Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
— George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright
As we usher in 60 years of Independence, we must be mindful that we have a sparkling gem of pride in the North East Sarawak.
Nestled next to Brunei Darussalam, it was once part of fiefdom of the world’s richest man Sir Hassanal Bolkiah with the greatest discovery — ‘Black Gold’ or crude oil.
On May 20, 2005 this ‘gateway’ to the vast Borneo hinterland which was declared as a city and metropolis, has now blossomed into a ‘city of enchantment’.
Miri’s owes it rich history to three personalities — Governor Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, former deputy chief minister Tan Sri Datuk Patinggi Dr Chan Hong Nam and a host of brave Baram natives.
Miri is what it is today, thanks to some of our iconic Sarawakians whose ancestors survived many inter-tribal wars and failed rebellions against their caretakers before submitting to the modern world.
I stand proud of these natives, the likes of Long San Kelabit millionaire, Datuk Seri Stephen Wan Ullok and his countryman, birds’ nests concessionaire the late George Wan whose forebear was Temenggong Lawai Jau, a founding member of independent Malaysia.
Having written two books on Sarawak’s greatest natives ‘The Legacy of Temenggong Lawai Jau’ (2006) and ‘Journey into the Central Highlands’ (2015), their testimonies are legendary.
With a large majority of ‘Orang Ulu’ having schooled at Miri’s premier school Tanjung Lobang, it’s no wonder that Baram produced Sarawak’s first native gynaecologist Dr Roland Dom Mattu and paediatric cardiologist Dr Philip Raja Shell and scores of Shell-trained university graduates.
Needless to say, the Greatest ‘Mirian’ is Abdul Taib, who was born in Kampung Sungei Merbau on May 21, 1936.
His great-grandfather was a Brunei noble Pehin Dato Orang Kaya Setia Raja.
Before the arrival of the Brookes, Brunei’s aristocrats administered their massive empire under their ‘Pengiran’ and Arab-Malay-Melanau Sharifs who were appointed governors.
In 1841 ‘Sarawak’ was a small territory comprising in south-western corner of Borneo ruled by a family of despotic but benevolent English ‘White Rajahs’.
Beyond Kuching, the country was administered by four governors, namely Sharif Sahap (Upper Sadong), Sharif Japar (Lingga from the Batang Lupar estuary to Simanggang ), Sharif Mular (upper Skrang) and Sharif Mashor (Sarikei).
Charles Bamfylde and S Baring Gould in ‘A history of Sarawak under its two white Rajahs’ (1909) said that Saribas was governed by Malays,
However, the three provinces of Bintulu, Mukah and Oya came under another class of Brunei Pengirans known as ‘Setia Rajahs’ or the loyalists.
Speaker of the State Legislative Tan Sri Mohamad Asfia Awang Nasar in ‘Taib’s 40 Years in Service’ (2003) said that Taib’s great-grandfather was a founding member of the present Council Negri or Dewan Undangan Negeri.
On September 8, 1867 following the cession of Mukah to the Sarawak government, the first Council Negri meeting was held in Bintulu by the acting ‘Rajah’ Charles.
Following the Council Negri meeting Datuk Orang Kaya Setia Raja continued his services as Mukah’s governor for 26 years until his retirement in 1894.
After Taib became chief minister in March 26, 1981 many roads and locations in the state, particularly Mukah, were named after Taib’s famous ancestor.
Another Miri-born pioneer is Taib’s political compatriot and schoolmate Dr George Chang, 86, who was MP for Lambir and assemblyman for Piasau as well as Miri Municipal Council (MMC) chairman in 1982.
Dr Chan was Taib’s longest-serving deputy chief minister from 1998 till 2011.
However, I had the opportunity to interview another prominent ‘unsung hero’ from Miri, China-born migrant Datuk Lau Sui Wai from Chaozhou province.
A World War 2 survivor who eked a living in Hong Kong in the 1940s and 1950s, Lau rose to become the colony’s ‘triad’ secret societies (Chinese mafia) gang leader.
