Party Formation in Sarawak

The formation of political parties was a particularly late development in Sarawak, and the process did not actually commence until 1959. Following upon a century of rule by the Brooke Rajahs (1841-1941) and the brief Japanese occupation (1941-1945), local political activity prior to 1959 was channeled through various community organizations, and furthermore was confined almost exclusively to Islamic and Chinese groups. For Muslims, the central question at issue was the Cession of Sarawak from the Brooke Rajahs to the British Crown in 1946. A vigorous series of mass protests took place from 1946 to 1949, after which the British Government firmly closed all legitimate means of reversing this alteration in constitutional status. For the Chinese, the struggle on the mainland of China was the object of considerable attention and helped stimulate analogous conflicts within the leadership of Sarawak Chinese. The result of that conflict was a decided shift in the distribution of

Business · Geography · Asian Studies and History · Indonesian Election Politics and Participation

• Leadership and Power within the Chinese Community of Sarawak

  Open Access•Craig A Lockard•Journal of Southeast Asian Studies•1971

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