Brave Kelabit highlanders celebrated Sarawak’s 74th year of freedom after the Second World War with a solemn ceremony at Bario last Monday March 25.
To commemorate the occasion 100 Kelabits and members of the security forces attended a solemn ceremony to honour the first batch of eight Z special unit soldiers of “Semut 1” who parachuted into Bario on March 25, 1945 to raise an army of 1,000 Kelabits to fight the invaders.
Led by British Major Tom Harrisson, the Kelabits were later joined by various tribes such from Lawas, Limbang and Indonesia’s Kerayan valley who killed more than 1,000 Japanese at the tail end of the War.
Even after the Japanese had surrendered on August 15, 1945 about 570 renegade Japanese soldiers refused to give up until faced with the Kelabits and other native compatriots.
It took another two months for the remaining 270 renegades to finally lay down their arms when they found themselves trapped in Bario’s neighbouring Ba Kelalan valley.
This historic moment would have been long forgotten if it had not been retold by Major Harrisson who accepted Captain Fujino’s sword of surrender on October 31, 1945.
In relating the story of how the brave Kelabits led the fight to repatriate Sarawak, Deputy Speaker of the State Legislative assembly Dato Gerawat Gala said the ceremony was to remember a forgotten part of history.
It was more compelling because the end of the War not only brought peace but a new era of enlightenment for this once illiterate community.
Gerawat said last Monday’s ceremony serves as a reminder and to remember the ‘Unsung Heroes’ who had fought side by side with the Australian and Allied forces to liberate Sarawak.
Four months after the War in the highlands, another great transformation took place when Major Harrison, set up the first school in the Kelabit highlands.
A Kelabit lawyer, Gerawat who is the assemblyman for Mulu, said: “He (Harrisson) introduced modern education by organising the community to build the very first primary school in Pa Main in 1946.
“Education provided the opportunity and window to modernity and progress, producing outstanding achievers both at national and international level”.
Today with the establishment of Bario primary and secondary schools, there are almost 1,000 Kelabits graduates and holders of tertiary certificates among the estimated population of 6,000 of the community today.
Present at the function was David Sanderson, the son of Sgt Fred Sanderson who was one of the first eight soldiers who parachuted into Bario; Sanderson was involved in some of the fiercest fighting in Limbang and Lawas when Fujino’s army chased upriver until the Ba Kelalan surrender.
The Kelabit story would have remained forgotten if not for Sgt Jack Tredrea, a medic who was a colleague of Sanderson, who brought it to the attention of the Sarawak Government about five years ago.
Since then the Kelabits have held an annual ‘Heroes Day’ ceremony at Bario which Tredrea attended until last year. The last surviving member of ‘Semut 1’, Tredrea passed away four months later in July at the age of 98.
The Kelabit story is one of the most compelling and has been recorded in the book ‘Journey Into the Central Highlands of Sarawak’ which was launched by Gerawat in Kuching two years ago.
Sanderson who spoke fluent Malay, served in the Anti-Japanese army in Malaya and was responsible for making the first contact with the headman of Bario Lawai Besara’.
An excerpt from ‘Journey Into the Central Highlands of Borneo’ quoted Harrisson as saying: “Sanderson, an Eurasian of Australian-Thai parentage, was the first to contact the Kelabit when he landed in the swamps of “Lembaa” near the present Ulung Palang longhouse (there was only one longhouse at Lembaa at that time).
Sanderson said he had taken the bearings of Kelabit chief Lawai’s longhouse and after landing headed straight to the longhouse which was situated on a hill.
After making contact with Lawai, the chief sent three of his people including his son-in-law who approached Harrison and his men with a white flag tied to the end of a blowpipe.
Harrisson said that three members of the group who had landed in the swamp were rather exhausted even before landing and “feebly attempting to find wireless, weapons and stores“. He added: “Very slowly the mist lifted. The first faint shaft of eastern sunlight filtered on to the plain. It began to smell something like everyday day again.”
“…there suddenly obtruded a white flag. A small square of white cloth—one of the only pieces of cloth in the area at that time—appeared bobbing up and down, some tussocks away. We made some encouraging sounds in all the languages we knew, without moving ourselves .
“The white cloth was tied to the spear end of the long, polished blow-pipe. Thus, years after the Japanese occupation, Borneon pagan and Anglo-Australian Christian man met in peace once more”.
Later Harrisson gave the men their assignments and designated them to different areas with Sanderson operating in Limbang to contain the Japanese who were to leave Sarawak through Brunei or going up-river to the Indonesia border.
Sgt Sanderson’s whose group of Iban warriors did the most damage on the group said: “Apart from the four hundred and fifty enemy troops (the remaining 570 Japanese soldiers from Fujina’s army who left Miri on July 1) we were also aware of groups who kept slipping through our area, and managing somehow to bypass Ukong. Our reported official tally of Japanese kills were now seventy five”.
He added, however, that the unofficial count was one hundred and two heads.
Gerawat has suggested that the Kelabit Association that he helms Rurum Kelabit Sarawak (RKS) and the Sarawak Army Veterans Association should collaborate in documenting all the sites and incidents in a book.
He also urged the Dayak Cultural Foundation to assist in the effort to remember Sarawak’s forgotten heroes.
“As for the Z Special Force 75th anniversary 2020 (next year), a grand celebration will be held with major tourism events incorporating trekking to Batu Lawih (in Limbang) and cross-country run to Punga Pawan mountain pass in Bario.
“This will make the event a tourism attraction for Bario and hopefully will be part of the state’s tourism calendar in the future,” he said.
Gerawat pledged RM80,000 for the Bario Memorial Park to be upgraded next year’s 75th anniversary with better landscaping for a Heroes’ memorial park. Previously, he had also provided MRP grant of RM10,000 for restoration of the monument and fencing.
Also present at the gathering was retired Lt General Stephen Mundaw who said that next year’s celebration could include parachute jumps and tourism-related activities and the enhancement of the memorial site.
“There is no peace without sacrifice and no development without peace. We should be thankful for the peace and sacrifices of the unsung heroes”.
“To relive the rich history of Bario, we must capture it in writing and some historical areas in Bario be marked for future generations to appreciate, such as the camp sites, shooting range, ammunition dump sites, as lessons in history,” he added.
Also among those present were Sgt Sanderson’s son David from Newcastle, Brigadier General Datuk Johnny Lim Eng Seng, commander of 31st Infantry Brigade, Lt Col Dungging Serit; Sarawak administrative officer, Bario, Edwin Jelenggai; senior government officials and community leaders including Bario Penghulu Robertson Bala, RKS state committee members Dr Roland Mattu and John Terawe, and RKS Bario branch chairman Martin Belawing.
In closing, Gerawat said the war was ‘necessary evil’ but also a blessing in disguise for the Kelabits as it attributed to their success in a big way.
“The first impact of the Japanese surrender was the sweet and beautiful presence of peace that returned to community life after the war”.
