A people in step with progress

Read more of my native, the Lun Bawang of Sarawak.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY JAMES RITCHIE

EVER since becoming Christians, the Lun Bawang of Lawas have become exemplary citizens who would make any Malaysian proud.
When the Brunei rebellion in December 1962 broke out, Limbang and Lawas were the focus of the insurgents. Several Sarawak policemen and five British marines were killed in Limbang.

Guru Pantalusang (3rd left with dark glasses) with members of the bamboo flute band in the interior of Lawa in the 1950s. But the rebels were less successful in Lawas, thanks to the information passed by locals to a young District Officer Bujang Mohammed Nor. (Mohammed, now a Tan Sri, later became Sarawak state secretary.)
The locals, alerting the government about the impending attack two weeks earlier, helped nipped the rebellion in the bud with the arrest of a local leader. Former Police Field Force Sergeant Major Robert Ngawal Arun, 71, from Kampung Limbuak in Pengalih, said the police went as far as Bekenu to round up the rebels, and hundreds were arrested.

When the idea of a Malaysian federation was mooted, there was initially some resistance from the Lawas people. However, the support of the Lun Bawang from the rural interior proved crucial in swinging the state towards celebrating Independence on Sept 15, 1963.

Headman of the Trusan 200-strong Chinese community Penghulu Liaw Soon Teck, 51, said the Lun Bawang from the remote district of Lawas have evolved into a race of tolerant and progressive people after enduring decades of wars and pestilence.

Liaw, whose grandmother is Lun Bawang, said inter-marriages were common among the Chinese, Malays and Lun Bawang.

“In fact, most of the Chinese and Malays speak Lun Bawang as if it is their mother tongue. We have native relatives even in the most remote places,” said Liaw who estimated that there were about 5,000 Lun Bawang and another 1,500 Malays and Kedayans living in the Trusan region.
On this trip to Lawas, former RTM newscaster and journalist Charles Buas Dawat from Long Tukon, near Trusan bazaar, visited his Malay niece by marriage Dayangku Zaliah Bakar, 42, who runs a sundry shop in the Malay quarter of Trusan.

MP Henry Sum Agong (centre) at the Lawas native market with friends and community members. On the left is Michael Labo, the first Lun Bawang lawyer and on the right is Flavian Liaw from the municipal council. Dayangku Zaliah whose grandmother is also Lun Bawang said: “We are a multi-racial lot. Our Malay ancestors came from Brunei as well as Simanggang (Sri Aman) while serving the Brookes. We have many relatives among the Lun Bawang community. My cousin Awangku Omar who is part Lun Bawang, is a private secretary of a state cabinet minister Datuk Awang Tengah.”

A highly literate group, the 15,000 Lun Bawang in the Lawas district now boast of at least 400 people who have achieved academic excellence while taking up vocations in law, medicine, dentistry, engineering and teaching professions.

Many are graduates and diploma holders while a large number of Lun Bawang have become theologians and pastors (many graduating from the Lun Bawang bible college at Buduk Aru near Ba' Kelalan).

The first Lun Bawang politician to make a name for himself in the 1950s was the late Datuk Racha Umong, a former pastor and first local head of the SIB (Borneo Evangelical Mission or Sidang Injil Borneo). His son in-law, Michael Labo Buaye, is the first Lun Bawang lawyer.
Other influential members of the community are the late SIB president Pastor Kalib Besar who died in a helicopter crash in 2003, Dr Judson Sakai Tagal, a surgeon who died in the Bario helicopter crash last July, MP Mutang Tagal who is the older brother of Dr Judson and a lawyer by training, MP Michael Lisa Kaya who served two terms and Henry Sum Agong who succeeded Lisa.

The Lun Bawang Who’s Who list also include anthropologist Jayl Langub, deputy director of the Sarawak Museum Gilbert Ipoi Datan and retired assistant director of Information Department Paul Sakai whose wife Monica Pantulusang was the first nurse in Lawas. Her father, Bonia Pantulusang, founded the first Lun Bawang bamboo flute band.

The community also have a dentist in Dr Bob Baru, environmental lawyer Baru Bian, Shell engineer Robin Lusong and Ashton Samuel Satu, a lawyer turned medical health officer who was recently elected president of the Lun Bawang Association.

But the most renowed of all is Kuching-based William Ghani Bina who is president of the Sarawak Teachers Union, chairman of Cuepacs Sarawak, president of the National Labour Advisory Council, national vice president of Cuepacs and vice chairman (education) of the National Joint Council as well as panel member of the Industrial Court and member of the National Labour advisory council.

Temenggong Paris Kaya, 54, who replaced former Temenggong Bagul Lupong, 73, as the community’s paramount chief said that even though the Lun Bawang have made much progress in the past 10 years, they are challenged to keep abreast with the times.

“We have been blessed with a government that cares. We have received great benefits. But our people must not take for granted their wealth and prosperity they now enjoy. We must remember our humble beginnings,” he said.

Temenggong Paris said the lives of the Lun Bawang have changed for the better when they became Christians after an Australian Hudson Southwell started SIB in Lawas in the early 1930s.

He said that even though the Lun Bawang were role models for the other Dayak communities, they must not forget the struggles of their ancestors and their sacrifices to make Lawas safe and prosperous.

Added Henry Sum: “The key work is humility, a trait Dr Judson practised. Despite his demise, we must not lose hope and must carry on the good works he started. I too have a vision for my people and if we all work together, it can be achieved.”