Sometimes all you need is a big leap of faith.
— Sean Bean, English actor
Mist covered the entire Kelabit highlands as the first batch of eight Allied Forces commandos prepared to jump from an American B-24 Liberator bomber.
It was a leap of faith because none of the men knew where they were or whether there were Japanese soldiers or pagan headhunters below.
Only the leader of the group, British Major Tom Harrisson, had a glimpse of the plains of “Lem Ba” when he flew into Borneo six months earlier on a covert reconnaissance mission.
At 7.30am on March 25, 1945, Harrisson and three Australian soldiers — Sergeants Fred Sanderson, D. H. Bower and J. J. Barrie — parachuted into Bario.
Thirty minutes later in another aircraft, Capt Eric Edmeades, Warrant Officer R. D. Cusack and Sgts Jack Tredrea and K. W. Hallam followed suit.
None of the commandos understood a word of Kelabit except Sanderson, an Australian-Thai Eurasian, who spoke a smattering of Malay which he learnt while fighting the Japanese in Indonesia.
Harrisson in “World Within” said after they landed, Sanderson went to look for help as the remaining three “thrashed around” in a swamp helplessly.
“We wallowed on, happily, unaware that this swamp was the favourite resort of the King Cobra which had killed six buffaloes not long before; and the tiny ticks which carry scrub typhus.”
Retired Sarawak Police Field Force (PFF) Sgt Peter Lilin, who was 12 at that time, said, “I was out hunting in the swamps when we heard a rumbling in the sky. Then I saw two figures in the sky like large birds floating down to earth and I ran for my life.”
An hour later, Sanderson returned with help. In the meantime, the remaining four commandos in the second Liberator were blown off-course and were only able meet the others in the early afternoon.
In an interview, Jack Tredrea, 97, at the Kuching Hilton in 2017 said, “We jumped blind and drifted into the hills (Tamabu Range) where Eric and I got stuck in trees that were 50 foot tall.
“Kelvin and Cusack landed on small trees about 28 feet tall and were able to get down first. Soon all four of us made our way to the longhouse on the plains and after a five-hour walk, we reached Bario.”
Through their interaction with the Europeans, the Kelabit mindset began to change as they underwent a journey of great transformation.
On Feb 2, 1946, the Kelabits were persuaded to build their first school at Pa Main, one of a handful of villages in the highlands.
Today, through education, the small community of about 10,000 Kelabits has been able to produce no less than 500 university graduates with Master, PhD and diploma holders (2011 census).
Since the formation of Malaysia, the Kelabits have been able to excel and have found employment in various fields as lawyers, accountants, engineers and some are professors and deans of various universities.
One of Malaysia’s most literate native communities, they have diversified from off-shore workers and executives in oil and gas companies such as Shell, Sarawak and Exxon, into successful businessmen. After the war, three of the commandos returned to Sarawak to help rebuild the country.
In 1953, Edmeades was incorporated into the constabulary and helped established the Sarawak PFF at Bukit Siol, Kuching.
When Confrontation broke out in 1963, Sanderson returned to Bario to help the Border Scouts.
Sometime in the 2000s, Tredrea, better known as “Tuan Doc” because he dispensed medicine to natives during the war, decided to make an annual trip back to Bario.
I met Tredrea several times and in 2018, arranged for local artist Muyang Kemundan to donate a painting of two hornbills to the veteran. Tredrea died a year later at the age of 98 at his family home in Adelaide.
In the meantime, Sanderson’s son David has also visited Bario and was reunited with the Kelabits who had worked with and helped his father.
Last year, the Kelabit community organised a reenactment of that famous parachute jump.
However, it had to be put off because of the pandemic.
Covid-19 had spoilt plans for the proposed jump yesterday, but church prayers will certainly be offered to the heroes who opened Bario to the rest of the world.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New Sarawak Tribune.
