Father’s appointment in 1951 coincided with the period of political transition for colonies struggling for decolonisation and self indepen-dence in post second world war Southeast Asia. Sarawak was no differ-ent from other colonies in Southeast Asia in this clamour to be free from
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colonialism. The standards of governance which the Sarawak colonial government was introducing included giving local government officers more opportunities for career advancement. The government was also aware that in enforcing better standards of governance through regulations, the rule of law, and in general the service requirements of public administration, it was departing from the arbitrary and personalised nature of prior Brooke rule. Now the government had to deal with the expectations and demands of the population. Chew’s appointment can be seen in this context of changing post second world war political and social circumstances. He had gained considerable work experience as an interpreter in the courts. He had fluency in English and Mandarin, Chinese dialects and Malay. Both this work experience and multilingualism were useful in his new appointment in meeting government expectations and that of the public he was serving.
Figure 8: Official approval for William Chew’s appointment as Registrar of Trade Unions.
Chew’s appointment as Registrar of Trade Unions was gazetted by the Governor on 1 June 195118, and this threw him into the hurly burly of the nascent trade union movement in Sarawak. The work involved advising unions and workers of their rights and obligations, and on the requirements to form trade unions. The idea of forming trade unions was a British government initiative, first introduced in October 1947 under the Trade Unions and Trade Disputes Ordinance, 1947. Trade unions were a new idea and a new way of workers organising themselves even though they had their own prior methods without government encouragement.
18 Sarawak Government Gazette, 1 June 1951.
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A report that Chew wrote on the Kuching Wharf Labourers’ Union in 1952 is revealing on the insights on how Chinese urban workers organised their work arrangements. The report was meant for internal government consumption but the editor of the Sarawak Gazette, normally a British senior civil servant, decided that the article should enjoy wider reader circulation as it contained information on the issues confronting trade unions and their working conditions. For the same reason of dissemination of information here too, I go into some detail on what my father has written. Formed on 28 May 1948, the Kuching Wharf Labourers’ Union was one of the more active and militant unions in Sarawak.
This trade union had its roots in the 1920s when Kuching dock workers organised themselves into small groups or gangs to undertake the job of handling goods at wharves and godowns for traders or shops for a certain remuneration on a piece rate basis. Each group or gang occupied a shop floor or coolie keng (premises) which was run by a leader who organized the work, accounts and expenses of the group, and the wages were then divided among workers after all the group expenses have been accounted for. Absentees were fined for work with the fine equally shared by the group including the absent worker. At the end of each month, the workers received their dividends after all the deductions including the leader’s wages were made. When the workers formed a union, the group leaders complained about worker insubordination which was blamed on the union. Chew concluded that this had more to do with loss of confidence of the workers in their leaders rather than with the
way the union was organised.
Chew’s concluding remarks on the trade union were:19
In conclusion I must say that apart from the Chairman and Secretary, the majority of the members of the union know very little about trade unionism. This union is still not well organised. But to re-organise it properly is no easy task for anyone, particularly in view of the fact that it has a most peculiar and complicated set-up founded on what appears to me to be traditional backgrounds.
In this transitional period of the 1950s when Sarawak was expected to follow the standards of governance of the colonial government it can be surmised that Chew had a major role to play in encouraging the social organization of workers.
In an address to this same Kuching Wharf Labourers Union in February 1953 on the occasion of the departure of the Protector of Labour, T.P.
Cromwell, Chew urged the union members to set up a welfare section to render mutual assistance to members, and he used the opportunity to urge them to spend their money wisely and to refrain from gambling. The Sarawak Tribune reported20:
19 Sarawak Gazette 31 October 1952: 222.
20 The Sarawak Tribune 23 February 1953.
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The Registrar of Trade Unions, Mr. William Chew said much had been accomplished by the Union in the past year, but there was more to be done and for which they must continue to strive. Mr.
Chew said it was a good thing that a savings scheme was started but he thought that they could do more by devising a savings scheme in their Union whereby relief could be sought in the case of old age, sickness and unemployment. He said members should spend their spare time in helping each other in various things which they would need, such as repairing of homes and even the building of houses. Advice was also given on the evil of gambling, which should be discouraged.
