LIM Kian Hock can still remember that day, 54 years ago on September 16, 1963 when Malaysia was born.

Just 24 then, the Sarawak administrative officer in charge of Belaga district, ​had gathered with community leaders of the district, government officials and British army representatives at Fort Vyner to take the final salute as they witnessed the raising of the Malaysia flag.

The fort, on a hillock overlooking the dozen or so shops in Belaga bazaar, was a Brooke-era fort that had been converted into a district office. 

Lim, as the most senior representative of the government, read chief minister Kalong Ningkan’s Malaysia proclamation.

Lim, now 77, remembers the tense, nervy days leading to Malaysia due to Indonesia’s opposition to the federation and its military operations along the Sarawak-Kalimantan border.

“Not many people came for the flag-raising ceremony,” said Lim.

There were rumours of an attack by the Indonesian irregulars of the Tentera Nasional Kalimantan Utara (TNKU) – the North Kalimantan National Army, which included former Brunei rebels who fled to Indonesia and communists, to disrupt the ceremony.

There was no attack that day and Belaga folk were relieved the ceremony concluded without any incident.

A day earlier at 5pm, a “simple ceremony” of lowering the Union Jack for the last time in Fort Vyner also went uninterrupted.

Twelve days later, on September 28, TNKU attacked a military outpost manned by a small Gurkha detachment and Border Scots at Long Jawi in what was the bloodiest incident of the three-year Indonesian Confrontation.

Early years of nation-building

Lim joined the colonial government service as a Sarawak administrative cadet – only a year earlier in late April 1962.

He was one of few Chinese to join the civil service for postings to rural outposts.

Lim was later to write that “little did I know that I was blessed with the opportunities to gain first-hand experience in nation-building and harmony on the threshold of Sarawak’’s journey towards self-rule and independence after the 1961 announcement for the formation of Malaysia by Tunku Abdul Rahman”.

His first posting was to Sibu where he had “intensive work orientation” covering functions of the district office, the Sibu urban district council, land and survey registry and courts.

He was then posted to the small town of Kanowit, upriver from Sibu on Sg Rajang.

Assigned to the Kanowit district office as an assistant registration officer, his key role was to lead a team to carry out voter registration for the local council electoral roll.

It was while he was there that the Brunei rebellion jolted the British colonial administrators in Borneo and a portend of things to come.

The December 6, 1962 rebellion to topple the Brunei sultan by Sheikh Azahari spread to neighbouring Limbang.

But the rebellion only lasted eight days as Azahari’s poorly trained and under-armed rebels were no match for the British army.

As a result of the rebellion, Lim was tasked with collecting all the shotguns from shops in Machan to avert similar armed uprisings in Sarawak.

He was also asked to escort British army security patrols.

After 10 months in Kanowit, he was directed to Belaga and take over from senior administrative officer Don Bisco Biscop.

Lim was only three days into his new post when the Indonesians attacked a police station in the border town of Tebedu, about 104km from Kuching.

The attack on the station, some 5km from the border, provided the first fatality of the confrontation – a corporal by the name of John Remek.

There were 69 “sporadic raids” into Sarawak in 1963 which increased in strength and audacity. 

“I was put to test facing the onslaught of the Indonesian confrontation, following the incursion and attack on Tebedu,” Lim said.

He sensed the tense security situation and alerted the resident of the third division (Sibu), A.F.R. Griffin.

“We had a radio call. He gave me moral support and I promised him I will hold the fort and defend Belaga,” Lim said.

He remembered another colonial officer, a Mr Bruin, who nicknamed him Bujang “because I was the only single SAO​ (Sarawak administrative officer)”.

Confronting Indonesia

Belaga in the 1960s was a small, isolated administrative centre for upper Rajang – it still is today.

There were no police, no telephones, no piped water or electricity.

For security, there were only 10 home guards and two “Greener” shotguns to be shared among them.

There was a platoon of Gurkhas stationed at the Belaga airstrip but it was too far away, some 32km downstream of the bazaar.

There were no roads. All travel​ was by river.

“The atmosphere in Belaga following the Tebedu incursion was tense,” Lim said.

“There were reports of Indonesian soldiers sighted at the border and repeated sound of mortar shelling at the border.

“From time to time, our telecom radio transmitter operator would pick up Indonesian communication.

“We knew they were transmitting messages to Jakarta but the messages were coded so we didn’t know what they were.

“I took this security situation as part of the job.”

Part of his job was to conduct the scheduled election of the Belaga central college for the indirect election of representatives to the state legislature.

Running the elections, Lim said, exposed them to being captured by the Indonesian irregulars of TNKU at the border longhouses where these armed men were sighted from time to time.

His fears were realised when the Indonesians conducted their deepest raid yet, into the third division (now Kapit division) of Sarawak at Long Jawi.

After a year and three months in Belaga, Lim was posted to Kuching.

“Looking back, it was an inspiring tour of duty, doing national service for my country.”

But Lim also felt sad that some of his colleagues and compatriots lost their lives for the birth of Malaysia.

Lim went on to have a distinguished career in the civil service and become the longest serving secretary of the Council Negeri – 15 years from 1979 to 1986.

It spanned over two chief ministers and four speakers. – September 16, 2017.