilepi ka iya sakali sanggol simpan tak begamal melan-melan beburai ka jadam mau gempanang. Udah nya baru iya ngadu ka sanggol sadak endor iya ngujak ka tisir pirak ke begamal berak-berak baka ke baru ulih ngupak ari serak batu arang, sereta lalu ngadu ka selampai palang panggai limar besebang.

Udah iya ke tembu ngadu ka samoa ngepan iya nya tadi, dia iya lalu ngunsut ka samoa chendawan macham pemandang. Berunsut enggau pemandang batu gula ulih sida mengua karong berada nemu di pugu apong jemilang, berunsut enggau pemandang ai mata duyong enggau ai rajah kasih sakampong ke bensumbar bujang lempong mensul patong runggut jejabong bulu kuda. Udah nya lalu berunsut enggau pemandang ai pugai ke digelar sida melanyi bujang besai begiling tikai buai ka lubang. Udah nya lalu berunsut enggau pemandang batu lemak ulih ngupak ari serak nyiur undang.

Nyadi udah badu Adi Simpurai ke beradu, dia iya lalu pansut ka ruai. Lalu negu pintu kayu tak begugu munyi deru guntur betinggang, lalu tekebak kenu pintu tasak ke bemunyi kiak-kiak munyi sabak anak munsang di rajang, lalu temekong gong baroh lawang, lalu rerengai bebendai baroh lubang, sereta lalu gemerit sabit genggam meranggang, lalu tekesai pintu bedaru bandir mikai belambai ka gansai gembar generang. Udah nya Adi Simpurai pan lalu pansut ka ruai. Datai iya di ruai lalu diasoh Simpurai dudok ba tempuan.

“Eh! Dia pan nuan dudok Endu, ba lesong, enda iboh enggau orang dudok di tengah din, ukai nuan baka ke bisi kereja enggau orang,” ko Simpurai.

“Dini nya bakanya Buat, adi kami pan nadai meh pengawa, tang awak ka sama dudok di tengah” ko Bulan Menyimbang. Udah nya lalu deka angkat Buat Bulan Menyimbang deka ngambi Adi Simpurai dudok ka tengah.

“Eh! Enda iboh nuan Buat. Lak ka aku mai iya ka tengah” ko Simpurai.

Udah nya lalu angkat Simpurai mansang mai adi iya dudok ka tengah sama enggau indu dara bukai. Udah nya baru Simpurai lalu bejako ngagai orang maioh ke datai ngabang.

“Aku tu bakanya ga bejako, tak sangkal, tak sabal meh aku tu ke bejako ngagai kita maioh tu. Tang ti jako aku kelalu pandak lagi aku ngasoh kita matak ngambi ka iya panjai, ti jako aku mit lagi aku ngasoh kita narit ngambi ka iya besai, lalu ti jako aku rapas lagi aku ngasoh kita ngupas ngambi ka iya datai. Bakanya meh tu, alai kami sabuat ke ngempuru ka kita maioh lebih agi baka kita ke dara, laban aku meda Buat Keling tu sakit, lalu penyakit iya dipeda raya bendar. Deka diberi sida Endu makai, enggai ga iya makai. Anang ka iya deka makai, meda asi enggau lauk pan enggai meh iya. Tak sabulan nandan di langit, tak sataun nampun di bukit tu iya udah sakit. Dibai kami bekesuling, dibai kami bengkerebap enggau dibai kami beruding pan enggai ga iya; anang ka iya bisi ati deka, nyaut pan enggai meh iya ti leboh kami ke mai,” ko Simpurai.

“Ditanya ka pemedis, nadai ga pemedis,” ko iya, “tang tak seruran gali lengau-lengau baka pintu kamarau langkang, tak seruran gali lading-lading baka tinting maring muang, seruran gali betunjur apus baka batang mulong lamus udah dibunang. Nya alai meda diri ke nyau nadai agi nemu chara bukai, dia aku lalu berunding ngempuru ka samoa indu dara ke sama samakai gawai tu datai ditu saharitu, nyangka Buat Keling tu bisi ati deka bebini,” ko Simpurai.

Samoa bala pengabang ngenying nadai bemunyi sereta nadai bisi engkeretik siko ninga ka jako Simpurai. Udah nya baru Buat Keling empu bejako ari iya ke gali lading-lading baka tinting maring muang, ari iya ke gali lengau-lengau baka pintu kamarau langkang, ari iya ke betunjur apus baka batang mulong lamus udah dibunang.

“Ti iya munyi ko nuan nya Buat, ukai nya kabuah aku ke sakit; tang laban aku deka nemuai ka langit, deka nemuai ngagai sida Jubang ke Betangelang bulu burong, deka nemuai ngagai sida Jali ke di kaki ujan ngerunong,” ko Buat Keling. “Lalu kita enda tau enggau aku kin,” ko iya ga.

“Oh pia Buat,” ko Simpurai, “ti nuan deka nemuai ngagai sida Jubang, aku pan enggau nuan meh, dini aku deka neju ka nuan siko nemuai ngagai menoa munsoh,” ko Simpurai.

“Enda nuan tau enggau aku Buat, aku ukai baka ke ngayau deh. Nya alai nadai ga kabuah mai bala maioh,” ko iya.

“Ni tau enda enggau Buat, ti nuan mantap din ila aku pan mantap, kitai ga sama ngering nya, tambah agi ukai nya baka ke di-iring, kitai ga sama bejalai kadiri” ko Simpurai.

“Enda nuan tau enggau aku Buat. Aku ukai ngayau, nya alai nadai bepantap,” ko Keling.

Udah nya Keling lalu angkat ari iya ke gali lalu deka beradu masok ka ngepan iya. Udah nya lalu diadu ka iya engkerimok tusok kantuk demam pengerang, lalu ditempala iya enggau unus lebus baka Bukitan tapus pulai belelang. Udah nya lalu dipasok ka iya simpai rangki sapiak siti, sapiak siti ke nyelai landai penyulang. Udah nya lalu dipasok ka iya ga tumpa bala, sapiak lima sapiak lima, nanggam tapa lengan ngengkang. Udah nya baru Keling lalu melit ka sirat mengkari sungkit ke beringgit nabong mayang, lalu melit ka sirat sigai melempai di kerigai rusok marang.

“Naka meh pemanah punggong nyadong nuan deh Buat kena bandong lumpong kanggan saluntang,” ko sida.

Udah nya iya lalu nyuli ka labong pakau ke taja baka liau ngambi likau nabau sawa samenang, lalu disuli ka iya ga labong lalong baka sengkilong tedong jalih kendawang, labong pantak kechendai mua pemanah utai betabor ka urai mau gempanang.

“Nadai utai ngemanah nya gamal nuan Buat kena umba labong bekulat ke beperenching baka kijap neladan sempepat ke inggap di putat pedada nunggang,” ko sida bejako ngila ka iya ti beradu.

Udah tembu iya ke beradu, dia iya lalu nangkin sanga nyabur chudor ke taja nyembor ka juor darah lang, lalu ditangkin iya sanga nyabur lama enda kala besia makai tulang, lalu ditangkin iya nyabur panjai ke bagas kena iya bemain kelakendai di bangkai laya midang. Udah nya baru iya nangkin dajap tajam ke delapan belas rambang. Peda tak begupong buok galong bauh ngelagetang, peda tak jam-jam bejabong ka buok uban magang. Udah nya lalu disan iya sumpit tapang betengelang mas ke diberi bunsu mayas berua di raras kubal arang. Udah nya baru iya nyan sumpit tapang betengelang mau, iya ke diberi Bunsu Buau, orang ke mandi di rantau sintak pedang; lalu nyan sumpitan sumpit tapang ke begamal ligong-ligong betibong ka jadong mau gempanang.

Udah nya iya lalu pansut ka tanju baka ke deka ngalu Jugu Aki Lang. Datai iya di tanju landong teleba endor orang nembong ka durong kampong sabang. Dinga tak lalu besengki guntor sigi inggar betinggang, peda kilat jampat ngelambai petang, sereta ujan lalu nelian laboh jarang. Ari nya deh Keling lalu nyidi lubang ai ke perabeni deras mansang, ari nya iya negi matahari baka bunga besi redak ditenchang, ari nya iya lalu menselit pintu langit baka tambit peti belulang, ari nya iya lalu nyelapat lubang kilat baka kempat kanggan dagang. Angkat deh Simpurai, laban iya ke bangat keras deka enggau, lalu beguai-guai begari lalu belanda ka tanju lalu empakap ba punggong Keling enggai ka tinggal iya; tang laban Keling ke endang enggai mai iya, dia iya lalu merubus baru sereta lalu laboh ka baroh leboh seduai apin bangat tinggi. Udah nya Keling tu tadi lalu betangga ka ujan nyala nata laboh jarang. Lama agi tinggi agi ga iya dipeda, datai ka iya nyau nadai dipeda ari baroh, semina ka mesai tipah lang terebang, nyau begantong nengan remang. Jari kiba Keling kenu nyau ngensara ka mura tangkai bintang, lalu jari kanan nyau udah bekerantam di bulan tumboh mandang, nyau udah menselit dipintu langit singkom rapit nadai meranggang. Udah nya, iya nyau nadai agi dipeda sida enggau sula mata nentang.

Apin bengat lama iga udah nya, dia Keling lalu datai ba pendai orang ke di ai tansang kenyalang, ai nanga ke perua bunga pasang. Ba pendai nya, dia iya lalu betemu enggau indu dara siko benong mandi. Nyadi indu ke benong mandi tu tadi kenu, adi Jambi bechelok isi, Keling Bediging Buku Ali. Leboh indu nya meda iya, lalu bejako enggau iya.

“Lalu meh ambai aku enggai muai, laki dikerindu ati, tunang tuju lempuang, lalu enggau aku mandi,” ko Adi Jambi. “Ari ni penatai nuan deh Ambai?” ko iya ga.

“Datai ari menoa kami meh aku ambai, ari menoa kami di Panggau Libau Luchak Lunyau kena biau jila isang, endang deka nepat nuan kitu ka aku,” ko Keling.

“Enda nuan deka nepat aku, tang ngetu meh ga nuan ditu. Lama rampang bungai Satik udah mansa kami ditu,” ko saut Adi Jambi.

Udah nya seduai pan badu ga agi mandi. Seduai lalu sama-sama niki ka rumah. Datai di rumah dia deh Adi Jambi tu tadi lalu berapi. Sereta asi iya udah mansau, dia iya nyungkit asi deka meri Keling makai.

“Oi makai aka ke bedamai nimang lantang,” ko iya ngangau ka Aka iya seduai Keling makai.

Udah iya ke ngangau ka makai, dia iya lalu niki ka sadau. Udah nya lalu tama meh Jambi Bechelok Isi, Keling Bediging Buku Ali seduai Labong Panggai ka sakai jako nyerang, Datu Siko ke pemadu nama mansang, Bujang Jelingau ke nadai kala lenyau enggau orang ka teku tikal kajang sereta lalu berengkah makai ke bedamai nimang lantang. Nyadi leboh Keling baru udah berengkah makai, tak enda mukai-mukai lalu sendat, balat bendar iya sendat nyau sikok-sikok kenu iya.

“Eh tak irup ka ai enggau Amang. Ni alah nuan tak enda masok makai laban ke sendat bakanya,” ko Jambi bejako enggau Keling. Udah nya lalu di-irup ka iya ga ai, enda ga badu sendat.

“Ukai pia tu Amang, laban nadai dara mangkang aku ke makai, nya alai aku tu sendat,” ko Keling. “Aku makai enda tau enda dipangkang orang ke dara,” ko iya.

“Eh! Lagi, anang guai. Aku madah ka Endu ka sadau ka dulu nih. Ni alah nuan tak enda masok makai laban sendat,” ko Jambi.

Udah nya iya lalu nyau niki ka sadau mansang madah ka Adi iya. Datai iya di sadau. “Ni nuan dia Endu. Amang aku tak lalu enda masok makai laban sendat, uji nurun dulu nuan ka baroh,” ko Jambi bejako enggau Adi iya.

Udah nya lalu nurun kenu Adi Jambi ka baroh, datai iya ba seduai ke benong makai dia, lalu dudok ninggang pah Keling. Udah nya lalu padam sedu Keling ke sendat makai, badu agi sendat. Udah seduai iya badu makai, lalu pansut ka ruai. Leboh nya isau unding pan nyau beranaing dalam serangan, tisi langit nyau bebali besiring kuning, matahari lesi terunjam padam, nyau lemai kenu hari. Nyau lama malam leboh sida udah tindok, dia Keling lalu nganyap ngagai Adi Jambi nya tadi, sereta lalu tindok dia.

Nyadi tawas kenu hari siti leboh sida udah badu makai ke bedemai nimang lantang, Keling pan lalu bejalai ga angkat ari rumah sida Jambi Bechelok Isi, Keling Bediging Buku Ali. Nyau ka lama iya udah ninggal ka rumah sida Jambi nya tadi, dia iya lalu bejalai lubah bepegai ba tipah lang terebang, nyau bejalai subok bepegai ba tandok rusa lalang, nyau bejalai tegar enda besempiar beunsak tulang, nyau bejalai laju baka peluru leka senapang. Udah nya lalu bejalai perejok gantong kenu Keling baka ke ngebus ka kebong langit ngeruang. Nyau bejalai perejok atak kenu iya baka ke nyelepak ba awak dan tapang, nyau bejalai perejok singit kenu iya baka ke menselit ba pintu langit singkom rapit nadai meranggang, nyau bejalai deras lebih ari upas naban ka pematang, nyau bejalai jelai lebih ari pemungai laja puang. Dia Keling nyau lelak ikak lembut tulang, nyau bal dilah nadai ngunyah gelanyah buah pinang. Nyau kalama iya udah bejalai, sungai nyau abis di-ulu, sungai nyau abis di-ili, bukit nyau abis diturun, bukit nyau abis ditiki, napat ka menasan jalai jani, dia iya pan lalu laboh ba pendai orang.

RUMAH JUBANG

NYADI PENDAI tu tadi enggi sida Jubang ke Betengelang Bulu Burong, enggi sida Jali ke datai ari tisi ujan ngerunong. Datai iya ba pendai ili ke di ai tansang kenyalang, di pendai nanga ke perua bunga pasang, dia iya lalu mandi kadiri saorang-orang. Udah tembu iya mandi, lalu beradu baru ga masok ka samoa ngepan iya. Udah nya baru iya mupok bejalai ari nya nengah jalai pendai sida Jubang. Udah nya lalu nengah jalai raya badas baka, indah enda baka dada gana mati telentang, lalu nengah jalai tawas udai pensiang. Udah nya lalu nengah panti tarah ke betingkah atas tebiang, lalu nengah panti luar ka mesai kelaya tikai senggang, nyau nengah panti entak baka chagak bedil berang. Nyau nengah panti batu ke begerugu galang melintang. Nyau datai ba panti tegoh ke betukoh paku lawang. Nya baru iya manggai ba jalai pikul entas endor bujang ajul bejagul ka mulut tusu linyang. Nengah madang kemelang sumpah ke berendah mansau jera, ke berendah mansau benyang. Udah nya baru iya ngensurok jelunok kampong sabang, lalu nengah kampong sabang inak rapas setawak pangkong terantang. Udah nya iya lalu nengah kampong sabang upa rapas peda enggau sula mata nentang. Nyau nengah madang sabang bakong rapas tutong pang¬kong penguang. Nya baru iya lalu nengah kampong sabang api, pejalai sahari ari pagi nyentok ka petang. Udah nya baru iya man¬ggai ba pun mulong merangau ke taja giau-giau baru bedudok nyari lang. Datai ba tiang Chandi lelaki ke bediri gedang-gedang. Datai ba tiang Chandi urik ke taja jentik-jentik ngelilik ka tasik linggang gumbang. Nya baru iya datai ba pun tiang Ranyai ke taja giai-giai murai ka tangkai jila isang, lalu datai ba tiang Gajah Meram ke taja singam-singam nungkam ka menalan balu rajang; lalu mansa tiang balan ke delapan belas betentang, sereta lalu mansa tiang lemba bumbon ke bakatayun gantong kelingkang. Lalu datai ba pun tiang sandong betong bebungkong ka benong tajau bujang. Datai ba menalan redah entak ka tambak takang kelakuyang.

Dia iya lalu ngangau, “Hoi jadi rumah kita tu!” pia ko iya.

“Eh jadi, anak, jadi,” pia ko saut Indai Tuai orang ke ba pala tangga.

Lalu niki meh ga iya ka rumah. Datai iya di rumah, ba ruai Indai Tuai orang nya tadi, lalu dianchau ka Indai Tuai orang nya tikai. Nyadi rumah puang bendar peda iya, tak nadai meda lelaki siko ayan di ruai. Udah nya iya lalu ngait ka sanga ulu tulang ba tandok rusa ringkang, lalu diengaran ka iya sumpitan sumpit tapang.

“Dudok Unggal,” ko Indai Tuai orang nya tadi.
Dibatak iya jelapa baku pirak ke belupak maioh ruang, baku kansat penoh laban sirap buah pinang, baku mau ke taja liau-liau dilansau tinggi penyulang, jelapa baku mau raung kc taja renjong-renjong mandong serungkong kaban bujang.

“Ari ni penatai nuan tu deh Unggal?” ko Indai Tuai orang nya nanya iya.

Nyadi Keling tu tadi tak lalu enda nyaut saleka mukut padi mayang, lalu enda nimbas saleka beras padi bangang. Ditanya Indai Tuai orang nya baru ga iya munyi nya tadi, nyangka iya enda ninga laban lelak, tang iya tak enda nyaut.

“Oh! Lapa meh iya tu tak enda tau nyaut. Bisu iya tu, nama tadi tau ga nanya ka penyadi rumah, datai di rumah tu lalu enda tau bejako agi,” ko Indai Tuai orang nya tadi.

“Gamal iya tu tak ukai orang enda tau bejako, ukai gamal orang tuyu, ukai gamal orang agu. Tak mua pemanah gamal iya tu tang enda tau bejako. Naka meh penyayau gamal iya ngemanah tu enda tau bejako deh,” ko Indai Tuai orang nya.

Udah nya orang lalu betugong baka lempaong ngambong ka batang, nyau dudok besarok baka tapang pugok nyempayang batang, nyau dudok bedijir baka tingkil maram pengerang, datai ngulu iya kia.

“Ari ni penatai nuan tu deh Unggal ?” ko sida nanya iya.

Nyadi iya tu tadi tak lalu enda nyaut saleka mukut padi mayang, lalu enda nimbas saleka beras padi bangang.

“Woo! Naka meh penyai iya tu deh. Nanya ka rumah tau, tang enda tau nyaut tanya kitai,” ko sida.

“Mua meh nuan tu deh Unggal, tak enda tau nyaut kami. Kati deka nuan jadi enggau sebarang kami tu Unggal?” ko sida ke dara, tang iya tak enda nyaut.

“Hah lagi Wai ! Uji aram kitai ngilum ka iya pinang, lalu engkah ba jari sereta lalu surong ka ngagai iya. Ti iya deka makai pinang ilum kitai lagi Wai, deka iya bebini kitai,” ko sida ke dara ke jemanta benong mansang.

Udah nya lalu di-ilum ka sida pinang sereta lalu diengkah ka sida ba jari, lalu disurong ka sida ngagai iya. Diengkah sida ba tapa iya. Peda sida iya lalu nungkop ka tapa iya.

“Oh! Enggai iya ka kitai Wai. Nama iya tak nungkop ka tapa iya deh,” ko sida.

Udah nya nyau abis beduju kenu sida ke dara jemanta benong mansang dia.

“Uji aram Wai kitai madah ka Ini Indai Jubang,” ko sida.

Udah nya lalu nyau kenu sida ka setak madah ka Indai Jubang. Datai sida di setak din, sida lalu bejako enggau Indai Jubang.

“Eh Ini! Bisi temuai di setak din, nanya ka penyadi rumah tau iya tadi, tang datai di rumah sereta lalu ditanya kami tak enda tau bejako, enda tau nyaut,” ko sida ke madah ka iya. “Aram nuan enggau kami setak, nyangka nuan tau nanya sereta lalu bejako enggau iya,” ko sida.

“Au meh anak,” ko Indai Jubang. “Lagi aku kin, laban kami duai Endu tu agi mekang pengawa, lagi kin,” ko Indai Jubang.

Nyadi Satik seduai Indai iya agi gawa muntang, lalu apin tembu. Udah nya sida ke madah ka iya pan lalu pulai ga ka setak ka baru ngagai temuai ke baru datai.

“Au Indai! Kin ka meh nuan. Keling nya Indai, Keling Aji ke berani tau serang. Dato siko nya Indai, ke pemadu nama mansang, Bujang Jelingai nya Indai nadai kala lenyau enggau orang ka teku tikal kajang, Labong Panggai nya Indai ka sakai jako nyerang,” ko jako Satik kelandik bala nyerang, ko Sudan Kelindan lambar benang, bejako enggau Indai iya.

Udah nya lalu nyau meh Indai Jubang mansang deka nanya temuai ka setak kin. Datai iya din.

“Nya Ibu tanya enggau iya nya ulih nuan. Kami enda tetanya ka iya,” ko sida.

“Ni temuai ti ko kita,” ko Indai Jubang.

“Nya meh iya, ke dudok ba panggau nya,” ko sida.

“Oh, lalu meh Dom! Lalu ngagai kami ka setak,” ko Indai Jubang.

“Au Ibu, legai kayu bansu aku datai endang deka ngambu lalu. Nama kabuah aku enda lalu deh Ibu,” ko iya.

“Aram meh tua,” ko iya ga.

“Oh! Nyangka iya tu enggai enda nganti Ini,” ko sida, “nya baru iya deka bejako.”

Udah nya iya lalu angkat sereta lalu dipelawik ka iya sap basong melintang, lalu ditangkin iya berangin pedang panjang, lalu nyan sumpitan sumpit tapang, laja ligong-ligong betibong ka jadong mau gempanang. Udah nya seduai pan lalu nyau ga mansang ngagai sida Indai Jubang, sama sakaki tambak singkang, niti sentali rumah panjang. Datai seduai di setak.

“Dudok Dom! Dudok di ruai,” ko jako Indai Jubang.

“Au Ibu. Legai kayu pendok, keba aku datai endang ngambu dudok,” ko iya.

Indai Jubang lalu tama ka bilik baik sida baka tasik linggang gumbang, tama ka bilik besai baka tempalai umai nawang, tama ka bilik jebong baka padong remaung lubang. Datai iya di bilik, iya lalu ngasoh Satik berapi. Udah nya Satik lalu berapi. Keling lalu madah ka diri deka mandi.

“Dini endor kita mandi ditu deh Ibu?” ko iya.

“Eh lagi meh,” ko Indai Jubang, “aku nganjong nuan mandi. Nya ai kami tunga kia,” ko Indai Jubang.

Udah nya seduai pan lalu nurun ga mansang mandi ka ai. Benong seduai datai ba tengan jalai pendai, dia iya meda ujong kayu rebah ninggang jalai.

“Nama ujong kayu tu ditu deh Ibu?” ko iya.

