This essay was written for the Borneo Project by Shuzhen Sim as part of a class assignment at Stanford University. It provides background material to better understand recent Sarawak news and the context for the Borneo Project's work. Read the sections in order, or skip ahead here:
The roads and towns of Sarawak
Sarawak's flag
The state of Sarawak
covers the northwestern part of the island of Borneo. It is flanked by Kalimantan
(the Indonesian part of Borneo) in the south, and the Malaysian province of
Sabah and the small independent country of Brunei in the northeast. With a land
area of 48 250 square miles (about the size of New York State) (1),
it is the largest state in the Federation of Malaysia, constituting 35% of the
country's land area (2). Sarawak now has a population
of about two million, with 306,000 people in its capital, Kuching, which is
also the economic and political hub of the state. The state takes its name from
a river - "Sarawak", or "Serewak" which in old Malay, means
"antimony". This mineral is used in medicines and dyes, and was mined
in the catchment of the Sarawak and surrounding rivers (3).
1.
Jones, L.W. The Population of Borneo - A Study of the Peoples of Sarawak, Sabah
and Brunei. London: University of London, The Athlone Press, 1966, p.1.
2. Sarawak State Government. 24 Feb 2002
3. Hutton, Wendy, ed. East Malaysia and Brunei. Singapore: Periplus Editions,
1997, p. 101.
The Borneo Project is sponsored by Earth Island Institute, a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization.
The Borneo Project, Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
borneo [at] borneoproject.org, Voicemail: 1-510-859-9100 ext. 212
