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The British village town Simanggang I lived 40 years ago
gradually faded out of the memory of Malaysian. Replacing this town is a developing
new Sri Aman
Town. Simanggang name was changed to Sri Aman after the Deklarasi Sri Aman".
"Simanggang" a town most young Malaysian do not know where.
Now they call "Bandar Sri Aman"
In the 1960s' there was a small airport for "Fokker Friendship".
After 1 year of temporary of putting up with Uncle Wan family in Kuching, I flew alone
from Kuching to Semanggang at the age of 7 to reunion with the rest
of the family in Semanggang. That year was 1960.
The day Sarawak transformed from a British Colony to a
Malaysian new State I was in Simanggang as a primary 5 student in
Chung Hua School. That night Simanggang celebrates her independent with a
procession and I was standing in front the Simanggang Cinema watching the
procession.
I left Simanggang in the mid of 1964, together with Foong we
were sent
to Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu) to put up with Grandmother and Uncle Choi and
family.
It was around that month I left
Simanggang, I learned
later from history lessons '
that on the 20th May 1964, President Sukarno boasted that he would crush
Malaysia by the time the sun rises on the 1st January 1965'
As a boy in Simanggang I knew about
2 types of bed people in our world : the 'communist' in the jungle and the
'gangsters' in Kuching Town (now a city).
That they are
bad people and they are all Chinese. That the school teachers and parents try
hard to protect and prevent their children in joining either one of them when
they grow up.
It was not until in secondary school I
learned about the 'Indonesia
Confrontation' during which the INDONESIAN Border Terrorists crossed the border
and entered Sarawak and Sabah.
When I was in Calcutta between 1982 and 1984 I made a
trip
to Darjeeling and stayed with in a Baha'i youth who is a
Nepali. One cold night we all sat around to share stories. A former Gurkhas
elderly man told about his story as a solder in the British army in
Sarawak in the 1960s.....to protect Sarawak from the communists but he mentioned
no story of war or fighting.
Chinese Communists, the bad people
in the mind of the kids at that time,
under its Director and Political leader, Bong Kee Chok, wrote a letter to the
Chief Minister of Sarawak Government, Tan Sri Abdul Rahman Yaacob, to negotiate
favorable terms for the communists in the jungle to return to the society. The meeting
was held over three days in the residency of Simanggang and was concluded on
October 21, 1973. The wish of the communist was kindly granted. Subsequently, the town of Simanggang was renamed "Sri
Aman" Town of Peace to mark the historical event. Malaysia, under her kind
and wise leaders, since then grew into a prosperous young country in a peaceful society.
"Sri Aman" (Town of Peace) is the
new name for my old home town "Simanggang" when I returned after these long
years.
Pigeon is associated with peace. In Sri Aman, there is a stature
of two pigeons erected at the exact location where the historic event "Deklarasi
Sri Aman" or "Sri Aman Declaration" was held. Sri Aman is a Malay word for
peace.
"Sri Aman Declaration" was signed by the Chief Minister of Sarawak, Datuk Haji
Abdul Rahman Ya'kub and Mr Bong Kee Chok (Director and Commissioner of North
Kalimantan People Party, PARAKU) on the 21st October 1973 at the Rumah Sri Aman
(previously known as Residensi Simanggang).
Sri Aman is a peaceful place to stay. Currently, Sri Aman town is developed
at a very fast rate with a lot of new constructions being built. I lived in several towns and cities. The memory of those are by
now blur and confused. But except the several years in Simanggang Town I
still remember many event and instances vividly. I remembered the first time to watch Scotland Pipe and Drum Band perform on the padang behind our house.
A few Boy Scouts came one day when I was in school. The Boy
Scouts were rising fund by doing services from house to house and get a donation from the
households in return. My mother gave them something to do (perhaps clearing
the compound around the house) and contributed a few dollars.
Those day racial were very simple. I knew only 3 type of people
: the Chinese and The Dayaks and on top of them the "Hung-Mao Ren" (Red hair people) - the
British.
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