o - Aceh Books website

MELANAU 511
from Kuching in Sarawak began competing with the established merchants from
Brunei in supplying the new flour in Singapore. Piracy was part of the game.
In 1839 James Brooke, an Englishman, arrived in Kuching on the river Sarawak,
where a section of the local Malay aristocracy was in revolt against the
representative of the Sultan of Brunei. Brooke helped suppress the revolt and in
1841 had himself appointed Raja of Sarawak on the understanding that the state
would remain Muslim in perpetuity and that the Muslim Malay-speaking inhabitants
were to provide most of the civil service. For the next 20 years, Brooke
and his successor, his nephew, were engaged in war. By the late 1850s, the
Raja found himself short of money and still at war. To save himself and the
solvency of Sarawak, Brooke annexed the sago-producing districts and in 1861
forced the sultan to grant him title to the whole area. Brooke's family ruled
Sarawak until World War II; in 1946, Sarawak was ceded to Great Britain, and
in 1963, Sarawak joined the Republic of Malaysia.
As the coastal district settled down after Brooke's conquest, production increased,
as did trade with Singapore. The reasons for living in longhouses
disappeared with the advent of peace and security, and Melanau began moving
to villages with separate houses. Under Brooke, the Malay community was
privileged and the Muslim religion protected, if not actively pushed. For the
Melanau, many of whom could speak Malay, to become Muslim was masok
melayu—to become Malay, with all its privileges.
After the turn of the century, the situation changed. It had been the policy of
the Raja never to allow Christian missionaries to threaten the interests of his
Muslim subjects. But around 1900 he permitted the Roman Catholics to set up
schools and churches. One particular aristocrat in Brooke's administration, on
returning home from the pilgrimage to Mecca, was disturbed to find a Roman
Catholic mission on his river. His father, one of the Raja's most influential
administrators, joined with his son, and for the next 40 years they and other
Muslims recruited by them conducted a steady and covert campaign of proselytization,
supported by the governmental benefits accruing to Muslims. The
results were dramatic. In 1900 it is estimated that only one-third of the Melanau
were Muslim; in 1964, three-fourths of them were. The percentage is probably
higher today.
Like most Muslims in the Indonesian area, the Melanau are Sunni and follow
Shafi law, although rather loosely. When Sarawak acceded to the Malaysian
federation in 1963, Islam did not, as in other parts of Malaysia, become the
official religion, although it was allotted a highly privileged position with a state
department and official funds to manage its interests. Money was supplied for
building mosques and salaries of religious officials. Less money was contributed
to other religions, and many inducements were made to persuade pagans and
others to become Muslim.
Under the Brooke regime, Muslims in all parts of the country were governed
in all matters, except those directly concerning the state, by the undang undang
melayu, a code of Malay customary law compiled by Muslim administrative