Any man who has ever tried to use political power for the common good has felt an awful sense of powerlessness.
— Robert Casey, American lawyer and politician
If Tan Sri Stephen Kalong Ningkan was alive, he would be celebrating his 101st birthday today.
Appropriately, yesterday was the first day of the Chinese Hungry Ghost Month, which ends on Sept 16, Malaysia Day.
Born in 1920 in Buloh Antu, literally a village called the Devil’s Bamboo Clove, Ningkan was destined for greatness.
When he was six, his grandfather Mok Bak Seng took him to the motherland to inculcate him in the ways of the Chinese.
In China, he learnt to speak Mandarin but on his return to Sarawak, his true nature evolved.
Living with his mother and cousins in Lempaong, Betong, he adopted the ways of the “Sea Dayak” ancestors labelled as pirates by the Brooke regime.
Indeed, his people were an adventurous and boisterous community who had adopted a culture where bravado and head-hunting was a way of life.
For a short spell under the British, the Iban, who had been Brooke’s famed “Sarawak Rangers”, were relegated to ordinary citizens.
The community’s biggest disadvantage was that while they were fighting for Sarawak, the indigenous Malays and Chinese sought education as means of improving their lot.
It was during the Colonial regime that Ningkan realised that Dayaks, namely the Iban which was the largest community, were intellectually far behind.
When Sarawak became a crown colony in 1946, he trained and worked as a hospital assistant in Kuala Belait where he was involved in a Dayak movement seeking independence.
After becoming honorary secretary of the Shell Dayak Club in 1955 and becoming founding president of the Dayak Association, he received news that Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) had registered as the state’s first political party in 1959 followed by Party Negara Sarawak (Panas) in 1960.
As SUPP and Panas were organisations that represented the Chinese and Malays, he felt it was time to, for one, represent the Dayaks.
Meanwhile, his close relatives from Betong persuaded him to return and from a Dayak party and on April 10, 1961, he formed Sarawak National Party (SNAP), a multi-racial party.
His defining moment came on July 22, 1963 when the leader of the Sarawak alliance formed the first six-member state Cabinet — James Wong Kim Min, Dunstan Endawie Enchana, Awang Hipni Pengiran Anu, Teo Kui Seng and Abdul Taib Mahmud.
Ironically, SUPP and Panas were not in the line-up because its leaders did not agree to some of the terms of the 1963 Malaysia Agreement.
On SNAP’s decision to venture into politics, Kalong said in a 1988 interview:
“I felt politics was more important and I consulted a few British officials — one of them was the then (British) Governor of Sarawak, Sir Anthony Waddell. He told me that it was high time and the British encouraged us (the Dayaks).
“In fact, they were the ones who wanted us to form a political party.”
Sadly, he was ousted as Chief Minister in 1966, having been portrayed by his enemies as “anti-Malay”, a charge he denied.
Ningkan, who indicated that Prime Minister Tengku Abdul Rahman was coerced into believing his detractors, said: “Tunku asked me to persuade the people to speak Bahasa Malaysia (now the national language). I told Tunku I could not do it. I was just learning Bahasa Malaysia.
“Besides, I could not force Bahasa Malaysia down the people’s throat. Secondly, he told me to kick out all the expatriates in the state and replace them with those from Peninsular Malaysia…”
“I told him with all due respect to those in West Malaysia, I must give priority to Sarawakians first.”
In 1983, a rebellion within SNAP led to a split in the party and formation of the ultra-native Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) which aligned itself with the opposition.
During one of my interviews with Ningkan, two SNAP political stalwarts aligned to the opposition arrived at his house and I asked to be excused.
However, he asked me to stay while the duo had a conversation with the vociferous old man.
After they left, Ningkan smiled and said: “They brought a briefcase with RM50,000 hoping to persuade me to switch camps.”
Then in jest, he added: “Ai yah James, if only I had sent you away I would have been tempted to take the money!”
Needless to say, Ningkan was joking and has always been loyal to his cause.
In the words of his staunchest supporter James Wong: “There can be no future without a past and without the great contributions of people like Tan Sri Datuk Amar Stephen Kalong Ningkan, leaving their footsteps in the sands of time — Sarawak will not be the happy and prosperous country that it is today.”
The views expressed are those of the columnist and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New Sarawak Tribune.
