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Local history experts are of the view that there is still a grey area over how Sabah was developed before it entered into the Federation of Malaysia.
They are still searching for pieces of the puzzle of what had transpired between the time when Sabah was administered by the British government after the Japanese surrendered at the end of World War II and the formation of Malaysia in 1963.
According to professor Dr Danny Wong of Universiti Malaya (UM), what is known of the period is sketchy at best.
He was among those who lamented the lack of studies on Sabah’s history during the period between 1946 and 1963.
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| There is a pocket of the past which is missing from Sabah's history and little attempt is being made to find this piece of the puzzle. |
In his keynote address on Sabah’s history during the 50th anniversary of the Sabah Society here, he said what was available is the pioneering work by the late James Ongkili.
But his research on Sabah’s history, however, focused mainly on the political awakening of the state in the 1960s.
Another expert, associate professor Dr Bilcher Bala, from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), shared Wong’s views.
He believes that the events which happened during that time are the key to understanding how Sabah and Sarawak were groomed by the British to form Malaysia.
He explained that Sabah was a British protectorate administered by the British North Borneo Company before the outbreak of the war.
Dire straits
When Sabah, left in shambles by Allied bombings during World War II, was handed over to the British administration after the war ended, the British political masters were tasked to rebuild the basic infrastructures, amenities, educational system and medical facilities for the welfare of Sabahans who had survived the Japanese occupation.
“Sabah was bombed by the British and the US before they took over the state under Operation Burning Borneo.
“So after the war, the British came back to rebuild, including the schools, and send the children back to schools,” Bala said.
The purpose of the rebuilding efforts was to prepare Sabah for independence.
This was part of an agreement that the British had signed with the US to let go of their colonies and give them the freedom of self-governance.
However, the British’s economy was at that time in dire straits and rebuilding Sabah would have been costly.
“The British were bankrupt after the war. So they embarked on a project to make Sabah and Sarawak independent, as part of an agreement with the US, to let go of their colonies after World War II, on condition that the states would be prepared before they were given independence,” he said.
During the period, the British implemented three development policies to develop Sabah to become a state capable of self-governance. It started with the First North Borneo Development Plan (1948-1955) followed by the Second North Borneo Development Plan (1955-1960) and the Third North Borneo Development Plan (1959-1964).
All this was made possible with voluntary aid from international organisations that were formed under the purview of the United Nations and other nations, Bilcher said.
“In 1947, the British government was earning 6.8 million pound in Sabah but it had to spend 11.5 million pound to rebuild the state.
“The British had to take loans from international bodies, including those from the US and Brunei, just to rebuild Sabah,” Bala said.
Colombo Plan
Education in Sabah was also an important aspect of the rebuilding efforts to develop leaders with political vision in preparation for the granting independence to the state.
Teachers and technical skill trainers were sent from Australia, England, New Zealand, Singapore and India to help train the local population.
Native voluntary schools, or schools that were built by villagers on their own lands, were staffed by foreign teachers brought in as volunteers. This was encouraged by the British administrators.
“In 1961, there were 30 native voluntary schools and by the time Sabah was independent, there were 520 native schools that were converted into government schools,” Bala said.
In 1950, when the British and Commonwealth nations introduced the Colombo Plan, Sabahans were sent to study overseas under scholarships for technical skill training and higher education.
“Many Sabahans were sent under the Colombo Plan. Many who became political leaders during independence and the formation of Malaysia were trained under the Colombo Plan,” he said.
By 1961, talks on the Federation of Malaysia were proposed in the newly independent state of Malaya and this was what Sabah and Sarawak had been groomed for.
“The federation of Malaysia was a merging programme under the influence of the British, as a strategic method to fight against communism because Sabah and Sarawak would be too fragile if they were alone, especially with Indonesia having an interest in both states.
“So in a way, the British let Sabah and Sarawak join with the Peninsula to form Malaysia as a matter of cooperation – to work together in development, with the hope that Malaya would help Sabah to develop itself.
“So the period is very significant because it was a time when the British basically brought up the people of Sabah and Sarawak after going through the Japanese occupation,” Bala said.
Great efforts
According to Bala, the British had “struggled and expended great efforts despite not having enough funds” to rebuild and develop Sabah.
“If the British didn’t care, I think we wouldn’t be where we are today,” he said.
Bala, who compiled this information while writing his doctoral thesis, said this was only a brief history of that time and there is still the 17 “missing” years.
Other than a certain lack of interest by researchers, historical documents corresponding to the times are hard to come by as most are in overseas archives and libraries.
“We have few documents during the period because it was during the British colonial administration and most of them are in the archives in London or in the Library of the Congress in the US.
“We have very few historians in Sabah doing studies on Sabah and Sarawak and there were not many people keeping records of the two states until after 1963.
“If anyone wants to do a study about this period, they would have to enrol in the University of London to do the research or they would have to gain access to the archives in London or the Library of the Congress,” he said.
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