Kuching


Kuching, officially the City of Kuching, is the capital and the most populous city in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia. It is also the capital of Kuching Division. The city is on the Sarawak River at the southwestern tip of Sarawak on the island of Borneo and covers an area of with a population of about 162,843 in the Kuching North administrative region and 351,815 in the Kuching South administrative regiona total of 514,658 people.
Kuching was founded by the representative of the Sultan of Brunei in 1827. It was the third capital of Sarawak in 1827 during the administration of the Bruneian Empire. In 1841, Kuching became the capital of the Kingdom of Sarawak after the territory in the area was ceded to James Brooke for helping the Bruneian Empire in crushing a rebellion particularly by the interior Borneo-dwelling Land Dayak people who later became his loyal followers after most of them were pardoned by him and joined his side. The town continued to receive attention and development during the rule of Charles Brooke such as the construction of a sanitation system, hospital, prison, fort, and a bazaar. In 1941, the Brooke administration had a Centenary Celebration in Kuching. During World War II, Kuching was occupied by Japanese forces from 1942 to 1945. The Japanese government set up a Batu Lintang camp near Kuching to hold prisoners of war and civilian internees. After the war, the town survived intact. However, the last Rajah of Sarawak, Sir Charles Vyner Brooke decided to cede Sarawak to the British government as part of British Crown Colony in 1946. Kuching remained as capital during the Crown Colony period. After the formation of Malaysia in 1963, Kuching retained its status as state capital and was granted city status in 1988. Since then, Kuching has been divided into two administrative regions managed by two separate local authorities. The administrative centre of the Sarawak Government is officially located at Satria Pertiwi Complex, Petra Jaya, Kuching.
Kuching is a major food destination and is a member of UNESCO's Creative Cities Network under the field of gastronomy. Kuching is also the main gateway for travellers visiting Sarawak and Borneo. Kuching Wetlands National Park is located about from the city and there are many other tourist attractions in and around Kuching such as Bako National Park, Semenggoh Wildlife Centre, Rainforest World Music Festival, state assembly building, The Astana, Fort Margherita, Kuching Cat Museum, and Sarawak State Museum / Borneo Cultures Museum. The city has become one of the major industrial and commercial centres in East Malaysia.

Etymology

The name "Kuching" was already in use for the city by the time Brooke arrived in 1839. There are many theories as to the derivation of the name "Kuching". It was perhaps derived from the Malay word for cat, "kucing", or from Cochin, an Indian trading port on the Malabar Coast and a generic term in China and British India for trading harbour. Some Hindu artefacts can be seen today at the Sarawak State Museum. However, another source reported that Kuching was previously known as "Sarawak" before Brooke arrived. The settlement was renamed to "Sarawak Proper" during the kingdom's expansion. It was only in 1872 that Charles Brooke renamed the settlement to "Kuching".
There was one unlikely theory based on a story of miscommunication. According to the story, James Brooke arrived in Kuching on his schooner Royalist. He then asked his local guide about the name of the town. The local guide mistakenly thought that Brooke was pointing towards a cat, and so had said the word "Kuching". However, ethnic Malays in Sarawak have always used the term "pusak" for cats, instead of the standard Malay word "kucing". Despite this etymological discrepancy, Sarawakians have adopted the animal as a symbol of their city, and it features in statues as well as the municipal council's coat of arms - an example of heraldic canting.
Some source also stated that it was derived from a fruit called "mata kucing", a close relative of the Longan that grows widely in Malaysia and Indonesia. There was also a hill in the city that was named after the fruit, which is called Bukit Mata Kuching. Harriette McDougall writing to her son in the 19th century, stated that the name was derived from a stream of the same name, called "Sungai Kuching" or Cat River in English. On page 64 of Bampfylde and Baring-Gould's 1909 'A History of Sarawak under its Two White Rajahs', it says: "Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, is so called from a small stream that runs through the town into the main river...." The stream was situated at the foot of Bukit Mata Kuching and in front of the Tua Pek Kong Temple. In the 1950s, the river became very shallow because of silt deposits in the river. The river was later filled to make way for roads.
There is another theory that Kuching actually means "Ku" - Old and "Ching" - Well or "old well" in Chinese. During the Brooke administration, there was no water supply and water-borne diseases were common. In 1888, an epidemic broke out which later was known as "Great Cholera Epidemic". A well situated in the present day China Street in Main Bazaar helped to combat the disease by providing clean water supply. Due to increased demand for a water supply, the role of the well was later replaced by water treatment plant on the Bau Road.

