Thursday 9 April 2009

White Rajah Of Sarawak


Read this..
This jawi handwritten meaning ;

Seri Paduka duli yang maha mulia tuan Raja Sir Charles Brooke
Raja Sarawak yang kedua
Diperanakkan pada 3 haribulan Jun tahun 1829
Sir memangku pekerjaan negeri Sarawak pada 21 haribulan tujuh 1852
Bergelar menjadi raja pada 3 haribulan 0gos 1868
Telah mangkat pada 7 haribulan May 1917

2.If translate to English
His Royal Highness Sir raja Charles Brooke
The second rajah(King) of Sarawak
Born on 3rd of June 1829
Come to Sarawak on 21st July 1852
A proclaimed as Rajah of Sarawak on 3rd August 1868
Died on 7th of May 1917





3.This statement you can found at the statue in front of old court house at waterfront Kuching.The statue(monument) dedicated to the second Rajah of Sarawak,Charles Brooke.There is no monument for James Brooke and vyner Brooke.The first and the the third(last white rajah of Sarawak).To whom understand malay language,the proclamation at the monument(jawi handwriteen) mentioning the term of “Yang Maha Mulia” and “mangkat”.Translated to English the meaning is HisRoyal Higness and mangkat meaning die.But that term is only used to the royal Blood line.weither east or west.and now the term still used to the Malay Ruler of Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.



4.Throughout Sarawak History Charles Brooke is the second Rajah of Sarawak and nephew of the James Brooke,the man who help Brunei sultan and then conned him then ask Sultan of Brunei to hand over Sarawak to him(on that day Sarawak=Kuching) .Then year after,year by year,one by one of Brunei territory taken by James Brooke and continue by his nephew Charles Brooke.



5.Early this year,my friend send me sms,my 2009 resolutions is I want to be a King,hehehe,I laugh a lot.He laugh too,but then he says that ,around the world and throughout history King came from a normal people,from east to west,people become a king from thousand ways.From Winning a war,conquering a new nation by wealth orby force,defeating a monster or dragon,marrying a princess after saving her from ogre(not shrek),having some special power like magic, and lot more.You can read it from fairy tale and story book lah..So my friend starting a new resolutions that never made by others,he says that he want to looking for a new territory and conquering it starting from the people,then maybe 10 or next 20 years he will proclaimed himself as the new king of a new territory..hehe..wish you luck my friend.




6.I think that’s is the same resolution made by James brooke when he want to go to eastern world.Everybody knows James brooke was a sailor,like Sinbad and Popeye.He just started his sailing with nowhere to go,just want to go to east.Stop for a while at India,at the harbor city of Cochin(that’s where he got idea to renaming the Sarawak..from the name Sarawak to cochin because of the similarity of the town which is Harbor town).Then he go further to the east,maybe he want to go as far to Moluccass where as the place well known as haven for spices and herb.But then maybe his ship having some problem so he stop by at Sarawak town,and sent his ship for repair at Brooke Dockyard hahaha..

7.Arriving at Sarawak,the political situation is in very bad time,so james playing his role there.He start promising sultan that he can settle the matter but sultan must give him something to him,its like what people like to say now..win-win situation.So James did it and the sultan give Sarawak to him,then it was a new white history for Sarawak after having thousand years history,the landscape of Sarawak people then change by this copy cat King.As we can see,lot of things will be not the same if Sarawak not given to the white King,and I mean lot of things will be different today.





8.A few years after his approclaimation as white rajah of Sarawak.He start to sent message to other nation.Make other nation know that there is a new king and nation with him James the sailorman as king of Sarawak.James even sent letter to Queen of England.Hehe,the queen and her royal relative sure laugh a lot when receiving the letter from James Brooke.
“Where did this guy came from?liverpool,Manchester or Chelsea haa??” hahha,I wrote that script my self lo.I assume that the queen might laugh after receiving the letter because its very obvious that James is a British citizen,a normal person,not relative to her,just a sailor suddenly proclaime himself as King.What the hell??


9.But the queen do reply his letter and later she did met him,but Queen never call him as King ,sultan,Agong or Raja.He just call James as mr james.Huhu ,you know lah what I mean and understand this situation.The institution of Monarchy in England have taken for hundred years,back then James Brooke just claimed himself as first of white Rajah…so..of course queen of England in other word not clarified as the same level of her and they’re not in the same level and not a genuine royal blood line. But james doesn’t care lah,back home in Sarawak he start developing Sarawak and start expanding the Sarawak.First of all ,he rebranding the Sarawak .First of all he change the name of Sarawak into cochin(which is the name for harbor city located at west of india),on the later day the word cochin assimilate and the name mutated into Kuching which mean in malay kucing= Cat.Through out some resources like magazine,newspaper and whatsoever ,they said that Kuchng name came from the word Kucing(refer to cat).But the local Sarawak malay don’t use term kucing,they call cat as Pusak,while iban call cat as mayao.But in this modern world,people accepting Kuching city as a cat city whereas lot of Cat statue build around town,even the logo of Both DBKU and DBKS use cat as part of their emblem.So start from cochin ,the word mutated into Kuching.

10.Luckily,until today the River is still name as Sarawak River,I don’t know why James don’t change the river name into Kuching River, I think James maybe also want to change the river name but when lot of people still using the term,so he cant change it.Even for the kampong at nearby divisional mosque.Kampung ajibah habol,kampong Bintangor ,Kampung Bandarsahetc etc,my late grandfather told me that the kampong was known as Kampung Sarawak.The term still use even until 1970’s until the government renamed some road and lane even renamed the Kampung area into Political leader name and numbering it from 1 to 6(to make it easier to remember) .

11.So queen of England never recognized Kingdom of sarawak as james is not a king in matter of non royal James bloodline,even he is not from any noble and aristocratic family from England.He is just a commoner from Manchester and came to Nusantara,helping Sultan of Brunei against the mineres revolution,then proclaimed as white rajah of Asian people..ehmm.. haha itjust look like,very easy one become a king..huhu

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

great article cant believe im your only comment , had a old book on the raj years ago wich much to my regret i seem to have lost ,,

Anonymous said...

The original Sarawak river is found in near Lidah Tanah, Batu Kitang. Its a small tributary upstream, on the left bank before the weir.