Tawau
| Tawau | ||
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| Coordinates | 4 ° 15 ' N , 117 ° 54' E | |
 Location of the city within the Tawau district
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| Basic data | ||
| Country | Malaysia | |
| Sabah | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | MY-12 | |
| Residents | 113,809 (2010) | |
| Website | www.mpt.sabah.gov.my (Bahasa Melayu) | |
| politics | ||
| President | Y. Bhg. Datuk Isma Mayakob | |
| Culture | ||
| Twin cities |
 Zhangping , PR China Pare-Pare , Indonesia
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 View over Tawau Lama from the LA Hotel
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Tawau is the capital of the administrative area Tawau Division in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo . With 113,809 inhabitants, the city is the third largest city in Sabah after Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan . Tawau is located on the coast of Cowie Bay, which is open to the Celebes Sea .
The city center essentially consists of three parts, Sabindo, Fajar and Tawau Lama (also known as Old Tawau). Public institutions such as the immigration and registration authorities are located in Sabindo. Fajar is home to the major banks such as HSBC, Maybank, BSN and Public Bank and the district court for the Tawau district. Tawau Lama is the oldest part of Tawau, which also houses the harbor and the central market square.
history
The beginnings of Tawau 1857–1891
Although the name Tawao can already be found on a nautical chart from 1857, there are no clear indications of settlement before 1879.
Although the Netherlands had set up a trading post on Borneo shortly after the establishment of the East India Company , there was initially no significant activity by the Dutch on the east coast. That changed in 1846 when the Netherlands signed a treaty with the Sultan of Bolongan that gave them control of the area. The sultan married his son to the daughter of the sultan of Tarakan in 1867, with the Dutch sphere of influence finally reaching the region around Tawau. The north of the Dutch area, however, now intersected with an area that the Sultan of Sulu claimed for himself.
A conflict with the British was therefore inevitable when in 1878 the Sultan of Sulu laid the southern limit of his land surrender to the Baron von Overbeck on the Sibuku River. In order to settle the border disputes, the British North Borneo Chartered Company negotiated with the Dutch from the 1880s on a definition of the border between their area given by the Sultan of Sulu and the area claimed by the Dutch on the basis of the treaty with the Sultan of Bolongan. On January 20, 1891, they finally agreed on a line along 4 ° 10 'north latitude - which divided the island of Sebatik in the middle.
From village to city 1891–1905
In the early 1890s only around 200 people lived in the settlement, which was then still called Tawao. Most of the residents were immigrants from the Dutch-controlled Kalimantan . They fled from the Dutch colonial rulers , but continued to trade with them. The settlement expanded rapidly after the British North Borneo Company- sponsored immigration of Chinese around 1898.
The economic upswing 1905–1942
As a direct result of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1902 , Japanese businessmen began to settle in Tuawau and the surrounding area. In 1904, 400 hectares of land on Sebatik Island were leased to a Japanese timber company. The 1921 population statistics show 191 Japanese in Tawau; when the Second World War broke out there were already 1,175.
The increasing popularity of bicycles, the invention of the automobile and the increasing use of electricity had a stimulating effect on the worldwide demand for natural rubber from the turn of the century. The North Borneo Chartered Company saw a good opportunity to capitalize on this boom and offered every natural rubber planter a dividend of 4% and tax exemption for the next 50 years. Nevertheless, the cultivation of rubber trees in Tawau started slowly at first. The breakthrough came with the Japanese: on January 19, 1916, the Japanese Nihon Sangyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Nippon Industrial Company) bought 240 hectares of rubber plantation and 607 hectares of adjacent land. The plantation became known as the Kuhara Company under the name of its owner, Fanosuke Kuhara . The Japanese first built a number of warehouses east of the quays directly on the coastline and shipped the first raw rubber samples in May 1916. At the end of the year, the regular extraction of raw rubber began on 28,304 rubber trees.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the cultivation of coconut also became a mainstay of small farms. In 1913 there were already 26,000 coconut trees on 168 hectares of land in the immediate vicinity of the city and in 1916 the number had risen to 50,668 trees.
