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| JWW Birch |
by Subky Abdul Latif
The Mat Sabu-Bukit Kepong-Mat Indera saga went to the court
recently. Rest assured the court will handle it. But for issues, where the
nation’s history is to be revisited and rewritten may require historians to
further study.
Bit by bit, there’s more room for discussion to take place.
If there is such a thing as genuine and fake hadith, there is also genuine and
fake history. The reality is whether the country was colonized or never being
colonized by the British.
I was in Perak when the polemic exploded.
Lustful
According to one Perakian, who made me wonder why was
JWW Birch killed on the riverbank in Pasir Salak more than 200 years ago, it
was not because he was meddling with the authority and the administration of
the Perak Sultanate, but because he was mingling with the women of the palace.
We have very limited information about the British seafarers
who came with their wives when they first arrived in Tanah Melayu, with regards
to the Pangkor Agreement meeting where they met with prominent figures in
Perak.
There are those came to stay for a little while because of
work, but others came with their spouses. It is unclear, however, if the first
British Advisor to Perak came along with his wife.
Since these European men are rather lustful, whether they
have wives or not, it would not be a surprise if Birch himself was a womanizer.
Therefore, it is not a surprise either if the Sultans and their sons have
concubines living alongside with their maharanis somewhere.
Perhaps, it was common for the women who live in the Palace
to be concubines.
Birch who was the first British Resident in Perak was seen as
more powerful than the Sultans and his sidekicks. The British succeeded in
removing the Sultan and replacing him with another. If Birch can overthrow a
Sultan and replace him with a new Sultan, he will indeed be seen as more
powerful.
From what the history has gathered, the murder of Birch was
due to his involvement in the Sultan’s household and administration, leaving
only the religious and cultural nitty-gritty untouched.
This situation is obviously perplexing for the Sultans,
whereby a foreigner can come to his land and hijack his authority. If, for all
this while, the Sultan had killed anyone who poses a threat to his leadership,
it would not be surprising then that he may be a part of the Birch murder.
A
new perspective
But the story I heard in Perak gives me a new
understanding that Birch came not only to conquer or destroy the sovereignty of
the Sultan and the people of Perak, but because of his bad attitude especially
towards the women.
If that story is true, then it was hard to imagine how the
concubines could possibly escape his behaviour.
Since this is the attitude of many Europeans of that time,
it’s easy for me to understand why Birch was murdered although I was not there,
nor can I prove it with four witnesses.
He not only sparked the anger of the Sultan and the ruler's
right-hand men, but the ordinary people were also very upset.
For the Malays, such characters like that who appear now and
then deserved to be killed especially in the thinking of those living during
that period. So, how Birch was killed was itself not important, but that he
deserved to be killed.
For the Malays at that time, there was no need for law and
order. It was enough to know if someone is harassing a local woman and the
punishment was duly delivered.
It doesn’t really matter if the Sultan disapproves or was
jealous of Birch’s attitude, but for the Malays, it was a great insult to their
pride, tradition and values. The ordinary people just could not afford to be
humiliated like that even if it was the fault of the Sultan.
I am not a historian and I leave this story to the historian
to interpret, whether or not it is valid, the truth of our history will reach
to the people soon enough.
Casino Classic
Source : translated by MC
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