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MAT SALLEH - Part 1

It has been mentioned often in reports of the Chartered Company that the Mat Salleh Rebellion was the major disturbance in its 60-year administration. It challenged the authority of the British rulers who had come in unannounced, taking charge of a people scattered over 75,000 sq. km (29,000 sq. miles) of land. Indeed it would seem that the North Borneo Company was for many years quietly implementing all that was good for the people when all of a sudden this rebel, Mat Salleh, went on a rampage and upset the peace and order of the land.

Sadly, records available on the causes of the rebellion were written mostly by the administrators of the time. Mat Salleh's side of the story were downgraded and efforts to analyse his behaviour had been few.

What we have now are records written by the people Mat Salleh fought against. For many years school children of Sabah had been taught to deplore Mat Salleh as a trouble maker.'

When nationalistic feelings in the Sabahan were aroused after Independence, emotions ran high, discrediting all that had been said about the "rebel". The Sabahan was called upon to revere this personality. Mat Salleh was no longer looked upon as a rebel but a hero. Revolutionary or freedom fighter, precious little evidence can be studied of Mat Salleh's thoughts, his fears and his reasons for killing and plundering in defiance of the British administration.

What is clear is that Mat Salleh was no ordinary man. He fought, he killed, and he was killed in the end.

During the first few years of Chartered Company rule Sabah was governed by keen and capable men. Men like W.H. Treacher and W. Pryer, M. Crocker, A.E. Davies and C.V. Creagh opened up the country and dealt with local administration anned only with dedication and zeal. Following the state's progress with equal earnestness were men like Alfred Dent and Sir Rutherford Alcock from the London Court of Directors.

In 1893 Sabah's financial position weakened. This resulted from overspending by the early administrators when the Company policy of stringent spending had not been enforced. Added to this was the general poor world economy.

In the following year W.C. Cowie, a Scottish adventurer, (who, prior to this was involved in gun-running activities for the Sulu authorities) was elected to the Court of Directors in London as the managing director. He decided to do away with the idea of just running an administration that was not going to yield any profits. In London a group of shareholders rallied behind him in -his ambition for dividends.

Dent, the founder, opposing Cowie's ideas, resigned. So did Alcock and Creagh. Cowie, within a short time had Leicester P. Beaufort (a lawyer with no experience of the east nor of administration) appointed as governor.'

Referring to Cowie and Beaufort K.G. Tregonning said,

"Between them the two nearly ruined North Borneo", . . . . . Beaufort the most incompetent Governor North Borneo ever acquired and who in the manner of nonentities, had a town named after him. . . . ."

Thinking he could expand the state's weakening economy Cowie launched two grand projects: a railway line from Brunei Bay to Cowie Harbour and a telegraphic line from Labuan to Sandakan. Both these projects cost the Chartered Company a great deal of money. To help pay for these two projects new taxes were imposed, among these was a new tax on rice, a staple food of many of the people. "The duty on rice added about 5% to its cost, and it produced a loud outcry from the Chinese, through their Advisory Council, and from the planters, through their Association. In 1898 they combined and with the native chiefs sent a strong petition to London, listing grievances, protesting at the increased charges, and particularly at the tax on rice. This was one of the irritants which undoubtedly influenced supporters of Mat Salleh, as rice was the staple food of everyone".' Poll-tax which had been collected earlier now caused unrest because of the manner of the native chiefs that Beaufort employed agents to collect this tax.

It was Cowie's belief, from the start of Mat Salleh's antigovernment activities, that the Bajau leader should be made to come to terms with the Chartered Company. He felt it illadvised to hunt down Mat Salleh for punishment. So strongly did Cowie think about this that he personally came to Sabah to negotiate with Mat Salleh in 1898.

After a personal meeting with Mat Salleh Cowie verbally agreed to grant a pardon for Mat Salleh and his followers on condition they stopped fighting and to make their homes in Tambunan. Tambunan at the time was not under Chartered Company control. The Tambunan people would therefore come under his authority. Cowie also promised him a present (an unspecified sum of money and help towards Mat Salleh's pilgrimage to Mecca) if he did not cause trouble in the next 12 months. Then he would also be allowed to return to the coast.

Although Cowie reasoned that these were fair terms of submission many of the Sabah administrators thought these concessions were outrageous.

Among those who resigned in protest were G. Hewett, the West Coast Resident, Captain T.M. Reddie, the Commandant of Police, G. Ormsby, the North Keppel District Officer, P. Wise and one or two other west coast officers.

Also, from his handling of the Mat Salleh negotiations, Cowie lost the support of the Court of Directors in London. They initially felt it absurd to settle the matter by negotion. Further, Cowie in Sabah had failed in communicating to London the exact lines taken by the government in pursuing Mat Salleh. His reports of Mat Salleh's exploits and the stands taken by the government were unclear.

On the other hand there were many in Sabah who felt, quite unwisely, that Cowie had succeeded in making Mat Salleh come to terms with the government. These people felt Mat Salleh had been let off too lightly. The British North Borneo Herald leader of May 2, 1898 ran:

"Both the Government and the shareholders of the British North Borneo Company may be congratulated upon the sub mission of Mat Salleh a general sense of relief that an initating source of worry has been done away with will be generally felt, even by those who would have dealt with him in a harsher manner. It will be noted that certain conditions he tried to make were peremptorily negatived and that the prestige of the Government has not suffered in the hands of Mr. Cowie or Goverrmor to the ex-rebel".

When the terms of submission were drawn up for Mat Salleh's signature however, the Bajau felt he had been double-crossed. The verbal agreement reached was that he and his followers were all to be pardoned. The written agreement stated that some of his followers who were escaped prisoners were not pardoned. For this he immediately started building a fort in Tambunan.

Cowie blamed Beaufort for this blunder. In return Beaufort criticised Cowie for the concession.

When the Chartered Company assumed control over Sabah certain areas still remained part of Brunei's jurisdiction. These included independent rivers like the Mengkabong, Menggatal, Gantisan and Api-Api. Eventually the Company tried to bring under control many of these areas in its efforts for expansion.

From neighbouring Sarawak Rajah Charles Brooke issued strong objections to this. He had entertained hopes of inheriting the then declining Brunei Sultanate. In addition Rajah Brooke felt the advent of the Chartered Company a threat to his kingdom.

With the development of Mat Salleh's agitation, Chartered Company officials felt it imperative to get control of these areas and police them.

Coupled with this and Cowie's wish to personally negotiate with Mat Salleh the two met for the first time on April 22, 1898. Menggatal came under the Chartered Company control on the same day.

Minimum spending of any kind by the Chartered Company authorities was the order of the day. This even extended to the police force. In 1882 there were only about 50 men in the force. The majority of these were Sikhs sent by Hugh Low from Perak to suppress the Padas Damit rebellion in 1888. Inspector De Fontaine, in 1883, found the force, "scattered around the east and west coast stations totally undisciplined, with arms of different types and six different uniforms……..

The "Dyaks" referred to in the police force elsewhere in this chapter were the natives of Sarawak during the Rajah Brooke days. They were later known as lbans. "Dyaks" was a term loosely used by the Sarawak Malays and the Europeans. The lbans in their customary ways of wanderlust found jobs in the Chartered Company service and soon the "native" police employed were the lbans.

According to Ian Black ., a historian, "The Court preferred that police be recruited locally, both for reasons of expense and to avoid any criticism that imported aliens were to be used to subdue a native population .......

However, none of the Sabahan natives seemed overly-keen to join the force.