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MAT SALLEH - Part 2

At the time Governor W.H. Treacher sent the Commandant of the British North Borneo Constabulary, A.M. Harrington, to India to recruit for police persormel.' This was also the practice of the Federated Malay States. The London Court of Directors were incensed at this kind of unnecessary expenditure and ordered Harrington back to Sabah. However, he had already enlisted 100 Sikhs, Sepoys and Somalis from Singapore, Perak and Penang.

Only when Mat Salleh's activities intensified and the authorities were sent hither and thither trying to hunt him down did they realise how weak its force was. Consequently, Governor Beaufort appealed to the Straits Settlement Government for troops and arms. Sir Charles Mitchell, the governor there, refused as Cowie was not much admired by Straits Settlements authorities." His successor, Sir James Alexander Swettenham was equally critical of the Chartered Company's rule."

In April 1898 when Cowie offered Mat Salleh to live in the Tambunan Valley and the right to lead the people there the area at the time had not come under Chartered Company rule.

In June the same year Cowie opened a station in Tambunan. Mat Salleh was given the message that he should work side by side with F.W. Fraser, the Keningau District Officer.

Understandably Mat Salleh viewed this as a breach of faith. Once more he and his followers went about raiding and killing.

The Inanam river was another area which was still under the control of the Brunei authorities. In 1896 Beaufort went to Brunei to buy the rights on customs, taxation and police control from the Brunei Sultan." The Inanam Bajaus became resentful over what they felt unwanted control by the British. Thus when Mat Salleh was looking for supporters for the raid on Gaya Island in 1897 they went readily enough. Subsequently the Chartered Company sent a force and burnt down all the Inanam villages.

The supernatural powers possessed by Mat Salleh and his principal wife, Dayang Bandang, are legendary.

Mat Salleh was the son of Datu Balu, a Sulu chief who controlled part of the Labuk and Sugut area prior to the Chartered Company days. His mother was Bajau and he spent part of his childhood in Inanam and Gaya Island.

He married Dayang Bandang, a Sulu princess, from the Court of the Sultan of Sulu. Mat Salleh himself was a pangeran. It has been claimed that Dayang Bandang never set foot on ground but was carried everywhere in a litter. There were other claims too that she was a witch.

Interestingly, when Mat Salleh replied to Cowie's request for a meeting between the two he said I say truly I very much wish to meet Tuan Cowie but my wife, Dayang Bandang, is afraid of the police who are near Tambunan"."

Cowie in his opening negotiations with Mat Salleh wrote to the latter mentioning that Dayang Bandang's father was a great friend of his." Cowie also said that he had known Mat Salleh's wife when she was a child.

The first records of Mat Salleh were in 1894 when he became a trader on the Sugut river. He had a band of followers even then. The first clash that Mat Salleh had with the authorities was when two lbans were killed by Mat Salleh's men in the same year.

Mat Salleh has been described as a tall, slim and pockmarked man. His personality, by all accounts, was a commanding one. Mat Salleh had been rated with above-average intelligence, a military affairs genius and it has also been said that as a youth he had been able to throw a buffalo by its horns. Other tales of Mat Salleh say that his mouth produced flames, his parang a lighting flash and rice scattered by him became wasps.

The pangeran also had a taste for fine clothes.

In his diary describing his first meeting with Mat Salleh

Cowie wrote of the latter's striking appearance. He was dressed in gold cap, smart green embroidered tunic, and Sulu embroidered trousers with no waistband. He wore no arms. His manner and appearance made me aware that I was face to face with the Rob Roy of British North Borneo, the notorious Mat Salleh, whom I at once saluted with a 'tabek' ". "

Among his own people he commanded great respect. When he found it necessary to increase his forces he easily picked up supporters enroute to his points of attack. A belief was also held by the people that Mat Salleh had performed the kebal rite. For this, the person who wants to become kebal goes into the deep jungle in his war gear and fasts for three days and three nights. He prays to the spirits of his ancestors. If successful, on his third night, his ancestors will bestow him with special knowledge. The person will then become invulnerable to weapons.