“Eh ujong kayu bekau orang udah beban terabai,” ko indai Jubang. “Sida nurun ngayau, ukai enda beban terabai ditu,” ko iya.

Udah nya kenu iya lalu limpang ga kia ngagai endor orang ke udah beban terabai.

“Eh lagi aku deka limpang kia, deka meda ka gamal utai kia,” ko iya.

Nyadi Indai Jubang lain nyau dulu ka ai tansang kenyalang. Enda bengat lama iya ke limpang enda bulih sasempa makai pinang, peda datai ga iya di pendai nitih ka Indai Jubang. Indai Jubang tak baru merebok ka labu. Peda Indai Jubang iya datai, tak mai terabai endang udah tembu gaga, manah bendar gaya terabai ke dibai iya. Endang udah jabong buok galong bauh ngelagetang. Tisap rimbong tak mua pemanah utai, ngambi bulu remaung lubang, tisap tisi mua pemanah utai baka moahari bekalih tumbang.

“Oh! Dini nuan bulih tu tadi deh anak?” ko Indai Jubang.

“Nya dia tadi, ba aku ke udah limpang ngagai bekau orang ke beban tadi,” ko iya nyaut Indai Jubang. “Meda tak bisi teda ban orang ke dulu, nya ke digaga aku enda lama tadi,” ko iya.

Nyadi Indai Jubang tu tadi tak alit ati meda utai bakanya, bengat ngenyampat nya. Udah seduai sama tembu mandi, lalu pulai meh ga seduai ka rumah ka baru. Datai di rumah kira ka baru tembu begari, dia deh Satik lalu ngangau ka makai ke bedamai nimang lantang. Tembu makai, dia langit pan nyau bebali besiring kuning, matahari lesi terunjam padam, hari pan nyau malam ga. Nyadi leboh sida ke indu datai ngulu iya, dia iya lalu bejako.

“Kati ko alai rumah kita tu tak nyau malam agi ga puang, tak nadai meda sida ke lelaki, bisi tunga pemindah sida tu?” ko iya.

“Eh anak, badu enda bisi meh pemindah sida tu,” ko saut Indai Jubang. “Udah nyau memendu ayun sida tu, ka kuson kanggan saluntang. Udah nyau bebujang jangong ka telok kampong puang, udah nyau memeran ka bulan tuang-tuang. Udah nyau ngayau sida tu ka ulu langgai Sentang.”

“Kini ka tunga bala sida deh ibu?”ko iya.

“Udah nyau ngayau ngagai sida bangkai anak Memaloh telok kampong puang, tang sida tu lalu ka melunggang ngagai sida Banggai ke di Penyurai Remang Pisit, deka ngagai sida Nading ka di Genturing Pintu Langit,” ko Indai Jubang.

“Lama sida tu udah nyau Ibu?” ko iya.

“Lama ga udah anak. Kada enda nyau ka datai sida dalam dua-tiga hari tu ila,” ko Indai Jubang.

Udah nya, lalu malam meh kenu hari. Nyadi malam nya, dia kenu Keling tu tadi ngayap ngagai Satik, sereta lalu jadi enggau Satik kelandik bala Nyerang, Sudan Kalindan lambar benang. Kira dua-tiga hari lepas nya, dinga tak gemerak panjong sida Jubang pulai ngayau di pengkalan, mangka ka rumah.

“Oh! Dinga panjong Aya pulai ngayau,” ko sida ke anembiak papak perenggang, ko sida ke mit lelachit angkat mansang.

“Nama utai ulih sida Aya, alai panjong bengat ngenyadi nya,” ko sida.

“Uji aram wai kitai sama nurun ngambat bala sida Aya ka ai kai,” ko sida ke biak enggau sida ke Indu.

Udah nya lalu nurun kenu samoa orang. Nyau abis kenu sarumah-rumah nurun ka ai ngambat sida Jubang ke baru pulai ngayau. Datai bala sida ke mit di ai.

“Oh Aya,” ko sida ke anembiak papak perenggang, ko sida ke lelachit angkat mansang, “Ibu Satik udah belaki Aya.”

“Hees! Mapap! Orang ni ka laki iya ko kita, tu kami udah nyau ngayau magang. Sapa orang ka laki iya ko kita, ukai bisi lelaki agi tinggal,” ko Jubang.

“Kati ko enda udah belaki deh Aya. Jadi enggau Keling ke di Panggau Libau. Keling Aji ke berani ati tau serang, jadi enggau Keling manok biring Sempidan Arang,” ko bala sida anembiak papak perenggang, ko sida ke mit benong lelachit berambau mansang.

“Es! Mapap kita tu! Kati ko kita ngarap ka diri jadi enggau Keling. Ti iya Keling, Keling lachau, Keling engkarong nya,” ko Jubang. “Ti iya nya Keling ke di Panggau Libau, iya udah bau ruom kita disalai iya. Dini iya deka meda kitai. Keling Panggau nya munsoh kitai nyah! Munsoh! Munsoh! Ninga kita, mereti kita,” ko Jubang nganu sida ke biak.

Benong Jubang bejako enggau sida bala anembiak, dia deh lalu datai kenu Endu Sudan Keleman bulan perenching, Dayang Ketupang bungai Manding, Adi Arau Timbau Berakit, Enturan Papan Singit, lalu bejako enggau Arau.

“Nuan Aka! Anang pedis ati ngagai laki Satik. Keling nya Aka, Keling Aji ke berani tau serang. Keling ke di Panggau Libau, datai ari menoa sida di Panggau Libau luchak lunyau kena biau jila isang.”

Nyadi Arau Timbau Berakit, Enturan Papan Singit semaia deka jadi enggau Satik Kelandik Bala Nyerang, Sudan Kelindan Lambar Benang pemulai sida ke ngayau tu.

“Enda nya ulih laban nuan Aka,” ko Endu Sudan Kelam Bulan Perenching bejako enggau Arau.

“Nama kabuah aku tau pedis ati, nya keba manah iya belaki Keling awak ka bisi enggau kitai ditu,” ko Arau.

NGAMBAT JUBANG

“ARAM KELING tua ngambat sida Aka ke baru pulai ngayau ka pendai,” ko Satik bejako enggau Keling.

“Aram meh meda ka gamal utai ulih orang ke pulai ngayau,” ko Keling.

Udah nya lalu ditangkin iya nyabur chudor ke teleba nyembor ka juor darah lang, nangkin sanga nyabur lama enda besia makai tulang, jabong buok galong bauh ngelagetang. Udah nya seduai pan lalu nurun ga ari rumah sama betunda udi sama sakaki saum singkang, niti sentali jalai ulang. Udah nya sereta nampak bala sida Jubang ke ba pendai, dinga kenu pengaroh ke ditangkin Keling tak lalu bemunyi nyampau pengeragak. Batu ketupong kenu nyau bemunyi baka setak. Batu burong Malam nyau bemunyi beansak-ansak. Batu beragai kenu nyau bemunyi lekak-lekak. Batu Papau taja bem¬unyi rangau-rangau munyi tempalau kangau sabak.

“Eh Aya! Nuan ti udah ngumbai kami bula, peda nuan nyin Ibu kami Satik enggau laki iya nurun ari rumah,” ko sida anembiak papak perenggang.

“Hees! Enda Keling lachau, Keling engkarong nyin,” ko saut Jubang.

Udah nya seduai pan datai ga ba tugong bala maioh. Nyadi orang maioh tak ngenong meda Keling, meda pemanah gamal iya.

Keling lalu bejako enggau sida, “kati ko pejalai kita deh, ni naka pejalai kita?”

Udah nya Arau lalu nyaut, “rumbau kayau kami tu baka buah merunjau ulu, chungak lalu chungu. Asa kami tu Unggal lalu lebu, enda datai din kami sabuat, enda datai ba menoa sida Banggai ke di penyurai remang pisit, enda datai ba menoa sida Nading ke digenturing pintu langit. Datai bala kami ba rantu jalai adi, kami lalu kena tegah orang, sereta bala kami lalu mati dua iko. Meda gaya bala kami tak kelalu salah ulu’ bakanya, dia kami lalu bebai nikal, pulai. Udah nya kami pulai beguai-guai,” ko Arau.

Udah nya samoa bala orang ke pulai ngayau lalu niki ka rumah. Datai di rumah Indai Jubang lalu beguai-guai berapi. Udah mansau iya ke berapi, dia iya lalu nyendia ka orang makai. Udah nya Jubang lalu tama ka bilik sereta lalu ngarak Indai iya berapi.

“Jampat ka nuan berapi Indai lapar endar perut aku tu,” ko iya.

Udah nya iya lalu ngumpol sangkoh, ngambi mata duku, mata kapak, ngumpol mata lungga, geraji enggau samoa macham utai ke tajam, lalu ditan iya ba baroh tikai ke deka endor Keling dudok makai, awak ka Keling abis telih tauka lalu mati laban tukak ke ditan iya nya. Udah tembu iya ke nan utai nya tadi, dia iya lalu ngangau ka Keling makai.

“Makai, Adi,” ko iya.

Keling lalu angkat mansang tama makai ka bilik. Datai iya di bilik, dia iya lalu ninga utai tak nyau bekasetak kena indik iya ari baroh tikai.

“Nama utai ti bekasetak tu deh Aka?” ko iya.

“Eh! Nyangka gelegar tekinsit. Nama iboh ka nya,” ko saut Jubang.

Udah iya seduai pan lalu berengkah ga makai. Udah seduai tembu makai, tisi langit pan bebali besiring kuning, matahari lesi terunjam padam, lalu hari pan nyau malam ga.

“Bakanya pagila Endu,” ko Jubang bejako enggau Satik, “Tumu ka nuan berapi. Nama kitai tak nadai bisi kayu sarepik di para, awak ka kami duai Adi tu ngambi kayu. Ni alah kitai tak nadai kayu,” ko iya.

Nyadi pagi hari siti, sida lalu makai. “Udah tembu makai tua ngambi kayu lagi Adi. Nama kitai tak nadai kayu,” ko Jubang bejako enggau Keling.

“Au meh Aka,” ko Keling, “amat munyi ko nuan, ni alah kitai tak nadai kayu.”

Udah nya seduai iya lalu besikap deka ngambi kayu. Nurun seduai ari rumah, kira penumbas iya pengelama seduai udah bejalai, dia seduai lalu datai ba madang kayu, madang bantas, madang mengilas, madang tekam madang keladan.

“Naka meh pemanah kayu ditu deh Aka. Dini endor tua ngambi kayu deh Aka, tau tua ngambi kayu ditu?” ko Keling.

“Heh! Dini nya kayu diambi, ke bakatu. Din lagi baru maioh kayu, dia tua ngambi kayu lagi,” ko Jubang. “Kami nadai kala ngena kayu bakatu,” ko iya.

Udah nya bejalai ga seduai ari nya. Nyau kalama seduai ke udah bejalai, nya baru seduai datai ba pun tapang sakayu. Peda tak nyau petang kenu puchok tapang ditepan manyi, ditepan singut.

“Nya, tu baru kayu tau diambi ka kayu api. Tu baru endang kayu kami,” ko Jubang.

“Nama tu tak maioh bendar manyi ba puchok tu deh Aka,” ko Keling.

“Nya meh tebang,” ko Jubang.

Udah nya lalu ditebang Keling kenu tapang nya tadi. Nyadi leboh tapang nya nyau ka rebah, dia Jubang lalu bejako enggau Keling.

“Eh Adi! Lelak nuan, lak ka aku ngerebah ka tapang nya ka tua, lalu nuan nyambut ujong nyin lagi,” ko iya.

Udah nya lalu ditebang iya nampong abi enggi Keling tadi. Nyadi Keling tu tadi lalu bejalai ngagai kira ba ujong puchok ta¬pang.

“Jampat ka nuan Aka, enggai ka nuan kena tinggang puchok nya terempas lagi,” ko Jubang.

Udah nya lalu belanda kenu Keling meda tapang nyau ka rebah. Leboh tapang nya rebah lalu disambut Keling puchok tapang enggai ka terempas.

“Oh….lalu meh laki dikerindu ati, tuning tuju lempuang,” pia deh ko jako Endu Samban ke nguan dan tapang undang. “Mua meh nuan deh wai tak nebang rumah kami,” ko Rembia tapang nya bejako enggau Keling.

“Eh! Aku ga dibai orang,” ko Keling.

Udah nya lalu beranchau ka tikai Bunsu tapang nya tadi. Di kembai ka iya tikai besai anyam Beredai Indai Ngelai indu orang di Meligai Pungga Pungkang. Udah nya lalu diberi iya makai kenu Keling dia.

“Makai nuan ambai ke bedamai nimang lantang.” Udah nya lalu diberi iya makai pinang ga Keling.

“Empa pinang tu ambai ulih nuan, lua ka di rampang.”

Udah badu Keling ke makai bedamai nimang lantang enggau ngunyah selabah buah pinang, dia Bunsu Rembia lalu meri iya pengaroh ka gembar tuboh, meri iya ubat serangkap genap. Nyadi Jubang tu tadi lalu pulai beguai-guai ka rumah, laban Keling tu tadi udah mati kenu ko iya.

“Kita lagi sama enggau aku,” ko Keling bejako enggau Bunsu Rembia. “Enggau aku samoa kita lagi.”

“Au meh,” ko Rembia Bunsu Tapang.

Udah nya lalu dibai iya sakayu tapang tu tadi enggau manyi-manyi. Datai kenu Keling tu tadi di rumah peda tak mai kayu tapang sama enggau buah-buah. Tak ngenying chelom batang tapang laban manyi. Udah nya lalu diengkah ka iya ba tengah ruai. Keling lalu dikangau ka Satik makai bedamai nimang lantang. Udah badu makai, iya lalu pansut ka ruai. Datai iya di ruai dinga tak gemerak panjong Jubang pulai ngambi kayu.

“Nama utai dipanjong ka Aya pulai ngambi kayu,” ko jako sida ke anembiak papak perenggang, ko sida ke agi mit lelachit baru mansang.

“Aram kitai ngabas iya,” ko sida.

Udah nya sida ke biak lalu nurun ka pendai. Datai sida di pendai, “Nama utai dipanjong ka nuan deh Aya?” ko sida.

“Hees! Kati ko enda manjong, manjong ka laki Satik udah mati,” ko iya.

“Dini nya bisi udah mati, udah pulai iya Aya, baru udah diberi Ibu makai bedamai nimang lantang,” ko sida.

“Hees! Kati ko nya makai, aku meda iya mati ditinggang kayu. Kita tu besai tuboh besai pemula. Tuboh kita enda tundan ka pemula diri,” ko Jubang.

Udah nya lalu niki meh ga iya ka rumah. Datai iya di rumah, dia iya lalu deka niki ngagai panggau iya mansang ka begari. Benong iya baru deka nyengkau gari, dia manyi lalu angkat malut iya. Dia iya betepas ka kiba, tepas ka kanan ngena anak gari sirat, tang tak baka ke ngasoh indu manyi balat agi malut tuboh. Nyau nadai dipeda agi datai ka leka mata Jubang dibalut manyi. Tak ngenying chelum indu manyi malut iya. Dia iya kaong-kaong madah ka diri mati, laban indu manyi.

“Mati aku tu laban manyi tu Adi. Ukai nya kayu dipeguna tua adi, buai enggau nya,” ko iya enggau sabak-sabak bejako enggau Keling.

“Kati ko tua muai nya deh Aka, nya ga kengka kayu ulih tua, tambah agi nya endang kayu ke manah ko nuan nganu aku din tadi,” ko Keling.

Dia iya kenu nyau luput di balut manyi. Nyau enda tau madah ka diri mati agi. Udah nya Satik pan lalu pansut ga ari bilik, lalu bejako enggau Keling.

“Eh anang nuan nunda Aka, Keling,” ko iya. “Asoh pulai enggau kayu nya ulih nuan.”

“Tu ga endang kayu ke dikena kita ko iya nganu aku din tadi. Nya alai aku mai tu pulai ka rumah,” ko saut Keling.

“Kami din nadai kala bekayu ka kayu bansa tu,” ko Keling.

Dia Jubang tu tadi nyau beseput jarang, semina resu nyawa iya agi bisi didinga madah ka diri mati. “Ubat aku tu Adi. Mati aku tu laban manyi,” ko iya.

Udah nya lalu diasoh Keling pulai meh ga batang tapang tu tadi. “Pulai nuan manyi, pulai ka dan, pulai nuan tapang, pulai ka emperan,” ko iya.

Peda udah nya kenu lalu pulai meh batang tapang sama enggau manyi-manyi. Udah nya baru Keling lalu ngubat iya. Ditepas Keling enggau labong lalung baka sengkilong tedong jalih kendawang, ditepas iya enggau labong bekulat ke baka kijap neladan sempepat inggap di putat pedada nunggang. Tak ngenying burak tuboh Ju¬bang laban butoh manyi. Udah nya lalu semboh enda belitan, sereta gerai lalu suman meh ga Jubang. Udah nya hari bebali besiring kuning,
matahari lesi terunjam padam, dia sida pan lalu makai. Sereta udah badu sida makai, dia Jubang lalu bejako enggau Endu Sudan Kelindan lambar benang, bejako enggau Satik Kelandik bala nyerang.

“Pagila tumu ka nuan berapi Endu, laban kami duai Adi tu deka nyala. Ni alah kitai makai enda belauk,” ko iya.

NYALA

NYADI LABAN Jubang agi keras deka nguji Keling, dia iya sereta tawas pagi hari siti lalu mai Keling nurun, laban enggai nadai lauk ko jako. Udah tembu makai pagi.

“Nurun tua Adi, nyala tua saharitu,” ko iya. “Ni alah kitai tak rangkai makai enda belauk.”

“Nya nyala ga meh, sabarang bai nuan,” ko Keling.

Udah nya seduai lalu nurun nyala. Datai seduai ba pengkalan, udah kemas enggau perau.

“Nuan nibar, lalu aku ngemudi ka tua,” ko Jubang.

Udah nya seduai lalu bekayuh begadai-gadai endang baka kayuh kitai ke nyala. Leboh seduai bekayuh, dia seduai lalu mansa kaban ikan maioh bendar.

“Naka meh pemaioh ikan ditu deh Aka,” ko Keling, “Ditu tua nibar Aka. Sakali tua nibar pan umbas meh dibai pulai.”

“Heeh! Aku enggai makai ikan anak. Din lagi meda ikan besai, nya baru tua nibar ka jala,” ko iya nyaut Keling. Udah nya bekayuh ga seduai ari nya. Enda lama udah nya, dia seduai lalu datai ba lubok siti, nadai utai ngemesai nya, tak ngenying chelum ai dia. Udah nya seduai lalu meda baya nyau bejeloh empa pemaioh. Jagu nyau betemu iko, baya nyau betemu mua, rabing nyau betemu pending.

“Ditu baru tua tau nibar ka jala tua,” ko Jubang, “Nya baru ikan ke endang diempa kami menoa tu.”

Udah nya lalu diasoh iya tibar Keling. Udah nya lalu ditibar ka Keling jala ngagai lubok. Jala nya bulih panjai lima pemanjai. Sereta udah laboh jala ka ai, sepi tak gegetar kiba-kanan.

“Nya Adi, nuan nyelam ka tua awak ka aku megai jala,” ko iya.

“Au meh,” ko Keling.

Udah nya lalu diselam Keling ka dalam ai ka jala nya tadi. Datai iya dalam ai din, angkat deh jala tu tadi lalu dibatak Jubang, lalu ditaban ka iya pulai beguai-guai. Nyadi Keling tu tadi lalu laboh ba tanju Endu Ensong Lua Genali, Endu Berenai Tabor Sugi, Bunsu Beriak Bujang Sapucha Benang. Laboh ba tanju Endu Pupu Anyut Beranatong, Endu Kumpai ke Berenai Pala Wong, Bunsu Serit Amit Pengibun Kepit Pintu Bebuli, Raja Genali Berumah Di Kaki Riam Nunggang.

“Lalu meh ambai aku enggai muai, laki dikerindu ati. Lalu tunang tuju lempuang. Kamaia nuan datai ditu deh ambai?” ko nya nanya iya.

“Apin ga aku lama udah datai. Aku datai enggau Jubang ke Betengelang Bulu Burong, Jali ke datai ari kaki Ujan Ngerunong,” ko iya.

“Oh! Nya ka bini nuan kau deh Ambai, Adi Jubang. Kumang udah dibuai nuan diatu,” ko seduai.

“Eh! Enda ga aku muai Kumang, tang ga leboh aku ke diau ditu Satik ga ka bini aku.”

“Dini nuan tau muai Kumang deh Ambai,” ko seduai nganu iya. “Kenyau ari sera menya Kumang endang udah diambu indai nuan ka bini nuan. Nya alai nuan enda tau muai iya,” ko jako Bunsu Baya bejako enggau iya, “ingat ka nuan, anang nuan muai Kumang enggai ka nuan busong ngelangkah gunong, enggai ka nuan tulah ngelangkah tanah.”

Udah nya iya lalu diberi seduai ubat serangkap genap, seduai meri iya pengaroh ka kamboh tuboh. Udah nya iya lalu madah ka diri deka pulai.

“Aku deka pulai ambai, tang aku minta ubong indai burong tiong,” ko Keling. Lalu disua ka seduai idong sakali nempah lalu.

“Minta tinchin aku indai empulu Lilin,” ko Keling ga bejako baru. Lalu disua ka seduai jungkal mulut tusu.

Udah nya diseradak ka iya di moa tampak baka senayak bulan mandang. Lalu dirimpi ka iya sakali di lepi sanggol lintang, sereta lalu dipechal iya di jungkal tusu linyang. Udah nya iya lalu mulai ka diri ari rumah Bunsu Baya. Iya lalu matak sakayu sega rutan enseluang.

“Nyadi aku ke pulai tu deka lalu mai kita dua iko”, ko Keling.

“Bai meh,” ko saut seduai enggau Keling, “Awak ka Aya seduai Ibu nya enggau nuan.”

Udah nya iya lalu nusok sakepai semah Skrang, mua pemaioh utai bulih sakayu sega rutan enseluang, lalu dibai iya pulai.

Nyadi baya dua iko nya tadi lalu rayap-rayap nitih ka iya pulai ka rumah. Datai iya di rumah, sereta orang tepeda ka baya dua iko, lalu nadai berani engkeretik siko. Nyadi siko lalu diengkah iya ba panggau Jubang, lalu siko diengkah ka iya ba moa pintu.

“Nama kabuah nuan mai utai bengat baka tu deh Keling?” ko Satik. “Dini Aka tau idup laban utai bakatu deh,” ko iya.

“Nama kabuah iya enda idup, iya ga endang ikan kita ditu, ko iya nganu aku din tadi,” ko saut Keling, “Kami din baru nadai kala makai utai baka tu.”

Udah nya Keling lalu dibela Satik makai. Sereta udah badu iya ke makai bedamai nimang lantang, iya lalu pansut ka ruai. Datai iya di ruai dinga tak rais-rais panjong Jubang pulai nyala di pendai.

“Oh, nama utai dipanjong ka Aya di pendai. Nama utai ulih iya nyala, alai iya nyau manjong?” ko bala sida ke anernbiak papak perenggang, sida ke mit lelachit angkat mansang. “Aram kitai sama nurun ka pendai, ngabas utai ulih iya,” ko sida.