The first plantation to specialize in coconuts on a large scale from 1916 onwards was Kubota Estate . It belonged to the Japanese Umeme Kubota.
Around 1930 Tawau flourished thanks to its agricultural possibilities. In 1931 the population was already 1,800. Kuhara Rubber and Manila Hemp Estates , which produce natural rubber and Manila hemp, and the coconut farm Kubota Coconut Estates were now the two largest plantations of that time. There was also a coal mine in Silimpopon , about 130 kilometers from Tawau, which was operated by the Cowie Harbor Coal Company Ltd. from 1905 to 1931 . was operated.
In the late 1930s, there were about 60 wooden commercial buildings lined up along Tawau's two main streets, Dunlop Street (named after AR Dunlop, an administrator for the North Borneo Chartered Company ) and Man Cheong Street (named after a well-known coffee house) were. Dunlop Street was built so close to the coast that the commercial buildings on the lake side rose above the high water mark. Most of the stores were owned by Chinese who dealt in food, housewares, and agricultural items. There were also some Kopi tiam - traditional Malaysian, mostly Chinese-run coffee houses and hostels.
Japanese occupation and destruction 1942–1945
On December 16, 1941, the Japanese invasion of Borneo began . After landing in Miri for the first time , the Japanese advanced along the Borneo coastline; from the Kuching oil fields they moved towards Jesselton, while in Tawau life went on as normal. On January 19, 1942, radio communications from Sandakan ceased , and on January 24, 1942, the Japanese invaders were sighted off Batu Tinagat. District officer Cole Adams and his assistant were waiting for the attackers at the shipyard; they were arrested on the spot.
For the next three and a half years, Tawau, like the rest of Borneo, was under Japanese occupation. While the Japanese behaved correctly and friendly towards the population in the first twelve months, from 1943 onwards the emerging turn of the war also cast its shadow on Tawau. The supply of food and medicine deteriorated and the population lost confidence in the Japanese administration. For their part, the Japanese suspected that Allied spies would infiltrate the population as a result of the change in attitudes and began indiscriminately with arrests and executions.
In preparation for their invasion, the Allies began sporadic bombing raids on Tawau from mid-1944. From April 13, 1945, six massive air raids were carried out on the city, initially targeting the port facilities, ships and military facilities. In the last and most massive of the attacks on May 1, 1945, nineteen American B-24 bombers Tawau completely reduced to rubble. The island was nearly razed to the ground.
After the unconditional surrender of the 37th Japanese Army under Lieutenant General Baba Masao , 1,100 Australian soldiers landed in Sandakan in mid-September. Units of the command under Lt. Col. JA England invaded Tawau on October 17, 1945. The Japanese stationed in Tawau - 2,900 soldiers of the 370th Battalion under Major Sugasaki Moriyuki - were transferred to Jesselton as prisoners of war .
At the end of the war, the city was destroyed by bombing and fire. The only remaining relic from before the war is the Tawau bell tower.
reconstruction
Tawau quickly recovered from the devastation. Although nearly all shops in the city had been destroyed, The British North Borneo Annual Report in 1947 reported that "by late 1947 the pre-war economy was largely restored". In the first six months after the end of the war, 170 shops and commercial buildings were rebuilt. As of July 1, 1947, subsidies for the purchase of rice and flour ceased.
Konfrontasi 1963-1966
Due to its exposed location near the border with Indonesia, Tawau became a focus of the dispute soon after the start of Konfrontasi . As a precaution, 72 Gurkhas were already stationed in the city in March 1963 . Other units like the British No. 2 Special Boat Section under Captain DW Mitchell followed. Tawau looked more and more like a garrison town. In 1965, an Australian River-class destroyer escort was stationed in Cowie Bay, and a squadron of Saber fighter jets flew daily from Labuan over Tawau.