History

Sarawak was part of the Bruneian Empire since the reign of the first Sultan of Brunei, Sultan Muhammad Shah. Kuching was the third capital of Sarawak, founded in 1827 by the representative of the Sultan of Brunei, Pengiran Indera Mahkota. Prior to the founding of Kuching, the two past capitals of Sarawak were Santubong, founded by Sultan Pengiran Tengah in 1599, and Lidah Tanah, founded by Datu Patinggi Ali in the early 1820s. The founding of Kuching was spurred by the discovery of antimony ore at the upper Sarawak river in 1824, which was in high demand in the market of nearby Singapore. A Dutch report mentioned that there lived about a hundred Malays and three houses of Chinese in the area shortly before the founding of Kuching. The arrival of Mahkota was not popular with the local Malay chiefs, whose autonomy was restricted by Mahkota's increasing tax and labour demands. The chiefs moved upriver, allied with Dayaks, and rebelled against Brunei. Neither side could gain an edge over the other until 1840 when Pengiran Raja Muda Hashim, the Bruneian Prime Minister, offered to hand over the governorship of Sarawak to British adventurer James Brooke to acquire his help to defeat the rebel chiefs.
Pengiran Raja Muda Hashim later ceded the territory to James Brooke as a reward for helping him to counter the rebellion. The rebellion was crushed in November 1840, and on 24 September 1841, Brooke was appointed as the Governor of Sarawak with the title of Rajah. It was not announced until 18 August 1842, following Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin II's ratifying the governorship, and requiring Brooke to pay an annual sum of $2,500 to the Sultan. Since that time, Kuching became the seat of the Brooke government.
The administration was later continued by his nephew, Charles Brooke. As an administrative capital, it became the centre of attention and development. Improvements included a sanitation system. By 1874, the city had completed several developments, including construction of a hospital, prison, Fort Margherita, and many other buildings.
Charles Brooke's wife, in her memoir , included this description of Kuching:
The Astana, which is now the official residence of the governor of Sarawak, was constructed next to Brooke's first residence. He had it built in 1869 as a wedding gift to his wife. Kuching continued to prosper under Charles Vyner Brooke, who succeeded his father as the Third Rajah of Sarawak. In 1941, Kuching was the site of the Brooke Government Centenary Celebration. A few months later, the Brooke administration came to a close when the Japanese occupied Sarawak.
File:Japanese Propaganda, Kuching, Sarawak.JPG|thumb|right|A piece of Japanese propaganda in Jawi script found in the town after the capturing of the town by the Australian forces.
During the Second World War, six platoons of infantry from 2/15 Punjab Regiment were stationed at Kuching in April 1941. The Regiment defended Kuching and Bukit Stabar airfield from being the destroyed by the Japanese. Defence was mainly concentrated on Kuching and Miri. However, on 24 December 1941, Kuching was conquered by the Japanese forces. Sarawak was ruled as part of the Japanese Empire for three years and eight months, until the official Japanese surrender on 11 September 1945. The official surrender was signed on HMAS Kapunda at Kuching. From March 1942, the Japanese operated the Batu Lintang camp, for POWs and civilian internees, outside Kuching.
After the end of World War II, the town survived and was wholly undamaged. The third and last Rajah, Sir Charles Vyner Brooke later ceded Sarawak to the British Crown on 1 July 1946. During the Crown Colony period, the government worked to develop and improve the infrastructure on Sarawak. Kuching was revitalised as the capital of Sarawak under the British colonial government. When Sarawak, together with North Borneo, Singapore and the Federation of Malaya, formed the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, Kuching kept its status as the state capital and was granted a city status on 1 August 1988. Kuching experienced further development throughout the years as the state capital. On 29 July 2015, Kuching was declared as "City of Unity" by One Malaysia Foundation for racial harmony that existed in the city because of cross-racial marriages, multi-racial schools, fair scholarship distributions, and balanced workforce patterns.

Governance

As the capital of Sarawak, Kuching plays an important role in the political and economic welfare of the population of the entire state as it is the seat of the state government where almost all of their ministries and agencies are based. The Sarawak State Legislative Assembly is located in a suburb, Petra Jaya.
There are 5 Members of Parliament representing the five parliamentary constituencies and twelve state legislative assemblymen in the state legislature representing the twelve state constituencies in Kuching district.
Parliamentary ConstituenciesState Constituencies
P.193 SantubongN.3 Tanjung Datu, N.4 Pantai Damai, N.5 Demak Laut
P.194 Petra JayaN.6 Tupong, N.7 Samariang, N.8 Satok
P.195 Bandar KuchingN.9 Padungan, N.10 Pending, N.11 Batu Lintang
P.196 StampinN.12 Kota Sentosa, N.13 Batu Kitang, N.14 Batu Kawah
P.198 Puncak BorneoN.18 Serembu, N.19 Mambong, N.20 Tarat