Western Historicization of Sarawak: Brooke's Imperialistic-Hegemonic Manipulation and Exploitation of the Dayaks

Abstract

Most historical narratives of European colonization in the East are accounts from Western perspective, which justifies colonialism as an acceptable means to introduce western civilization into the colonized communities. Brooke's one-hundred-year-old dynasty in Sarawak was illustrative of European's imperialistic subjugation of land, which had long been occupied by local native inhabitants. Assuming the position of a white rajah, James Brooke being the so-called civilized white supremacist, justified his subjugation of the Dayaks in the name of bringing peace to an otherwise chaotic, savage land. Several war expeditions were launched by James Brooke and later Charles Brooke by enlisting the tamed Dayaks to exterminate other groups of fellow Dayaks deemed recalcitrant and rebellious causing high causalities among the Dayaks. This paper aims to revisit the extant historical narratives produced by Western writers and to critically examine Brooke's relations with the Dayaks from a Dayak writer's perspective. The paper employed two main historical research methods, namely, triangulation and hermeneutic approach to critically examine history texts on Brooke's rule. Based on the critical analysis of the historical accounts as produced by Western writers and even from Charles Brooke's own diary, there was cogent historical evidence to show that the white Rajahs though paternal, as portrayed by western writers, were actually responsible for manipulating and exploiting the Dayaks in order to sustain their hegemonic power over the Dayaks.