In October 1963, Indonesia moved the 1st Battalion of Korps Komando Operasi (KKO) from Surabaya to Sebatik and opened several training camps near the border in eastern Kalimantan. Between October 1 and December 16, 1963, there were at least seven exchanges of fire along the border, in which three Indonesians were killed. An Indonesian fighter aircraft flew over Tawau twice on December 7th with the bomb bays open.
In mid-December 1963, the Indonesian side sent a commando unit of 128 volunteers and 35 regular soldiers to the area. The aim of the operation was first to take Kalabakan and then to march towards Tawau and Sandakan. On December 29th, the unit encountered a camp with soldiers of the 3rd Royal Malaysian Regiment. The attackers managed to throw several hand grenades into the sleeping quarters of the soldiers who were completely unprepared for this attack. Seven soldiers and the commander were killed and another 19 wounded. After a two-hour battle, armed police units finally managed to force the attackers off to the north. The intruders were followed intensively from January 3, 1964 by the Tawau Assault Group (TAG) , a mixed unit of Gurkhas and Malaysian soldiers. At the end of January 1965, a night curfew was imposed on Tawau to prevent the attackers from making contact with the approximately 16,000 Indonesians living in Tawau. By the end of February, 96 of the 128 men had been killed or captured, 20 had managed to withdraw to Indonesia and 12 were still on the run.
There were no further major attacks on Tawau afterwards, but the situation in Tawau remained tense in 1964. A group of eight Indonesians were captured while attempting to poison the city's drinking water. On May 12, 1964, an usher found a bomb in the Kong Fah cinema . In August 1965, unknown assailants attempted to blow up a high-voltage pylon, and in September a forest vehicle hit a land mine. On June 28, 1965, an attempted invasion of regular Indonesian troops into the eastern Sebatik had been repulsed by heavy bombardment by the Australian destroyer HMAS Yarra (DE45) .
After the official end of the Konfrontasi on August 12, 1966, it took until December of the same year for peace to return to Tawau.
Tawau District
Tawau is also the administrative center of the Tawau District . The district of Tawau is - based on the number of inhabitants - with 397,673 inhabitants after Kota Kinabalu the second largest of the 25 districts of Sabah.
administration
The administration of Tawau has changed several times in the course of its history. From 1890 the administration was initially carried out by the North Borneo Chartered Company, which alternately placed this task in the hands of various residents, district officers or candidates for the office of district officer . AR Dunlop , who held various government offices in or near Tawau for most of the time between 1892 and 1903, played a key role in this . The stations of his career also mark the growing importance of the city on Cowie Bay. As an officer-in-charge (officer on duty) stationed at Darvel Bay , he was initially responsible for the administration of Tawau from June 13, 1892. On May 10, 1898 he was District Officer for the Darvel Bay District with headquarters in Lahad Datu and on March 1, 1899 he was given the office of resident for the newly created Residentur Tawau (Tawau Residency) . Tawau was his official seat until February 1903.
During the Japanese occupation, the administration was carried out by Japanese military personnel. The tried and tested pre-war administrative system was continued after the defeat of the Japanese by the British colonial government. Even after 1963, the Malaysian state continued to use residents and district officers until 1981.
The post-war administration of the city was closely tied to the British colonial government from 1948 to 1955 through the specifications of the Reconstruction and Development Plan , drawn up by the government's development officer, EW Ellison. Only in 1955 did the city regain full control over its finances and the administration of its public offices with the establishment of the Tawau Town Board . On January 1, 1982, the Tawau Town Board and the Tawau Rural District Council were merged to form the Tawau Municipal Council . In March 1983, Tawau was administratively divided into four areas: urban area (5,918 hectares), suburbs (4,783 hectares), surrounding areas (591,384 hectares) and lake area (26,592 hectares).
economy
The most important export goods are traditionally cocoa , rubber , palm oil and wood . Since the development of places of interest for tourism, such as the island of Sipadan and the rainforest area of Danum Valley , tourism has represented another important economic sector. Fishing can also be viewed as another economic sector. Fishery products are exported to Singapore and Hong Kong, among others.
