KUCHING: Parti Aspirasi Rakyat Sarawak (ASPIRASI) gathered its members to celebrate what it claimed was Sarawak’s 181st birthday on Sept 24.

Its president Lina Soo claimed Sept 24, 1841 was the genesis of modern Sarawak when James Brooke became ruler of a territory stretching from Tanjong Datu to Samarahan River.

“This date is documented in an agreement in Jawi language signed between James Brooke and Pangeran Muda Hassim on Sept 24, 1841,” she said in a press statement issued today.

Delving into history, she said records show the eastern seaboard on the island of Borneo was known as Cerava and was part of the Majapahit kingdom which was the greatest Hindu-Buddhist empire in the history of South-east Asia until the 16th century.

“In 1599, the son of the Sultan of Brunei Pengiran Ibnu Sultan Muhamad established his rule over the east-west territory of Borneo for a brief period of 42 years.

“With Sultan Pengiran demise in 1641, Sarawak fell into a no-man’s land when the people refused to submit to any regime or government and the territory was  plagued by  headhunting, piracy, slave trading and insurgency.

“From the said date (Sept 24), the Brooke family ruled Sarawak which came to be known as White Rajah rule for 100 years as an independent sovereign territory purportedly recognised by USA in 1850 and Britain in 1864,” she claimed.