Kota Kinabalu: Sabah has three internationally significant tourism attractions that have been largely overlooked or taken for granted until now and it is never too late to brag about them to the world.“Indeed one of them is sitting right on our doorstep and many of us see it every day when we pass the HongKong Bank or Standard Chartered Bank area, without knowing its importance.
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“The barely 100ft by 50ft spot popularly known as ‘Pillars of Borneo’ because artists were fond of painting their works and graffiti is where Britain decided to stop adding any more colonies to its once mighty Empire.
“Which makes this spot the most important piece of real estate in colonial history which you will not come across anywhere else in the Commonwealth.
“It happened on 15.2.1947 upstairs on the first floor of the wooden building which at that time was one of only three structures that survived the war-time bombing, the others being the current Sabah Tourism office and Atkinson’s clock tower. All were built between 1900 and 1920.
“Everyone who was somebody was present that day, including Commissioner-General for South East Asia Sir Malcolm MacDonald to witness the official handover of jurisdiction from the British North Borneo Chartered Company to the Crown due to the former’s inability to administer British North Borneo (now Sabah) after the war,” said Daily Express Chief Editor James Sarda.
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Above: British Military Administration authorities accepting the declaration which officially made Sabah the last British colony. Holley (top, right) said the proclamation was read in the upstairs of the building. Seen are Sir Malcolm (white), Police Commissioner Plunkett and second Governor Sir Ralph Hone (behind Malcolm).
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Sir Edward Twinning took his oath as the first post-war Governor during the occasion. Sarawak was the second last addition when Charles Vyner Brooke handed over the territory to the Crown a few months earlier.
“In a matter of six months after acquiring British North Borneo, the British Government gave in to the crippling passive resistance (Satyagraha) movement of Mahatha Gandhi and decided to grant independence first to India on 15 Aug 1947,” said James, stressing that it’s all recorded by late Stephen Holley in his autobiography.
James said this when invited to speak at the launch of the book “Moments In Time Past” by former Chief Minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat at the Hilton recently. He said he felt it timely to bring this up in view of Chong’s appointment as Special Adviser on Tourism to the Chief Minister.
Holley was Sabah’s first State Secretary for almost a year under Tun Fuad Stephens. He served as Under-Secretary to the last Governor Sir William Goode before independence through the formation of Malaysia on 16.9.1963.
Holley was also the Secretary of the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) whose consultations involving Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and British North Borneo paved the way for the formation of Malaysia. His signature is among those in the Malaysia Agreement 1963, alongside Tunku Abdul Rahman, Lee Kuan Yew, Stephens and Tun Mustapha.
James said many mistakenly believe that HongKong was the last acquisition of the Empire when it was merely the maturing of 100-year treaty promising to hand over sovereignty to China that was signed in 1897.
Japanese troops surrendering their weapons at the site. The premises was used to store them. – Pic courtesy of Australian War Memorial.
Britain continued acquiring colonies long after that treaty but it stopped with Sabah. For the record Barbados was the latest to declare independence from Britain on Nov. 30, this year.
Holley’s book titled “White Headhunter In Borneo” was authored at the urging of James, who interviewed him when he came on a down-memory-lane visit in 2000 at age 80. The book’s title is owed to the fact that he was entrusted with the role of identifying and grooming Sabah’s first batch of leaders, including Stephens, Mustapha and Tan Sri Harris Salleh.
He disclosed that Sabah was the empire’s last acquisition when James interviewed him at the Shangrila Tanjung Aru Resort.
“Sabah was our last colony. We acquired Sarawak a few months earlier but it was the second last. After Sabah, (Whitehall) decided to stop and start preparing the ground for independence,” James recalled Holley telling him. Sarawak became a Crown colony on July 1, 1946.
James who has a Masters in Journalism from Cardiff University and is a Chevening scholar, suggested to Holley to make it officially known in his memoirs that eventually came out five years later. It is the only one available today that detailed the reconstruction period of Sabah from after the war until independence.
Sketches of the building done by well known architect Richard Nelson Sokial.
“The book took that long because Holley wanted to cross check many of the things he remembered with his own notes. His memory was superb even at that age but being a top notch civil servant he wanted to be sure about his facts,” James said. The book was fact-checked for accuracy of dates, etc, by Prof. Datuk Dr Danny Wong, who heads the History Faculty in Universiti Malaya.
The ‘Pillars of Borneo’ site has further historical importance beyond the proclamation as it served as the headquarters of the British North Borneo Chartered Company when it was built around 1910. The building was occupied by Japanese troops during the war and was also where the Japanese weapons were stored when they surrendered.
Before the war it served as the Lands and Survey’s office of George Woolley, known for recording the adat of the natives as he crisscrossed the state to survey Native Title lands, besides taking pictures. It served as a Welfare Department office during the PBS administration, until it was closed as being structurally unsafe and subsequently destroyed in a mysterious fire.
James urged Chong, as Special Tourism Adviser to the Chief Minister, to impress upon the State Government to rebuild the site as it has immense historical value not just for Sabah, but also Britain and the Commonwealth.
Hence, he said funding could be sought from the British Government through the Commonwealth Office because it was also about their history as much as ours.
James said the other important historical attractions are the Death March route where some 2,000 Allied troops (including 600 British troops) died while forced to march by their Japanese captors through some 200km of dense jungle from Sandakan to Ranau.
Only six survived and James said the actual trek which has been confirmed passes through Class One Forest Reserves and could be developed for hiking, ecotourism as well as for an extreme sport, such as staging a Death March Run, for the world’s fittest, much like the Spartan race.
The third globally and historically significant gem about Sabah is that the State, particularly the Kinabatangan, was the subject of the world’s first wildlife documentary by Hollywood couple Martin and Osa Johnson in 1920, called “Jungle Calling”. The Johnsons returned in 1935 to make another movie called “Borneo”.
James also suggested to Chong that it may also be worth looking into the prospect of having a cable car service to Mount Kinabalu, as was originally planned by Tan Sri Harris during the Berjaya administration but apparently didn’t take off due to the change of government and priorities.
He said this is based on feedback from the public, many of whom wished to experience the crisp mountain air but are unable to do so either because they are physically unable to make the climb 13,435ft or faced restrictions in terms of the cap on the number of people who can climb at any given time.
“They said a cable car to 11,000ft should suffice purely for non-climbers and it will be a sure tourism attraction as the only cable car service to the top of Borneo,” James said, adding it could also be useful during times of emergency, as had happened in the mountain many times.
He noted Penang Hill draws thousands of tourists every year wanting to experience the train ride to the top of the hill which is 2,700ft.
The building (background) during the 1960s.
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