Place:Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia

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Sibu is an inland city in the central region of Sarawak. It is the capital of Sibu District in Sibu Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. The city is located on the island of Borneo and covers an area of . It is located at the confluence of the Rajang and Igan Rivers, some 60 kilometres from the South China Sea and approximately north-east of the state capital Kuching. Sibu is mainly populated by people of Chinese descent, mainly from Fuzhou. Other ethnic groups such as Iban, Malay and Melanau are also present, but unlike other regions of Sarawak, they are not as significant. The cities population as of 2010 is 162,676.

Sibu was founded by James Brooke in 1862 when he built a fort in the town to fend off attacks by the indigenous Dayak people. Following this, a small group of Chinese Hokkien people settled around the fort to carry out business activities safely in the town. In 1901, Wong Nai Siong led a large scale migration of 1,118 Foochow Chinese people from Fujian, China into Sibu. The first hospital in Sibu, as well as the Sibu bazaars, were built by the Brooke government. The Lau King Howe Hospital and a number of Methodist schools and churches were built in the 1930s. However, the town of Sibu was burnt to the ground twice, in 1889 and in 1928, but it was rebuilt after that. During the Japanese occupation of Sarawak, the Japanese installed a new Resident in Sibu in June 1942 and Sibu was renamed to "Sibu-shu" in August 1942. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Sarawak was ceded to the British as a Crown Colony. This had caused dissatisfaction amongst young Melanau people in Sibu who were pro-independence. As a result, the second British Governor of Sarawak, Sir Duncan George Stewart, was assassinated by Rosli Dhoby when he visited Sibu in December 1949. Rosli was later hanged to death at Kuching Central Prison in 1950. Sibu and the Rajang basin also became the centre of communist activities from 1950, which continued even after the Sarawak independence in 1963. A Rajang Security Command (RASCOM) was then established to curb communist activities in the area. Communist insurgency in Sarawak was significantly impaired in 1973 and later ended in 1990. Sibu was upgraded to municipality status in 1981. The city received a royal visit in September 2001. The city is also a gateway to the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) since 2008. In 2011, the 110th anniversary of Foochow settlement was celebrated in Sibu.

Sibu is the main tourist gateway to the Upper Rajang River, with its small riverine towns and its many Iban and Orang Ulu longhouses. Among notable landmarks in Sibu are Wisma Sanyan, the tallest building in Sarawak,^[1] Lanang Bridge (one of the longest river bridges in Sarawak) and the biggest town square in Malaysia, near Wisma Sanyan. The Lau King Howe Hospital Memorial Museum is the first and the only medical museum in Malaysia. Sibu Central Market is the biggest indoor market in Sarawak. Some tourists attractions in Sibu are the Sibu Heritage Centre, Tua Pek Kong Temple, Bawang Assan longhouses, Sibu Old Mosque, Jade Dragon Temple, Bukit Aup Jubilee Park, Bukit Lima Forest Park, Sibu Night Market, Borneo Cultural Festival (BCF), and Sibu International Dance Festival (SIDF). Timber and shipbuilding industries are the two major economic activities in Sibu.

History

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Bruneian Empire

In the 15th century, the Malays living in southern Sarawak displaced the immigrant Iban people towards the present-day Sibu region. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the Rajang basin was rife with tribal wars between the Ibans and indigenous people in the Rajang basin. The Ibans would occasionally form a loose alliance with the Malays to attack the Kayan tribes and perform raids on Chinese and Indonesian ships passing through the region.

