Gryphon 1962 - Adm.monash.edu.au

SARAWAKMY HOME TOWNKu pang- Indon esia is the pl ace wh ere I comefrom . Kupang is a small town on the coast ofKupan g Bay in Indonesia T im or. The land ishilly and ro cky and ha s a tr opical cli m ate. Thepopulation. including those who live inland isab out 100.000 people.In contrast to o the r parts of Indonesia thereare no rice fields in Timor. It is because the landis rocky and also because it has only a sm a lla mo un t of rain during the year. It is n ot aprosperou s land, but I am proud of it. I am proudof its people who are ve ry friendly and alwaysmind their o wn bu siness.In rece nt years , Indonesia ha s expe rienced somany rebellion s in Su m a tra, Java, Borneo, Celebesand the Moluccas. but so far on e ha s not occurredin Timor. This is becau se the people are verynnderstanding, patient and they have experiencedt 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 emptyinto South China Sea is Sarawak. Other countriesoccupyi n g Borneo are Brunei and British NorthBorneo to the north east, Indonesian Borneo tothe so u th.Once Sa ra wa k was under the r ule of manysulta ns an d th ere was much fightin g. In 1841, anEnglishman. James Brooke, helped on e of thesu ltans to figh t a re bellion and was made Rajaho f Sarawak: of course, th en , Sarawak was only asma ll fraction o f it s present a rea.The Brook es ru led Sarawak just over a hundredyea rs; the other Brook es were Charles a nd Vyner .In 1888 Sarawak became a British Protecto rateand in 1946 sh e became a British Colony. Nowshe is a State of Malaysia.The peoples of Sara wak are Sea D ayaks , LandDa 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 peoplesin descending order of their number s are SeaDa yaks , Chinese and Ma lays. T h e main rel igionsin Sarawak are Buddhism, Moslemisrn and Christianity; we arc tolerant in religion, on e of th e fewcountries where Moslem children go to Ch ristia nschools and man v Moslems celebrate Ch ristmas .Though 88 p er ecru , of our 700,000 people liveo lE the land, ab out nine-tenths of th e la nd is stillunder impenetrable jungle. Of the o the r 12 percent.. 2 per cent. are fishermen. the remaining10 per cen t. being made up of sh opkee pe rs. businessmen , pubblic servants and others. Small asSarawak is, she plays her part in the world oftrade. We expor t oil to Britain, Singapore a ndAustralia (Shell); rubber to Britain, U .S.A. andEurope; sago to India and Europe; jelutong (forch 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)' fromthem rice, sugar, lea, coffee , milk, cloth, clo thing,tobacco and machinery.Sarawak has only two seasons a year, wet a nddry. The monsoon comes from October to March;the north-west monsoon brings us an average oftwenty.two rainy days a month during the wetseason and in J a n uar y we often have up totwenty-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 weha ve a rather uniform temperature of about 82"F.throughout the year. The season temperaturevaries by about five degrees, but day and nighttemperatures may differ by about fifteen degreesat times.Sara wak is a peaceful and friendly place; she isforgotten by the hungry politicians of this decade.For the poet there are murmuring brooks, songsof the ca refr ee wild birds and swaying coconutpalms. For the d aring there are trophies of wildpigs weighing up to five hundred pounds, bearsand gorillas up to five feet high. There a re crocodileson th e muddy banks of th e brown rivers,and in the ever dull light of the dangerous m angroveforests.P. TING.39