Was JWW Birch killed because he played with the women of the Palace?

The Mat Sabu-Bukit Kepong-Mat Indera saga went to the court recently. Rest assured the court will handle it. But for issues, where the nation’s history is to be revisited and rewritten may require historians to further study.

Bit by bit, there’s more room for discussion to take place. If there is such a thing as genuine and fake hadith, there is also genuine and fake history. The reality is whether the country was colonized or never being colonized by the British.

I was in Perak when the polemic exploded.

Lustful

According to one Perakian, who made me wonder why was JWW Birch killed on the riverbank in Pasir Salak more than 200 years ago, it was not because he was meddling with the authority and the administration of the Perak Sultanate, but because he was mingling with the women of the palace.

We have very limited information about the British seafarers who came with their wives when they first arrived in Tanah Melayu, with regards to the Pangkor Agreement meeting where they met with prominent figures in Perak.

There are those came to stay for a little while because of work, but others came with their spouses. It is unclear, however, if the first British Advisor to Perak came along with his wife.

Since these European men are rather lustful, whether they have wives or not, it would not be a surprise if Birch himself was a womanizer. Therefore, it is not a surprise either if the Sultans and their sons have concubines living alongside with their maharanis somewhere.

Perhaps, it was common for the women who live in the Palace to be concubines.

Birch who was the first British Resident in Perak was seen as more powerful than the Sultans and his sidekicks. The British succeeded in removing the Sultan and replacing him with another. If Birch can overthrow a Sultan and replace him with a new Sultan, he will indeed be seen as more powerful.

From what the history has gathered, the murder of Birch was due to his involvement in the Sultan’s household and administration, leaving only the religious and cultural nitty-gritty untouched.

This situation is obviously perplexing for the Sultans, whereby a foreigner can come to his land and hijack his authority. If, for all this while, the Sultan had killed anyone who poses a threat to his leadership, it would not be surprising then that he may be a part of the Birch murder.

A new perspective

But the story I heard in Perak gives me a new understanding that Birch came not only to conquer or destroy the sovereignty of the Sultan and the people of Perak, but because of his bad attitude especially towards the women.

If that story is true, then it was hard to imagine how the concubines could possibly escape his behaviour.

Since this is the attitude of many Europeans of that time, it’s easy for me to understand why Birch was murdered although I was not there, nor can I prove it with four witnesses.

He not only sparked the anger of the Sultan and the ruler's right-hand men, but the ordinary people were also very upset.

For the Malays, such characters like that who appear now and then deserved to be killed especially in the thinking of those living during that period. So, how Birch was killed was itself not important, but that he deserved to be killed.

For the Malays at that time, there was no need for law and order. It was enough to know if someone is harassing a local woman and the punishment was duly delivered.

It doesn’t really matter if the Sultan disapproves or was jealous of Birch’s attitude, but for the Malays, it was a great insult to their pride, tradition and values. The ordinary people just could not afford to be humiliated like that even if it was the fault of the Sultan.

I am not a historian and I leave this story to the historian to interpret, whether or not it is valid, the truth of our history will reach to the people soon enough.

- Translated by Malaysia Chronicle