Udah nya sida lalu nurun ka pendai. Datai sida di pendai, “nama utai ulih nuan deh Aya alai panjong nuan bengat ngemalatnya,” ko sida ke anembiak.

“Hee! Nama kabuah enda manjong, manjong ka laki Satik udah mati tangkap baya din tadi,” ko iya.

“Oh! Lapa Aya tu,” ko sida. “Nama iya tak udah datai di rumah deh Aya,” ko sida.

“Hee kita! Kita ukai meda deh! Aku tak meda enggau mata aku empu baya ngerias ka iya tadi. Kita tu besai tuboh besai pemula, tuboh kita enda tundan ka pemula kita,” ko Jubang.

Udah nya iya lalu datai di rumah pulai ke nyala. Leboh iya baru ka niki ngagai panggau iya mansang begari, dia iya lalu dipanggom baya ba patong. Udah nya, iya lalu tegali. Angkat iya ari tegali nya tadi, lalu deka lari ka bilik. Datai iya ba moa pintu, lalu ditangkap siko ga iya dia, sereta lalu direkak baya kenu iya dia.

“Mati aku tu Adi! Mati! Ukai tu ikan diempa ke ulih tua tu Adi. Nadai kitai makai ikan bakanya, asoh lari enggau tu Adi,” ko iya.

Jubang nyau enda tau mengkebut agi kena rekak baya dua iko nya tadi. Udah nya baru Satik lalu pansut ari bilik, lalu ngasoh Keling muru baya nya.

“Buru enggau baya nya ulih nuan Keling. Enda Aka tau tan laban utai bakanya.” Udah nya lalu diburu Keling kenu baya dua iko nya tadi.

“Lari seduai baya! Lari ka telok. Pulai seduai baya, pulai ka lubok,” ko jako Keling.

Udah nya tak enda betanggoh-tanggoh ga baya dua iko lalu pulai betunda-udi.

“Mati aku tu Adi. Ubat enggau aku tu ulih nuan,” ko Jubang.

Udah nya lalu angkat Keling, lalu nepas iya enggau labong lalung baka sengkilong tedong jalih kendawang. Ditepas iya enggau labong pantak kechendai betabor ka burai mau magang. Sereta udah kena tepas Keling enggau labong, dia deh lalu alit enda belitan, sereta semboh enda betuman. Udah nya langit pan nyau bebali besiring kuning, matahari lesi terunjam padam, hari pan nyau lemai ga, sida lalu makai.

“Pagila tumu ka nuan berapi Endu,” ko Jubang bejako enggau Satik, “laban kami duai Adi deka ngasu.”

NGASU

SERETA tawas pagi hari siti, sida lalu makai bedamai nimang lantang. Udah tembu sida makai, dia Jubang lalu bejako enggau Keling.

“Besikap Adi, ngasu tua saharitu. Ni alah kitai makai tak nadai utai ka lauk.”

“Nya ngasu ga meh, ti nuan mai aku ngasu,” ko saut Keling. Udah nya seduai lalu besikap deka nurun ngasu.

Nyau kalama seduai udah nurun bejalai nengah jalai, lalu nyalak babi kenu ukoi. Mansa Keling lalu ditumbok iya lalu ulih. Udah nya nyalak rusa ga ukoi, mansa Keling sereta lalu ditumbok iya, ulih ga rusa. Maioh bendar babi, rusa udah ulih seduai.

“Maioh bendar jelu udah ulih aku Aka, kada ulih bai tua pulai tu lagi,” ko Keling.

“Eh! Rindu ngiroh diri enggau utai bakanya. Enggai aku mai jelu anak. Nya ukai jelu diempa kami,” ko Jubang, “din lagi baru bisi jelu besai ba tuchong bukit.”

Bejalai seduai ari nya mansang deka nepat bukit ke ko Jubang. Datai seduai ba tuchong bukit lalu meda remaung tak dugau-dugau benong nusu ka anak. Nyadi liur remaung nyau entali nurun dagu iya empa pemangah. Bulu pala remaung nyau ngerenjang kasak-kasak meda seduai.

“Nyin baru jelu endang ka lauk kami,” ko Jubang, “alai nuan kin ngagai iya.”

“Au meh Aka,” ko Keling.

Udah nya Keling bejalai mansang kin. Sereta meda iya, remaung tu tadi lalu tama ka dalam lubang.

“Titih ka iya ulih nuan enggai ka tua puntan baka menasan jalai jelu, enggai ka tua labah baka buah merunjau ulu, enggai ka tua chungak lalu chungu, enggai ka asa lalu lebu,” ko Jubang.

Udah nya lalu nyau Keling tama ka dalam lubang remaung. Nyadi moa lubang Jalu dialit ka Jubang, awak ka Keling enda tau pansut agi lalu mati diempa remaung.

“Tu baru iya mati, ukai baka ke bisi jalai iya pansut agi,” ko iya bejako kadiri.

Nyadi Keling lalu tama ka dalam ka agi nitih ka remaung. Datai iya di dalam lubang din lalu betemu enggau Endu Bentuk Tinchin bepayung, Endu Dara Rinta bedayung, Bunsu Remaung ke Bekungkong baroh raang. Bunsu Remaung lalu nanya iya.

“Iya ari ni penatai nuan deh ambai aku enggai muai, laki kerindu ati, tunang tuju lempuang?”

“Eh Ambai! Aku ga enggau Jubang ke betengelang bulu burong, enggau Jali datai ari kaki ujan ngerunong, enggau iya ngasu,” ko Keling.

“Au Ambai. Nuan ga udah jadi enggau adi Jubang. Nama kabuah nuan muai Kumang deh?” ko Bunsu Remaung.

“Enda aku muai iya, tang leboh aku ke mansa lalu bebini ditu ga aku,” ko Keling.

“Anang nuan muai Kumang. Endang kenyau ari sera menya Kumang diambu indai nuan ka bini nuan. Baka kami endang ngetau jambai, tang Kumang ngetau padi, kami semina empu ambai, iya endang bempu laki,” ko jako Bunsu Remaung.

“Tak anang sakali-kali nuan muai iya. Ti nuan muai iya, enggai ka nuan busong ngelangkah gunong, enggai ka nuan tulah ngelangkah tanah. Semina Kumang ke ngasoh nuan jadi berani,” ko Bunsu Remaung bejako enggau Keling.

Udah nya iya lalu diberi bunsu Remaung makai ke bedamai nimang lantang. Udah badu makai asi, lalu diberi iya makai pinang. Udah nya iya lalu madah ka diri deka pulai.

“Deka pulai aku ambai, tang aku enggai enda minta ubong indai burong tiong,” ko Keling. Lalu disua ka iya idong nempuah lalu.

“Minta tinchin aku indai empulu Lilin,” ko Keling. Lalu disua ka iya jungkal mulut tusu.

Udah nya lalu diseradak ka iya moa tampak baka senayak bulan mandang, lalu dirimpi ka iya sakali di lepi sanggol lintang, lalu ditekan ka iya di tandan bau nukang, lalu dipechal iya di jungkal mulut tusu linyang.

Nyadi aku ke pulai tu deka mai kita dua iko,” ko Keling.

“Bai meh, nya Aya seduai Ibu enggau nuan,” ko Bunsu Remaung.

Udah nya iya lalu nyau pulai, seduai dua iko nya tadi lalu dibai enggau iya. Enda lama udah nya Keling pan lalu datai ga di. rumah sama betunda-udi enggau remaung. Nyadi remaung siko lalu diengkah ka iya ba panggau Jubang, lalu siko diengkah ka iya ba moa pintu bilik. Nyadi samoa orang maioh nadai utai ngenakut nya meda remaung. Meda liur seduai nyau entali nurun dagu.

Udah nya Keling lalu dikangau ka Satik tama makai ke bedamai nimang lantang. Sereta udah badu makai iya lalu pansut ka ruai, lalu dudok nyandih ba tiang. Udah nya dinga tak rais-rais panjong Jubang pulai ngasu ba pendai.

“Nama utai dipanjong ka Aya? Balat ga Aya tu dua-tiga hari tu tak manjong berari-ari. Aram Wai kitai ngabas iya ka pendai kai,” ko sida anembiak papak perenggang, sida ke mit lelachit benong mansang.

Udah nya bala sida lalu nurun. Datai sida di pendai sida lalu nanya, “Nama utai dipanjong ka nuan Aya?” ko sida.

“Eh! Manjong meh! Manjong ka laki Satik udah mati diempa remaung,” ko Jubang.

“Nama iya tak bisi di rumah deh Aya,” ko sida ke biak.

“Eh! Badu enda meh pagi tadi, tang diatu udah mati. Aku tak terang-terang meda remaung makai iya dalam lubang batu din tadi,” ko iya.

“Eh, Aya. Tak baru udah badu makai iya diberi Ibu dia tadi,” ko sida ke biak.

“Eh banggar kita tu. Besai tuboh besai ga pemula kita, tuboh kita enda tundan ka pemula,” ko iya nyaut bala anembiak papak perenggang.

Udah nya iya pan lalu niki ga ka rumah. Datai iya di rumah, lalu deka niki ka panggau mansang deka begari, lalu ditangkap remaung ba pala patong, lalu disilat iya enggau bunga chekak, tang laban remaung bengat sikar, dia iya lalu rebah. Angkat iya ari ti rebah lalu engkechit mansang deka lari ka bilik lalu ditangkap siko ke ba moa pintu, lalu ditendang iya enggau bunga kuntau. Angkat deh laban salah tendang lalu lekat ngeli remaung ba pala patong iya, lalu direkak remaung dua iko tadi iya dia, tak nyau rauh-rauh madah ka diri mati.

“Parai aku, luput aku tu, mati aku tu Adi,” ko iya. Nyadi iya tu tadi tak nyau garing-garing direkak remaung. Nyau telanjai ganjang kenu iya di ansar ka remaung. “Ukai nya jelu diempa, asoh pulai enggau nya ulih nuan Adi,” ko Jubang.

“Aku endang enggai mai, tang ga nuan keras bendar ngasoh aku mai din tadi,” ko Keling, “laban nya endang jelu ka diempa kita ko nuan nganu aku din tadi. Nya alai aku lalu mai nitih ka jako nuan. Nya meh jelu ulih tua ngasu,” ko Keling. “Kati tua agi ngasu bai nuan Aka ?” ko Keling.

“Oh hoh! Oh hoh! Oh hoh! Enda aku dapat ngasu agi, pedis bendar tuboh aku tu, idup ka aku tu ulih nuan Adi,” ko iya dekut-dekut nat ka pemedis iya nyaut Keling.

Udah nya Keling lalu ngasoh Remaung dua iko nya pulai. Ninga Keling ke ngasoh seduai iya pulai, lalu enda betanggoh agi seduai lalu pulai kamaia nya.

“Ubat aku tu Adi. Tu baru aku parai ti nuan enda ngubat aku,” ko iya bejako enggau Keling. Tuboh iya nyau mirah laban darah iya ke dikuyas ka remaung. Udah nya lalu ditepas Keling enggau labung lalong baka sengkilong tedong jalih kendawang. Di ubat iya enggau labong bekulat bakakijap neladan sempepat inggap di putat pedada nunggang. Peda kenu lalu alit enda belitan, lalu semboh enda betuman meh ga tudah Jubang.

BESENGANJAP

NYADI DUA tiga hari udah nya, peda kenu Jubang tak ngansah nyabur iya, samalam-malam, sadini-dinihari. Udah nya dipantap ka iya ngagai tiang, putus ga tiang. Pantap ka iya ngagai sukong, putus ga sukong. “Tajam nyabur aku tu,” ko ati iya.

Udah nya tawas meh ga hari, dia sida lalu makai pagi baka selama. Udah badu makai pagi, dia iya lalu bejako enggau Keling.

“Pia tu Adi. Manah tua senganjap saharitu,” ko Jubang.

“Besenganjap nama nya deh Aka?” ko Keling nanya iya.

“Eh, besenganjap tuboh,” ko Jubang.

“Aku nyangka tak besenganjap batang tapang,” ko Keling. “Barang ko nuan meh Aka,” ko Keling ga.

“Dini endor tua sengan¬jap lagi deh Aka?” ko Keling.

“Din meh Adi ba tengah menalan, tingkap di paras lesong talentang.”

Nyadi sida sarumah nyau nadai deka ayan agi ninga seduai deka senganjap. Datai seduai ba tengah menalan.

“Sapa tua dulu mantap pangan deh?” ko iya nganu Keling.

“Eh, awak ka nuan meh dulu mantap aku, iya ga nuan tuai,” ko Keling.

Udah nya Keling lalu tingkap ba lesong, sereta lalu bejako. “Uji simpul aku ambai enggau sanggol lepi sakali. Uji tikal aku ambai enggau kain bebuah sigi.”

Udah nya lalu dipantap Jubang, peda lalu begiling mata nyabur iya baka tating jala besi, betikal baka udi.

“Jai bendar nyabur aku tu,” ko iya. “Lagi Adi aku limpang ngansah dulu, ti tau ko nuan.”

“Nama kabuah enda tau, alai meh nuan,” ko Keling.

Udah nya lalu nyau iya limpang ngansah nyabur iya baru. Udah nya lalu diuji ka iya ngagai tiang, putus ga tiang, embal ka iya ngagai sukong, putus ga sukong.

“Hah tajam tu!” ko ati iya.

Sereta udah tembu iya ke ngansah nyabur, iya lalu pulai ga kin ka baru. Datai iya din lalu dipantap ka iya ngagai belakang Keling. Peda bakanya ga begiling baka tating jala besi, nyau betikal baka udi, sereta rabang mesai jari, simpak mesai kaki. Udah nya lalu deka malas meh ga Keling.

“Tu aku ga empu idar mantap pangan Aka,” ko Keling.

“Kati ko deh Adi, tau ditinggang enggau alu aku tu?” ko Jubang.

“Tau,” ko Keling.

“Ti bakanya nganti dulu nuan Adi, nganti aku udah ngiga alu,” ko iya.

Iya lalu nyau mansang ngiga alu sereta lalu ngambi tali.

“Nya, tanchang enggau aku ulih nuan,” ko Jubang. “Alu ari atas, lalu aku ari baroh,” ko iya.

Udah nya lalu ditanchang Keling alu enggai ka abis bebaring. Nyau nadai agi dipeda tuboh iya ditambun tugong alu ke kena ninggang iya. Udah nya Keling nyau bemoa mirah nekang jerenang, nyau bemoa mansau nyedaun sabang undang, nyau bedada nyala baka ke kena teritik darah nyerang. Udah nya lalu dipantap Keling meh iya. Putus alu tu tadi lalu ngerampit Jubang. Udah nya putus ga Jubang lalu mutus ka lesong ke endor iya tingkap. Putus lesong lalu ngerampit tanah, tak nyau pesok teling-teling mandang ka tebiang sebayan nabang. Mati meh Jubang tu tadi.

Angkat udah nya tak lalu mengkasak kenu deh nyabur Keling. Deka diselit ka iya, enda ga ulih selit.

“Naka meh tu deh, tak agi belala meh sanga nyabur lama aku tu enda besia makai tulang. Ti tu tak diengkah ka ba mata tak enda berasa empeleman miang.”

Nyadi nyabur Keling lalu enda ulih pasong, sereta lalu niki ka rumah lalu mantap Antu Malam seduai Antu Siang, lalu mati ga seduai nya nyenggai hari, parai nyenggai lemai. Udah nya baru nyabur iya ulih tan iya, sereta lalu ulih selit ka iya ngagai sarang.

Udah nya Keling lalu tenjik-tenjik bejalai di tanju. Meda iya lalu enda pulai ari tanju, dia deh Endu Sudan Keleman bulan perenching, Kumang Takang Bintang Beranaing, Adi Arau Timbau Berakit, Adi Enturun Papan Singit lalu nilik ari telenga atap di panggau gantung iya di sadau, lalu ngangau ka Keling.

Eh pulai kitu ka nuan dulu Datu Siko pemadu nama mansang. Pulai nuan Labong Panggai ka sakai jako nyerang, pulai ka sadau ka nuan Bujang Jelingau nadai kala lenyau enggau orang ka teku tikal kajang, ngagai aku kitu ka dulu,” ko Adi Arau.

Udah nya lalu engkechit Keling niki ka sadau lalu tama ka panggau gantung Endu Sudan. Dia iya diau bulih tiga hari. Udah nya baru bini iya datai ngambi iya pulai ngagai bilik sida Satik ka setak, awak ka ngidup ka Aka iya.

“Aku Wai Sulu, alai aku ngangau ka iya ukai tegal aku jai ati, tang meda kita tak enda ngangau ka iya, enggai ka iya tak enda lantang ati,” ko Endu Sudan.

“Eh, Wai Sulu! Kapa nuan enda ngangau ka iya, kapa deh iya enda ditu, nya keba manah nuan nemu ngangau ka iya. Nyadi aku alai ti enda ngangau ka iya laban rindang abis ati ka Aka,” ko Satik

Udah nya lalu pulai meh ga Keling enggau bini iya ka setak ka baru. Datai seduai iya din, nya baru seduai nurun ngagai endor bangkai Jubang. Datai iya ba Jubang lalu diunsut iya enggau ubat penyangga nyawa, ngasoh nyawa anak mensia enda laya nyadi tumbang. Sereta udah diunsut iya enggau ubat, peda tak lalu angkat Jubang ari iya ti udah mati.

“Akai-rai Adi! Nadai utai ngenyenak nya aku tindok, nya baru tindok, datai ka nyau asai kai bemimpi sida Apai,” ko Jubang.

Udah nya baru iya ngubat Antu Siang seduai Antu Malam, lalu idup baru ga seduai nya. Samoa sida ke udah mati nyau pulai idup baru diubat Keling Manok Biring Sempidan Arang, Keling Aji ke Berani ati mutus parang.

NEMUAI KA PANGGAU LIBAU

KIRA KA lenggang dua tiga hari lepas nya tadi, dia deh Jubang tu lalu minta anjong Keling ngayau ngagai sida Banggai di penyurai remang pisit, ngayau ngagai Nading di Genturing pintu langit, laban iya udah arap bendar ka Keling nya amat Keling Pan¬ggau ke ko orang.

“Nyadi aku tu bakanya ga ipar,” ko iya. “Minta anjong nuan ngayau ngagai sida Banggai di penyurai remang pisit, ngayau ngagai sida Nading di Genturing pintu langit, laban ati tak agi ensiban bendar laban bala kami udah kena tegah sida Banggai re-kutai,” ko Jubang.

“Aku tu enda kala ngulu ka orang ipar, amat ga aku berani, sida Simpurai sida Laja baru endang ngulu ka orang, tang nama orang ngayau enggau ga aku ka bala orang,” ko Keling.

“Eh, bula nuan ipar! Nama tak nuan ke selalu didinga kami ari tu deh,” ko Jubang. “Orang nyin manok sabong nuan,” ko Jubang.

“Eh, enda aku tu ngulu ka kita, tambah agi ga aku tu deka nemuai ngagai kami kin,” ko Keling.

Ti nuan tak deka nemuai, nya nemuai dulu ga meh, pulai nuan nemuai ila, nya baru ngulu ka kami,” ko Jubang.

Udah nya Keiing lalu besikap nemuai, mai bini iya nemuai ka menoa sida di Panggau Libau luchak lunyau lendat dibiau jila isang. Bini iya pan lalu besikap

“Datai din ila Endu, peda manah-manah ka ulih nuan tiap-tiap bengkah pengawa orang. Ti tiang ranyai iya tinggi ari enggi orang din ila, tuai orang meh iya din. Enti jangkang enggi iya maioh ari samoa enggi sida bukai peda nuan, tuai orang meh iya. Ni nya ulih dipelalai ka iya ditu,” ko Jubang bejako enggau adi iya Satik.

“Au, meh Aka. Nama kabuah aku enda berati ka pengawa iya din ila deh,” ko Satik.

Udah tembu seduai ke beradu, dia Keling seduai bini iya lalu mupok bejalai ari rumah sida, sereta lalu niti sentali jalai ulang. Nengah tinting dua kali tinting, meraka genting dua kali genting. Udah nya baru seduai nurun nengah tebing rapas tutong pangkong penguang. Udah nya seduai iya manggai ba lebak madang unak rutan enseluang, lalu niki ngagai bukit enda perait mata pedang. Nyau kalama seduai ke udah bejalai, sungai nyau abis di-ulu, sungai abis di-ili, bukit abis diturun, bukit abis ditiki, nyidi menasan jalai jani. Nya baru seduai lalu manggai ba tanah gelenggang tarah, lalu ngetu ga seduai ngambi mimit ka ubat pemurah penyangga nyawa. Datai seduai ba urat gelenggang pantap ngetu ga seduai ngambi mimit, ka ubat pemandang raja. Enda lama udah nya, baru seduai datai ba pintu langit singkong rapit baka tambit peti belulang. Datai ba pintu langit landai baka bingkai moa tibang. Datai ba batu galang baka ladang lapis taya. Datai ba batu besai ke nyeringgai mesai dampa.

“Ditu tua nilik menoa, Satik,” ko Keling. “Nyin, batang tiang balan, enggi sida Unggal aku Renggan enggau enggi Unggal aku Balu Juntan di menoa sida di munggu madang ruan Puntang kenyalang, sida Renggan di menoa sida di Melaban Mipau Umbang. Nyin, tiang Sandong Betong, enggi sida Unggal aku Sanggol Labong di tuchong Biru nakong taja gemuong munyi tempukong sarang gamang, enggau enggi sida Unggal aku Tutong, nya ga tuai sida Gelong batu nakong nyingit nyingong ngelentik punggang. Nyin, tiang chandi nya enggi sida Unggal aku Kumpang Pali, di menoa sida dipun teras penguji nadai kala ruji teman abi beliong kabang. Nyadi nyin, tiang ranyai, iya ke taja giai-giai murai ka tangkai jila isang nya enggi sida Unggal aku Simpurai Muntigerai Lancham disimbang, enggi Patu Buloh Antu Lanting tekejang, enggi sida Unggal aku Bunga Nuing manok biring disabong mali lenyang, di menoa sida di Panggau Libau luchak lunyau lendat dibiau jila isang.”

Udah nya baru iya madah ka kukok manok ngagai Satik. “Dinga nuan ambai, taja tempap manok kepiat munyi sangap tutong pengu¬ang, taja betesai langgai manok tawai aku munyi serunai ayam dagang. Dinga taja kebas-kebas kenu petugang manok bangkas dileka ka di idas badas pakan uyas tekalong kangkang. Taja raok-raok nya ambai, kukok manok duan imbok madah ka diri pulai tindok ari puchok nyior undang, taja lenga-lenga kukok jagok manok bangka aku nya ambai, keba punggong nya ambai sematung jelayan muda, keba dada banda pipit sepua, iko iya tak lalu tasau mata, belakang iya lang chelum chala, bulu sua iya tak mua pengena-ngena bisi ngambi pala tekura umang.”