Mat Salleh's plan of undermining British rule in Sabah consisted of raiding and retreating to a fort. If the fort did not prove safe enough he would slip into the jungle. This was a method commonly used by warring chiefs in Borneo. His geography of Sabah was astounding, looking at the many slips he gave the authorites. He would attack at one point, disappear and surface again at the other end of the country.

But Mat Salleh was no ordinary chief. His forts were huge solid affairs, his legion of supporters swelled to large numbers when necessary.

Below is a description of Mat Salleh's Ranau fort by G. Hewett the West Coast Resident who led the expedition in destroying it."

"The fort was a most extraordinary place and without the guns would have been absolutely impregnable. The buildings covered three sides of a square, the fourth side being closed by a stone wall. The whole square was 20m by 18 (22 yards by 20) and the fact that over 200 shells burst inside will give some idea of its strength, the enemy still remaining in possession. The walls of the building were of stone, 2.5m (8 feet) thick with numerous large bamboos built into them for loop holes. The whole fort was surrounded with three bamboo fences with the twigs left on and the ground between was simply covered with sudah (bamboo spikes). On the outer walls all the loopholes were slanted so as to bear directly on the outer bamboo fence, but there were also places between the big stones on the top of the walls for firing through. On the side of the square the loopholes were also very cunningly arranged to repel internal attack. There was neither exit nor entrance to the buildings and had an attacking force, no matter how strong, succeeded in reaching the middle of the square they would have been no nearer capturing the place than if they had stayed away, and they would have been shot down like sheep by an invisible foe without the possibility of returning the fire.

"The houses were originally built some 2m (7 feet) or so off the ground, the stone walls being supported on heavy timbers. Subsequently the lower part was walled in and the ground inside excavated to afford a refuge. Fortunately they had left a narrow slit about 15 cm (6 inches) wide between the upper and lower walls and the shells had penetrated through this, the only possible spot, into their underground refuges.

"The outer enclosure which was carried by assault on the13th December proved to be almost a circle some 72 or 82m (80 or 90 yards) in diameter and closely packed with houses which entirely shut out all view of the rear of the strong hold, making it impossible to shell it effectively and the object of the assault at the first attack was not the capture of the stronghold but to expose its rear by destroying all the houses in the enclosure. In this we were entirely successful and had the assault not taken place the fort would still be in the hands of Mat Salleh".

During the troubled years that the Chartered Company encountered with Mat Salleh's exploits numerous punitive expeditions were sent into the wilds of Sabah to pursue him.

One of these expeditions was led by Raffles Flint, who in 1890, was in involved in a bloody massacre, killing between 130 to 140 Muruts at the Pegan River in the interior.19 This was in retaliation to the alleged murder of Walter Flint, Raffles' brother, by the Muruts there.

Mat Salleh's death, it has been said, resulted from a fluke shot from a maxim bullet during the seige of his Tambunan fort.

On February 1, 1900 a Bajau woman, known only as Niuk, on trying to escape from the fort, when apprehended said that Mat Salleh had been killed the day before, at noon.

Niuk said Mat Salleh's corpse had been shrouded in white for burial in the fort. Mat Salleh's body was the only one accorded this treatment.

Five other bodies were dug up before Mat Salleh's corpse was found. Fraser, the Keningau District Officer, who had met Mat Salleh on many occasions identified his body. This was confirmed by a Murut chief, "Kansanat," several Tiawan chiefs and Tuaran Dusuns. Mat Salleh's death must have been instantaneous as he had been shot through the left temple, the bullet was carried to the back of his head.

From this fort 31 prisoners were taken. They included three of Mat Salleh's wives, a son and a daughter." Dayang Bandang was sent back to the Court of the Sultan of Sulu.

Source : Sabah - The First 100 Years by Cecilia Leong, Pencetakan Nan Yang Muda Sdn. Bhd., Kuala Lumpur1982