Gryphon 1962 - Adm.monash.edu

SARAWAK
MY HOME TOWN
Ku pang- Indon esia is the pl ace wh ere I come
from . Kupang is a small town on the coast of
Kupan g Bay in Indonesia T im or. The land is
hilly and ro cky and ha s a tr opical cli m ate. The
population. including those who live inland is
ab out 100.000 people.
In contrast to o the r parts of Indonesia there
are no rice fields in Timor. It is because the land
is rocky and also because it has only a sm a ll
a mo un t of rain during the year. It is n ot a
prosperou s land, but I am proud of it. I am proud
of its people who are ve ry friendly and always
mind their o wn bu siness.
In rece nt years , Indonesia ha s expe rienced so
many rebellion s in Su m a tra, Java, Borneo, Celebes
and the Moluccas. but so far on e ha s not occurred
in Timor. This is becau se the people are very
nnderstanding, patient and they have experienced
t he bitterness of war.
E . Lakusa 6B .
T he largest island in the East Indies .is Borneo.
The ba sin of the riv ers of this island that empty
into South China Sea is Sarawak. Other countries
occupyi n g Borneo are Brunei and British North
Borneo to the north east, Indonesian Borneo to
the so u th.
Once Sa ra wa k was under the r ule of many
sulta ns an d th ere was much fightin g. In 1841, an
Englishman. James Brooke, helped on e of the
su ltans to figh t a re bellion and was made Rajah
o f Sarawak: of course, th en , Sarawak was only a
sma ll fraction o f it s present a rea.
The Brook es ru led Sarawak just over a hundred
yea rs; the other Brook es were Charles a nd Vyner .
In 1888 Sarawak became a British Protecto rate
and in 1946 sh e became a British Colony. Now
she is a State of Malaysia.
The peoples of Sara wak are Sea D ayaks , Land
Da yak s, Malays, Melanaus, Ka yan s, Kenvaks,
Munns, Kelahits, Chi nese, Indians and Europeans.
All but the last three mentioned a re aborigines
(original inhabitants). The three d om inant peoples
in descending order of their number s are Sea
Da yaks , Chinese and Ma lays. T h e main rel igions
in Sarawak are Buddhism, Moslemisrn and Christi
anity; we arc tolerant in religion, on e of th e few
countries where Moslem children go to Ch ristia n
schools and man v Moslems celebrate Ch ristmas .
Though 88 p er ecru , of our 700,000 people live
o lE the land, ab out nine-tenths of th e la nd is still
under impenetrable jungle. Of the o the r 12 per
cent.. 2 per cent. are fishermen. the remaining
10 per cen t. being made up of sh opkee pe rs. businessm
en , pubblic servants and others. Small as
Sarawak is, she plays her part in the world of
trade. We expor t oil to Britain, Singapore a nd
Australia (Shell); rubber to Britain, U .S.A. and
Europe; sago to India and Europe; jelutong (for
ch ewing gum) to U .S.A.; timber to Au stralia ,
Britain and Hong Kong. We al so ex port cutch
(bark for tanning nets) , copra, rattans and damar
(ta r for caulking boats). In return 'We DU)' from
them rice, sugar, lea, coffee , milk, cloth, clo thing,
tobacco and machinery.
Sarawak has only two seasons a year, wet a nd
dry. The monsoon comes from October to March;
the north-west monsoon brings us an average of
twenty.two rainy days a month during the wet
season and in J a n uar y we often have up to
twenty-six rainy da ys. The driest month is July;
in this month fourteen days we can expect showers.
Our average annual ra in fall is about 140 inches.
The humidity is high, about 60 per cent., but we
ha ve a rather uniform temperature of about 82"F.
throughout the year. The season temperature
varies by about five degrees, but day and night
temperatures may differ by about fifteen degrees
at times.
Sara wak is a peaceful and friendly place; she is
forgotten by the hungry politicians of this decade.
For the poet there are murmuring brooks, songs
of the ca refr ee wild birds and swaying coconut
palms. For the d aring there are trophies of wild
pigs weighing up to five hundred pounds, bears
and gorillas up to five feet high. There a re crocodiles
on th e muddy banks of th e brown rivers,
and in the ever dull light of the dangerous m angrove
forests.
P. TING.
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