MALAYA: Bad Men in the Jungle

Thirty years ago British police in Malaya imported 50 headhunting Dvaks from the jungles of North Borneo. Their mission was to hunt down the robber chieftain Chang Lun, whose little band of terrorists ruled the Kinta valley in the border state of Perak, the British Empire’s richest tin-mining zone. Armed with six-foot sumpitans (blowpipes) and keen, long-bladed parangs, the naked warriors snaked through the jungles to Chang Lun’s hideout and nabbed their man.

Last week Dyaks were brought to Malaya again. This time they were hired to help wipe out the Communist guerrillas who have been terrorizing the country (TIME, Aug. 2). As three British Army trucks jolted them into a secret jungle camp, the first contingent of 49 Dyaks whooped a rousing greeting to their new hunting ground.

A handful of spectators watched the

Dyaks unload their sleeping mats and haversacks from the trucks. Around each man’s waist was slung the parang with which his forefathers had chopped off enemy heads before the British stamped the custom out. Knots of hair hung from many hilts, but the main decoration consisted of tassels of pheasant feathers dangling from their sheaths. Charms made of wild boar or crocodile teeth hung from their waists. Some displayed intricate patterns tattooed on throat and chest; a few sported Hollywood-style sunglasses. The headman of the group, one Jabu, unsheathed his parang. “It’s more than 50 years old, like me,” he said. “It’s still sharp.”

One young fighter asked a British officer: “What is a Communist?” The Briton decided that Dyak education had not progressed far enough for a precise understanding of that one. He answered: “Bad man.” Replied the Dyak: “We want to help; we don’t like bad men.”

Dyak sophistication, however, is making progress along other lines. Malayan authorities were told that the only extra equipment required would be a shirt apiece. The Dyaks had other ideas. Jabu informed the camp commandant that each Dyak would need a messkit and cup, a groundsheet, a blanket and a mosquito net.