Kingdom of Sarawak (Brooke administration)

James Brooke began his rule of Sarawak (present day Kuching) in 1841 after he obtained the territory from the Bruneian Empire.^[2] In 1853, Sarawak has expanded its territory to include the Sibu region. Sibu was a small village with several shop-houses. Such shophouses were built with atap roofs with wooden walls and floors.^[2] The earliest inhabitants of Sibu were the Melanau people, followed by the Iban and Malay people in the 1850s.^[1] Sibu Fort (Fort Brooke), which was built by Rajah Brooke in 1862, was located at the present day Channel Road in Sibu. It served as an administrative centre for the Brooke government in Sibu.^[3] However, it was demolished in 1936. It was common for the White Rajah to build such forts to stake his territorial claim as well as means of protection. The existence of Sibu Fort is proven by historical writings:

On 13 May 1870, the fort was attacked by 3,000 Kanowit Dayaks under the leadership of a Dayak chief named Lintong (Mua-ri). The Dayaks tried to cut through the door of the fort by using axes but they were later defeated by the Brooke administration. According to Sarawak Gazette, on 24 January 1871, there were 60 wooden shops in Sibu. In 1873, the third division of Sarawak was created which included the town of Sibu.^[2]

The first Chinese arrival in Sibu was in the 1860s.^[4] A group of Hokkien people built two rows of 40 shophouses around Sibu Fort (Fort Brooke). The Hokkien Chinese were a minority at that time, mostly consisting of Kekhs and Min Nan people who were doing business. A small number of Chiang Chuan and Amoy people later arrived at Sibu mostly due to commercial interests.^[2] By 1893, Munan Anak Minggat and his followers arrived in Sibu. They built a longhouse at Pulau Kerto, an island at the bend of Rajang River opposite Sibu near the Rajang and Igan rivers. He was a loyal war-leader to the Brooke government and helped to quash Iban rebellions around Upper Katibas and Lupar rivers in the 1860s and 1880s. In 1903, he was the first Iban to operate a rubber plantation in Kuching. He later invested the profits of his rubber plantation to shop-houses and lands in Sibu.^[3]

On 10 February 1889, the town of Sibu was burnt to the ground, which caused a developmental delay. The first hospital in Sibu was built by the Brooke government in 1912. It was a wooden single-storey building measuring 50 to 60 feet long, with an outpatient department, male and female wards.^[4] On 8 March 1928, Sibu was again consumed by a great fire. However, the Tua Pek Kong Temple remained intact. The locals considered this a miracle.

Chinese Foochow settlement

Wong Nai Siong, a Christian scholar from Gutian County, Fujian, China, learnt about Sarawak and the White Rajahs through his son-in-law, Dr Lim Boon Keng. Disillusioned with the Qing Dynasty's heavyhanded approach against the Boxer Rebellion, where Chinese Christians were specially targeted for murder, Wong decided to search for a new settlement overseas, focusing on areas in South East Asia. Before arriving in Sarawak, Wong had looked for other areas in Malaya and Indonesia to settle, albeit unsuccessfully.

Wong got an approval from Charles Brooke to look for a new settlement in the Rajang basin. In April 1900, Wong travelled 13 days up the Rajang River before he decided to choose Sibu as the new settlement for his Foochow clansmen, due to the area near Rajang delta being suitable for growing crops.^[2] An agreement was signed on 9 July 1900 between Wong Nai Siong and the Brooke government in Kuching to allow Chinese settlers into the area.^[2]

On 21 January 1901, the first batch of 72 settlers arrived at Sibu and settled at the Sungai Merah area, about 6 km from the town of Sibu. On 16 March 1901, the second batch of 535 settlers arrived - the day that they settled is now known as "New Foochow Resettlement Day". In June 1901, a final batch of 511 settlers arrived in Sibu, which brought the total number of Foochow settlers to 1,118. Wong Nai Siong was appointed as "Kang Choo" (港主, "port master") for the Foochow settlement in Sibu. The settlers planted sweet potatoes, fruits, sugar cane, vegetables, and coarse grains at high grounds and rice in wetlands. Following their work in Sibu, most settlers choose to stay and called the place their new home. Together with an American pastor, Reverend James Matthew Hoover, Wong became involved in the building of schools and churches in Sibu, including the Methodist church in 1902 and Ying Hua Methodist school at Sungai Merah in 1903.^[2][5] From 1903 to 1935, James Hoover helped to build 41 churches and 40 schools in Sibu. Between 1902 and 1917, 676 Cantonese people arrived in Sibu.^[2]

