Page:Report of the Commission of Enquiry North Borneo & Sarawak.pdf/9

 

10. Sarawak occupies the north—western part of Borneo and is bordered on the east and south by Indonesian Kalimantan, and on the north by Brunei and North Borneo. The country is 47,500 square miles in area (compare North Borneo 29,388 square miles, and Malaya 50,700 square miles), three—quarters of it covered by tropical evergreen rain forest. Behind a coastal fringe of mangrove and nipah palm, there is a belt of swamp forest, in some places extending far inland. Beyond this lies rugged hill country and the complex mountain ranges and forested ravines along the Indonesian border. Large muddy rivers and a maze of tributary streams and channels flow north-westwards into the South China Sea and form the principal means of communication. Large areas of Sarawak are practically uninhabited (overall density: 15 per square mile) and nearly a quarter of the population is concentrated on about 3 per cent. of the total land area in the Kuching and Serian District. Only 6 per cent of the country is under settled cultivation, and a further 18 per cent. under shifting cultivation. The climate is hot, wet and humid. The economy depends on agriculture. forestry and ﬁsheries; the principal exports by value being rubber, timber, pepper and sago.

11. Evidence of human activity in Sarawak dates from prehistoric times, but its growth as an integral State began with the landing of James Brooke in 1839 and his installation as Rajah in 1841. Under the Brooke family the frontiers of Sarawak were extended many times until the country is now over 20 times its original size.

12. Sarawak became a Crown Colony in 1946 when it was ceded to Britain by the third Rajah. In 1941, just before the Japanese occupation, the Rajah introduced a new Constitution of which the "Nine Cardinal Principles of the rule of the English Rajah" formed part. The present Constitution, which replaced that of 1941, incorporates the Nine Cardinal Principles and provides for the appointment of a Governor and Commander-in-Chief, a Supreme Council (the executive council), and a Council Negri (the legislature). The Council Negri consists of 24 elected members, 14 ex officio members, 4 nominated members and 1 standing member who was appointed for life before cession. The Supreme Council consists of 5 elected members elected by Council Negri, 3 ex officio members, and 2 nominated members. There is a well—established system of Electoral Colleges and Sub-Electoral Colleges under which members are elected to Council Negri by Divisional, Municipal and Urban District Councils.

