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The Babbling Brookes: Economic Change in Sarawak 1841–1941

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Amarjit Kaur
Amarjit Kaur
Affiliation:
University of New England, Armidale
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Extract

The present day economy of Sarawak is characterized by a small but rapidly growing, largely rural population engaged in low productivity, semi-subsistence agriculture; a dependence on the export of a few primary commodities; the relative absence of modern transportation linkages, and a small industrial sector. In many respects, therefore, Sarawak represents a microcosm of the underdeveloped world. Yet for about a hundred years Sarawak was ruled by the white Brooke dynasty and was touted as a true frontier for western expansion and an ideal setting for the exploitation of its natural resources. There was very little development during this period because Brooke rule was inimical to economic progress—the Brookes gave little or no financial assistance to the natives, undertook few developmental initiatives, and expected foreign entrepreneurs and missionaries to provide the rudiments of physical and social infrastructures. The Brookes believed that change, particularly far-reaching or rapid change, would be harmful to the natives. Consequently, when Brooke rule ended, the problems of economic development seemed more intractable while the supposed benefits of ‘white’ rule appeared less tangible.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , February 1995 , pp. 65 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

1 For a detailed account of these considerations see Ingleson, John, Expanding the Empire, James Brooke and the Sarawak Lobby, 1830–1868, Research Paper No. 2 (University of Western Australia: Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies, 1979), Ch. 1.Google Scholar

2 The term ‘Dayak’ is used to identify the original inhabitants of Borneo. It stems from the Kenyah word daya which means ‘upriver’ or ‘interior’. Broadly, the Dayak peoples of Sarawak include the Bidayuh (Land Dayak), Iban (Sea Dayak), Kenyah, Kayan, Kedayan, Murut, Penan, Bisayah, Kelabit and other groups. The Dayak peoples are largely shifting cultivators of hill padi, they live in longhouses usually along the rivers and tributaries in the interior and they observe native customary law or adat. The indigenous people of Sarawak can therefore by classified into two groups: those who live on the coastal areas—the Malay and the Melanau, and the interior peoples or Dayak.

3 There is a wide range of books and unpublished works that deal with the Brookes. Among them are Baring-Gould, S. and Bampfylde, C. A., A History of Sarawak Under its Two White Rajahs, 1839–1908 (London: Sotheran, 1909Google Scholar; reprinted Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1989); Runciman, S., The White Rajahs: A History of Sarawak from 1841 to 1946 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960)Google Scholar; Payne, R., The White Rajahs of Sarawak (London: Robert Hale, 1960Google Scholar; reprinted Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1987) and Tarling, N., Britain, the Brookes and Brunei (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1971).Google Scholar

4 Early Brooke Administration was characterized by wars to put down ‘rebellions’ in the interior. This practice of quelling Iban unrest with punitive expeditions, manned by down-river Iban warriors (which was continued as late as 1935) stimulated and prolonged inter-Iban warfare, headhunting and the related migration syndrome. See Pringle, Robert, Rajahs and Rebels (London: Macmillan, 1970).Google Scholar

5 The term ‘Division’ has been used in conformity with the practice in the written sources. In 1973, two additional Divisions were created out the Third Division—the Sixth Division to cover the Sarikei area, and the Seventh Division to include the Kapit district. All the Divisions were again renamed in 1987 as the Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Sarikei, Sibu, Kapit, Bintulu, Miri, and Limbang Divisions.Google Scholar

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58 See Pringle, Rajahs and Rebels, p. 106 and Sarawak Gazette, 30 04 1880.Google Scholar

59 The Malays preferred to pay an annual tax sum known as the ‘exemption tax’ because it freed them from unpaid government service.

60 Sarawak Gazette, 1 02. 1898Google Scholar. In 1901, a detailed statement of the total number of prisoners employed from year to year for the period 1890 to 1891 (see below), revealed that on an average between 43 to 95 prisoners were employed daily by the Public Works Department.

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82 Reprinted in Sarawak Gazette, 30 April 1880. The figure was based on the 1877 ‘census’ which estimated Sarawak's population to be 222,000 and the government's expenditure of $197, 150 in 1878.Google Scholar

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86 Annual Report Sarawak 1947, pp. 51–2. 55–8.Google Scholar

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