“Mua meh pemanah petugang manok tawai aku nyin deh ambai Wai, iko silai gerunjong manang. Keba punggong iya sematung tuntong engkerawai, dada iya tak banda pipit kechuai, iko iya layu tasau meratai, bulu sua iya mua pengena-ngena bisi ngambi anak engkerawai bintang.”

“Mua pemanah petugang manok kapiat aku nyin deh ambai Wai, keba punggong iya ke sematung tuntong kulat, dada iya banda burik lekap, bau iya ke bebulu asu rapat, belakang iya lang chelum bekilat, lalu bulu sua iya tak mua pengena, bisi ngambi anak belalat umbang.”

“Naka meh pemanah petugang manok sidu aku nyin deh ambai i, ke bebulu nansang ka belakang, keba patong iya bisi tuntong semada balu, lalu punggung iya bisi sematung bangkut sentuku. Dada iya banda pipit antu, belakang iya lang chelum kelepu, bulu bau iya mua penyiru-nyiru besemut panggang.”

Udah abis seduai iya ti nyara bulu manok, nya baru seduai lalu nurun nengah pintu langit singkom rapit nadai meranggang. Tak enda lama ka sasempa makai pinang seduai pan datai ga ba pendai orang Panggau Libau luchak lunyau lendat di biau jila isang. Ba pendai di ai tansang kenyalang, datai ba pendai nanga di perua bunga pasang. Udah nya seduai pan lalu sama-sama mandi di ai nyandau langkang, sama nyelam di unggam papong batang. Mandi di pendai ulu ke bangat chiru baka madu minyak kepayang. Ai bekerangan ka marik untak undang, bebatu ka rangki landai penyulang.

DATAI DI PANGGAU LIBAU

UDAH SEDUAI sama badu mandi, peda datai orang ngambat seduai, bala sida ke anembiak papak perenggang, bala sida Upi pengambi ai dalam ruang, bala sida Abak kerimpak baroh rajang. Udah nya lalu nikal ga sida ka rumah madah ka orang di rumah.

“Oh, Hoi! Bisi Aya datai mai bini iya,” ko sida.

Ninga munyi nya lalu nurun sida Indai Keling ka pendai, sama enggau adi iya Endu Rikok Papan Pelangka, Endu Sudan Bulan Perenama. Datai sida di ai, nya baru mai seduai sama niki ka rumah. Datai sida di rumah lalu gaga meh ga orang maioh meda Keling datai mai bini.

“Hah deh! Mua ga pemanah gamal bini nuan Buat. Bidik bendar nuan nemu indu ngemanah tu,” ko Simpurai. “Agi bisi pangan iya din Buat?” ko Simpurai.

“Oh! Bisi meh pangan iya din deh Buat,” ko Keling.

“Sapa nama iya deh Buat?” ko Simpurai.

“Endu Sudan Keleman bulan perenching, Endu takang bintang beranaing, iya Adi Arau, Buat, timbau berakit, Adi Enturan papan singit.”

“Ti nuan pulai ila Buat, aku deka bekirum ka utai ari tu,” ko iya bejako enggau Keling.

Lepas nya, dia kenu Buat Simpurai lalu ngiga tulang rasa, laban iya deka ngaga sulat, lalu ngasoh Laja ngaga utai nya, ngaga sugu enggau ruding. Udah tembu utai nya digaga Laja, lalu ngasoh Laja ngaga bungkan ga iya, ka dikirum iya kalangit kin ngagai Adi Arau. Udah tembu samoa utai nya tadi digaga Laja lalu dianjong iya ngagai Keling, ngasoh Keling mai utai nya ngagai Adi Arau.

Apin bengat lama iga Keling seduai bini iya udah datai, dia deh Endu Lulong di Gelong Batu Nakong nyingit nyengong ngelentik Pinggang, Lemok ke bejulok Lulong Bintang lalu bejako enggau Endu di Liu Nyatu Tapang, Endu Lenta di Sala lasau takang, Kumbau di Balau belaie langkang, bejako enggau Endu Dara Jawai ke Ensangai Dayang Kumang.

“Oh Wai Sulu mentipu lebu nagai, asa bula enggai, bisi Keling datai mai bini iya dia.”

“Sapa nama bini iya deh Wai Sulu mentipu lebu nagai, asa bula enggai?”

“Eh Wai Sulu, Endu Sudan Kelindan lambar benang, Satik kelandik bala nyerang.”

“Manah gamal bini iya Wai Sulu?” ko Kumang.

“Manah ga Wai Sulu, tang ni iya telaban ka gamal nuan deh.”

“Kati lama seduai iya dia ila Wai Sulu?” ko Kumang.

“Enda ga bengat lama,” ko Saut Lulong.

NGAYAU

KIRA UDAH chukop pengelama seduai udah nemuai ka Panggau Libau, dia Keling lalu madah ka ngagai sida indai iya, deka pulai baru ka langit. Ninga iya madah ka diri deka pulai, dia orang lalu belulun ka asi, ngaga letup sereta bepandok ka telu dibai seduai iya pulai.

Udah nya seduai lalu nyau pulai. Datai seduai di langit lalu mua pengaga meh sida Jubang meda seduai iya datai, enda pedis ati baka ke dulu agi. Sereta udah diengkah ka Keling ma iya lalu beguai-guai Jubang mansang nyerungkai utai dibai seduai baru pulai nemuai ari Panggau Libau luchak lunyau lendat di biau jila isang.

“Anang guai meh Adi. Aku tu deka betemu enggau Endu ka bilik ka dulu,” ko iya, “lagi baru berandau enggau nuan.”

Datai iya di bilik, dia iya lalu bejako enggau Satik. “Kati ko deh Endu, sapa tiang ranyai sida tinggi agi dipeda nuan din?” ko Jubang.

“Enggi Keling meh ga tinggi agi ari enggi sida bukai,” ko Satik.

“Sapa jangkang sida maioh agi dipeda nuan din deh Endu?”

“Nya pan enggi iya meh maioh agi ari enggi sida bukai. Samoa utai enggi iya magang lebih ari enggi sida bukai,” ko Satik.

“Ti munyi nya, iya meh tuai orang din. Iya ke ngumbai diri ukai tuai orang ba kitai ditu. Ti bakanya, iya meh tuai orang,” ko Jubang.

Udah nya Jubang lalu pansut ka ruai mai tungkus asi, mai ruas, mai telu madah ka ngagai orang di ruai. Madah ka nya agi angat ngagai orang, empa penyemak menoa, nya alai tak enda lama endor datai.

“Oh, tak bedau angat tu,” ko iya, “semak meh menoa sida tu, patut orang tak nyamai mindah kin-kitu.”

Udah nya orang lalu bepakai ka asi, bepakai ka telu dibai seduai baru pulai nemuai ari Panggau Libau luchak lunyau lendat dibiau jila isang.

Udah tembu sida ke makai utai nya tadi, dia hari pan nyau malam ga, matahari lesi terunjam padam. Udah nya Satik lalu ngangau ka Jubang seduai Keling makai ke bedamai nimang lantang. Udah badu makai laiu pansut ka ruai ka ga seduai mipar-ipar.

Udah samoa sida sarumah kemas badu makai, dia Jubang lain ngempuru ka sida sarumah pengerang. Udah sama dudok berintai baka tangkai asam samadang, sama udah betugong baka lempaong ngambong ka batang, dia Jubang lalu bejako enggau sida sarumah madah ka diri minta anjong Keling ngayau ngagai sida Banggai di Penyurai Remang Pisit, ngagai Nading ke di Genturing pintu langit.

“Aku enda kala ngulu ka orang ngayau,” ko Keling. Sida Unggal aku Simpurai, sida Laja, nya baru endang ngulu ka orang.”

“Eh dini nya bakanya deh Adi,” ko Jubang. “Nama tiang landong betong, tiang ranyai nuan tinggi agi ari enggi sida Simpurai enggau enggi Laja deh, ko Endu. Baka jangkang enggi nuan ga lebih agi, nya alai nuan meh ngulu ka kami.”

“Deka ga aku ngulu ka kita ditu, ga sida nya nadai,” ko Keling. “Ti baka sida nya bisi, sida ngulu ka kita,” ko iya.

Udah nya lalu gaga meh orang ninga Keling deka ngulu ka sida ngayau. Sida ngayau ngagai sida Banggai di Penyurai Remang Pisit, ngagai sida Nading di Genturing pintu langit. Tak samalam-malam nya sida baum. Aum sida tembu hari pan tawas teringkas siang.

Udah nya sida Ialu besikap, laban lalu deka nurun.

“Kita dulu”, ko Keling, “ila baru aku nitih ka kita, kira ba maia kita ke baru deka datai din ila, nya baru aku nurun ari tu,” ko iya.

Udah tembu sida besikap, lalu nyau samoa orang bukai nurun mansang nyerang. Nyadi Keling tu tadi apin. Kira bisi empat hari orang bukai udah nyau dulu, dia Jubang lalu bejako enggau bala maioh.

“Nama utai digaga laki Satik tu lalu enda datai nitih ka kitai, kada enda ngelanjor ka kitai iya tu. Manah ga abas enggau iya tu ulih kitai,” ko Jubang bejako enggau Arau Timbau berakit, Enturan Papan Singit.

“Kitai tu tak nyau enda bengat jauh agi ari menoa munsoh. Ni alah kitai tak kena tegah orang baru ila,” ko iya. “Awak ka seduai ngabas iya kin, seduai ga deras,” ko Jubang bejako enggau Arau seduai Lengkar Bemban Bediri.

Udah nya lalu nyau seduai ngabas Keling nikal ka rumah. Samalam seduai di rantau jalai, nya baru datai di rumah. Datai seduai di rumah, dia seduai meda Keling baru udah besikap, baru deka nurun nitih ka orang. Seduai lalu madah ka diri diasoh Jubang ngambi Keling, meda iya lalu nadai datai.

Nyau pagi hari siti, nya baru sida tiga lalu mupok bejalai nitih ka bala Jubang endang udah nyurong lima hari dulu ari nya. Apin sida tiga nurun, sida dulu ngelulun asi, mandok telu ka bekal. Udah nya baru sida lalu bejalai ari nya. Enda bengat lama asai sida tiga udah bejalai, dia sida tiga lalu datai ba endor sida ke dulu ngetu ngupa.

“Nama tu tak endor kitai ngetu ngupa ensanus deh,” ko Arau bejako enggau Lengkar Bemban Bediri.

“Kitai tiga tak apin lama udah berengkah bejalai,” iko seduai.

“Apia lama bendar kitai tiga udah ngejang ka rumah, tak lalu apin peloh udah bejalai,” ko Arau.

“Iya meh tu, endor kitai ke ngupa ensanus,” ko saut Lengkar Bemban Bediri.

“Kati penyauh langkau kita agi ari tu deh?” ko Keling.

“Enda jauh agi,” ko seduai.

“Kitai tiga tu tak apin lelak bejalai ngejang ka pendai din tadi,” ko Keling.

Udah nya kenu dinga nyawa orang richah di langkau. Sida tiga pan lalu datai ga ba pendai sida Jubang ti dulu. Datai sida tiga ba pendai. “Pendai kitai meh tu,” ko seduai. “Nyadi langkau enda bengat jaoh agi ari tu,” ko seduai.

“Dulu seduai niki alai. Aku deka mandi dulu,” ko Keling.

Datai seduai di langkau, orang lalu nanya seduai, “Kati ko seduai kamaia seduai angkat ari nyin. Tak pagi kamari seduai angkat ari tu mansang kin?” ko bala sida bukai.

“Tadi meh kami tiga angkat ari nyin,” ko seduai.

“Bah, ni laki Satik deh?” ko Jubang.

“Iya agi mandi di pendai,” ko seduai.

“Ni maia hari kita tiga angkat ari nyin tadi deh?” ko bala sida nanya baru.

“Enda ga bengat tumu, pemanah iya meh hari pagi tadi kami tiga ke bejalai,” ko seduai. “Udah mansau asi pagi tadi, nya baru kami tiga mupok bejalai.”

Udah nya lalu angkat kenu Jubang lalu nyerungkai asi. Telu lalu diembal ka iya ngagai siko-siko madah ka nya agi angat.

“Naka meh deh. Patut orang nyamai ngayau ngagai kitai. Tu deh baka penyemak menoa ba orang,” ko Jubang bejako enggau bala iya.

Udah nya baru Keling datai ari iya ti ngetu mandi, iya lalu madah ka diri bisi utai ulih, bulih babi, rusa enggau ikan di pendai, lalu ngasoh orang ngambi sereta emparu utai nya tadi ka ai. Nyadi tusok ikan nyau baka garing ba pendai.

Udah nya orang lalu nurun mansang emparu babi, rusa enggau ikan ka pendai. Datai di pendai, dia sida lalu meda rusa, meda babi, meda ikan nyau baka garing. Tak sama ngenong mensia, baka empelekong mabok amboh, sama tak ngetu baka puyu mabok keroh.

“Oh naka meh deh! Penyamai orang! Patut orang nyamai leboh ka bisi pengawa baka tu, laban orang tak mudah ngereja samoa utai. Nyadi kitai kenu nyau abis upa sebelah babas digumpol ka diempa!” ko Jubang bejako.

Udah nya lalu diemparu sida samoa utai nya tadi. Tembu sida emparu, lalu dibai sida pulai ka langkau. Datai sida di langkau, dia sida lalu berengkah mansoh samoa utai nya tadi. Udah tembu sida mansoh lauk nya tadi, dia sida pan lalu berengkah ga makai.

Udah tembu makai, nya baru Keling lalu mai sida baum. “Kati penyauh menoa munsoh ti deka digagai kitai agi ari tu deh?” ko Keling.

“Eh, tak enda nemu kami, laban kami endang enda kala datai din. Nama datai ba tengah jalai lalu kena tegah orang ga bala kami. Nya alai kami tak enda nemu penyauh agi ari tu, jauh ka, enda kini, tang dijangka ka enda bengat jauh agi, nama sida tak datai negah deh,” ko bala sida nyaut Keling. Udah nya bala sida lalu tindok, laban hari nyau jauh malam.

Nyadi hari siti orang lalu ngeja jantau pulut jantawang. Udah mansau asi, dia bala lalu makai bedamai nimang lantang. Udah tembu makai sida pan lalu besikap deka bejalai ari nya. Udah tembu beradu sida lalu angkat bejalai ngejang ka nya. Kira iya umbas penyauh ari nya sida pan lalu datai ga ba endor sida ke udah kena tegah bala Banggai. Dia sida lalu ngetu.

“Ditu kami kena tegah orang leboh kami ke mansang dulu suba,” ko sida.

“Kati penyauh menoa rnunsoh agi ari tu deh?” ko Keling.

“Enda nemu penyauh meh, kami ga enda kala datai din, enda kala ngelui tu,” ko sida.

Udah nya lalu bejalai ga sida ari nya. Nyau kalama sida udah bejalai, angkat deh tak nyau enggai nyingkang agi kenu tudah Jubang, laban nyau takut ka munsoh.

“Kati alai kitai tu tak lalu enda mindah-mindah deh? Nama kabuah kitai tu tak nyau enggai nyingkang agi deh?” ko Keling.

“Enti Buat Simpurai datai ba tisau serarai, tak rengai-rengai iya nimang ambai peransang tulang. Nya, aku ngunsut kita enggau pengaroh dulu,” ko Keling bejako baru.

Udah nya lalu dibantai ka rajut tanggam kelukut danan ngerang, lalu ditanggong iya batu ketupong bemunyi setak-setak, dibantai ka iya batu beragai bemunyi lekak-lekak, lalu digenggam iya batu burong malam bemunyi bansak-ansak, lalu dijengkau iya batu papau bemunyi rangau-rangau munyi tempalau kangau sabak.

“Aku meri kita pengaroh tu ngasoh kita ngirup, meri kita peransang ati, awak ka ati kita berani nungkol pisang,” ko Keling

Udah nya sida lalu berasai berani. Nyau bemua mirah ngembuah sabang undang, nyau bedada nyala baka ke kena teritik darah nyerang. Maioh nyau bekakerik gerit ngeli sida, laban pengaroh Keling nya tadi. Tuboh sida nyau berasai regas, lalu bejalai pan nyau tegar, laban nyau nadai ati takut agi, tak nyau digiga betemu enggau munsoh.

Angkat deh Jubang tu tadi tak lalu enda tegar, lalu enda masok peransang. Tak nyau bekelansat kenu iya ke bejalai. Ti di rumah raok-raok Jubang munyi kukok manok menang, di tanah tak nyau nadai bemunyi baka bangkai babi mati di gayang. Nyau abis kenu iko sirat iya laban iya bekelansat ngena burit.

“Lapa nuan tu tak enda mindah deh Aka?” ko Keling.

“Kami bukai tu nyau berani laban peransang. Dalam kami tu tak nyau berasai tajam pegereman mata besi, tak nyau berasai ransing ati kami juring muting geraji, tak nyau tinggi asai kami di suli labong betawi,” ko bala sida.

“Eh enda ulih bai ati aku tu. Ti bisi munsoh lagi, kita naban ka aku enggai ka aku tak ulih munsoh ngapa,” ko Jubang.

Udah nya lalu bejalai kenu sida ari nya, lalu menoa munsoh pan nyau semak kasemak. Nyau kalama udah nya, baru sida datai semak rumah sida Banggai di Penyurai Remang Pisit, menoa Nading di Genturing pintu langit. Datai sida ba seberai rumah panjai sida Banggai, dia sida lalu diau ba langkau panjai orang. Nyadi dalam langkau nya tak chukop utai di kemisi, samoa macham utai diempa bela bisi magang dia. Baka asi, pansoh enggau ikan, endang udah sedia nganti makai. Ari langkau nya sida meda indu dara dua iko benong mandi ba pendai sida Banggai.

“Manah bendar gamal indu nya. Nyadi aku deka nanya ka berita ngagai indu nyin. Sapa bagi kita enggau aku deh?” ko Keling.

“Eh awak ka Arau seduai Lengkar Bemban Bediri nya enggau nuan kin,” ko bala sida.

“Nyadi samoa kita bukai tinggal ditu” ko Keling.

“Kita ke tinggal tau bemain, sebarang main ko kita, baka betaboh enggau begendang, tauka main bukai. Nyadi kami tiga tu enda nikal agi,” ko Keling. “Samoa kita nitih ka kami dinihari ila, laban kami enda pulai agi.”

Udah nya lalu nyau sida tiga mansang ngagai indu ke mandi. Datai kenu sida tiga ba indu ke mandi, indu dua iko nya lalu nanya sida.

“Oh, ari ni penatai nuan deh ambai aku enggai muai, laki kerindu ati, tunang tuju lempuang?”

“Eh, Ambai Wai. Aku datai ari sida Jubang,” ko saut Keling, nganu Bunsu Banggai seduai Bunsu Nading.

“Oh, ti bakatu mati meh kami nengali hari, tumbang kami nengali bintang, parai kami nengali lemai, tu nuan ga enggau bala sida Jubang. Enti nuan enda enggau sida Ambai Wai, enda sida telaban ka kami. Sida ngelamatu enda kala talah ka kami. Ti bakatu mati meh kami, luos kami laban kita ila,” ko seduai nya bejako enggau Keling.

“Nadai ko, meh Ambai Wai,” ko Keling. “Aku ga dibai sida Jubang.”

“Ti baka tu lalu meh kita, niki ka rumah. Begawai kami dia, begawai niki ka pala bala sida Jubang ulih kami leboh sida ke mansang dulu suba. Nya dipegawai ka kami,” ko seduai nya.

Udah nya lalu niki meh sida tiga ka rumah sama nyereta indu dua iko ti mandi nya tadi.

“Oh!” ko Jubang, bejako ari langkau, “naka meh sida tiga nya tak lalu nyau enggau indu. Nya tentu madah ka bala kitai ngagai munsoh di rumah. Tu baru kitai tu abis mati dipadah ka iya ngagai munsoh.”

“Eh, dini nya munyi ko nuan nya deh Aka, tang endang ga ka baka pengawa orang din, dini nya bengat deka munoh kitai,” ko sida bukai.

Datai sida tiga di rumah, lalu meda meh Banggai. “Naka meh pemanah gamal sida tu deh. Ari ni penatai kita tu deh Unggal?” ko Banggai.

“Datai ari menoa jauh kami tiga tu, laban ninga kita begawai, deka ngabang ngagai kita,” ko sida tiga.

Udah nya lalu dibela orang kenu sida tiga. Diberi orang makai, beri orang ngirup dia. Udah nya sida tiga lalu mabok. Meda sida nyau mabok lalu dianjong orang ka pelaboh awak ka tindok din enggai ka dikachau orang kin-kitu. Udah nya kenu lalu mabok ga Keling.

“Eh, nya Endu! Asoh bai orang ka sadau, awak ka iya gali di sadau, enggai ka kena kachau orang,” ko Banggai bejako enggau Adi iya.

Udah nya lalu dianjong orang ka sadau ka Keling. Udah nya sebarang sapa mabok anjong sida ka pelaboh. Datai di pelaboh lalu dibunoh seduai dua iko ke din, lalu orang ke nganjong pan sama dibunoh. Arau seduai Lengkar Bemban Bediri tak ngenying nadai pengawa bukai samalam nya semina mumpong pala berari-ari.

“Nadai kala umor ngemendar tu, suah ga udah ngayau apin kala merentak tu jari. Tu baru orang dititih ka ngayau baka laki Satik tu,” ko seduai. “Nya kitai ngelamatu suah agi pulai lebu nadai utai ulih, Semina utai temu kitai, lari dibai orang ke ngulu,” ko seduai.

Nama datai di pelaboh pantap seduai ga orang ke mabok. Orang ke nganjong pan dibunoh seduai dia lalu nadai pulai agi. Nyau ka tawas kenu hari dia sida lalu berengkah bepantap ngalun ka orang ka ruai. Nama seduai udah bulih anjong seduai ga pala ngagai langkau di seberai ba endor sida Jubang ke nganti.

“Oh!” ko Jubang, “Enda meh aku kala meda utai bengat ngemaioh tu deh. Anang agi, umbas nya enggai ka enda ulih bai kitai pulai,” ko Jubang.

“Kati ko kitai tak ninggal ka laki Satik deh. Benong bamok iya din,” ko Arau seduai Lengkar Bemban Bediri.

“Iya ga aku tak enda kala meda utai bengat ngemaioh nya deh,” ko Jubang. “Aku enda enggau kita kin, awak ka aku ngibun tu ditu,” ko iya.

Udah nya lalu nyau samoa sida bukai mansang kin nitih ka laki Satik. Nya baru sida lalu berengkah bamok enggau bala Banggai. Dinga tumbok sida kenu nyau munyi tutok leka ujan, pantap sida nyau munyi ke nesap asam kemantan. Pantap ka kiba peda nyau baka tugong reba nanga Paku, pantap ka kanan nyau sabaka enggau reban nganti nunu.

“Alun ka Unggal alun. Mati kitai tu Apai, mati kitai tu anak, mati kitai tu indai,” ko utai dia dinga sida.

