Stephen Kalong Ningkan (20 August 1920 – 31 March 1997) was a Malaysian politician who served as the first Chief Minister of Sarawak and first ethnic Iban to hold this position from 1963 until his removal from office in 1966.
Stephen Kalong Ningkan was born on 20 August 1920 in Betong, which was administered under the Second Division of Sarawak (later known as Simanggang Division).
Ningkan was a student at St. Augustine's school. After Ningkan completed his education, he worked as a rubber fund clerk from 1938 to 1939. He resigned from his job to join the Sarawak Constabulary from 1940 to 1946. He was a police constable in the year 1942. In 1944, he joined the Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD), an underground movement based in Jesselton (present day Kota Kinabalu). He became a teacher at his former school in Betong from 1947 to 1950.
Ningkan then worked at a Shell hospital in Kuala Belait, Brunei from 1950 to 1961. He also took up law via correspondence from Regent Institute and Metropolitan College at St Albans, London, respectively. At the hospital, he was the chairman of the Shell Dayak Club. He became the founder and president of the Brunei Dayak Association in 1958.
Ningkan's mother, Kuni anak Karong (born 1898), died of stomach complications on 14 June 1969, at the age of 71.
Ningkan learnt the Japanese language during the Japanese Occupation in Sarawak. The Japanese song, Kuni No Hana (Flower of the Nation) was one of his favourites. He was also spotted for singing Terang Bulan in various government and family functions. Ningkan was a fan of P. Ramlee and Sgt Hassan was one of his favourite movies.
Ningkan returned to Betong and established the Sarawak National Party (SNAP) on 10 April 1961, by uniting the Iban people of Saribas. Although he initially did not accept Tunku Abdul Rahman's proposal for the formation of Malaysia, he eventually became a strong supporter of the federation.
Ningkan never completed his law degree because he had to focus on his political activities. He also insisted that his party should be multiracial, given his background of having a Chinese grandfather and friends of various races.
In October 1962, as the SNAP secretary-general, Ningkan launched the Sarawak chapter of the Alliance Party, which consisted of Parti Pesaka Sarawak (PESAKA), Barisan Ra'ayat Jati Sarawak (BARJASA), Parti Negara Sarawak (PANAS) and Sarawak Chinese Association (SCA) in anticipation of the 1963 district council elections. In the election, SNAP under the Sarawak Alliance managed to get the majority of local council seats (i.e., after the support of one independent winner from Binatang by the name of Jimbat Anak Intan from Meradong Scheme B tipped the balance of the number of seats won by the Sarawak Alliance and the opposition pact of SUPP and PANAS). This crucial support, plus other independents, enabled the Alliance to appoint a majority of divisional, state assembly, and parliamentary members. This earned Ningkan the trust to become the first Chief Minister of Sarawak.
After the conclusion of the 1963 Sarawak district council elections, Ningkan was appointed as the first Chief Minister of Sarawak on 22 July by the then Governor, Sir Alexander Waddell. Supreme Council (equivalent to Sarawak government cabinet today) was also formed with members such as Abdul Taib Mahmud, James Wong Kim Ming, Dunstan Endawie Enchana, Awang Hipni Pengiran Anu and Teo Kui Seng.
The three principal advisers for Stephen Kalong Ningkan were Ting Tung Ming, Tony Shaw, and John Pike. Ting Tung Ming was Sibu Foochow, an SCA party member, and Ningkan's political secretary. Tony Shaw was Cambridge-educated expatriate, who joined Sarawak civil service in 1948 and worked as Sarawak state secretary. John Pike was an Oxford graduate expatriate who join the Sarawak civil service since 1949 and was the former Sarawak state secretary. John Pike, Phillip Pike, and Tony Shaw were the three expatriates within the Supreme Council (equivalent to cabinet ministers today). At the same time, they were also members of the Council Negri (equivalent to members of the state legislative assembly today). The expatriates had agreed to serve the government of Sarawak until 31 August 1967, four years after the formation of Malaysia.
The Ningkan's adopted a three-stage decision-making process. Ningkan first discussed his policy with his three principal advisors. The matter was then forwarded to three other SNAP and SCA ministers. Finally, the policy was discussed in a full cabinet meeting involving two BARJASA members. Abdul Taib Mahmud, as a BARJASA cabinet minister, was dissatisfied because, despite his superior educational background, he was unable to exert much influence in cabinet decision-making, being subordinated to the three expatriate officers in Ningkan's cabinet. Similarly, PANAS, PESAKA and the Malaysian federal counterparts were also sidelined in the state cabinet decision-making.
Therefore, the federal government mooted an idea of opening an UMNO branch in Sarawak, trying to unite the Sarawak Malays from BARJASA and PANAS parties, initially naming it as "United Malaysian Native Organisation" (UMNO). Shortly after the formation of Malaysia in September 1963, Haji Ghazali Jawi visited Sarawak to assess the feasibility of opening an UMNO branch in Sarawak or allowing the merger of PANAS and BARJASA into a separate party that has links to the federal government. The news had led to resignations of several non-Malay members from PANAS and annoyed Ningkan because he was not consulted on such important political maneuvering in the state. In October 1964, the UMNO general assembly decided that opening an UMNO in Sarawak was not feasible because without the support of non-Muslims, the party would not matter much in the state politics. Instead, they suggested the formation of a new party through the merger of BARJASA and PANAS by 1965. PANAS and BARJASA completed merger in 1968 and Parti Bumiputera was formed.
The Brooke government introduced the land zoning system, which classified Sarawak lands into native, mixed, interior, and reserved zones. A hard limit was put on maximum amount of aggregated land, thus avoiding the problem of "exploitation of tenant by landlord". Non-natives can only acquire or develop mixed zone land, where about 1,000 square miles of land (less than 3% of the total area in Sarawak) were owned by the Chinese. Meanwhile, one-sixth of the total land area in Sarawak was under shifting cultivation. Thus, the zoning system prevents the land from being used effectively.
A Land Committee was set up by the colonial government. A report was produced in mid-1962 to "make recommendations as to the measures necessary to ensure the best use of land in the national interest." The report recommended the safeguard of native customary rights of land ownership and the abolition of land zoning system. One of the safeguards was that a native could not sell his land without the approval of the Divisional Resident. However, permission criteria were not clearly defined and could be prone to corruption. Thus, the Sarawak government decided to implement the Land Committee recommendations by introducing more specifications in the upcoming Land Bills in the Council Negri.
In December 1963, Land Code (Amendment) Bill was passed in the Council Negri, establishing free issue of land title under Native Customary Rights (NCR) lands. Building upon the Land Code (Amendment) Bill, the Sarawak government introduced three other bills, on matters pertaining to establishing ownership, protecting NCR holdings, and how the government could acquire and pay compensation for NCR land. The contents of the three bills were published for public discussion in February 1964. The aim of these bills was to develop the NCR lands for large-scale plantations by landless Chinese farmers, thus helping to combat communist insurgency at that time. Besides, safeguards were also written to protect native interests. The bills were to be tabled in the Council Negri on 11 March 1965 but was postponed to 11 May to make time for amendment of Land (Native Dealings) Bill.