This “lecturing” style cited above is similar to what we are children used to receive at home, admonishing us for not studying hard in school for example, something which we loathed to listen to. This lecturing style was also used on those persons who visited him for consultations and advice at home after office hours. While there is some documentation on Chew’s work with the trade unions, there are gaps on other concurrent appointments which he held as Deputy Registrar of Societies when he was appointed on 1 January 195221 and as Deputy Protector of Labour on 3 June 1955. These various appointments were inter-related in dealing with trade unions, associations and labour, and although Chew had a wide mandate in serving the whole of
21 The Sarawak Tribune 9 January 1952.
Sarawak and its diverse communities, he was in a vantage position in handling Chinese affairs. Among the Chinese he was known as “tua
chai hoo” (big government officer in Hokkien dialect), a term of
respect for a well regarded civil servant. According to John Chin (1980:81), a Hakka colleague of my father who was also for a time a court interpreter, a Chinese civil servant in a senior position “commanded respect even among [Chinese] community leaders and other people of social significance, especially if he worked directly under European officers of senior rank. ”
Figure 8: Visit by T. M. Cowan, Labour Adviser to the to the Commissioner General, South East Asia to Kuching in November 1952, meeting representatives of trade unions. William Chew is standing right to T. M.
Cowan.
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The colonial government recognised Chew’s standing within the Chinese community, especially among the Hakka due to the nature of his work. When the British governor, Anthony Abell in November 1955 invited Chinese community leaders living at the bazaars and areas along the 7th, 10th, 15th, 17th, and 24th miles, Kuching-Simanggang road, places where Hakka were the dominant group, for a discussion and luncheon, William Chew was the only Chinese civil servant present.22 Chew is shown in this group photo on the extreme right.
Father’s standing in the eyes of the colonial government was matched by
22 The Sarawak Tribune, 26 November 1955.
his devotion and loyalty to the government, and as children we were not only subject to his strict and stern discipline but we also knew him to be an upright man, a stickler for the letter of the law, which was what and how British governance was laid down in Sarawak. I would now like to refer to the work of Sarawak scholar Vernon Porritt (2004: 37-41) who while writing about the communist movement in the territory covered in some detail on how Chew dealt with the trade unions. The story of the trade unions and how the communist united front infiltrated the trade unions is outside the scope of this paper, relevant though it may be. The subject of communism even for academic discourses in Sarawak is a sensitive one for local academics to handle. I rely here extensively on Porritt, to show how my father dealt resolutely with the trade unions within the scope of his work, to help throw light on his character as a public servant.
According to Porritt, the Sarawak communist movement, which penetrated the trade unions in 1954 with cells directed to use legal avenues, and indoctrination through night schools, cultural activities and sports events. Father refused to register a Sarawak Trade Union Congress (STUC) in 1955 on the grounds that that it could not be registered under the Trades Union Ordinance then in force. Pressure by the unions was mounted on the office of the Registrar of Trade Unions to the extent that an interim committee for a STUC was set up in May 1960 and again registration was refused on the same grounds. Relentless pressure finally paid off when a First Division STUC was finally approved on 8
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January 1961. Government surveillance on communist infiltrations of trade unionists resulted in the arrest of some trade unionists suspected to be communists in December 1962. The government’s intention to make sure that trade unions confined their activities to legitimate objectives was conveyed by Chew at a government sponsored seminar in March 1964. Chew explained union rules and the non-use of union funds for political purposes and for political parties. The First Division STUC was banned by the government on 17 March 1966. Although I do not personally know in any detail how my father dealt with the infiltration of trade unions by the communist united front, what can be vouched for is that for my father, his office as Registrar of Trade Unions was a high pressured one, walking a tight rope between the demands of assertive unionists influenced by communism, and upholding the laws and rules laid down by the government. From what Porritt has detailed, it appeared that my father did not waver in the face of union demands.
Another example of my father’s steadfastness in serving the government of the day is again taken from Porritt (2004), citing him taking the decision not to register a communist united front organisation, the Sarawak Farmers Association in 1961. “ G.A.T. Shaw, the Chief Secretary informed the CouncilNegri [State Legislative Assembly] that the Registrar of Societies had refused registration under the Societies Ordinance on the grounds that the Association was likely to be used for purposes
‘prejudicial to peace and good order in Sarawak. ” This has always been what we the children thought our father would be, that he believed
in carrying out the work he was asked to do without fear or favour and being loyal to the government of the day. Work demands I believe, led to my father to take up cigarette smoking which led him to contract throat cancer, a cause of his demise at the age of seventy two years in 1985.
There are gaps in knowing about Chew’s work in the period just before the withdrawal of the British colonial masters from Sarawak which culminated in Sarawak becoming a partner of the Malaysian Federation on 16 September 1963. There is however a Malaysian Government Gazette of 11 August 1967, confirming his appointment as Registrar of Newspapers on 11 July 1967. He retired from government service on 13 December 1968 after reaching the compulsory retirement age.