KUCHING: ‘Api-The Tiger of Kanowit’ a book presenting the memoirs of the late ACP Dato Lawrence Lim Eng Liong was launched by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg at Hilton Hotel Kuching here yesterday.
Lim who started his career as a Police Constabulary and eventually rose up through rank-and-file eventually became the head of the state’s Special Branch.
The book chronicles the late Lim’s role in the tough up-keeping of peace, ending the activities of the Clandestine Communist Organisation in Sarawak within the span of three decades in the 60s, 70s and 80s, culminating with the signing of a Peace Agreement with the final batch of the 52 Communist Terrorists on 17th October 1990.
Apart from his detailed presentation of what happened during the communist era, and how it was successfully ended, the late Lim had also penned down fragments of the landscape of Sarawak’s heterogeneous society. His own family life was a real picture of the spirit of harmonious tolerance which is embedded in our culture even till today.
“Api” was a nickname given to him by one Iban attendant, Aya Lunang, who adopted him. Through his mingling with the Iban community in Rantau Dilang, Lim acquired his proficiency in Iban language, while acquiring proficient Malay through his stepfather, Aba Mowe, who was a Malay from Kuching but stayed on in Rantau Dilang upon his retirement This book is indeed a good read for a peek into fragments of the history, a little political development, as well as the culture and progress Sarawak experienced from the 20th Century until the early part of the 21st Century.
The launching of this book is a historical movement and hopefully more and more books on Sarawak will hit the book to add to the wealth of useful informations for the benefit of the posterior generations. The Chief Minister said the book is historical in nature while at the same time it describes the sacrifice made by one of the sons of Sarawak in defending the peace in Sarawak.
Congratulating Richard Song Swee Jin, the Managing Director of Trac-Wheels (M) Sdn Bhd, for coming up with the book, the Chief Minister said it is not easy to keep record of a friend who had managed to converse and to discuss together with another friend in taking all the records and making an effort to record all those conversations in a book.
The Chief Minister said he had not met the late Dato Lawrence Lim but what he had heard of him was through his late brother Abang Abdillah, who was also in the police force together with the late Lim. Johari said his brother was a commander of the 14th Battalion Police Force operating in Sarikei during time of the emergency and his brother told him about Lim, a police officer who was very dedicated and who served very well in the police force.
“So I came to know through my brother on the sacrifice made by Dato Lawrence Lim and that is how I came to know about him though I had not really met him, “ Johari said adding that when Dato Lawrence Lim served Sarawak from the rankand- file right up to the position of Senior Assistant Commissioner, he had done his job well. The Rubik’s Cube solver program calculates the rotations to sove the unsolvable cube.
