VERY few people know that 140 years ago a remote Chinese bazaar along the Baram River was named after an Englishman Claude Champion de Crispigny. de Crispigny was one of Rajah Charles Brooke’s right-hand men sent to the Baram in 1882 to establish an outpost in at a time when inter-tribal warfare rife.
Claudetown which is now called Marudi, was the nucleus of region which had been a troublesome region under Brunei and the Sultan was willing to give it up after negotiations with the Brooke government Later one of his de Crispigny’s successors Sir Charles Hose would bring more glory to the town by building one of the most impressive rural outposts with the establishment of Fort Hose.
To ensure a long-lasting peace Hose eventually organised the famous Baram Regatta in April 1899. Today, most of the major towns in Sarawak organise separate Regattas annually, this being one of the major cultural events. So it was with great honour that I visited this famous town to write about its past and the pioneers who established Marudi. Situated 100km inland from Miri, Marudi’s iconic Fort Hose is the main attraction.
During the Brooke and Colonial eras, Marudi was the nucleus of Sarawak’s multi-racial communities; ruled by the White Man, assisted by Malay Native Officers and policed by Iban soldiers of the Sarawak Rangers. In 1884 the Kayan attacked the “Lepu Asing” (a tribe related to the Kelabits) community and burnt down 12 longhouses in retaliation for the killing of six of their Baram chiefs. A year later Rajah Charles visited “Claudetown” for the first time and asked his officers Baram Resident C.W. Daubeny and his young assistant Charles Hose, to work towards bringing about peace in the region.
At that time Marudi, which had 45 Chinese shops, was the administrative centre of the Baram. After being appointed Resident Hose went about winning over powerful Kenyah chief Penghulu Tama Bulan and his Kayan counterpart Penghulu Juman. In 1899 and with the support of the chiefs, Hose organised peacemaking event and arranged for a “friendly” inter-tribal boat race for mainly the three most powerful groups and called it the Baram Regatta! After the Regatta Hose was able to persuade two of the more aggressive tribes-the Lirongs and the Kenyah Badeng-change ways.
In 1908, Baram Resident R.S. Douglas who suceeded Hose, and his army of more than 1,000 native warriors became the first white man man to visit Bario. He organised another peace-making ceremony between the Kelabits, Kayan, Kenyah and Kalimantan Dayaks (Lun Dayeh) of Dutch Borneo. With the successful peace mission and discovery of oil in Miri, Marudi began to downsize; Miri became the administrative centre and Marudi was reduced to a district.
Worse was to come with the Japanese invasion of Sarawak in December 1941; brave Chinese who supported the white men were executed and the Europeans were forced to flee. On December 15, 1941 the Marudi Roman Catholic priest priest Fr. Joseph Felbrugge rescued four Dutch airmen whose plane had been shot down crashing just below Fort Hose.
They fled into the Baram hinterland before crossing the Dutch border to Long Nawang in Kalimantan where they were killed together with 70 Europeans on August 23, 1942. Marudi district officer Donald Hudden who had also fled into the interior was similarly killed and beheaded by natives working for the Japanese. But after the war and the sad episodes forgotten, the Colonial British government of Sarawak decided to add a new dimension to Marudi by focussing on education.
Soon Marudi was to become the platform for tertiary education. After the end of the 1963-1966 Confrontation, Marudi continued to enjoy a “revival”; and became Baram’s centre of learning for the two dozen or so Orang Ulu tribes in the district.
Many of today’s prominent politicians and professionals from the Kayan, Kenyah, Kelabit, Berawan and Penan communities, have at one time studied in Marudi. In fact many of the beneficiaries of Marudi’s schools include deputy Speaker of the Sarawak state assembly Dato Gerawat Gala, former Minister in the Prime Minister’s department Dato’ Sri Idris Jala, CMS “boss” Dato Isaac Lugun and charismatic Bintulu Port Holdings CEO Datuk Medan Abdullah to name a few.
Sadly, over the last 20 years Marudi had been forsaken and became a “transit town” for tourists visiting the newly-developed Gunung Mulu National Park and the Bario Highlands, to name two of its main attractions. Recently as a “transit” visitor to Marudi for almost 30 years, I had the opportunity to stop over for the night during a documentary Film shoot on the Penan with Filem Nasional (FINAS).
One of our film candidates, a new graduate from the University of Malaysia, Sarawak (UNIMAS) Frecella Jane, agreed to be my guide as Marudi was where she was educated. Born in the remote Penan settlement of Long Spigen in Ulu Baram–a day’s journey away from Marudi, the former student of Marudi’s Good Shepherd Primary school, completed her secondary education before attending university in 2011 and graduating a month ago.
But when her doting grandparents decided to re-settled in Marudi for the good of the whole family which included several children, her world changed. She said: “My grandparents sacrifice by up-rooting themselves from the jungle and settling in town, has a great influence over my life. “My aunt Catherine became my role model as she decided to go to school. I followed suit and joined the Good Shepard primary school before finishing my secondary education at SMK Marudi.” So it was a great honour to be taken on a guided tour of Marudi by a daughter of a family of seminomadic who dared to dream.
