The Pagan Tribes of Borneo / A Description of Their Physical Moral and Intellectual Condition, with Some Discussion of Their Ethnic Relations

by Charles Hose; William McDougall

The whole territory of Sarawak is divided into four divisions, each of which is again divided into two or more districts. The first division coincides with Sarawak proper; the second includes the Batang Lupar, Saribas, and Kelaka districts; the third comprises the Rejang, Oya, Muka, Bintulu, and Matu districts; the fourth consists of the Baram, Limbang, Trusan, and Lawas. The first, third, and fourth divisions are administered by divisional Residents, which three officers rank next to the Rajah in the official hierarchy. Each district is under the immediate charge of an officer. These district officers are of two ranks, namely Residents of the second class, and Assistant Residents. In each district, with the exception of the smallest, the Resident is assisted in his multifarious duties by a second white officer of the rank of cadet or extra-officer, and has under his direction a squad of ten to twenty-five rangers under the charge of a sergeant; a sergeant of police in charge of about twelve policemen, who are generally drawn from the locality; several Malay or Chinese clerks; and generally some two or three "native officers." The last are Malays of the aristocratic class resident in the district; they are appointed by the Rajah on the recommendation of the Resident and receive a regular salary. Their duties are to assist the Resident in his police-court work, to hold special courts for the settlement of purely Malay cases of a domestic nature, and to take charge of the station in the absence of the Resident and his assistant.

The prime duty of the Resident is to preserve order in his district and to punish crimes of violence. But he is responsible also for every detail of administration, including the collection of taxes and customs duties, the settlement of disputes, and the hearing of complaints of all kinds, the furnishing of reports to the central government on all matters of moment, the development of trade and the protection of traders, especially the inoffensive Chinese; and above all, in the newer districts, it is his duty to gain the confidence of the chiefs of the wilder tribes, and to lead them to accept the Sarawak flag and the benefits of the Rajah's government, in return for the small poll-tax required of them. It is well recognised by the Rajah and his officers that the success of a Resident depends primarily upon his acquiring intimate knowledge of the people and establishing and maintaining good relations with them; and with this end in view every Resident is expected to be familiar not only with the Malay language, which is the official language of the country, as well as in some measure a common medium of communication between the chiefs of the various tribes, but also with one or more of the other languages spoken in his district. The headquarters of the Resident are usually the fort, or a small residency built not far from it in the lower reaches of the chief river of his district. Here a Chinese bazaar, I.E. a compact village of Chinese traders and shopkeepers, and a Malay Kampong, generally spring up under the shelter of the fort; and thus the station becomes the headquarters of trade as well as of administration. To this centre the workers of jungle produce bring their stuff, floating down river on rafts of rattans or in their canoes; from it the Malay and Chinese traders or pedlars set out in their boats for long journeys among the up-river people; and to it come occasional parties of the up-river tribesmen, to consult with the Resident, to seek redress for wrongs, to report the movements of tribes in the adjacent territories, or to obtain permission to go on the war-path in order to punish offences committed against them.

Since the river is the one great high road, and since the Resident and his assistants are seated generally near the point where it leaves the district, the coming and going of all visitors can hardly escape their observation. And, since the station sees every few days the arrival of visitors or the return of parties of its own people from up river, the Resident can keep himself pretty well informed of the state of the country, and all news of importance will reach him after no long delay, if only he is always accessible and willing to turn a sympathetic ear to all comers.

But the successful administration of one of the larger and wilder districts, such as the Rejang or the Baram, requires that the Resident shall not be content with the zealous discharge of his many duties at his headquarters. He can only establish intimate relations of reciprocal knowledge and confidence with the chiefs of the many scattered communities of his district by making long journeys up river several times a year. And situations not infrequently arise which urgently demand his presence in some outlying part of his district and which serve as the occasions of such journeys.

Before describing such a journey, something must be said of the place in the scheme of government occupied by the chiefs and headmen of the various communities. Each of the Malay Kampongs and other similar villages of the Malanaus and other coastwise peoples is under the immediate charge of one of its more influential elders, who bears the title of TUAH KAMPONG. He is appointed by the Rajah on the recommendation of the Resident and receives a small salary. His duties are to settle the minor disputes of his village, to collect the tax, to keep order, and to report all breaches of the peace to the Resident. He has authority to call in the police and to order the arrest of any villager; in cases of dispute between villages he represents his village in the Resident's court, and, where his own people are concerned, he may sit on the bench with the Resident to hear and advise upon the case. The Sarawak flag is the badge of his office, and his position and duties are defined in a document bearing the Rajah's signature.