I travelled to Miri last week to meet Lau, the auto-biographer of ‘Man with an Iron Will’ who celebrated his 93th birthday on August 14.
A spright man who has weathered the vicissitudes of life, he regaled me with his life journey worthy of a Hollywood movie.
His was a story of a descendent of a high-ranking officer from the ancient Qui dynasty, whose family suffered under the Japanese during the war.
By the time the war ended in 1945, his father Lau Cheung Chou, who operated a rice distribution business from Hong Kong to China, was bankrupt.
He reminisced: “Before 1949, I was brought up in a well to do family but after that the Chinese communist government fined us a few million yen. They classified us as great landlords and confiscated all our properties.
“We became poor. Even our overseas business was sold to pay the fine. We had nothing left. My father still tried hard to give me $15 a month of which $12 was monthly school fees, leaving me only $3 for miscellaneous expenses.”
This led to the hard-headed youth ‘fleeing’ into the world of thugs, the infamous Hong Kong secret society of triads who ran the underworld.
A close friend Gwen Kao, of United Kingdom, wrote of Lau’s life in Hong Kong in a transcript in his book ‘Iron Will’ of his life as a gangster.
After using his business acumen to clinch a business deal with a large textile company in Kowloon, the triads asked him to be the ‘tai kor’ or boss of the organisation.
Lau in the transcript said: “Being an advisor of the triad, my pay increased to a princely sum of one thousand dollars a month.
“You know, the top guys (triads) are nice people, gentle and kind. They run the gang just like business, dress smartly and look like regular businessmen.
“It’s just that the business they run is illegal.”
As the police closed in on the triads, Lau fled to Macau and returned to Hong Kong when the coast was clear.
Jobless, he was introduced to Catholic Brother Cronan from the St Josephs’ college, hoping to escape from the triads and change his way of life.
Brother Cronan asked him: “Are you prepared to go to Borneo to work? This place is famous for headhunting.”
His reply was: “My head is of no value and I and not afraid of being hunted. As long as I have a job, I am willing to go to the North or South Pole.”
On the recommendation of the Hong Kong agent for Shell Oilfield Ltd, he left for Miri, arriving on July 2, 1953.
Lau said “Miri’s population in the1950s was about 20,000 and I told myself I am going to make this place a city like Hong Kong.”
After 11 years with Shell, Lau tried his hand at business and building schools.
In 1964, he established the Miri Secondary School, a private English school for dropouts.
In 1969, his passion for education prompted him to give 800 students a remission of school fees.
Another benchmark was achieving his dream of bringing Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia to start a campus in Miri in 1998.
By 2012, Miri had 10 International Schools.
At the same time his first housing project in 1966 was Merbau Estate when he built 150 homes.
Ten years later in 1975 major he built 500 houses at Piasau Garden.
A decade later in 1980 he built Hilltop Garden in 1980.
After two failed ventures in Australia where he operated a food business and Thailand where he was involved in a joint-venture, he returned to Sarawak.
In 1990, at the age of 60, he was back in business, establishing Miri’s first business complex — Bintang Jaya Commercial Centre and Bintang Plaza Shopping Complex, followed by Desa Senadin mixed development.
On my recent trip to Miri, I stayed at Lau’s five-star Meritz hotel, the city’s first international hotel, at the Bintang Mall complex.
Since Miri was declared a city in 2008, the airport has been expanded and the coastline redefined with new housing estates on reclaimed land.
Today, Miri is a thriving true metropolis and hub for the development in northern Sarawak.
The network of logging roads into Baram to as far as the Bario Highlands, had vastly improved communication.
Within the next three years, the Pan-Borneo Highway and the ‘missing link’ of 50km between Bario and Lawas’s border village of Ba Kelalan, will be completed.
By 2030 and true to Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg’s prediction, Sarawak will be a pride of Malaysia and Miri — the Jewel of the North.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