Pantap Keling ka kiba rawai lima, pantap iya ka kanan rawai enam, pantap iya ka moa mati tiga, pantap iya ka belakang abis magang. Peda kenu di baroh rumah nyau mirah kena dujah darah lang. Udah nya baru munsoh lalu abis. Bala sida Keling pan nyau berasai puas ga bepantap. Tapa kiba nyau lasa asai ke lelak berimba buong nebang, pala patong nyau singkong lelak nyingkang, jari kanan nyau tegisan lelak magang.

Udah abis munsoh tu tadi, nya baru sida lalu dibai Keling pulai. Nyadi bunsu Banggai seduai bunsu Nading ke udah ditangkap Keling, lalu dilepas ka iya baru. Seduai nya tadi sama diengkah ka iya dalam temilah sekumbang sida ke bamok. Udah nya baru bala besai Keling lalu pulai. Enda bengat lama sida udah bejalai, asai ka sasempa makai pinang, sida pan lalu datai ga ba pendai sida Jubang betengelang bulu burong, datai ba pendai sida Jali di kaki ujan ngerunong.

Meda sida udah datai ba pendai, dia sida ke tinggal orang ngayau lalu begau datai ari rumah mansang ngambat orang ke baru pulai ngayau. Begau meh kenu samoa-moa orang enggau indu enggau anak enggau tuai enggau biak. Datai sida ba pendai lalu tekenyit meda pemaioh antu pala ulih orang ke ngayau, tak enda jena-jena bulih salabuan dampa rumah balang, begau kenu sida sarumah-rumah, laban nadai kala meda utai bengat ngemaioh nya udah ngelamatu. Suah ga ngayau endang tak nadai bulih pala sigi.

“Balat meh kitai tu laban laki Satik tu deh,” ko sida dia.

Udah tembu sida ke begau, nya baru sida mai antu pala niki ka rumah. Gaga ria rindu meh sida indai kelabu runggu nyandik pugu buloh pengerindu enggau pugu balang berang. Gaga ria rami meh sida indai burong pagi, gaga nyandik pugu buloh beteri enggau tengkebang ampang menyeti sama enggau leka begumba balang bedai udah ulih sida perinyai ambai ati pulai negi matahari baka bunga besi redak ditenchang. Gaga besentai langgai meh sida indai burong ruai, gaga nyandik pugu buloh kitai enggau menyeti bali belulai ulih sida perinyai ambai lalai, pulai pegi ari bingkai langit landai baka bingkai tibang terentang. Udah nya lalu disandik sida ke indu meh antu pala pulai ka rumah. Udah nya langit pan nyau bebali besiring kuning matahari lesi terunjam padam.

BEGAWAI BESAI

MALAM NYA lalu nganchau tikai ba ruai sida laban deka ngempuru ka sida sarumah mai baum deka niri ka Ranyai. Dianchau iya tikai besai anyam Beredai indu orang di Meligai Pungga Pungkang lalu ditap iya enggau tikai pachal mit lambar karong leit tikai bekuang. Udah nya lalu ditap iya enggau tikai belukor anyam bini Serit Mansor seduai bini Pengiran Amang. Udah nya sida lalu ngempuru ka sida sarumah ngagai ruai Jubang magang. Dia kenu bala besai lalu dudok begempuru baka rampu rutan jerenang, dudok betugong baka lempaong ngambong ka batang, dudok bedijir baka tingkil maram pengerang, lalu dudok berintai baka tangkai asam samadang. Udah nya baru Jubang lalu bejako.

“Aku tu bakanya ga,” ko iya, “mai kitai sarumah tu begawai besai, enggai nyadi enda begawai peda pemaioh antu pala ulih kitai. Nadai kala kitai sarumah ngemulih tu pala. Begawai niri ka tiang Ranyai murai ka tangkai jila isang. Begawai burong niri ka tiang Sandong Betong bebungkong ka benong tajau bujang. Mai niri ka tiang Gajah Meram taja singam-singam nungkam ka menalan balu rajang, niri ka tiang chandi urik taja jentik-jentik ngelilik ka tasik linggang gumbang, enggau niri ka tiang balan delapan belas betentang.”

Ninga Jubang mai sida begawai, lalu gaga meh sida samoa sarumah, sama bela deka begawai magang. Udah nya lalu nyadi kenu pengawa sida ke begawai besai. Nyau bepakai ka ganjai nyamai ulih ngerekai mua tibang. Nyau bempa ka saba samakau lama ulih sida mengua ka saraka tumpok lintang, nyau bekachit ka buah pinang kunchit baru alit burit nelaga langkang, nyau bechebik ka sirik siduk ulih nyulok di puchok ragai menuang. Dia lambu sida sakayu antu rumah merundu lama udah betiu ka jako enggau antu bala pengabang.

PINDAH

NYADI NYAU ka pengabis gawai sereta samoa antu pala pan udah ga abis ditiki ka magang, dia deh Keling lalu madah ka diri nyau deka pulai ngagai menoa sida di Panggau Libau luchak lunyau lendat dibiau jila isang.

“Nyadi aku tu enda tau nguai, nya alai aku enda tau begulai enggau kita lama, tang aku deka pulai,” ko Keling.

“Eh, ti nuan pulai, kami tu enggai tinggal nuan, ti nuan deka mai kami pulai ngagai menoa kita kin,” pia deh ko jako sida Jubang.

“Deka enggau nuan pulai meh kami, deka mindah enggau samoa utai ngagai menoa nuan kin.” ko sida.

“Oh! Ti kita deka pulai enggau aku kin tau ga, tang nyangka kita datai din ila tak enda tan laban jako Buat Simpurai. Jako Sim¬purai bengat rangkai lebih ari bilai besi ditenchang. Jako Buat Sim¬purai bengat renjan lebih ari suran pedang disandang. Jako Buat Simpurai bengat bisa lebih ari tuba tubai benang. Jako Buat Sim¬purai bengat kering munyi ke nganting puting beliong kabang. Jako Buat Simpurai bengat munoh ari ipoh sumpit kesoh anak Memaloh Langgai Tawang.”

“Eh kami enda iboh ka jako iya, nanya kami tak nundok ka iya, amat ga nuan deka mai kami pulai kin, nadai penyadi kami diau kadiri ditu,” ko Jubang.

“Au, ti munyi nya, samoa utai ti dikesayau ka kita sebelah umai, sebelah temuda, baka tengkenyang, chekor, kunyit enggau samoa utai bukai tambak magang ulih kita.”

Ninga munyi nya lalu dikali magang samoa utai nya tadi, samoa utai ti dikesayau sebelah umai enggau temuda. Nyadi nyau hari siti, nya baru Keling ngasoh sida ngurong babi enggau manok sereta lalu digempuru ka dia magang. Malam nya samoa sida enda diasoh Keling mindah ka bukai, tang diau di rumah magang. Nyau tengah malam kenu hari, samoa orang udah tindok magang, dia Keling lalu angkat pansut ka tanju. Di tanju, dia iya lalu bejako munyi Sebaru dulu ujong. Ngangau munyi Buau dalam kampong, mutap munyi kedadap beketebong bungkong, lalu besangin munyi Bukitan Palin ngua lilin madu ranggong. Ngangau ka Selepang puang pinggang lempong besempayang pala patong. Ngangau ka Raja Jatan ganggam Lengan penyan payan betong. Ngangau ka apai Bandar Lila ngebong moa baka singkap jalong jebong. Ti iya be¬jalai kili nemu ai bepulas uchong, ti iya bejalai kulu nemu batu tekuyong mabong. Nya ga bunsu selatan angin nyabong taja renjong-renjong mumpong ka gerempong puchok tapang.

Udah nya dinga ribut tak lalu bepuput besundang surong, dinga bua tak lalu bepangka bepulas uchong, mangka ka rumah sida Jubang. Nyau kapuas udah ribut ke mangka rumah sida Jubang dia deh rumah sida lalu berunyut nurun ka baroh. Datai di baroh lalu nenjang rumah panjai orang Panggau Libau muak ka ujong tanju, tak nyau besabong tanju enggau orang Panggau Libau, sereta sama ngemanjai nya. Udah nya kira nyau dinihari, lalu dani kenu Buat Pungga Bujang Puntang Medang lalu pansut ka tanju mansang deka kemi. Datai iya di tanju, dia iya lalu meda rumah orang ba ujong tanju sida tak sama ngemanjai nya peda iya. Iya tekenyit bendar ati, laban utai nya nyelai amat peda iya. Deka ati iya ngum¬bai nya mimpi enda ga iya tindok. Sagam iya panggau iya, enggi iya ga sepi iya, lalu disagam iya samoa utai iya bisi magang ga dia, lalu enggi iya magang ga sepi iya.

“Deka ngumbai aku tu ngayap, enda ga aku ngayap, nadai bisi mindah kia-kia,” ko ati iya.

Udah nya iya lalu ngangau ka sida indai iya di bilik.

“Oh Indai! Bisi dia nuan?” ko iya.

“Bisi aku ditu anak,” ko saut indai iya ari bilik.

“Ni Endu deh, bisi ga dia?” ko iya.

“Endu pan bisi meh anak,” ko indai iya.

“Anang iboh pansut,” ko iya.

“Nama deh kabuah kami tak pansut, ga hari lalu apin tawas.”

Udah nya lalu angkat ga Laja lalu pansut ga ka tanju. Bakanya ga Laja, sama meda utai tak nyelai baka ke dipeda Pungga tadi.

Udah Laja pansut, lalu pansut ga Buat Simpurai Muntigerai Lancham disimbang, Patu Buloh Antu Lanting Tekejang, Bunga Nuing manok Biring ke disabong mali Lenyang. Datai iya di tanju, dia iya lalu tekenyit meda rumah orang tak mandong enggi sida lalu sama manjai nya.

“Oh, nama utai nya kau, ukai munsoh kini?” ko ati iya.

“Ho Buat!” ko iya ngangau ka Pungga. “Nama rumah orang nya dia?”

“Nya meh peda aku tadi Buat,” ko Pungga.

“Hees! Bula nuan. Nadai nuan meda utai. Ti nuan bisi meda, nama kabuah nuan enda madah ka kami,” ko iya nganu Pungga.

“Nya meh ga dipeda aku tadi Buat,” ko Laja ga bejako enggau seduai dalam petang.

“Hees! Bula seduai ngumbai diri meda. Tu aku meda nadai enda lalu madah ka seduai deh,” ko iya.

“Aram Buat tua nurun kin lalu meresa rumah orang nya.”

Udah nya seduai lalu nyau kin mansang meresa rumah orang nya. Datai seduai din lalu ditiap seduai samoa lelaki ke tindok di ruai, abis tiap seduai. Udah nya lalu diangkut seduai ga samoa sangkoh sereta lalu ditugong ka seduai di tanju magang. Udah nya peda seduai kenu antu pala tak agi bebau.

“Oh! Baru amat antu pala orang tu, dini endor orang tu ngayau alai antu pala bengat ngemaru tu, sereta enggau enda jena-jena pemaioh,” ko seduai.

“Enda kitai nemu penatai orang tu ditu,” ko seduai bejako enggau diri sama diri. “Ditu tua ngibun Buat, ba pugu tanju tu.”

Udah nya lalu dikemata ka seduai dia sarebak tawas, nadai ga meda utai bisi engkebut. Udah nya nyau tawas kenu hari, apin ga orang bisi udah dani dipeda seduai. Nyau kalama seduai udah ngemata ka ari nya, baru seduai bisi meda orang nurun ari sadau. Dipeda Simpurai ayan betis.

“Oh, nyin betis orang Buat. Nama nya tak betis Buat Keling deh,” ko iya.

Udah nya nyau datai ba pah. “Oh, iya nyin pah Buat! Aram tua kin ngagai iya,” ko Simpurai.

Leboh seduai datai dia, Keling pan datai ga ba seduai, lalu diberap seduai iya Keling empa pengabis ati seduai betemu enggau Keling.

“Rumah kita tu Buat?” ko seduai, “ni utai ke dikirum aku rekutai udah diberi nuan ngagai indu?” ko Simpurai.

“Udah,” ko Keling. “Aram nuan nganjong aku kin,” ko Sim¬purai.

“Aram meh,” ko Keling. Udah nya lalu nyau seduai mansang ngagai indu ti udah dikirum ka iya utai dibai Keling. Datai seduai din, dia iya lalu tinggal sahari-hari nya dia.

Nyau pagi nya, dia orang mandi nengah jalai pendai sama berimbai-rimbai. Sama mandi meh orang dua buah rumah nya sapagi nya, sereta sama tak ngenong meda pangan, nadai nanya pangan, tang tak sama mandi. Udah nya nemu meh deh orang, laban meda Keling bisi dia, pia mega Buat Simpurai pan lalu bebini ga dia. Nyadi bini iya dibai iya nguai ka iya lalu pulai ngagai bilik sida. Dia meh bala sida Jubang kenu sama begulai enggau orang Panggau Libau. Datai ba maia orang ke bumai sama enggau orang bumai ga sida. Nyadi nyau maia ke udah badu ngetau, sida nyau nadai tentu pengawa agi, dia sida bemain enggau pangan diri. Bekesuling, beruding, bengkerebap, sereta lalu begaga ka sarang nyabur, sarang ilang samoa sida.

“Eh! Ti pia manah kitai nyabong,” ko sida.

Udah nya lalu nyabong meh sida Simpurai ngelaban sida Ke¬ling, sida Jubang. Nyadi sida nyabong di tanju, lalu sida ti indu meda ka orang nyabong ari sadau. Nyabong kenu orang. Angkat deh lalu alah sida Simpurai. Nyabong sakali alah ga, nyabong sakali alah ga, lalu enda menang. Seruran alah berari-ari muak ari sida Simpurai. Nyau udah nya, nadai manok agi kenu sida Simpurai. Udah nya disabong ga manok lanjau, alah ga. Abis manok lanjau, lalu disabong ga manok indu, alah ga, alah magang-magang.

“Oh, abis manok kitai Buat. Kini ka tunga tua ngiga manok Buat? “ ko Simpurai. “Samoa bekelingi ditu udah abis samoa endor tua ngiga manok. Uji aram tua ngiga manok ka Gelong,” ko seduai. “Ti nadai manok lelaki bulong ka manok indu,” ko seduai.

Udah nya seduai lalu nyau ga mansang ngiga manok ka Gelong. Datai seduai di Gelong lalu nangkap manok orang di baroh rumah.

Ninga manok mengkiok lalu nilik deh Kumang seduai Lulong ari rumah, ari telenga atap.

“Eh! Nama utai digaga seduai dia deh?” ko Kumang seduai Lulong nyapa seduai.

“Eh! Nangkap manok kami duai tu Endu” ko seduai.

“Kapa guna seduai manok deh?” ko Kumang seduai Lulong.

“Ka disabong,” ko seduai, “nyabong ngelaban sida Buat, tang kami alah, lalu nadai manok agi,” ko seduai nyaut Kumang seduai Lulong.

“Ngetu dulu,” ko Kumang.

“Eh! Enda kami duai tu ngetu, laban orang nganti kami duai din,” ko Laja seduai Simpurai.

“Nya pan ngetu meh, nganti pan orang din ngetu meh seduai dulu,” ko Kumang seduai Lulong. Udah nya baru seduai lalu ngetu dulu ka rumah.

“Dini seduai nyabong lalu sapa orang ti dilaban kita deh?” ko Kumang.

“Eh ngelaban sida Jubang, ngelaban sida Buat, alah kami laban Buat,” ko seduai.

“Ti tak sida Jubang, nama deh peleman kita ngelaban. Ti diengkah ka ba mata, tak enda berasa empleman miang. Tu manok kami tu bai seduai, lalu manok ke ulih seduai nangkap nya tinggal,” ko Kumang seduai Lulong.

Udah nya Kumang lalu mai telu dua igi, lalu diberi Kumang seduai Lulong telu dua igi nya ngagai seduai. Udah nya telu nya tadi lalu ditanchang ka seduai ba puting suli labong. Sereta udah diberi Kumang seduai Lulong telu dua igi nya tadi, dia seduai lalu pulai baru, laban endang ngarau ngiga manok. Datai seduai di Panggau Libau dia seduai meda orang endang udah beranchau tikai, beran¬chau idas di tanju deka nyabong baru, tang laban agi nganti seduai datai. Udah nya leboh seduai datai, dia Buat Simpurai lalu nangkin nyabur sereta lalu pansut ka tanju, lalu manjong.

“Kebat meh manok kitai. Udah datai kami duai Buat tu,” ko iya mantai ka penyegak iya.

“Kebat meh Buat. Aku tu nyabong amat ga nyabong, tang aku tu semina deka ngemata ka kita,” ko Keling.

Udah nya lalu ditatok seduai telu dua igi tu tadi, peda manok lalu pansut ari nya, sereta lalu mengkukok. Udah nya baru orang ngebat manok Simpurai seduai Pungga. Udah tembu ngebat lalu dilengka ka sida, enda bengat lama bebintih lalu menang enggi Sim¬purai. Udah nya enggi Pungga pan menang ga disabong sida. Enggi sida Jubang tak lalu alah magang-magang. Kebat siko alah ga, kebat ga siko alah ga. Tak alah magang-magang enggi sida Ju¬bang laban enggi sida Simpurai ari sapiak. Datai ka manok indu kebat sida Jubang, laban ke nyau rapas manok, alah ga. Nyau abis samoa manok sida Jubang ari sapiak. Siko pan nadai ga menang dilaban sida Simpurai.

“Nadai agi manok kami ari sapiak tu Unggal,” ko Jubang.

“Au Unggal, tang Buat Keling ari kita. Enti enda laban Buat Keling Unggal, dini kita tau menang, kita ga endang munsoh lama kami ka tuga teda serang, kita tu Unggal endang munsoh kayau kami ka lembau atau ngenang. Kita nya Unggal ti diengkah ka ba mata tak enda berasa empeleman miang, lalu enti kita nya diengkah ka ba lengan Unggal, enda lentor belayan bulu menang,” ko Sim¬purai.

Udah nya lalu pedis ati kaban sida Jubang ninga jako Simpurai ke bengat juring baka ke nganting puting beliong kabang, ninga jako Simpurai bengat renjan ari balan besi saluntang, ninga jako Simpurai bengat bisa ari tuba tubai benang.

Nyadi lemai nya Jubang lalu bejako enggau Keling, minta anjong iya pulai ka langit ka baru.

“Nganjong ga meh aku, ti kita tak deka pulai, tang samoa utai kita sikap magang dulu,” ko Keling.

Udah nya samoa sida lalu besikap deka pulai ka langit ka baru. Nyau malam kenu hari, dia Simpurai lalu tindok di tanju sida Ju¬bang, lalu tuboh iya ba tanju sida empu. Nyau maia tengah malam, sepi iya tak lalu berunyut asai tanju, lalu angkat Simpurai ari iya ti gali, lalu taung-taung manjong, tak munyi ke ngebus ka kebong langit ngeruang.

“Ukai manjong gaga ukai manjong sayau, tang gaga ka sida Jubang angkat ari menoa kitai tu,” ko Simpurai Muntigerai Lancham disimbang, ko Patu Buloh Antu Lanting Tekejang, ko Bunga Nuing Manok Biring ke disabong mali Lenyang.

Udah nya lalu nyau meh sida Jubang tu tadi pulai ka langit ka baru ngagai menoa sida iya empu di langit pisit pejelapang remang, pulai ngagai langit landai baka bingkai moa tibang, pulai ngagai sida di langit lada di jela pandang nyang. Sida Simpurai tu tadi pan lalu tinggal ga di Panggau Libau menoa sigi luchak lunyau lendat dibiau jila Isang.

Nyadi Keling tu tadi, kira antara sebuol peti udah nya, lalu nyau ga bejalai ka Gelong Batu Nakong Nyingit Nyingong Ngelentik Punggang, mansang ngambi bini iya Endu ke di Liu nyatu tapang, bini iya Kumbau ke di balau belai langkang, ngambi bini iya Jawai ke Ensangai Dayang Kumang, mai iya pulai ka Panggau Libau ka baru. Udah nya Kumang pan lalu diau di Panggau Libau nitih ka laki iya Keling. Nyadi Kumang tu indu pemadu manah keingkah baroh hari, indu bajik kelandik tambun puji, sigi indu pemadu pandai di chunggai ujong jari, diambu indai Keling kenyau ari sera iya menya endang ka bini Keling, sereta endang diator nguai ka Keling ka Panggau Libau.

Nyadi Keling pan pia mega endang sigi beati juring muting geraji, endang sigi beati tajam pegereman mata besi. Nadai orang ngering sereta merani iya samoa ke di baroh hari. Ti ngavau ka tasik tauka langit endang nadai kala sabu sereta lebu, nadai kala chungak sereta chungu. Samoa bunsu antu ka ambai iya magang, lalu orang nya ga ke meri iya pengaroh ka gembar tuboh enggau ubat serangkap genap. Ari iya ke bengat berantu bakanya, nya ke ngasoh iya berani sereta kering. Tu pengabis jerita Jubang, ke Betengelang bulu Burong, Jali datai ari kaki ujan ngerunong.

Abis

Jerita Lama – Asun’s Rebellion

2010-06-27T02:26:00.000-07:00

Sarawak does not fit the stock tropical image of swaying palms and lazy warm
breezes. Kuching, the capital of Malaysian Borneo’s largest state, lies only 11 degrees from the equator, yet somehow there is little indolence in the air. It is not merely the absence of coral strand (here the coastline is mainly mud and mangrove) or the hyperthyroid energy of the Chinese small farmers and shopkeepers who dominate many of the more thickly settled areas near the coast. Even more in the interior, there is something hard and vital in the air.

In northwest Borneo rivers were traditionally the primary determinants of social loyalties and the main arteries of trade and travel. Everywhere in Sarawak there is still an obvious if not always exact social demarcation between the downriver areas, where Moslem Malay and Chinese population predominates, and the upriver regions of the interior, where the inhabitants are mostly “Dayaks”, pagan tribal people who live in longhouses and cultivate hill rice. This tribal population is divided into many groups, which vary greatly in language and political culture, but one group, the Ibans, or Sea Dayaks, predominates over much of the State and comprises almost one-third of the total Sarawak population.1

In the upriver Iban areas, perhaps more than anywhere else, the usual Western stereotypes of tropical Asia are inappropriate. Most people live by growing hill rice, an energetic occupation if ever there was one. The very countryside is evocative more of Glencoe or America’s Appalachian highlands than of Gauguin’s Tahiti. Typically, the countryside is a tangled welters of forest-covered hills, rising in few areas to heights of more than 3,000 feet, but sufficiently rugged to preclude any easy adoption of irrigated farming. The rivers, until recently the only highways, are a far cry from the sluggish brown waterways which wind among the peat and mangrove swamps nearer the coast. In their upper reaches, streams like the Batang Lupar, Katibas and Kanowit are narrow enough to be completely roofed over by arching, moss-hung branches. Kingfishers swoop beneath the foliage over swift-running waters, which are normally sparkling clear, but cluttered with dangerous rapids and snags. Frequent rains bring sudden floods equally hazardous to the travelers, for whom the water level seems always to be either too high or too low. Even today, with the advantage of modern outboard motors, navigating such streams requires much time and skill. Until very recently, every mile of distance toward the interior bestowed an added measure of independence from whoever claimed to rule all Sarawak.