From among the more influential chiefs of the up-river communities the Rajah appoints, on the recommendation of the Resident, a certain number in each district to the office of PENGHULU. In a district of Mixed population such as the Baram, one PENGHULU (sometimes two) is usually appointed for each of the principal tribes of the district, E.G. in the Baram are, or recently were, two Kayans, one Kenyah, one Sebop, and one Barawan holding the office. The principal PENGHULUS are made members of the Council of State, and they are expected to attend its triennial meetings. The status of the PENGHULUS is similar to that of the TUAH KAMPONG, and he also is given the Sarawak flag, which he will display on his boat on official journeys, and a document signed by the Rajah recording his appointment and the duties of his office; but many of them derive a considerably greater importance than their fellows from the numerical strength and the warlike character of their followings. The PENGHULU has authority not only over his own house or village, but also over the chiefs or headmen of other communities of the same tribe and region. He is expected to keep the Resident informed of any local incident requiring his attention, and to be present in the Resident's court when any of his people are tried for any serious offence; he has authority to try minor cases, both civil and criminal, among his own people. Perhaps his most important service is the following. When an up-river man has been charged with a serious offence, the summons of the Resident's court is forwarded to the PENGHULU of his tribe and district with the instruction that he shall send the man down river to headquarters. It is generally possible for the PENGHULU to call the man to him, and, by explaining to him the situation and the order of the Resident, to secure his peaceful surrender. But in case of refusal to come, or of active resistance, the PENGHULU is expected to apply such force as may be necessary for effecting the arrest and the conveyance to headquarters. In this way in a well-governed district the arrest of evildoers is effected with remarkable sureness and with far less risk of violence, bloodshed, and the arousal of angry passions, than if the Resident should send his police or rangers to do the work. The PENGHULU is in a much better position than the Resident for obtaining accurate information upon, and a full understanding of, the circumstances of any such up-river incidents; and his help is thus often of the greatest value to the Resident. If he judges that the accused man is innocent, and especially if the charge against him has been made by a Chinaman, a Malay, or a member of any other than his own tribe, he will usually accompany the prisoner to headquarters, in, order to see that no injustice is done him. Another important function of the PENGHULU is the preliminary investigation of breaches of the peace among his people (see vol. ii. p. 219).

The PENGHULU is responsible also for the collection of the door-tax from the chief of each house or village of his people and for its delivery to the Resident. He is allowed to exercise a certain discretion in the matter of remission of taxes to elderly or infirm householders. He is responsible also for the transmission to the Resident of all sums in payment of fines of more than five dollars, imposed by himself or by his subordinate chiefs. On the happily infrequent occasions on which it becomes necessary to organise a punitive expedition, the PENGHULUS are expected to help in the raising of the required force, and to accompany the expedition as commanders of their own group of warriors, acting under the orders of the Resident.

A PENGHULU is punished for neglect of his duties by suspension from his office for a definite period, or in more serious cases by dismissal and the appointment of another chief Since the dignity and prestige of the office are high, this punishment is deeply felt.

Among the Kayans and Kenyahs and most of the Klemantans, the PENGHULUS exercise a very effective authority, and, since with few exceptions the chiefs chosen to fill the office have been loyal, zealous, and capable, they have rendered great services to the government. Among the Sea Dayaks the lack of authority of the chiefs, which is a characteristic feature of their social system, has rendered it impossible to secure for their PENGHULUS the same high standing and large influence; the result of which has been the creation of an unduly large number of these officers and the consequent further depreciation of the dignity of the office.

The PENGHULU is the link between the native system of government as it obtained before the coming of the white man, and that established and maintained by the Rajah and his white officers. The former consisted of the exercise of authority by the several chiefs, each over the people of his own village only, except in so far as a chief might acquire some special prestige and influence over others through his own reputation for wisdom and that of his people for success in war. Among the Kayans and Kenyahs especially, the principal chiefs have long aimed at extending their influence by marrying their relatives to those of other powerful chiefs. In this way chiefs of exceptional capacity, aided by good fortune, have achieved in certain instances a very extended influence. Such a chief was Laki Avit, a Kenyah, who, some twenty years before the Rajah's officers first entered upon the task of administering the Baram, was recognised throughout all the interior of the district as the leading chief, a position which could only have been achieved by the consistent pursuit of a wise policy of conciliation and just dealing between. Kenyahs and Kayans. But the order and peace maintained by the influence of such a chief depended wholly on his continued vigour, and they seldom or never survived his death by more than a few years. In the case of Laki Avit, for example, the Bruni Malays, jealous and afraid of the allied Kayans and Kenyahs, soon succeeded by means of murderous intrigues in bringing back the more normal condition of suspicious hostility and frequent warfare. Thus, although several chiefs had endeavoured to establish peace throughout wide areas, no one of them had achieved any enduring success. For this end the unifying influence of a central authority and superior power was necessary, and this was supplied by the Rajah. We may liken the whole system of society as now established to a conical structure consisting of a common apex from which lines of authority descend to the base, branching as they go at three principal levels. If we imagine the upper part of this structure cut away at a horizontal plane just above the lowest level of branching, we have a diagrammatic representation of the state of affairs preceding the Rajah's advent — a large number of small cones each representing a village unified by the subordination of its members to its chief, but each one remaining isolated without any bond of union with its neighbours. At the present time the base of the cone remains almost unchanged, but the Rajah's government binds together all its isolated groups to form one harmonious whole, by means of the hierarchy of officers whose authority proceeds from the Rajah himself, the apex of the system.