In 1904, Wong opposed the sale of opium and the building of a casino in the Sibu area, proposed by the Brooke government. He was later expelled by the Sarawak government due to a failure to repay debt. Wong and his family left Sibu in July 1904.^[5] Rev. James Hoover took over Wong's role of managing the Sibu settlement and introduced the first rubber seedlings to Sibu in 1904.^[6] He built a Methodist church in 1905, which was later renamed to Masland Methodist church in 1925. Hoover stayed at the Rajang basin for another 31 years until his death from malaria in 1935 at the Kuching General Hospital. The construction of Lau King Howe Hospital was completed in 1936 to accommodate the growing population of Sibu. The hospital served the people of Sibu for 58 years until 1994 when a new hospital was constructed in Sibu.^[4]

By 1919, the influence of Chinese Civil War had spread to Sarawak when the Kuomintang set up its first branches in Sibu and Kuching. The Rajah at the time, Charles Brooke opposed such political activity by the local Chinese and had expelled several local Kuomintang leaders. However, his son, Charles Vyner Brooke, was more receptive of such activities by the local Chinese people, who had also participated in a donation drive to aid the Kuomintang in its fight against Japanese invasion on the Chinese mainland. After World War II ended, local Kuomintang leaders supported the cessation of Sarawak to the British as a Crown Colony, which was met with opposition from the local communist leaders. Clashes between the communists and Kuomintang supporters were common. The Kuomintang branches in Sarawak were finally dissolved in 1949 when the party lost the Chinese Civil War to the Communist Party and retreated to Taiwan. However, clashes between the two sides continued until 1955 when the Kuomintang's newspaper was banned by the colonial British government in May 1951; while the communists' newspaper ceased to exist in 1955 due to financial difficulties.

Japanese occupation

Japanese forces first landed in Miri on 16 December 1941, and conquered Kuching on 24 December. On 25 December, Sibu was bombed by 9 Japanese warplanes flown from Kuching. The Resident of the Third Division, Andrew MacPherson, believed that the Japanese would start to invade Sibu following the air attack. He and his officer later fled Sibu to the upstream of Rajang River. They planned to pass through Batang Ai and trek through the forests to reach Dutch Borneo. However, they were caught and killed by the Japanese at Ulu Moyan, Sarawak.

In the evening of 26 December 1941, Sibu people started to ransack an unguarded government rice storeroom. Some villagers staying along the Rajang River also came to steal for daily necessities. The situation soon got out of control. British Sime Darby company, Borneo Company Limited, and Chinese businessmen became the victims of the riots. The Chinese businessman decided to form a security alliance to calm down the chaos. On 29 January 1942, a Japanese advance team was invited from Kuching to restore order in Sibu, who then later fled from Sibu back to Kuching. The power vacuum continued to exist in the third division until 23 June 1942, when the Japanese headquarters in Kuching sent Senda Nijiro to become the new Resident of the Third Division of Sarawak. After he took office, he immediately declared that Imperial Japanese Army would take total control of people's lives and property. On 8 August 1942, Sibu was renamed to "Sibu-shu".^[7]

The Japanese started to impose expensive taxes on Chinese people. They also started a Sook Ching operation on suspected anti-Japanese individuals. Under extreme torture, some Chinese individuals gave a false list of names of anti-Japanese groups. These lists would later lead to the death of innocent individuals at the Bukit Lima execution ground, while some individuals were sent to a prison at Kapit.

British Crown Colony

After the Japanese occupation of Sarawak ended in 1945, the last Rajah of Sarawak, Charles Vyner Brooke, decided to cede the state as part of the British crown colony of Sarawak. This proposal was met with fierce opposition from the locals, which later developed into the anti-cession movement of Sarawak. Rosli Dhobi was a Sarawak nationalist from Sibu and a member of the Malay Youth Movement (Gerakan Pemuda Melayu), where the main objective of the movement was to achieve Sarawak independence from British rule. At the age of 17, he assassinated Sir Duncan George Stewart, the second governor of colonial Sarawak on 3 December 1949. He and three of his accomplices (Awang Ramli Amit, Bujang Suntong, and Morshidi Sidek) were then sentenced to death by hanging and were buried at the Kuching Central Prison on 2 March 1950.^[8]

His remains was moved from the Kuching Central Prison and buried at the Sarawak Heroes Mausoleum near Sibu Town Mosque on 2 March 1996.^[8] To honour his involvement in the anti-colonial movement against the British, he and his associates who were involved in the assassination were later given a full state funeral by Sarawak state government.

