It Is For Them We Labour, Not For Ourselves
The Kingdom of Sarawak remains a curiosity in South-East Asia. Granted to the today lionised James Brooke after suppressing a rebellion against the Sultan of Brunei in the antimony-rich Kuching region (widely believed to be fomented by the neighbouring Dutch East Indies and their puppet in the Sultanate of Sambas), it remained a peripheral and at times controversial British protectorate considering Brooke’s adventurous and independent governance, something that not even the Empire’s Dominions enjoyed in full. This period was characterised by expansion up until the point of James Brooke’s death and throughout the majority of his successor’s reign, that being Charles Brooke, and saw the outlawing of headhunting, piracy and slavery, and the mass production of black pepper, as well as tea and coffee, that enriched the kingdom in its early years.
Under the third Rajah, Vyner, oil and rubber production was introduced and with it an economic boom that facilitated the creation of a proper civil service and penal code. More controversially, Vyner banned Christian missionaries and was noteworthy for emulating his great uncle’s deliberate fostering of and fraternisation with the native culture of his kingdom. However much of this work was undercut or outright destroyed by the Japanese invasion of Sarawak in December of 1941 and Vyner, his family and kingdom would remain under occupation until 1945[1].
Following liberation, Vyner sought to rebuild the nation and was successful in securing loans from the British and American governments, as well as private donations from London and Anglo-Indian elites, to rebuild Sarawak’s oil infrastructure and kickstart local manufacturing and timber industries. This was on the proviso that constitutional democracy was introduced, and the first elections of Sarawak were held in 1952. The economic resuscitation was initially successful, with rationing repealed in 1950 and the Sarawak rail system fully repaired by 1953. However, the war and reconstruction (and more acutely, lung cancer) took its toll on Charles Vyner and he passed away in 1955[2], to be succeeded by his nephew, Anthony.
Anthony’s long reign was a defining period for modern Sarawak. An economic boom -Sarawakian investors having correctly predicted the rise of post-war Japan- saw the nation flourish, with increased migration and standards of living and the exploitation of natural liquid gas and gold reserves; Conversely, Sarawak remained the subject of Indonesian predation, and a communist insurgency foiled attempts to develop the interior until a ceasefire was declared in 1990. The most controversial event in this period was the ‘Expulsion of the Chinese’ in 1965, when the Council Negri expelled thousands of Chinese residents (some communities that had existed there since the 1860s) felt to be involved in the communist insurgency. Though this law was repealed in the 1970s following a brief détente, the Chinese community in Sarawak has never recovered and relations with the People’s Republic of China have remained dismal for decades, though this is beginning to change following an apology issued by the Tengku government in 2011.
This also saw the crystallisation of Sarawak’s political culture, with the conservative National Democrats dominating the Council Negri -if in occasional coalition with the Islamic Dīn Party- from the first election in 1952 to 1976 (aside a single term in 1956, during reconstruction). Opposing them was the People’s Power Party, or ‘Kekuatan Rakyat’ in Indonesian. Aside their initial victory in 1956 the first time the PPP enjoyed government was in 1976, when falling demand for Sarawakian oil deflated the economy and saw the National Democrats removed from power. This would more or less begin a trend of trading government depending on broader economic circumstances, with the NDP retaking government in the 1980s, only to lose it once more following the Japanese downturn[3], and so on.
However this changed following the end of the Cold War, though the NDP and PPP continued to trade government into the 2000s the electorate grew increasingly dissatisfied, with both parties gaining fewer and fewer votes with each election and a plethora or minor parties arising and faltering. This came to a head following a great recession in the mid-2000s and a reformer, one Haziq bin Tenkgu, rode to victory in the 2008 election with his Progress and Justice Alliance, promising wide ranging reform to the nation’s welfare systems, rapprochement with Indonesia and China, and a spending package that included the foundation of a new highway system and high-speed rail, particularly with the continual influx of Japanese experts[4]. Tengku has been in power ever since, although in recent years his more bombastic plans have stalled in favour of deleveraging the economy, largely through expending its vast oil and gold reserves, and tightening immigration (or more specifically refugees from Indonesia).
The most recent events to occur to Sarawak involves the unexpectedly quick succession of Rajahs, with Rajah Anthony passing in 2011, only for his son James Bertram to die in 2017 at the age of 77, thus placing the young Laurence Nicholas Brooke on the throne. However, loathing the responsibilities of his station Laurence actively appealed to the Council Negri to allow him to abdicate his position to his younger brother. This was passed, and so since late 2018 the Rajah of Sarawak has been one Jason Desmond Anthony Brooke, at the age of 33. Unlike his elder brother Rajah Jason has undertaken his role with gusto and is known for having a close friendship with Prime Minister Tengku.
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The map is some of my best work, while the description is some of my worst. But hey, them’s the breaks. This was heavily inspired by
Kurarun's
Afghanistan and
Kashmir maps, which are phenomenal. Everything I said here was ‘in character’, which I feel I should clarify as some of it reads kinda poorly to me. Hope you enjoyed it!
The title is from a quote by James Brooke. "Sarawak belongs to the Malays, the Sea Dayaks and Land Dayaks, the Kayans, Kenyah, Milanos, Muruts, Kedayans, Bisayah and other tribes, not to us. It is for them we labour, not for ourselves."
[1] – This is the POD. Vyner isn’t in Sydney at the time of the Japanese invasion, so is captured and weathers the war with the nation he’s meant to be the leader of. This affects a change in personality as he sees the suffering of his people under the Japanese and feels obligated to try and rebuild the country rather than cede it to the British.
[2] – Eight years earlier than IOTL.
[3] – This timeline doesn’t follow ours exactly, but part of me thinks the Japanese asset bubble is kind of inevitable with a post-WWII POD so long as there is any reconstruction and economic miracle approaching OTL’s.
[4] – I’ll be making another map detailing some of the ethnic minorities of Sarawak, namely Anglo-, Japanese-, and Indian-Sarawakians, as well as the ethnic makeup of Sarawak itself and the feelings of natives towards foreigners. For now, there’s a lot of Japanese in Sarawak.