Asi Iboh - the First Kelabit SAO 1966

Asi Ibuh should go down in our history book as the first Kelabit to be employed by the government as an SAO.

Three people in 1966 went for the interview of two vacancies for Sarawak Adminstrative Officer and three of us were short listed: Celestine Ujang, Asi and I. The two had very long interviews and they filled the vacancies.

My interview was made up of two questions: Are you still interested in working? There are 280 vacancies for clerks in various departments with a monthly salary of 180 dollars. I was never asked to give an answer because they knew that was not my choice of a perfect job.

The next question was "Are you still in school, attending Lower Sixth?" To which I said yes immediately. Then the Chairman, Pengarah Montegrai said,"Go back and we will see in your interview in your application for scholarship next year." They obviously kept their promise and I was awarded a Federal Scholarship to do BA and Dip Ed in MU. CU and Asi got the job and I had to take the next plane back to Miri. My first ever plane ride was for this interview.

Asi deserved the post as he went on to be a very successful Civil Servant until his untimely demise several years ago. As for Celestine he was picked up to enter politics where he excelled to become a very distinguished State Minister for many years.

Asi and I went back or a long long time and we were like blood brothers and he was very protective of me from the day we met. We met often long after school life ended for us. When we met later in life, our TLS spirit was with us and he went out of his way to help me as he was then the District Officer of Baram, in a case that I was involved in. Without him and his help, it would have been very tedious and difficult. I regret to this day I never met or came across any of his children.


Two spectacular incidents are always in my mind.

We were in Form Four . The two of us were in the Arts class under Mrs. George Ong as we did not have enough subjects for Senior Cambridge. I could not take Craft and Bead work because I thought it was for girls only, so I had to do Still Life and thus I drew lots of flowers. I could not take carpentry up to Form Five because that subject was not offered,although I had obtained a distinction in woodwork at Form Three, thanks to Mr. James Foh's teaching, and actually I have a passion for carpentry. Similarly Asi liked drawing, especially still life.

Asi would often show me his pictures of pottery, and of course some of the pottery art pieces were very akin to the rears of the female body. As youthful boys, we would have good laughs. But unfortunately, one day Mrs. George Ong passed our desks and she also noticed what Asi had drawn which was an abstract female bottom. She thought we were laughing at her and that Asi was making a caricature of her. She burst out angrily and stormed out of the class.

Immediately Mr. George Ong came in to scold the two of us and told us very roughly that there would be an Emergency Staff meeting to discuss our fate. Our so called mischief must have been the subject of the debate. Not long after that, Mr. Richard Tze , who had taught me since 1959,came to see me and Asi personally and told us,"All except two of the teachers voted to retain the two of you. Sawan and Asi, you lucky chaps, you will not be expelled~~!"

We were dumbfounded because we did not know what was going on!

To this day, Asi and I still did not know the whole story and who voted against us. But we were very grateful to Mr. Richard Tze who must have defended us well. I understand subsequently that my history teacher, Mr. Dewhurst's only complaint against me during the meeting was that I fell asleep in one of his afternoon history classes. He even said that his lesson must have been so boring that I fell asleep. And I am not sureyears later why I picked up history as my major at the university and came out with an honours degree. And indeed I stayed back to do Diploma of Education to become a history teacher as well. Perhaps it is a personal acknowledgement to all those teachers and principals in TLS who moulded my life and the others as well during those years.

The pottery caricature incident was a third near miss of my TLS years . Perhaps it could even be considered the third miracle in my life.

The first miracle was I was plucked from Ulu Limbang and was placed in a foreign place like TLS. The second was when I was supposed to have failed my common entrance in 1960 I was recommended by Mr. Richard Tze to Form One in the second selection. The fourth was when Freda Kedung threw away her application form to enter Form Six which was picked up by William Laing. I grabbed it from William and told him that he already had one. I filled it up and submitted it to Mr. Nicholl which ended me the last place in Sixth Form, within the 21 student chosen to enter Form Six ARts.

The second spectacular incident involving Asi

Asi has always been special and I need to relate this very touching and compassionate story about him. This actually happened a few weeks before the near - expulsion incident.

I remember Mr. Dewhurst was starting a history lesson when a group of Penans entered our class which was on the first floor of the building asked who was ASI (Mana ASI?) and one of them handed him a letter, a brown envelope, addressed to ASI. Medical Officer, Miri.

Aso said, "That's me." And Mr. Dewhurst asked him to go out and have a word with the Penans.

He came back very shortly to tell Mr. Dewhurst ,"Sir, they want me to send them to the TB hospital. ". The TB hospital was about 2 kilometres from the school.

And Asi walked with the Penans, all dressed up in their traditional attire, to the TB hospital and it was with the permission of Mr. Dewhurst and the school as well. Needless to say that Asi was always obliging and chivalrous to any one who needed help and he was like that all his life. Basically he was like Keningau, big and gentle and never a bully.

Later, I was to understand that what was actually written on the envelope was an abbreviation for Assistant. Hence ASI should have been read as ASST.

I was told that the Medical Officer from Marudi who wrote the letter was an expat himself.

I can in fact write a whole long chapter just on Asi and who and what he was. He deserved a lot more in life.
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