Pandasan Affair 1915 - Sharif Omar Kota Belud

In 1963, John Alman of Kent College, Tuaran wrote an article entitled, "Incident at Pandasan" published in the Sabah Society Journal, highlighting a stone inscription he saw at the Tamu ground at Pandasan in 1961.

The inscription recorded the death of one Sharif Omar at 9 o'clock, on Thursday in the month of Shahaban in the year 1911.

According to Alman, after some enquiries, he found out that the stone was erected on the spot where Sharif Omar and his Bajau comrades fell during their confrontation against the police force of the Charted Company.

Apparently, the stone also serve as a gravestone as those who died were believed to be buried there.

Further research by Alman revealed that a survivor of the confrontation was still alive. According to the survivor, Abd Ghani, altogether, there were 18 who were killed by the police, including Sharif Omar.

Alman's effort also reveal a local version of the causes that had led to the battle between the government forces and Sharif Omar and his men.

The local source recorded the whole thing started when the government announced a proposal to conduct a survey of the land at Pandasan, and the villagers resisted, and resulted in a punitive force being sent to intervene in order to complete the survey for taxing purposes.

Sensing that with the government wanted to use force upon them, the villagers appealed for assistance from other villages and interestingly, they received very encouraging responses. There were people from different tribes, including Illanun, Bajau and Dusun.

Among the leaders still recalled in the local account was Ali from Marudu, Kelindad from Kukut, Sharif Omar from Kegura'an and Kadim from Tambilaong. They were well-received and feasted by the people of Pandasan for a week.

The police finally arrived on the seventh day and a confrontation took place. The people who turned out in force however, could not match the firing power of the police's rifles, and Sharif Omar and Ali were killed with 16 others.

During the mobbing up operation, the police arrested many and sentenced them to various punishments.

There is also a little bit of magical element in the local account, where at one point, when the local people were advancing toward the police with their weapons and their belief that they were invulnerable, the police could not fire and some ran.

Apparently, it took O.K.K. Haji Arshad, who was then the chief clerk at Kota Belud to break the spell of invulnerability by taking a direct aim at Ali and shot him through the head. It was after then that the police could fire again, and broke up the local's attack.

Sharif Omar and seven of his fellow Bajaus were buried at the site at Pandasan, and the site was marked by the stone with the inscription made by Sharif Omar's son.

Official Account :

As the event was a confrontation between the government and the locals, a government version is also available. It was based on this government account that most subsequent writings are based on.

Owen Rutter, the apologist for the Company rule, included the Pandasan Affair as a rebellion.

Instead of 1911 as believed by the locals, the year was 1915. Rutter claimed that, the Bajaus and the Illanuns, taking the opportunity on the local garrison being engaged in the Rundum Rebellion, decided to carry out some raiding.

The District Officer, P.C. Brackenbury, who took over from A.B.C Francis (otherwise known as Francis Bruce, author of Twenty Years in Borneo) set out with E.H. Barraut, the Resident, with the Tuaran Garrison to forestall the attack.

Rutter related how the government force soon met up with the 'rebels' along the Bridle Path near Pandasan. The local numbered about 80, were said to have dressed in white.

Barraut gave warning for the locals to stop advancing and throw down their arms, but apparently, the call was ignored, and the police opened fire. After several rounds of volleys, the crowds broke, leaving 18 deaths.

Rutter however, did not provide us with the whole picture, especially on the causes which had caused the locals to get agitated to the point of revolting against the government. While it was accepted that the timing of the revolt did have something to do with the absence of the government garrison at Kota Belud, having engaged in quelling the Rundum Rebellion, or at least, the shift of focus by the government to the interior, other reasons did come into play.

Chief among them was the question of discontentment against the various taxes imposed by the government. The people were generally unhappy about the land settlement that the government was introducing at the time.

Ali, the Bajau from Marudu Bay for instance, had been at odd with the government was wrongly summoned in 1914 for non payment of poll-tax.

He was reported to have inciting the people to revolt for some time before the Pandasan case. Pandasan itself was in the state of famine, and the people had been living in destitute situation. Though the area was exempted from paying land rents, the living condition was appalled.

Though the area was generally inhabited by Bajau and Illanuns, they also managed to gain the sympathy from the Dusuns who were very unhappy with the government's heavy tapai-tax.

Many were forced to pay a $5 fine for failing to pay tax for their traditional drink. Hence, when the confrontation took place at Pandasan, the Dusuns were there as well.

The official report gave the number of deaths as 23 instead of 18 as mentioned in the local source. Most of those killed were Bajaus. When the government force entered Pandasan, Barraut had many arrested and the properties of the leaders seized. Extra police were also being brought into the area. Thus ending the Pandasan revolt.

In many ways, the Pandasan Affair had more or less similar origin with revolts that took place in Sabah at the time, including the Rundum Rebellion, a general discontent by various policies of the Charted Company, especially pertaining to taxes.