GREED & COLONIALISM

GREED AND COLONIALISM

Though it is quite out of this project’s scope, I want to open up a story of Malay-Melanau’s young man named ‘Rosli Dhoby’ who sacrificed for the independence of Sarawak, a state in East Malaysia. Sarawak for quite long years was colonized by the Brunei’s government and then a British explorer named James Brooke came and decided to rule Sarawak. Being threatened by Brooke’s military force, The King of Brunei that time give the title of ‘Raja Sarawak’ to him and granted full power of ownership except in Religious issues. He also cannot easily transfer the ownership of Sarawak to other power. However his legacy sold Sarawak to the British government for 1 Million Pounds which is again uncivilized, unethical and did not kept their promise. There was an oil company named 'Anglo Saxxon Petroleum'. The citizens once again were being used as a tool to satisfy their needs of dominating Sarawak’s natural resources which were antimonies and oil for their trading. They have to do mining day and night with very low pays and The Sarawakians also have to pay high taxes.

Because of that, there were emerging society called PPMS which consist a subgroup named ‘Rukun 13’ or ’13 Pillars’ which has only one intention, to use forces to outcast the colony by killing the governor which has no manner in communicating with the Sarawakians and continue suppressing them in every way he could. ‘Rukun 13’ is actually named base on the 13 pillars in prayers and their members must do Bai’ah as a sign of full loyalty where they recited Yaasin. In order to kill the governor, they have to choose someone who is eligible and not easily suspected by them. One of them approached a-16 year old Rosli Dhobi which is famous for his Patriotisme and his brightness in studies. Rosli is still a high school student in the morning but a volunteer teacher in a primary school that teaches children for free.
He was very influenced with the struggles of Sukarno, the former leader in Indonesia and his poem that bring out the spirit of Nationalism was published in the National Newspaper ‘Utusan Sarawak’ with nickname ‘Lidros’. The usage of nickname was prevalent at the time since the British Colonial Authority vigorously monitored any attempts to spread words against them. The Rukun 13’ members actually believe that he can do this task because he is still an underage teenager and if he were to be judged in court, he is consider as juvenile criminal and will not be sentenced to death.

After a long time of deliberation and thinking, Rosli agreed and stabbed the governor on December 3, 1949[1]. The British definitely will not let go of him and find any dirty means where they try to change Rosli’s birth certificate so that he is judged as an adult which enables him to be hanged to death. Even so in the court, he explained why he did the assassination that was really an eye opener to the Sarawakians. He did not want his homeland to be owned, transfers, or sold to other force but rather being given to the citizens themselves as they are the true owners of Sarawak and they also want to face life with full of dignities. He also strongly opposed the high taxes charged to the people, which was unfair while the British used the Sarawakians’ workforces and natural resources for them to continue conducting their profitable trade. We as youth are very proud of him. ’16 years of his life is so meaningful while we do not know whether our longer life span gives us more opportunity to contribute.’ His sacrifice is just all in vain if we do not preserve our life, surroundings, mind, and everything from the west’ culture. In his last letter that he wrote, he mentioned to all of us to always do good deeds and pray 5 times a day for our journey to the hereafter.

What I really want to stress here is that corporation has been unethical long time ago in a sense that they ‘steal’ other’s resources because of ‘Greed’ that lures out the human unlimited wants and desires even with any evil means. The consequences could be even worse as we lose our patriot which had a brighter future for him as he is very brilliant student and even smarter than the Chinese that time. Rosli could have been most prominent public figure and continue to contribute to the society. We lose him because of ‘Greed’.

“Rosli Dhobi” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosli_Dhobi

p/s: this is one part of my assignment =)