Aban Jau - Hero Kaum Kenyah Sarawak

 

Contoh Gambar Kaum Kenyah Sarawak

Ini buat pengetahuan orang-orang di Malaya, terutama sekali mereka-mereka yang kononnya pakar sejarah Malaysia, dan juga buat mereka-mereka yang terlalu taksub dengan semangat anti-British. Kalau Mat Salleh di Sabah dan Tok Janggut di Malaya adalah hero kemerdekaan Malaysia, maka di sini saya perkenalkan seorang hero dari Sarawak. Nama beliau ialah Aban Jau, kelahiran Kenyah Sebop dari wilayah Tinjar di Bahagian Miri.

Charles Hose and William McDougall dalam buku "The Pagan Tribes of Borneo" ada memberitahu tentang Aban Jau bila mereka cuba bertemu dengan beliau pada tahun 1898:

She is the daughter of the late Aban Jau, who was for many years the most powerful chief of Tinjar Sebops. He had long resisted the advances of the Resident, and had submitted to the Rajah’s government only after a long course of patient persuasion. He had regarded himself as the up-river Rajah, and had never ceased to regret the old state of affairs.

“I am old now,” he told the Resident, “but if I were as salt as I used to be, the Rajah would not have taken possession of the Baram without a struggle.” Another of his many picturesque sayings seems worth recording: “Your Rajah may govern the down-river people; they’re inside the Sultan’s fence and he had the right to hand them over. But over us he had no authority; we are the tigers of the jungle and had never been tamed.” He had frequently threatened to attack the fort (Marudi).