The Brooke “White Rajahs,” who were the nominal overlords of these rivers until World War II, left a historical legend which has long captivated Western imaginations and which still flourishes among people of all races in Sarawak itself. In this lively tradition they are remembered as benevolent despots who presided over a 48,000 square-mile estate (only 5,000 square miles smaller than all Malaya) in the style of the English squirearchy. By cleansing the coast of pirates and the interior of headhunters, the Brookes first established a degree of rough law and order. Then, by rigorously excluding large plantation agriculture, they protected their people from exploitative European capitalism, at the same time sheltering them from the erosive effects of Western education. According to the legend, this state of affairs endured until after World War II, when the last Brooke Rajah relinquished his patrimony to a British colonial regime more concerned with progress, development, and the like.

There is much evidence to indicate that this view of the past, like most historical myths, contains some truth, but more over simplification. The ancient Chinese ceramics and glass beads of possible Middle Eastern origin, which are still prized by many upriver people, are proof enough that interior Borneo was never wholly isolated from the outside world. At a much more recent time level, it is clear that developments after World War I, particularly the spread of smallholder rubber cultivation, brought a number of new challenges and problems to the interior people and the Brooke regime. The problems were made manifest by an outbreak of political unrest and outlawry which commenced in the Iban country in 1929 and smoldered along until the end of Brooke rule. It was a period which repays study not only for the light it sheds on the character of later Brooke rule, but also for the insight it provides into Iban political behavior, which remains a factor of great importance in Sarawak affairs. Never more than a semi-insurgency, Asun’s “Rebellion” was named for the Iban warrior who was the most famous anti-Government ringleader, and who died only in 1958.2

The Asun affair must be studied as part of a long era of limited contact between the Brookes and the Ibans, which began as soon as the First White Rajah, James Brooke, established his initial political foothold on the Borneo coast in 1841.3 The founding of the Brooke state at Kuching and its subsequent expansion along the coast at the expense of Brunei coincided with a momentous process of Iban expansion and migration. The first Ibans may have migrated northwards from the great Kapuas River valley in Indonesian Borneo during the sixteenth century. Settling in what is now Sarawak’s Second Division, mainly along the Batang Lupar and Saribas River systems, they displaced or absorbed pockets of jungle nomads, peoples who had not yet learned to cultivate hill rice. By the time Brooke arrived on the scene the Ibans were beginning to spread from the Second Division overland into the Rejang River system of the Third Division as well.4

The phenomenon of Iban expansion created problems for the new British rulers even before they comprehended with any clarity exactly what it was. James Brooke, who ruled from 1841 to 1868, was most concerned with the activities of certain downriver Iban communities whose restless addiction to travel, warfare, and headhunting resulted in what the Brookes called “piracy.” Beginning about 1800, these pagan rice farmers living relatively near the sea had developed the unpleasant habit of raiding along the coast in league with local Moslem Malay chiefs. In his effort to halt this activity, which for a time threatened the existence of his fledgling state, Brooke called in the Royal Navy. But the White Rajah’s “anti-piracy” campaigns eventually generated a humanitarian hue and cry in England, which led to the withdrawal of British naval support after 1854.5

For the next six years the survival of Brooke Sarawak hung in the balance. Serious rebellions, one led by Chinese of the Kuching hinterland and the other by Moslem chiefs scattered throughout the State, took place in 1857 and 1859-60 respectively. The First Rajah’s nephew and eventual successor, Charles Brooke, who was to rule until 1917, stabilized the situation by relying on levies of Iban warriors, who discovered that fighting and headhunting under Brooke leadership was quite as satisfying as any other kind of warfare.

By the time Charles Brooke became Rajah in 1868 he had converted most of the Iban “pirates” into an unpaid, informal army, well suited both to the Borneo terrain and to the financial capabilities of a penniless dependency bereft of European support. But although Iban turmoil along the coast was thus eliminated, Iban migration and expansion remained a problem in the interior. The upriver Ibans, unlike the coastal sub-groups, were still remote from any contact with the Government. They continued to migrate into the Rejang, and were constantly involved in raids and counter-raids against various peoples, both Ibans and others, who lived in the Kapuas drainage south of the Second Division, in what was then Dutch territory. Charles and his officers knew full well that they could not attempt systematic administration of the more remote upriver areas, but they were unwilling simply to condone migration and headhunting at the expense of weaker tribes, especially when such activities resulted in official notes of protest from the Dutch. To impose his authority, the Rajah employed the only weapon he had, massive levies of downriver Iban warriors, who in times of “rebellion” were dispatched into the interior to burn the longhouses and destroy the padi fields of their only slightly wilder brethren.

Nothing was ever really settled by the Rajah’s punitive expeditions, which over the course of long decades became a tradition in the Iban country. The expeditions appealed to the Iban love of war and nourished the headhunting ethic, which as a result survived un-diminished well into the twentieth century. They engendered some bitterness against Brooke officials among the upriver people, as well as producing an inclination to regard the Government as an enemy first and foremost, but real hostility was always directed primarily against the Rajah’s Iban levies, who could be and were viewed within a traditional framework of inter-Iban rivalry. A particularly protracted and bloody period of Iban in fighting known as Bantin’s “Rebellion”, which involved the same general area as the later Asun turbulence, lasted from 1895 to 1910.6 That contest eventually exhausted even the most strenuous upriver “rebels” however, and increasingly severe Government counter measures brought widespread peace to the Iban country by the period of World War I.

The Asun troubles cannot be isolated from this long preceding history of conflict. The Iban love of warfare and the official compulsion to control the movements of an aggressive, semi-nomadic population were among the elements of continuity. Yet, as we shall see, there were certain new factors motivating Asun and his fellow dissidents as well, and the Brookes oversimplified when they pictured the unrest simply as a recrudescence of headhunting.

Asun was born in a longhouse on the Entabai branch of the Kanowit River in about 1880. This region, one where aspects of the traditional Iban way of life are to this day maintained with conservative tenacity, had been settled by immigrants from nearby rivers of the Second Division, particularly the Skrang and the Paku branch of the Saribas, not long before James Brooke first came to Sarawak. Asun’s own immediate forbears were of Skrang origin, although his more remote ancestors included some upper Saribas people as well. He and his four brothers (Seribu, Nyambong, Meling, and Megong) had all made reputations as formidable warriors in the days of Bantin’s “Rebellion.” At that time they had been technically on the side of the Rajah, defending their home area against frequent raids led by Bantin, Kana, and other “rebels” whose longhouses were on the upper reaches of the Batang Lupar river system, across the watershed in the Second Division.6

Like many another famous Iban firebrand, Asun was for part of his life an official representative of the Brooke regime. The same qualities of leadership that distinguished him as a warrior soon drew the attention of a Government, which usually preferred to exert its influence indirectly, and he was named penghulu of the Entabai sometime before 1915. The office of penghulu, which might be translated “district headman,” was an invention of the Brooke regime. It had no equivalent in the democratic, almost anarchic traditional structure of Iban leadership, within which the longhouse headman (tuai rumah), chosen by his own people, was the highest recognized authority. Asun was also a tuai rumah, primarily charged with the customary task of settling disputes among the people of his own longhouse. By making him a penghulu, the Government hoped that he would represent Brooke authority throughout the entire Entabai, among dozens of longhouses. His specific duties, like those of all similarly created Iban penghulus, were to collect the yearly “door tax” of one dollar per family, to convey the wishes of the British Resident to his people, and to organize them for unpaid expedition service in time of war. There is every reason to believe that Asun did his job well. The Sarawak Gazette records that in 1915 he led the Entabai portion of the force on a Government expedition against Iban “rebels” in the Mujong River, an area of the upper Rejang where official efforts to block migration into the interior had not yet achieved success. At one point the Entabai penghulu narrowly escaped injury when his warboat was crushed by a falling tree, one of several which the enemy Ibans were able to drop across the narrow stream in their efforts to discomfit the Rajah’s advancing flotilla.9

The name of Asun does not appear again in any written source until 1926, when he became involved in a dispute with the Resident of the Third Division, or one of his subordinates. The details of the controversy are anything but clear from surviving administrative reports, which indicate merely that Asun was required to pay a fine of two pikuls of brassware, or the equivalent $56.4010 He resigned as penghulu, handing in the uniform shirt which served as the Brooke badge of office, but the Resident reported that the man named to succeed him was too frightened to take up his appointment.11 Although there was nothing approaching overt rebellion for another three years, something was plainly wrong upriver.

Like Ibans everywhere, the people of the Entabai and other regions which were involved in the spreading troubles still retain a deep interest in their own past, and today as always they are willing to expound their own interpretation of past events to any visitor. There is no question in their minds that the underlying cause of Asun’s resignation and the subsequent “rebellion” was a series of unwarranted taxes which the Rajah had recently imposed. According to the modern Iban view, no one objected to the “door tax” of one dollar per family per year, which had been collected from the earliest days of Brooke rule and which, at least in some areas, had vague antecedents in even older Brunei practice. But the Government transgressed what the people had come to regard as a traditional arrangement by attempting to systematize this tax, imposing it even on longhouse family rooms (“doors”) occupied only by widows and indigents, who in earlier times would have been informally exempted from payment.

There is no doubt that the Government did attempt to systematize door tax collection, beginning in about 1930.12 Nor is there any reason to dispute modern Iban memories of a new tax on shotguns (actually a gun registration fee inaugurated in 1922) and another new levy of $5.00 per longhouse ladder (tangga) or $10.00 for an entire structure. But as resentment gained momentum, completely fictitious rumors telling of additional previously unheard of taxes began to flash through the upriver country. According to one story, still repeated and believed by the more gullible, the Government wanted to tax each man fifty cents for every time that he slept with his wife (The money was allegedly to be deposited in an official box kept on the longhouse verandah.).13 No people on earth are more fascinated by the power of words or more intrigued by a good story than are the Ibans, and such reports could be regarded as fantastic, frightening, funny, and yet credible all at once. As the rumors spread, a sense of grievance smoldered.

This renewed Iban unrest, after a decade of peace, was part of a broader pattern of change that was overtaking Brooke Sarawak. The death of the Second Rajah, Charles Brooke, in 1917, had ended an era of vigorous leadership in Sarawak. His son and successor, Vyner Brooke, never displayed the same enthusiasm for the details of government, which had contributed so much to his father’s intensely personal system of rule. Under Vyner, the Rajah of Sarawak remained in theory an absolute monarch, but more and more the country was governed by his subordinates, British Residents of Divisions and District Officers, Malay Native Officers (who were often figures of great authority), and Chinese clerks.

Beginning in about 1910, smallholder rubber came to the downriver areas of Sarawak. Although both Charles and his successor discouraged European plantation agriculture, they welcomed an influx of Chinese farmers, which was stimulated largely by the booming world rubber market. This immigration reached a peak in the mid-1920′s. Sarawak’s revenues shot upwards, but the size of the Government did not keep pace with the administrative demands, which inevitably resulted from the rapid development of some downriver areas. Nowhere was this development more significant or obvious than in the lower Rejang area, above and below the Third Division headquarters at Sibu. Here the demands of a bustling Chinese colony created more and more paperwork for the harassed Resident, who with only three European subordinates was charged with ruling a province 22,000 square miles in size.14

Inevitably, the upriver Ibans were of relatively less concern to the Government than in an earlier era. Yet although the principal British officers could spare less time for travel in the more remote areas, they were more than ever before inclined to impose new controls and restrictions on the Iban population. Slowly but surely, the Government veered away from the Second Rajah’s laissez-faire methods, which must have appeared outrageous to anyone conditioned by familiarity with systematic modern techniques of colonial administration.

A variety of administrative changes affecting the upriver people were instituted between 1920 and 1930. For the first time, upstream limits beyond which no Ibans were allowed to farm or settle were enforced with some degree of rigor in both the Batang Lupar (Second Division) and the Rejang (Third Division), river systems where until the previous decade Iban raiding and migration had been an endless source of disturbance.15 From 1926 onwards, Residents of the Third Division (where the migration problem was most acute) decreed that no Iban longhouse could be less than ten family rooms in length, a rule intended to make illegal movement easier to control.16

Throughout the State, regulations had long required any Iban traveling outside his Division to obtain a pass from the Resident, but in 1929 the Rajah told a gathering at Kapit that henceforth young men should not wander about so much. Passes would issued only to those who had definite offers of employment elsewhere.17

Penghulus began to receive regular salaries in place of the former commissions on door taxes and fines levied for minor offenses.18 The Administration gradually began to establish uniform rates for the various capitation taxes levied on the Ibans and Malays, where previously each Division had maintained its own tax system.19 Gun licenses and fees were introduced in 1922,20 and in the same year the Government ordered that even the most distant tribal headmen would in future act as registrars of births and deaths among their people.21 In 1920 a newly created Forest Department began to mark off Forest Reserves within which no one was allowed to destroy the timber for hill rice farming, gather jungle produce, or even hunt wild animals.22

These changes, many of them extremely irritating to the Ibans, were only part of a broad trend toward bureaucratization, but they were the aspects most apart to the upriver people. By 1929 the Ibans were beginning to complain vociferously about the “new regulations”. In May of that year the Resident of the Third Division reported:

“The Assistant District Officer, Kapit, informs me that the Dyaks are complaining about what they call the new regulations. These are really the same as before namely (1) Registration of births and deaths (2) Tax $1 for every door irrespective of occupants (3) Felling engkabang and langgai etc. (4) Death duties (5) Retaining fruit, etc., on moving. In fact they wish apparently to adhere to nothing and are hoping that His Highness the Rajah will have compassion on them. They are all trying to move to the headwaters of the Stream they inhabit, and in my opinion it is useless to argue with them but allow this in certain rivers.”23

Resentment over the “new regulations” was compounded by two developments over which the Brookes had no control: widespread disagreement among the Ibans themselves concerning their own customary law, and the onset of world depression. Each of these factors, the first so purely a Sarawak phenomenon, the second so disastrously universal in its ill effects, requires explanation.

Iban life is governed by a complex code of unwritten customary law (adat) which is broadly similar among all the Iban people. Nevertheless, in many areas of the Second Division, which as mentioned earlier was the original Iban homeland in Sarawak, minor variations in penalties and procedures had, over time, come to distinguish the various river systems one from another. When migration to the Third Division occurred, people from different Second Division homes often settled in the same general area. The Brooke regime recognized Iban customary law in all but the most serious criminal cases, but an English magistrate could not fairly be faulted when the contending litigants did not agree on their own adat. Yet in the unsettled period of the early Thirties, cases began to recur in which Ibans blamed the Government when such disputes took place. Aggrieved individuals whose own particular interpretation of the adat had not been followed insisted that the Government was heedlessly flouting the customs of the people.24

It may at first be hard to understand why the onset of world depression, particularly of low rubber prices, should have made any difference to people who were primarily engaged in subsistence farming, specifically the cultivation of hill rice. The explanation lies in the fact that for the Ibans, traveling in search of jungle produce or casual employment was a cherished custom with important economic side effects.25 Over the years, expeditions to distant lands in search of wild rubber had become an acceptable substitute for headhunting. The young warriors who fared forth to Sabah or Malaya acquired prestige necessary for Iban self-respect, but they also brought home cash, which could be essential in seasons when the notoriously fickle hill rice crops were poor. As early as 1928, a steady decline in the market for jungle produce began to cause distress among the upriver people. As the universal trade slowdown grew worse during the next few years, it further reduced alternative opportunities available to tattooed job-hunters from the remoter areas of Sarawak. As usual, the Ibans were not slow in letting the Government knows just how they felt.

In August, 1928, the Resident of the Third Division reported:
“Owing to the low prices of jungle produce a large number of upriver Dayaks have been coming down clamoring for passes to other countries. Some have been engaged by the Colonial Surveys in Johore, and others have taken on contract work in that state. Mssrs. Sarawak Oilfields Ltd., of Miri, do not at present require any more Dayaks and it is most difficult to know what to do with these men, as they flatly refuse to take any work locally whatever pay is offered.”26

A little over a year later the Kapit District Officer observed that “The price of jungle produce has fallen so low that the Fort is always full of Dayaks still hoping to be allowed to look for work outside the Division”.27 When the Rajah’s brother, Tuan Muda Bertram Brooke, visited Kapit in July, 1930, he was quickly made aware of the situation: “Various matters were brought to His Highness’ notice, the general tone being one of complaint against trade depression and poverty.”28

Malaise stimulated by the growing complexity of Sarawak administration and the shadow of depression was not restricted to the Ibans; it was to some extent a statewide phenomenon. The Brookes were concerned about what they regarded as a dangerous wavering of confidence, as the Rajah made clear in a speech to the triennial Council Negri in December, 1930:

“. . . it has recently been represented to me that there is an idea current in the minds of the people of this country that there is about to be a change in the existing system of Government. I desire here to affirm that such an assertion is completely without foundation. Whatever policy I may deem necessary to adopt with regard to the external relations of my Government . . . you may rest assured that the administration of Sarawak will always be conducted in strict accordance with the precepts of the First Rajah, which were carried on by my late Father. … I desire that you will not misunderstand any progressive measures which have been or may be introduced, for such measures are sometimes deemed by me to be necessary in the interests of the people and for their great and ultimate benefit and are rendered inevitable by pressure of modern advancement.”29

Other groups in the population, including Malays and Chinese, lived closer to centers of administrative power and were far more directly affected by the precipitous decline in rubber prices after 1929. But if the upriver Ibans had the least at stake, they were also the least able to understand just what was going on, and the quickest by temperament and tradition to resort to violence in a time of mounting political frustration.

Course of the “Rebellion”:

By the end of 1930, the Iban mood of mingled anger and irritation was strong enough to create a potential following for any would-be rebel. It was at this time that the name of Asun, deprived of his penghuluship and still feuding with the Resident of the Third Division, C. D. Adams, reappeared in the pages of the Sarawak Gazette. Adams’ report for November amounted to a reluctant official admission that Iban dissidence had become a matter for real concern:

“All was quiet amongst the up-river Dayaks, but trouble is being caused in the Kanowit by an ex-Penghulu Asoon who refuses to come down to Sibu and is visiting other rivers preaching sedition. The majority of Dayaks take no notice of him and consider him mad but he gets a certain amount of support from the youngsters.”30

In the months that followed, Adams sent a series of subordinates to visit Asun and persuade him to drop his defiant attitude and come down to Sibu as ordered, but none of them met with the slightest success. In the early months of 1931, alarmed officials learned that Asun had been sending war spears to Iban leaders in both the Second and Third’ Divisions, thereby signalling that hostilities were in the offing and that he wasted their help.

In June, a group of,Kanowit Iban headmen travelled to Kuching, where the Rajah assured them that he was ready to meet most of their demands, and advised them that further defiance was unnecessary.32

At almost the same time, however, Asun, who was not a member of the delegation, was circulating threats against the life of the British officer stationed at Binatang, a Rejang River town near the troubled region. Rumors of impending Iban attacks were causing panic at Binatang, Sarikei, and elsewhere.33 The Resident decided that sterner measures were called for.

In July, 1931, a force of about a hundred trained Sarawak Rangers, accompanied by four hundred Iban volunteers, proceeded to the mouth of the Julau, below the point where Asun’s Entabai stream enters the Kanowit River. Word spread that Asun had cleared the trees from a point of land near his own longhouse, boasting to his neighbors that this was the place where he would fight the Rajah. But on this occasion, he and his followers offered no resistance. A lighthearted official account of the expedition in the Sarawak Gazette dismissed the unrest as “nothing more than an escape of Dayak gas,” and observed that “There are some people who cannot live without a grievance; they emanate chiefly from Southern Ireland, Russia and the Labour back benches. Asun, Nuri and various other Dayak tuai (leaders) appear to be such men as these.”34 Yet the same report reveals that the British officer in charge of the expedition hesitated to enforce the collection of all firearms held by the Ibans, as a recent emergency regulation required.35 He prudently decided not to venture into the unfriendliest territory above Julau, and after what amounted to an inconclusive display of force the expedition returned downriver.

Although Asun’s “Rebellion” had not yet resulted in a single casualty, it was the cause of increasing anxiety among Brooke officials. Toward the end of 1931, the Rajah’s younger brother, Bertram Brooke, traveled to the disaffected area in an effort to find out for himself just exactly what was going on. Bertram, who held the title Tuan Muda, was an austere and self-effacing man who often reminded people of his father, Charles. Like his father, he took more interest in the details of Government than did his brother Vyner, with whom he willingly shared much of the burden of administration during the period between the two World Wars. His reports, printed in the Sarawak Gazette, contain some of the most perceptive contemporary analysis of Iban affairs of that period.

Bertram proceeded first to Sibu, where he presided over the closing session of a gathering of Iban penghulus from throughout the Third Division. The Government had summoned them to work out among themselves a uniform code of customary law. Such a code, it was hoped, would eliminate for all time the problem of disputed cases, which ended with the losers blaming the Rajah. After days of interminable discussion the leaders did reach agreement, and a uniform
Compilation of Iban adat valid throughout the entire Third Division was soon published for the use of administrators and headmen.36

Satisfied that one major cause of the troubles had been eliminated, the Tuan Muda went up the Kanowit tributary into Asun’s home territory. He was accompanied by the newly appointed Third Division “Travelling District Officer,”37 H. E. Cutfield, whose main duty it was to keep in contact with upriver Ibans, and by a handful of native officers and police. Asun had already indicated a wary willingness to meet the Rajah’s representatives, so long as the meeting took place on his own home ground, but the Brooke officials were understandably nervous as they proceeded deeper into the hostile interior. On the evening of January 9, 1932, Asun and his four brothers met the Tuan Muda’s party at Nanga Munus, Entabai, in the longhouse of Penghulu Endu, the man whom the Government had appointed to replace Asun as its representative in the area. After the evening meal, there was a dramatic exchange of opinions on the longhouse verandah. The Tuan Muda described Asun, who had at first refused to talk, pleading illness:

“It was no sick man who spoke. He had seated himself in the shadow of a pillar, so that his voice came out of the darkness, beginning in a loud and truculent tone, an exposition of the matters wherein Government was, in his opinion, at fault in the enforcement of penalties for breach of custom. He was then informed by Mr. Cutfield (that this was no aum (conference) on customs: he was there to give an explanation of his own attitude during the past two years, if he cared to do so, and to fore told that he must now, in any case, give himself up at Sibu on trial for sedition, or stand the consequences of refusal.

Asoon replied with a torrent of invective directed at Mr. Cutfield, amidst which it emerged that he would stand his trial if I would guarantee his being let off with a fine, however heavy, but otherwise matters were as before, and he would resist any action by Government with whatever force he could muster: he was not there to talk to Mr. Cutfield, but to me, as the Rajah’s representative.”38

After a further exchange of unpleasantries, Cutfield told Asun that since he had not killed anyone, he could expect to receive no more than a light prison sentence. Bertram observed that the Iban leader kept a gun and two daggers handy throughout the meeting, and would probably have used them to resist any attempt at arrest. At dawn the next day, Asun departed, still defiant.