Communist insurgency

Encouraged by the establishment of People's Republic of China in 1949, Sibu communist members started to establish themselves in Sarawak in the early 1950s. Huang Sheng Zi (黄声梓) from Bintangor became the president of Borneo Communist Party (BCP). BCP activities mostly concentrated in Sibu, Sarikei, and Bintangor. His brother, Huang Zeng Ting (黄增霆), who was also a communist, played an important role in the formation of first political party in Sarawak, Sarawak United Peoples' Party (SUPP) and became the party's first executive secretary. Sarawak Liberation League (SLL) was formed in 1954 following the consolidation of BCP with several other communist organisations.

The expansion of communism in Sibu relied heavily on student movements in several schools such as Chung Hua Secondary School (中华中学), Catholic High school (公教中学), and Wong Nai Siong High School (黄乃裳中学). Some of the communist strong points in Sibu were at Oya road and Queensway (now Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg). The movement was also supported by the intelligentsia and workers in Sibu. For example, Dr Wong Soon Kai supported the movement by supplying free medication.^[9] Kampung Tanjung Kunyit villagers were among those being harassed into providing food and medical supplies to the communists. On 30 March 1971, the communists launched an anti-porn movement. In early 1973, they launched another campaign which opposed tax increase and inflation of prices while endorsing an increase in workers' wages. Some of the communist volunteers would start to distribute pamphlets at shophouses, schools, and the wharf terminal. The group also started military operation against police stations and naval bases. Communist guerillas would behead anyone who was suspected of being a government informant. The town was put under on-and-off 24-hour curfews for several months.

On 25 March 1973, the Sarawak government, led by chief minister Abdul Rahman Ya'kub started to clamp down on communist activities at the Rajang basin by setting up "Rajang Special Security Area". A day later, Rajang Security Command (RASCOM) was formed as a result of co-operation of civil, military, and police command headquarters. By August 1973, several communist members were captured by the government. The captured members provided crucial details for the government to further impair the communist movement. On 22 September 1973, Abdul Rahman started "Operation Judas". A total of 29 people from the town of Sibu were captured. Among those captured were doctors, lawyers, businessmen, teachers, and one former member of parliament. Following the surrender of a communist movement in Sri Aman on 21 October 1973, the communist activities at Rajang basin began to subside and would not be able to recover to its previous strength. Communist movement of Sarawak finally ended in 1990.^[9]

Recent developments

On 1 November 1981, the local council which administered the town of Sibu (Sibu Urban District Council) was upgraded to Sibu Municipal Council. The area of administration of Sibu expanded from 50 km² to 129.5 km². In 1994, Sibu Airport and Sibu Hospital were constructed. In 2001, Wisma Sanyan construction was completed. Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah visited Sibu from 16 to 17 September 2001 to close a month-long Malaysian Independence Day Celebration at Sibu Town Square.

Between 1999 and 2004, Sibu Municipal Council decided to adopt the swan as a symbol of Sibu to inspire the people to work towards the goal of becoming a city in the future. Since then, a Swan statue has been erected near the Sibu wharf terminal and another statue is located in the town centre.^[1] Sibu is also nicknamed as "Swan City". This came from a legend where famine in Sibu ended when a flock of swans flew through the skies of Sibu. There is another story where the Sibu Chinese immigrants regarded Sibu Melanau people as "Go" people because a staple food of Melanau staple food was "Sago".

In 2006, the Lanang Bridge connecting Sibu to Sarikei was opened. Sibu also functions as the gateway to Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE). The town of Sibu and its surrounding areas has been the subject of several developmental projects since 2008. In 2011, the 110th anniversary of Foochow settlement was celebrated in Sibu. However, Sibu's population growth and economic development is relatively slow when compared to Miri and Bintulu.

Historical Excerpt

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