Pirates, princes and understatements

Steven Runciman's book “The White Rajahs” was originally published in 1960. It tells the curious story of James Brooke, a 19th century British adventurer who established himself at Kuching on the Indonesian island of Borneo. The area where Brooke landed is called Sarawak, and was at the time under the control of the Sultanate of Brunei. The control was pretty nominal, however, with the Sultan's princes and officials acting as petty sovereigns in their own right, fleecing the local population. Pirates, slave-raiders, Chinese triads and headhunting Dyak tribes were other problems in this truly God-forsaken part of the world. In 1841, Brooke was appointed ruler (Rajah) of Kuching and the immediately surrounding area. Over the next decades, James Brooke and his successor Charles Brooke managed to expand the territory considerably. In 1888, Sarawak became a British Protectorate, but it continued to function as a de facto independent state until 1946, when the third White Rajah, Charles Vyner Brooke, ceded the area to Britain. Today, Sarawak is part of the independent nation of Malaysia.

The rule of James Brooke and his successors proved popular among most sections of the diverse Sarawak population. The Ilanun pirates (slave-raiders from Ilanun Bay in the Philippines) had been a constant scourge along the Borneo coast, until Brooke managed to stop their operations with the aid of British gun ships and local Dyak warriors. His prohibition of Dyak headhunting was perhaps less popular, but most tribes eventually preferred peace and stability to the perennial conflicts that had characterized Sarawak before Brooke's advent. A new system of taxation eased the burdens on the local population considerably, often triggering rebellions in areas still controlled by the Sultan, with the rebels demanding that Brooke take over administration of their territory. The White Rajahs opposed too fast economic exploitation of Sarawak, fearing that this would harm the native population. Runciman describes Brooke and his dynasty as a positive example of enlightened despotism, a kind of paternalistic form of colonialism.

It's intriguing to note that Britain was originally uninterested in Sarawak, despite the White Rajah's constant lobbying for a British Protectorate over the area. At various points, the Brooke dynasty considered placing itself under Dutch or French protection, and there was even a none-to-serious plan to place Sarawak under nominal Greek suzerainty! Later, of course, the area became central to the world economy due to the discovery of oil. Ironically, most of the oil was discovered in areas still controlled by the dwindling Brunei Sultanate, making the rulers of this enclave some of the richest in the world…

In a book published in 1960, some things couldn't be said openly. Runciman strongly implies that Rajah James Brooke was a homosexual, but never says so explicitly. Male homosexuality was still illegal in Britain the year the book was published. (James Brooke's successor Charles wasn't his son, but a nephew.) Runciman's book also contains the following, almost bizarre piece of understatement: “Not only was the Duke of Brabant later, as Leopold II and ruler of the Congo, to show that he wasn't a suitable man to deal with native races...”. That's rather like saying that Adolf Hitler was somewhat awkward at Jewish-German relations… Another weakness of Runciman's account is that he says very little about why Rajah Vyner decided to cede Sarawak to Britain in 1946, and the political crisis following the decision (including protest marches and the assassination of a the British governor). Surely this must have been part of some big picture, with Britain and other Western colonial powers attempting to reassert their authority in Asia after Japan's defeat in World War II?

Otherwise, Runciman's book is quite good and well-written, with many of the colourful characters of Sarawak's history coming to life: imbecile Sultans, scheming but ultimately cowardly Brunei princes, rowdy Anglican bishops, and the Dyaks, with their headhunting traditions…

A final piece of information not found in this book. The last Rajah, Charles Vyner Brooke, had a heir-apparent, the Rajah Muda Anthony Brooke, who never got the opportunity to ascend the throne, due to Vyner's cession of the area to Britain. Instead, Anthony became a peace activist working for the United Nations. In that capacity, he became a friend of…David Spangler.

The world is small.