The Tuan Muda reported that most of the people of Kanowit were pro-Government, but that the “rebel” leader and his constant threats scared many. At one point Bertram asserted that Asun’s only active following consisted of hotheads who wished to impress girls. (The Rajah’s brother did not speculate as to how large a percentage of Iban youth might fall into this category.) Elsewhere in his report, however, the Tuan Muda recognized that Asun was in fact symptomatic of a wider alienation:

Asoon is a relic of olden time, who would welcome a return of the unsettled conditions, which preceded the organized suppression of headhunting. Few of his kidney are still extant, but it must be realized that such as there are constitute a nucleus of disaffection for any up-country Dayak who may labour under some imaginary grievance against Government, which perhaps he may be unable to air before an administrative officer for several months – except at the trouble and expense of a journey of many days duration.39

The Tuan Muda was convinced that the growing complexity and impersonality of Government was the root cause of the troubles:

“Small pin-pricks, such as the court order of a substation clerk that a fine is due for non-payment of tax by a certain only dimly comprehended calendar date, become serious wounds when discussed and debated in the absence of a European officer, who by a little good-natured banter on lack of energy in paddling would cause the trifling sum to be handed over amidst general hilarity, and would have the power, which the clerk has not, of remitting the fine if he were satisfied that a genuine effort had been made, but that delay was due to floods or other adverse circumstance. . .”

I submit, with diffidence, the impression that Sarawak has perhaps gone too quickly in superseding the old rule-of-thumb methods by modern machinery, in a laudable effort to come into line with its more civilized neighbors, and that this policy is liable to cause a line of cleavage between Europeans and native adjacent to Government stations on the one hand, and the really rural population on the other. This should be avoided even at the cost of some loss in apparent administrative efficiency. It is only by traveling and living amongst the people that officers of this Government can acquire such sympathy with their character and requirements as has hitherto succeeded in gaining and holding their loyalty and affection.”40

A month after his meeting with Asun, Bertram made another journey, this one to the upper branches of the Batang Lupar River system, Second Division. His trip was purposely timed to coincide with the advance of a punitive expedition up the Entabai and Kanowit Rivers in the adjacent Rejang drainage. It was hoped that the Tuan Muda and his well-armed force of police and retired Sarawak Rangers41 would deter the Batang Lupar Ibans from crossing the watershed to help Asun and his friends. Certainly in many areas their reception of the Rajah’s brother and his following was anything but friendly. The women and children of some longhouses fled into the jungle, and people hid their old Chinese jars and other valuables. At the home of Penghulu Ramba, perhaps the most important leader of the upper Batang Lupar Ibans, it was obvious that spears and shields were being readied for war. Bertram reported an angry conversation with Ramba himself:

“I had alluded to Asoon as a madman: it is not he who is mad, but Tuans so and so and so and so who pay no heed to the grievances of ulu Dayaks when put forward in a legitimate manner; Asoon had merely tried to voice these grievances on their behalf, and so was now in trouble.”42

Meanwhile, across a range of rugged hills, Government forces were meting out punishment to Asun and his neighbors. The Kanowit-Entabai expedition of early 1932 was considerably more serious than the effort of the preceding July. According to the Sarawak Gazette, the object of the operation was to arrest Asun and his followers, or, failing that, “to lay waste their crops and property in order to demonstrate that Government would stand no more nonsense from those who had rebelled against its authority.”43 Still defiant, Asun burned his own longhouse before the arrival of the Government force. In a few days of scattered fighting, the “rebels” staged two ambushes, wounding five men and losing one killed themselves. Afterwards, Asun and a handful of followers escaped into the rugged hill country bordering the Second and Third Divisions, toward Bukit Lanjak.44 Traveling District Officer Cutfield led a second expedition to the Kanowit and upper Entabai a few months later, in July, with no more conclusive results.45

By the middle of 1932, the pattern of the “rebellion” was clearly established. Serious dissidence was almost entirely confined to those rivers, which drain the high ground between the Second and Third Divisions. This territory was by and large an area already long settled by Ibans, and consequently one where virgin land most suitable for hill rice farming was in short supply. Under such conditions, the system of shifting cultivation produces increasingly inadequate returns.

Significantly, the inhabitants of the Balleh, a major Iban-inhabited tributary farther up the Rejang, were not actively involved in the troubles. This was partly because the Balleh Ibans had themselves only recently lost a long and bitter conflict with the Government, the result of their persistent and aggressive efforts to migrate into forbidden areas during the period 1870-1915. The defeat which finally cowed them did not take place until their expansion had encompassed enough land to cushion the effects of economic depression, which created such misunderstanding and distress among the people of less prosperous districts.46

Even within the most seriously affected region, only a few young hotheads were willing to take up arms against the Rajah. Certainly the warrior urge and the headhunting ethic both remained strong in a society still largely untouched by the direct effects of Western civilization. If large numbers of people did not join the few activists, the population generally sympathized with any anti-Government activity, besides which many people were fearful of “rebel” retaliation. On the other hand, even passive support of insurrection exacted a heavy toll from a far from wealthy population, for the Government, relying as it always had on Iban volunteers, was willing and able to destroy the homes and crops of those who offered the outlaws aid and comfort.

Toward the end of 1932 Asun decided to give himself up, under circumstances which are anything but clear.47 Most probably he was already weary of a fugitive existence which brought some degree of fame but also a great deal of discomfort. According to a Dutch report of 1934, unconfirmed by any Sarawak source, he refused to submit until the Rajah sent a young District Officer, J.C.H. Barcroft, to remain in his longhouse as a pledge that he would not be summarily executed in Kuching.48 Sarawak participants agree that Asun crossed the watershed and surrendered at Lubok Antu (Second Division) rather than submit to the man whom he considered his real enemy, C. D. Adams, Resident of the Third Division. He was subsequently detained in Kuching before being sent to a relatively pleasant exile at Lundu in the extreme western corner of Sarawak. Here he remained until after World War II, safely isolated from potential followers.49

Asun’s detention did not put an end to the period of Iban unrest identified with his name. Other “rebels” and “outlaws” remained at large, usually after murdering completely peaceful, ordinary people. In addition to capturing and detaining such individuals whenever possible, the Administration imposed increasingly stringent controls on Iban settlement and movement. From 1932 onwards, a system of blockhouses linked by police patrols was established in an effort to cordon off the disaffected area.50 The new strategy was something of an innovation. In earlier periods of “rebellion,” most notably during the Bantin troubles of 1895-1910, the Second Rajah, Charles Brooke, had steadfastly refused to consider establishing any formal military presence in the interior. He had preferred to rely entirely on the practice of sending levies of downriver Ibans to burn, plunder, and engage in officially sanctioned headhunting among the upriver “rebels”. It was a technique which he himself had perfected in an earlier age of extreme insecurity; he was proud of his ability to launch Iban levies, and reluctant to authorize the increased expenditure which any more formal military establishment might have entailed. The Government of his son and successor did not entirely abandon the earlier strategy until 1935. In February of that year the Resident of the Third Division reported what proved to be the last punitive expedition in the old style.

All relations of the rebels in the Kanowit, Julau, Poi and ulu Rejang areas are being turned out and compelled to live below Sibu. Many of the Kanowits came down also, but stated that they preferred to give up or kill the rebels, who are their relations, rather than evacuate their country. Their offer was considered worth a trial, so they were gathered together and divided into two forces under the supervision of Native Officers, Constabulary and Dayak levies, and set off on an expedition from Nanga Julau at the end of the month.51

This effort, like so many of its predecessors, resulted only in the destruction of a few longhouses and the death of one or two “rebels”, whose smoked heads were proudly carried back downriver by those Iban warriors on the Government side who had been lucky enough to obtain them.52

As the report quoted above makes clear, sporadic military measures went hand in hand with attempts at “rebel” resettlement. For years, the Government had tried, not always successfully, to hold the more turbulent Iban communities within certain geographic limits. It had long been an article of Brooke administrative faith that Ibans who were too far removed from the nearest whitewashed Government fort (really more a symbol of the Rajah’s presence than a military facility) would sooner or later indulge in illegal migration, headhunting, and other forms of overt defiance. “Rebellion” had become synonymous with physical movement away from the Government, and when the Rajah had his way, defeated Ibans were customarily required to resettle “below the fort”, on the downriver side of Brooke authority.

The resettlement efforts of the Asun era were more comprehensive than those of previous decades. In a period of increasing administrative formality, the Government was less tolerant of Iban disobedience, and the growth of better communications53 enabled the Resident to enforce his writ more effectively than ever before. At the height of the Asun unrest, the populations of entire rivers were forced to move to downstream areas, partly as punishment and partly to prevent them from giving further aid and comfort to “rebels.” Once relocated, they sometimes formed new longhouses and sometimes went to live with friends or relatives in existing communities.

The first official acknowledgment of resettlement came in the Sarawak Administration Report for 1933, which stated, “During 1933 all that remained of Asoon’s following surrendered and were settled in the Igan River,”54 a broad mouth of the Rejang which meanders through the swampy delta between Sibu and the South China Sea. Most Brooke records for this period have perished and published references are discreet, to say the least, but living participants remember how thorough some of these measures were. In 1934 or early 1935 (the exact date is not certain), the Resident of the Third Division enforced the wholesale evacuation of several important streams in what is now Kanowit District, including the entire Poi River, the Ngemah River above Nanga Laka’h, all of the upper Kanowit above Nanga Mujok and the entire Entabai tributary, Asun’s home stream. In the Poi alone, where perhaps 1,000 Ibans were affected, the Malay Native Officer who supervised the evacuation remembers personally setting fire to about thirty abandoned longhouses. Resettlement was so common an occurrence that in the administrative jargon, orang batak (from the Iban verb, batak, meaning to pull or drag) became a standard phrase for one who had been resettled, and British officers habitually wrote of Ibans being “batak’d.”

If Brooke rule was not so sweetly paternalistic as some accounts have implied, its officers certainly did not lack a strong sense of social justice. As the 1930′s wore on, they indulged in a good deal of soul searching about the problem of upriver dissidence, and attempts were made to devise administrative solutions practical within the limits imposed by the modest resources of an “independent” Sarawak. As early as 1932, the Rajah’s brother concluded that the troubles had resulted from the too-rapid growth of formal, centralized administration, and the consequent alienation of the more remote Ibans. Another Brooke official, C. D. Le Gros Clark, elaborated on the same theme in a unique examination of the entire administrative system. In his report, Clark sketched the outlines of a new “Dayak Policy,” designed to soften what he regarded as the inevitable disruptive effect of increased contact between the Ibans and “European” civilization. Instead of playing the role of broker, the Government had gotten completely out of touch with the upriver people, Clark argued. He observed that even from a purely military point of view, the continuing resort to punitive expeditions was futile.

The efficacy of expeditions, the purpose of which is to round up a handful of rebels, is seriously to be questioned. The cost of these expeditions is no small sum. They are certainly welcomed by the ulu tribes [i.e. by those Ibans who were called out to fight for the Rajah] but they seldom have any result and can only bring Government into contempt by their continuous failures. It is suggested that, if we open stations in the interior, further expeditions on a large scale will be unnecessary, and the work of rounding up small and insignificant bodies of rebels can be as effectively done by patrols.55

The more basic political problem could be solved only by greater personal contact between the District Officer and the people, Clark concluded.

“There is no doubt but that we should move in amongst the ulu tribes and administer them from the interior instead of, as we are now doing, from the coast. True administration consists of uninterrupted contact of the administrative officer with the people under him. If he is to carry out his duty conscientiously the District Officer should keep in closest personal touch with people. . . . It is necessary that we avoid bureaucracy in a country like Sarawak, whether we are dealing with Chinese, Malays or Dayaks.” 56

He recommended the immediate opening of new, permanent administrative stations at upriver locations in both the Second and Third Divisions. Eventually the Ibans would have to be weaned away from their system of shifting cultivation, Clark believed. If future agricultural surveys revealed that the interior could support a larger population practicing a more advanced type of farming, then a separate “interior residency” should be created, perhaps in ten years time. It would cover the upriver areas of the Third Division where Asun and other “rebels” had been most active. On the other hand, “If . . .the expert reports are unfavourable, then we should not hesitate to move the Dayaks into areas downriver where the soil is suitable, and where they can live in more settled conditions of agriculture.”57

At the time of the report, the Sarawak native administrative service was restricted exclusively to Malays and Moslem Melanaus, as was the limited number of Sarawak Government schools. Mission schools did accept Ibans and members of other tribal groups, but they could accommodate only a tiny fraction of the school-age “Dayak” population. Clark urged the Government to create a system of longhouse primary schools with instruction in the Iban or other local language, and he proposed that in future every effort should be made to recruit qualified Ibans as administrative officers.58

The Government quickly accepted the main thrust of Clark’s recommendations in the Blue Report, as Sarawak’s annual report for 1935 made clear:

“Although the unrest among the Dayaks was undoubtedly due in large measure to economic conditions over which Government had no control, experience has shown that the system of administering the Dayaks by means of regular visits to the Ulu from stations on the coast or at the mouths of rivers, is not always as successful now as it was in the past. It is necessary for Government to maintain constant contact with these people, and for this reason “the policy of administering them from the interior has now been adopted. A fort is in the process of construction at Nanga Meluan, a locality which can be reached in one day by outboard from Kanowit. A hospital, dispensary, wireless station and school will follow in due course, and a network of bridle-paths is being constructed which will link the headwaters of all neighbouring rivers with the headquarters. An experienced administrative officer will be posted permanently to the new station as soon as the fort is completed. . .” 59

The fort at Meluan on the Kanowit River was duly completed, and although it never became the seat of a separate “interior residency” as Clark had envisaged, it was the headquarters of a District within the Third Division from 1936 until the Japanese occupation.60

In December, 1935, the Rajah had met with local Iban leaders and told them that once the Meluan post was open, they would be allowed to move back upriver into some of the areas from which all inhabitants had been forced to move.61 Nevertheless, although many of the batak’d Kanowit, Poi, and Ngemah Ibans did return to their old homes during the next few years, the Government was still anxious to maintain tighter controls on settlement than had existed in the pre-Asun era. One result was the creation of the 450,000 acre Lanjak-Entimau Protected Forest, which covered the more inaccessible headwaters of all the streams in the new Meluan District, including some territory formely inhabited by resettled “rebels,” as well as adjacent areas of the Second Division. In any such reservation all habitation was automatically outlawed,62 in theory to prevent shifting cultivation and the attendant destruction of forest, but this one covered an area where there was little timber worth saving. It soon became known as the “Lanjak-Entimau Political Forest”.

During the Japanese occupation, some Ibans took advantage of the British absence to move back to their old longhouse sites within the preserve. They were naturally resentful when in 1947 the new Colonial Administration contemplated making them move out once again, this time on the grounds that a disastrous precedent would be set if any settlement were to be countenanced within any Protected Forest, no matter how political its origins. Eventually good sense prevailed, however, and the borders of Lanjak-Entimau were adjusted to exclude the homes of the returnees.63

The new theory of Iban administration, which first found expression in the 1935 Blue Report, recognized that the Government would eventually have to do more than merely control the Ibans; it would have to offer them services as well. No more than a start was made toward implementing this idea in the few years, which remained before the onset of World War II, but the Government did admit some Ibans to minor administrative posts, and it also began to think about a system of schools which would include the various “Dayak” groups as well as the Moslem people. In the vicinity of Kanowit, an experiment in agricultural education began in co-operation with the Roman Catholic Mission. Water buffaloes and Kedazan instructors were recruited from North Borneo, and the Government provided a trained agricultural specialist, Ong Kee Hui of Kuching,64 in an effort to teach at least some Ibans an alternative to shifting cultivation.

More than anything else, perhaps, the return of relative prosperity to the Sarawak economy in the late 1930′s dampened the lingering embers of upriver unrest. As early as February 1937, the Resident of the Third Division could report, “There is a general atmosphere of content and well being throughout the Meluan District, attributable to the price of rubber and the prospects of a good harvest.”65

Nevertheless, some turbulent souls remained at large in the interior, now more frequently termed “outlaws” than “rebels” by the Government, yet in all cases motivated by much the same spirit which had moved Asun. Perhaps the most famous of these last-ditch malcontents was Kendawang, a Kanowit Iban whose “outlawry” dated from 1932. As in the case of Asun, his quarrel with the Government was in part a personal feud with an official of the Third Division. Kendawang had been on unusually close terms with a number of European officials in the course of employment with the Forest Department, helping to demarcate reserves in the extreme headwaters of the Third Division. From his earnings he had saved enough money to purchase a gun, of which he was intensely proud, regarding it as a reward for loyal service. When the Asun troubles began he was slow to obey the emergency order requiring that all firearms be turned in to the Government, and when he wandered into Sibu on an innocent errand he was arrested and jailed. Later he escaped from jail and, together with another “rebel”, Ijau, murdered a retired Sikh constable at his home not far from Kanowit.66 The particular victim was apparently of no great interest to the “rebels”; any murder was both an act of political defiance and the prerequisite to success as a warrior and headhunter.

Kendawang was eventually joined by his half-brother Banyang,67 and together the pair remained at large for years, hunted from one remote upriver area to another across wide areas of the Second and Third Divisions. Within the Administration, however, certain officers with long experience in the Iban country argued that Kendawang would never have become an outlaw had he not been unjustly treated at the time of his original arrest. They were certain that if the Rajah gave his personal guarantee of clemency, Kendawang and his brother Banyang would give themselves up, and a major remaining source of rumored “rebellion” and unrest would be removed.

In 1940 Kendawang and Banyang were living at the headwaters of the Balingian River, Fourth Division, in an area settled by migrants from the Kanowit to whom they were in all probability related. In April, the Rajah summoned a delegation of Kanowit and Julau Ibans to the Royal Astana in Kuching and told them that Kendawang’s life would be spared, if he would accept some punishment for his crimes. He should meet with the Rajah in October, and if he refused the terms of his sentence, he would be free to return to his jungle-hiding place. The Iban leaders promised to send emissaries to Kendawang with this offer.68

But in the meantime, a young District Officer, D. C. White, thought of a more dramatic plan. He remembered an old than story, in which the First Rajah, James Brooke, had offered his sword to rebels as a pledge of clemency. He proposed attempting this tactic to reassure the suspicious fugitives, and Vyner Brooke agreed. An ordinary sword was embellished to look suitably royal, and White, accompanied by Temenggong Koh and Penghulu Jugah, journeyed to the Balingian and met with the outlaws. After some hesitation, Kendawang exempted the royal pledge.69 He was initially exiled to Malaya, where the Brcokes arranged a job for him as a collector of specimens for the Federated Malayan States Museum. Later, when war seemed imminent, he was returned to Sarawak, where he joined Asun in exile at Lundu, and reportedly occupied himself by looking after certain rubber gardens belonging to the Rajah. After World War II, he returned to his old home near Julau. His half-brother Banyang, for years his companion in “outlawry,” is at present a capable Iban politician, a representative of Julau in the Sarawak Council Negri (state assembly) and of Sarawak in the Malaysian Federal Parliament.

Asun in Retrospect:

Asun’s “Rebellion” had sputtered to a complete halt by the beginning of the Japanese occupation in 1941. In retrospect, it would not seem to rank high on anyone’s scale of insurrection. Only a handful of people, none of them Brooke officials, perished on either side. Certainly the burning of longhouses and the resettlement of Ibans whose loyalty was suspect worked hardships on the upriver population, but the degree of suffering may easily be exaggerated unless it is remembered that a traditional Iban longhouse is a highly impermanent structure, and that the Ibans glorified migration and were conditioned to moving frequently. It was typical of Brooke rule that the principal “rebels” were treated almost more like errant schoolboys than serious political enemies.

Like earlier periods of Iban dissidence, Asun’s “Rebellion” was never a conscious effort to overthrow Brooke rule. The focus of Iban resentment remained personal and localized. Individual “rebels” like Asun and Kendawang took to the jungle after violent quarrels with specific British officers. Asun found it possible to surrender to another Resident at a time when he would still probably have refused to meet his original adversary, and, as we have seen, Kendawang was ready to accept the Rajah’s personal pledge of good faith although he remained unwilling to trust his subordinates. Nothing even remotely resembling nationalism was astir in pre-World War II Sarawak. (The same cannot be said of Dutch Borneo, where as early as the 1930′s a degree of wider political consciousness was already developing among the “Dayaks” of certain areas.70 The fact that the Dutch East Indies were, in effect if not in theory, under a single administration, may have facilitated the spread of ideas originating in Java and elsewhere, whereas Brooke autonomy and Borneo geography ensured that Sarawak’s political isolation, even from British Malaya and North Borneo, remained almost total.)

If Asun and the other dissidents were not nationalists, neither were they the product of a nativistic or revivalist movement similar to the “cargo cults” of postwar New Guinea. This point needs to be stressed, if only because many students are conditioned to believe that disturbances among a primitive population in a time of increasing European pressures are often, if not always, symptomatic of such movements, which may be characterized as attempts to revive or restore a pre-European world order by supernatural means.

Both the antecedents and the events of the Asun unrest were completely secular in character.71 To put it as simply as possible, the Ibans resented increasing restraints and requirements imposed upon them by a Government which was not equipped to offer them anything which they could regard as benefits in return. Earlier decades of hostility resulting from the Second Rajah’s long efforts to suppress headhunting and to control migration had created a tradition of hostility, and this heritage made violent resistance altogether respectable when the onset of economic depression unhappily coincided with the proliferation of incomprehensible Government demands.

Poor economic conditions aggravated the problem, but even prosperity and lavish Government spending could not have eliminated it entirely. When all is said and done the Ibans were bound to resent the steady expansion of an alien political presence in their midst. They were in fact gradually losing their freedom, and would have been unhappy at first even had the Brooke been willing and able to sugar coat the pill with a full-scale program of roads, schools, and medical services. To the extent that the intrusion of central authority was inevitable (regardless of the nationality of the rulers) Asun’s “Rebellion” may be regarded as a kind of political growing pain, an inevitable interlude on the road to modernity.

The reaction of the Brooke regime to the entire episode was symptomatic of a conflict on its part between a desire to continue the tradition of personal, minimal Government, and a dawning awareness that fundamental changes in administrative technique were increasingly inescapable. The Third Rajah, Vyner, was probably not very interested in such matters. It is no exaggeration to say that disinterest was a hallmark of his administration, and a considerable cause of the political stagnation, which overtook Sarawak in the final years of Brooke rule. His younger brother, Tuan Muda Bertram, who was a more serious and capable administrator, saw the problem as one of too much government rather than too little. He proposed a return to the simpler days of his father, when the British officer, unencumbered by excessive paperwork and the demands of a European wife, was free to travel among his people and apply simple, common-sense justice to their problems.

This reaction was echoed in the Blue Report of 1935, with its plan for administration from the interior, where the District Officer could more easily make contact with the upriver Ibans on their own home ground. Yet the Blue Report also proposed giving the Ibans schools and a share in the Government. It called for scientific land surveys of the interior, perhaps to be followed by community development schemes. In short, it recognized that the Government must inevitably involve itself more and more with the people, but it failed to face the fact that such an involvement would surely lead to the growth of bureaucracy, and that it would eventually be incompatible with any return to personal rule.

This contradiction between unwillingness to abandon an idealized benevolent despotism and awareness that necessary welfare measures required new and more complicated administrative techniques permeated the final years of Brooke rule. The more intelligent men in the Government were aware of the conflict and there was a surprising amount of public debate on the subject. In practice, Sarawak continued to move slowly but surely toward a more comprehensive and hence more impersonal political system in the years before World War II.

