Gryphon 1962 - Adm.monash.edu.au

NORTH BORNEO - The Country I Come FromBy Wong Yuk Leon gNorth Borneo is a British Colony on th e no rthof th e la rge Borneo Isla nd lying on the so u thof Malaya a nd with the Equator running almostacross th e m idd le. We therefore expect a hot andwet climate all the year round; under such conditions,many great dense jungles and swam ps sp readacross th e cou n try a nd th is provides gr eat hindranceto quick modern developmen t.However , mo st of the coa stal plains have beenand a re still being cleared for cultivation. Am on gthese pl aces up spring th e main towns. Though,a t the present stage. they a re by no means largeand busy in co mpa riso n with Sin gapore or T okyo,yet they gi ve an impression of Wide, clean andtr ee-lined streets with modern shops, flats andoffices with an atmosphe re of quiet prosperity andorderliness. Often, in between these towns, therea re large a nd flat padd y fields divided into ,squ aresin which the buffaloes and the farmers t01!. Mostof these towns are usually linked by roa ds a ndrailways, while others of far distance are linkedby sea and air.Though the whole population of the country isonly abo ut half a m ill ion , yet it is made up of agreat number of races speaking a variety of d ifferen t languages. H owe ver , it is most fortunatethat through mutual understanding and throughthe popularity of the Malay market tongue amongthe people, they all succeed in living together ina harmonious way . Of these the Kadazans, oneof th e aborigines, form the majorit y and next cometh e Ch.inese.The Kadazans, generally inhabiting the WestCoast. are the mo st ad va nced tribe of theaborigines. They still are the prosperous ag ri cul.rural people planting paddy (rice) and rearingpi gs and cattle, though quite a gr eat number ofthem ha ve tak en up jobs in Government Departments as clerks and teach ers. On the East Coast,we find the sea-far in g Bajaus who are the descendantsof th e notorious pirates who terrorised thesurrounding waters until the nineteenth century.Nowadays they mostly contribute their energy ( 0fishing, though som e have tak en to cattle farmingand paddy-planting.The Ch in ese a re mainly spread across these twocoasts. T ho ugh som e of th em are engaged infarming as a re th e natives. m an y dominate thecom mercial field s as business-men, holders of rubberestates or of coconut plantations and of timber,While others work as clerks or techniciansem p loyed by the Go vernment Department or thecommercial firm s. Above all, they are usually hard ­working and thrifty and control mo st of theeconomy in the country.Am on g other natives, the Muruts, Iiving mostlyin the interior and other mountainous places, werethe last to forsake the practice of h ead-hunting.Formerly and traditionall y, before he was married ,eve ry you ng man of them should hunt a head asa dowry for his bride; otherwise, he was rega rd edas a coward not fit to have a famil y! Though,nowadays, many have become rubber-tappers andhill-paddy growers, some still roam among thejungles, hunt wild animals with the ir spears andtheir d eadly blow-pipes with p oison ou s darts. orcollect the jungle products.No rth Borneo schools offer primary ed uca t ion inth ree languages, Malay, English and Ch inese. H owever.the Chinese education provides another sixyea rs to reach the Senior Middle level. In Englishwe have six yea rs of primary education foll owedb y either three or five years in the secondary. Theth ree-yea r course leads to the North Borneo JuniorCertificate and the other to the Cambridge Overseas Schoo l Certificate. Post-School Certificate isprovided a t the Sabah College, mainly in sciencesubjects.On th e whole, th e country is a peac eful place tolive in. and she is not as backward as she iskn own to th e outside world. Though she may lacksom e of th e glamour of large cities she can sup plyher people the basic needs for everyday life.G en erally, the people are hard-working a nd tr ytheir best to work on the wa y leading to theindependence of the country, so that she may, oneda y, r a ise her head magnificently unto the world.38