Since that time, the Japanese occupation, eighteen years of British colonial rule, and the advent of Malaysia have served to accelerate the pace of change in Sarawak. From 1946 onwards, Governments have trumpeted the necessity of education and economic development for all, and the long arm of bureaucracy had indeed reached to the headwaters of the longest rivers. As might have been predicted, this process has aroused occasional opposition among the same upriver Ibans who were unhappiest in the days of Asun. At first many of them were opposed to the postwar program of education. For a number of years, certain communities regarded schools primarily as an excuse for new and higher taxes, and secondarily as an obnoxious effort to teach the younger generation how not to be real Ibans. There have been occasions in quite recent times when the Sarawak Constabulary field force has had to be dispatched upriver before rates were sullenly paid. On the whole, such incidents have been infrequent, however. Gradually, even the most conservative Ibans have been persuaded that education, rubber trees, and other formerly repugnant symptoms of progress are necessary and desirable – even if taxes per se remain, as in certain other societies, highly objectionable.

Indeed, it is apparent that the major problem in the Government-Iban relationship is fast becoming just the opposite of what it was in the Asun era. Since World War II, administrators have offered increasingly tangible benefits in return for their demands. As a result, the Government, far from remaining a source of annoyance, is increasingly regarded as the source of all wealth, favors, and privileges. From the upriver Iban point of view, the question is no longer how to avoid central authority; rather, it is how to obtain a greater share of the resources which only central authority can command.

This is no more than to say that even in the most remote areas the Ibans have made much progress toward meeting the twentieth century on its own terms. They have discovered not only education, but also the joys of local politics and the ethic of the welfare state. But it is also worth remembering that the Iban political disposition retains many of the characteristics, which were so apparent throughout the period of Brooke rule, and not least in its final stages. Headhunting might not attract many of today’s youth, if any, but the Ibans remain a highly volatile people, quick to anger, easily divided against themselves, always ready to react violently against political injustices, real or imagined. While it is true that they have done well by the Government since World War II, it is even more apparent that upriver expectations have been rising at an ever quickening pace. The Ibans are increasingly aware that in contrast to other ethnic groups, particularly the Chinese, their own standard of living leaves much to be desired. The problem intensifies as Iban populations grow, migration opportunities diminished, and the crop returns from overburdened hill rice land continue to dwindle.

The spread of smallholder rubber, actively promoted by postwar regimes, has done much to generate income in Iban areas. And yet this fact, more than any other, calls to mind the specter of Asun. For if economic depression should recur, or if rubber prices alone should plummet, the Asun phenomenon could well be repeated in far more serious form. As in 1931, any widespread decline in the general level of prosperity would be resented and misunderstood by the upriver people. Having acquired a much greater stake in the rubber market, the Ibans would suffer much more directly from the effects of depression than was the case in Brooke days. But it is probable that they would comprehend what was happening only slightly better than before. Resulting resentment might be directed against the Government, but it would be far more likely to find an outlet in anti-Chinese sentiment, which might well be fanned by opportunistic politicians. Certainly communal tension, already an increasingly serious problem in Sarawak, would be greatly increased. Whatever the outcome, it would be even less realistic than in 1931 to blame any unfortunate consequences on a supposed lingering taste for headhunting.

If the Asun “Rebellion” holds any lesson for the present, it is that until the Malaysian economy is less dependent on rubber, any precipitous decline in the price of that commodity is likely to spell disaster, even in so remote an area as the upriver Iban country of Sarawak.

FOOTNOTES

1. Recent statistics on Sarawak population are as follows: Ibans, 247,000 (30.2% of total State population); Chinese, 263,000 (32.2%); Malays. 145,000 (17.7%); Land Dayaks, 65,000 (7.9%); Melanaus, 48,000 (5.9%); “other races” (defined as Bisayas, Kedayans, Kayans, Kenyahs, Kelabits, etc.), 48,000 (5.9%): State of Sarawak, Annual Bulletin of Statistics (Kuching, 1964), p.3.

Three quarters of the Ibans in Sarawak are concentrated in the Second and Third Divisions, the upriver areas of which are the main setting for the events described in this paper. Because they are, relatively speaking, a culturally homogeneous group, there is general agreement in Sarawak today about who is “Iban” and who is not. The same is not necessarily true of other groups, and there is particular controversy over the term “Malay.” As I have employed “Malay” in this paper, in accordance with the most common Sarawak usage, it simply means Moslem of predominantly Southeast Asian ancestry. There has long been confusion over the status of the Moslem Melanaus, some, but not all, of whom regard themselves as “Malays.”

2. Parts of this paper, particularly in the introductory section, are based on my unpublished Cornell University doctoral thesis, “The Ibans of Sarawak under Brooke Rule, 1841-1941,” (Ithaca, New York, 1967). I have not duplicated the more complete footnotes and acknowledgments which may be found in that work.

3. The only easily ayailable account of Asun’s “Rebellion” is a brief passage in Steven Runciman, The White Rajahs (Cambridge, 1960), pp.239-240. My own account is based almost entirely on administrative reports in the semi-official Sarawak Gazette (hereafter cited as SG) and on travel and interviewing in Sarawak and England during 1965-66 in the course of graduate research in history for Cornell University. That research was sponsored by the London-Cornell Project and undertaken in cooperation with the Sarawak Museum. For the date of Asun’s death see Joan Rawlins, Sarawak, 1839-1963 (London, 1965), p. 125.

4. For a general historical introduction to Brooke rule, the most valuable work remains S. Baring-Gould and C. A. Bampfylde. A History of Sarawak under its Two White Rajahs 1838-1908 (London, 1909). More recent events are covered in Runciman, The White Rajahs, and in Rawlins, Sarawak; the latter is a compact, competent history designed for secondary-school use.

5. On this subject see Benedict Sandin, The Sea Dayaks of Borneo before White Rajah Rule (London, 1968).

6. The literature relating to Second Division Iban “piracy” is extensive but the best single account is Graham Irwin’s “The Pirate Controversy” in Nineteenth Century Borneo (Singapore, 1965), pp.127-150.See Robert Pringle, “Bantin’s Revolt: Charles Brooke and the Upriver Ibans,” in “The Ibans of Sarawak under Brooke Rule.”

7. Asun’s praise name (ensumbar) was Bah Tunggal (“Rushing Flood”). Biographic details are from various interviews in the Entabai and upper Batang Lupar. Mr. J. K. Wilson, formerly of Nanga Entabai, whose experience of the Kanowit and of upriver Ibans in general is unexcelled by any other European, helped to put me in touch with the right people when I visited the area in 1965, and has since been kind enough to confirm my own research by interviewing Asun’s son, Tuai Rumah Nyawai, who lives near the site of Asun’s old house and is today the headman of some of his father’s people.

8. Julian Baring-Gould, Resident of Third Division, reported in August, 1911, that subject to the Rajah’s approval, “I have appointed one [Assun] to take charge of the district between Nanga M«rurun and N. Entabai. P.[enghulu] Gramong has been in charge of this district since the ex-rebels [i.e. followers of Bantin] surrendered which has led to considerable friction.” SG 587, September, 1911. This is the first reference to Asun in the Gazette. The area referred to is a section of the main Kanowit below Nanga Entabai, and it is not clear whether Asun was already by. this date penghulu of his home river (Entabai) or whether this is a reference to his first official appointment of any kind.

9. “Expedition Against the Balleh Dayaks,” SG 672, March 16, 1915. This account identifies Asun specifically as penghulu of Entabai. It states that he, Gani, Merdan of Bintulu, and Bedindang were the most valuable Iban leaders of the Rajah’s force.

10. Under the Brookes, fines levied on the Ibans (and some others) for various offenses were most often expressed in weights of brassware (usually either Brunei-made vessels or swivel cannon) which had specific cash equivalents. See A. J. N. Richards, Dayak Adat in the Second Division (Kuching, 1963), esp. p.35.

11. Third Division reports for November 1926, SG 880, January 3, 1927; March, 1927, SG 884, June 1, 1927; and June 1927., SG 887, August 1, 1927.

12. Bertram Brooke acknowledged that attempts to collect tax from Iban indigents (umang) created great resentment: “Extracts from a report by His Highness the Tuan Muda on a visit to the ulus Entabai and Batang Lupar, and Delok District, Third Division [sic],” SG 943, April 1, 1932.

13. I heard this tale from Ibans in both the upper Batang Lupar and Entabai districts in 1965-66.

14. For Third Division development in the 1920′s, see Robert Pringle, “The Ibans and Others: Communal Relations under Charles Brooke,” in “The Ibans of Sarawak under Brooke Rule.”

15. Second Division December report, SG 379, February 16. 1918; J.D. Freeman, Iban Agriculture (London, 1955), p.19.

16. Third Division annual report for 1926, Sarawak Government Gazette (hereafter cited as SGG), September 1, 1927; Freeman, Iban Agriculture, pp.35 n., 140.

17. “His Highness ordered that in future no Dayaks would be allowed to leave their districts except those who had been promised definite work by responsible people.” Third Division October report, SG 915, December 2. 1915; see also Sarawak Administration Report, 1929 (Kuching, 1930), p.58. The Administration later recognized that such arrogant attempts to restrict Iban freedom of movement had been a major factor contributing to unrest among the “younger generation.” C. D. Le Gros Clark, The Blue Report, 1935 (Kuching, 1935), p.48.

18. Second Division August report, SG 803, October 16, 1920; Third Division January report, SG 870, March 1, 1926.

19. Under the Third Rajah’s semi-standardized system all Malays paid $2 per adult male per year, while each pagan “Dayak” community owed the Rajah $1 per longhouse family room or “door.” The Second Rajah’s tax structure was more complex, and varied greatly from district to district: Robert Pringle, “How the Second Rajah Ruled: Theory and Practice at the Outstation Level” in “The Ibans of Sarawak under Brooke Rule.” In 1924, Vyner went so far as to suggest that all Sarawak subjects should pay at the rate of S2 per adult male, but this proposal was never implemented: Vyner Brooke to Council Negri, October 21, 1924, in SGG, November 3, 1924.

20. Order XVII of 1922, SGG, July 1, 1922. For reference to the immediate unhappiness this measure created among the Ibans, who had already learned to rely heavily on firearms for hunting and pest control, see Third Division December report, SG 834, March 1, 1923; Second Division February report, SG 838, June 1, 1923.

21. Order XVII of 1923, “Registration of Births and Deaths,” SGG, December 17, 1923.

22. Sarawak’s first forest legislation was too closely modelled on Malayan precedent to make any sense in Borneo, where there are few areas of completely unused, unfrequented jungle similar to those of central Malaya. Under a “trespass clause,” all natives were completely excluded from the original Sarawak Forest Reserves. The unpopularity of this measure clearly contributed to the Asun unrest, and as a result no more Forest Reserves were gazetted after 1932. Subsequent reservations known as Protected Forests, first created in 1934, were closed only to farming (hence to settlement) and commercial logging, but natives were free to enter them and gather anything they required for their own personal needs. B. J. C. Spurway, “Shifting Cultivation in Sarawak,” SG 1003, April 1, 1937; B. E. Smythies, “History of Forestry in Sarawak,” SG 1243, September 30, 1961.

23. Third Division May report, SG 911, August 1, 1929. Engkabang (illipe nuts) and langpai (a misprint for langgir) are jungle trees whose fruits are extremely valuable to the Ibans; the regulation against felling them was apparently a local (Divisional) order. “Retaining fruit etc.” refers to an 1899 Charles Brooke order which specified that Ibans could not claim as private property (hence sell) junsle fruit trees when they migrated away from their old homes: Order XVIII, SG 404, September 1, 1899.

24. For a typical case of conflict and confusion arising from local variations in adat. see the story of Antas and Bangkang in Third Division (Kapit) April report, SG 945, June 1, 1932. Bertram Brooke noted “. . . it is extremely difficult to deal with people who say that Government is continually transgressing Dayak adat when tribal customs vary so widely in different districts, and each tribe considers that its own is the only right one.” Here “tribe” indicates a primarily geographic, not ethnographic, distinction between Iban sub-groups. “A visit to the Ulus Entabai and Batang Lupar,” SG 943, April 1, 1932.

25. For the Iban custom of travel (bejalai), see Freeman, Iban Agriculture, pp.74-75.

26. Third Division August report, SG 902, November 1, 1928.

27. Third Division (Kapit) January report, SG 918, March 1, 1930.

28. Third Division July report, SG 924, September 1, 1930.

29. Vyner Brooke to Council Negri, Supplement to SGG, January 2, 1931.

30. Third Division November report, SG 928, January, 1931.

31. “On the 28th Abang Enjah, Native Officer, left for the ulu Kanowit to deliver the Government ultimatum to ex-Penghulu Asoon, who now refuses to have anything whatever to do with the Government, and is causing unrest in the Kanowit and Entabai,” Adams reported in January: SG 930, March 2, 1931. News that Asun was sending war spears to the Second Division prompted the Resident there to label him a “rebel” for the first time: “. . . it is feared that many credulous and restless men from the Krian and Layar have been visiting the Third Division. If any of these Dayaks become entangled with rebels it will be their own fault, as all the Penghulus except two [not named] have refused to have anything to do with Asoon or any of his following.” Second Division May report, SG 934, July 1, 1931.

32. Report of the Secretary for Native Affairs, SG 935, August 1. 1931.

33. Third Division June report,’ SG 936, September 1, 1931.

34. “Hot Air in the Hinterland,” SG 936, September 1, 1931. Nuri was obviously a colleague of Asun, but I have no more information about him. This expedition to Julau of July 12-21 had been preceded by the dispatch of Sarawak Rangers to the upper Nyelong and Binatang River.

35. The order requiring all Ibans to turn in their guns was, like many local regulations, never published. It is well remembered today, however, and was obliquely referred to in a Third Division report for April, 1931: SG 933, June 1, 1933. Running afoul of this order motivated the noted “rebel” Kendawang to turn against the Government: see below.

36. “Christmas and New Year at Sibu, A Dayak Invasion,” SG 941, February 1, 1932; “Extract from report by His Highness the Tuan Muda on the Sibu ‘Aum’ concerning Dayak Customs and visit to the upper Kanowit and Entabai districts,” SG 941, February 1, 1932. The Sibu Aum resulted in Sarawak’s first written code of Iban adat, entitled Tusun Tunggu Daya (Iban) di Third Division di Baroh Pegai Prentah Sibu (Kuching, 1932), published in both Romanized Iban and Malay in jawi script. In the Second Division, where the problems created ‘by a mixed population originating in various river systems did not exist, Iban customary law was not codified until 1963: Richards, Dayak Adat Law in the Second Division.

37. At this time no European officer was permanently stationed nearer to the center of the disaffected area (the upper Kanowit) than Sibu, the Third Division headquarters, many miles downriver. The institution of “Travelling District Officer,” an effort to overcome this obvious deficiency, was created in the early days of the Asun unrest. The first reference to it that I have been able to find is in the Third Division May report, SG 934, July 1, 1931.

38. “Visit to the upper Kanowit and Entabai Districts,” SG 941, February 1, 1932.

41. Largely as an economy measure, the Government merged the old Sarawak Rangers with the police force at the end of 1931, thereby abolishing the only reliable military force suitable for work in the interior, just at a time when there was a renewed need .for it. To meet the problem, a separate field force (“Force B”) of the Constabulary was eventually created, a virtually all-Iban unit modelled on the lines of the old Rangers. In the meantime, however, the Government manned its operations against Asun by recruiting retired Rangers on an ad hoc basis. Such men were known as “reserves,” a term which was quickly Ibanized into “rejap.” On big expeditions the reserves were assisted by larger followings of Iban volunteers, in the tradition of Charles Brooke. For the abolition of the Sarawak Rangers, see “The Sarawak Rangers 1862-1932,” SG 942, March 1, 1932; Sarawak Administration Report, 1932 Kuching,1933), p.10.

42. “Visit to the ulus Entabai and Batang Lupar,” SG 943, April 1, 1932. Ramba was the brother of Tabor, who had been killed fighting Government forces at Nanga Pila on the upper Rejang in 1916. Despite his harsh words to the Tuan Muda on this occasion he never actively joined Asun. On the same trip Bertram also visited Kana of Engkari, a noted Iban warrior who had been a rebel in the days of Bantin. In contrast to Ramba, Kana received the Rajah’s brother cordially, but he was later judged guilty of collusion with the “rebels” and was sent into exile with Asun and Kendawang at Lundu. For his detention, see Second Division February report, SG 955, April 1, 1933.

43. “Entabai Expedition,” SG 943, April 1, 1932. The expedition was in the field from February 12 to March 4.

Ibid.

45. Third Division July report, SG 947, September 1, 1932.

46. For the story of Balleh migrations, see Freeman, Iban Agriculture, pp.15-21; Pringle, “Iban Migrations and the Rajah’s Response,” in “The Ibans of Sarawak under Brooke Rule.”

47. Strangely enough, Asun’s surrender was not mentioned in the Divisional reports in the Sarawak Gazette, but only in the annual Sarawak Administration Report, 1932 {Kuching, 1933), p.14.

48. J. E. L. Burgemeestre, “Onze verhouding tot Sarawak en de Batang Loepar bevolking” [Our Relations with Sarawak and the Batang Lupar People], Typescript, 1934, Memories van Overgave Series, Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, p.34. In this valuable history of Dutch-Bropke relations along the frequently troubed Iban frontier, Burgemeestre gives the wrong date (1933) for Asun’s final detention.

49. Asun died in 1958; see n.2 above. Hedda Morrison, whose husband, Alastair, was Kanowit District Officer, visited Asun at his longhouse on the Entabai in July, 1952, when she made one of the photographs which illustrates this article.

50. For the location of the blockhouses, see the accompanying map.

51. Third Division February report, SG 979, April 1, 1935.

52. Ibid. I assume that this expedition is the one described in George Jamuh’s vivid account, “The Kanowit Punitive Expedition, 1934,” Sarawak Museum Journal, VII, 8 (ns) (December, 1956), pp.463-469, although the date he gives is June, 1934. No expedition is mentioned in the Gazette or other written sources for the latter date, although this does not completely rule out the possibility that there may have been two expeditions in rapid succession. A. J. N. Richards’ notes following Jamuh’s article are particularly valuable.

53. The Brookes first began to use outboard motors in the late 1920′s; the first written reference I can find is in a Third Division report for February, 1927, SG 883, April 1, 1927. By the mid-1930′s, Government outboards were commonplace. Although the early motors were puny and undependable in comparison with postwar models, they were nonetheless an innovation of tremendous significance, as anyone who has travelled in interior Sarawak will appreciate.

54. Sarawak Administration Report, 1933 (Kuching, 1934), p.15.

55. C. D. Le Gros Clark, The Blue Report, 1935 (Kuching, 1935), p.46. Clark, who was Chief Secretary when World War II began, was subsequently executed by the Japanese.

56. Ibid., pp.44, 48.

57. Ibid., p.50.

58. Ibid., pp.45, 49. Both of these recommendations were later supported by R. W. Hammond’s “Report on Education in Sarawak,” Typescript, 1937, a Government-sponsored survey second in value only to the Blue Report as an appraisal of later Brooke rule.

59. Sarawak Administration Report, 1935 (Kuching, 1936), pp.30-31.

60. After World War II, Kanowit became the District Headquarters for the entire area. The fort at Meluan, built of heavy ironwood planks pierced with gunports in a style which originated in the days of Iban “piracy,” today serves as a more than usually picturesque primary school. There is now a Government post upriver at Julau, which is linked by road to Binatang.

61. Memorandum entitled “Dayaks,” December, 30, 1935, Lanjak-Entimau file, Forest Department, Kuching.

62. For the distinction between the earlier and more restrictive Forest Reserves and the later Protected Forests, see n. 22 above.

63. The preceding two paragraphs are based on unpublished material in the Lanjak-Entimau file, Forest Department, Kuching.

64. Mr. Ong is, of course, far better known for his more recent career as Mayor of Kuching and leader of Party SUPP. For a contemporary report on his activity as a Brooke agricultural extension expert (trained at Serdang College, Malaya), see Third Division January report, SG 1002, March 1, 1937.

65. Third Division February news, SC 1003, April 1, 1937.

66. The murder of the Sikh constable, Gokal Singh, is mentioned in Third Division March-April report, SG 945, June, 1932.
Most of this information is drawn from Radio Sarawak’s tape-recorded interview with Kendawang himself, and from my own interviews with Alastair Morrison, D. R. Lascelles, D. C. White, and Dato Pengarah Banyang. Kendawang’s version of events is suspect on one major point. He claims that he became a “rebel” partly because of the ban on all new rubber planting imposed when Sarawak joined the International Rubber Regulation agreement. Kendawang argues that he was anxious to have his people begin planting rubber, and became angry when the Government prevented them from doing so. But in fact the ban on planting did not go into effect until 1934, two years after he had become an outlaw. (Banyang, who joined Kendawang more out of family loyalty than for any other reason, does not support this part of his brother’s narrative). There is, however, little doubt that after 1934 the far-reaching prohibition did create resentment among some Ibans who were beginning to see that rubber might be a key to wealth. There are frequent reports in the Gazette of District Officers destroying illegally planted rubber trees in Iban areas: e.g., Second Division March report, SG 980. May 1, 1935; Fourth Division December report, SG 1049, February 1, 1949.

67. Now (as mentioned below), a well-known Iban politician. Banyang and Kendawang were sons by different mothers of Janting, who himself had been a famous Iban warrior and “rebel” in the days of Charles Brooke.

68. Third Division April report, SG 1041, June 1, 1940.

69. SG 1045, October 1, 1940; Third Division September report, SG 1046, November 1, 1940; interview with D. C. White (perhaps better known for his postwar service as British High Commissioner in Brunei) in London, October, 1966. Penghulu Jugah is now Tan Sri Temenggong Jugah, one of Sarawak’s foremost Iban leaders and a member of the Malaysian Federal Parliament.

70. Mallinckrodt, writing as early as 1928, noted the existence of a primarily political “Sarikat Dayak” as well as a “Dayak” cooperative movement in Dutch Borneo. Such movements were uniquely strong at an, early stage in the Banjermassin area, where a large and intensely Moslem coastal population was already in political conflict with a relatively advanced interior population (predominantly Ngaju) much affected by years of Christian mission activity. J.M. Mallinckrodt, Het adatrecht van Borneo (Leiden, 1928), I, 10.

71. Among traditional Ibans, success in war was often linked to a concept of personal spiritual power, manifested in a special capacity for leadership, which was revealed to an individual through dreams and was usually widely recognized thereafter. One who had such capacity was said to be tau serang (able to attack) and could usually count on a following in any endeavour. According to Benedict Sandin and other Iban authorities, however, Asun was not tau serang. Furthermore, Iban accounts do not stress the fact that he was a recognized manang (shaman). Rather, they reinforce the impression conveyed by contemporary British reports of unrest linked to political and economic grievances. However, a Dutch document relates that among Ibans just across the border in what is now Indonesia, fanciful stories were circulated crediting Asun with magical powers: Burgemeestre, “Onze verhouding,” pp.30-31.