The Tawau district is the third largest cocoa producer in the world after the Ivory Coast and Ghana.
Timber industry
The location on Cowie Bay favors the landing of raft wood from the adjacent jungle areas and the shipping of finished wood products. That is why a number of sawmills and wood processing companies have set up shop in Tawau. For example, Kalabakan Plywood Sdn. Bhd. (KP) , formerly Kalabakan Veneer Sdn. Bhd. one of the largest industrial companies in the wood industry in the region. Plywood, glued wood and veneers have been produced in the 13 hectare plant since 1968. The plant employs more than 1000 people. The main market is Japan. The plant has been a subsidiary of Tekala Corporation Berhad since 1996.
Infrastructure
Airport
The first civil commercial airport in Tawau was located about two miles from downtown Tawau on Jalan Utara, also known as North Street. It was opened in 1968 by the Malaysian Minister of Transportation, Tan Sri Haji Sardon. However, the runway was only designed for smaller aircraft such as the Fokker 50. She was one of the most dangerous and demanding in the world.
In the early 1980s, the runway was widened so that Boeing 737 aircraft could land. From then on, flights to Kinabalu, Sandakan and Lahad Datu were operated. A tragic aviation accident occurred on September 15, 1995 at the airport in the middle of the city. A Malalaysian Airlines (MAS) Fokker 50 from Kota Kinabalu with 53 passengers crashed into the Kampung Seri Menanti district at the end of the runway. 34 people, including two crew members, were killed. A direct consequence of this accident was the decision to move the airport, which is classified as high risk, out of the city area.
The new Tawau Airport is located 31 kilometers east of the city center and replaced the old city center airfield in December 2001. There are flight connections to Kota Kinabalu , Sandakan , Johor Bahru and the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur . The Malaysian airlines AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines serve these routes several times a day.
The new airport ( IATA code : TWU, ICAO code : WBKW) with a runway of approx. 3000 m length can, in contrast to the old airport, also be approached by larger aircraft. Sabah's second largest airport after Kota Kinabalu recorded a passenger number of 897,848 with 10,845 flight movements in 2010.
Road network
Tawau is easily accessible via the Tawau-Semporna Highway and the Tawau-Sandakan Highway. A bus ride to the capital Kota Kinabalu takes around eight hours.
seaport
The seaport of Tawau is called "Cowie Harbor", named after William Clarke Cowie , one of the directors of the former North Borneo Chartered Company . A lane at the harbor still refers to the namesake.
Due to its location on the edge of the Sulawesi Sea - a Pacific deep-sea basin with an average depth of 5,000 m - the seabed drops off sharply in front of Tawau. The port is valued by seafarers for its size and depth.
There are no significant passenger connections from the port.
literature
- KG Tregonning: "A History Of Modern Sabah (North Borneo 1881–1963)", 2nd edition, University of Malaya Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1965, reprint 1967
- Ken Goodlet: Tawau - The Making of a Tropical Community , Opus Publications, 2010 ISBN 978-983-3987-38-2
- Ross Ibbotson: SILIMPOPON - A Borneo Coal Mine ; Opus Publications, 2010, ISBN 978-983-3987-00-9
- James Warren: The Sulu Zone 1768–1898: The Dynamics of External Trade, Slavery and Ethnicity in the Transformation of a South East Asian Maritime State ; Singapore Univ. Press, Singapore, 1981 ISBN 978-997-1693-862
- Harold James and Denis Sheil-Small: The undeclared War: The Story of the Indonesian Confrontation; 1962-1966 ; Leo Cooper, 1971
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Population Distribution by Local Authority Areas and Mukims, 2010 (Census 2010) (PDF; 368 kB), page 369
- ^ British Museum, Sec. 13.2576; Facsimile at Goodlet, page 6
- ↑ Goodlet, pp. 39/40
- ↑ Goodlet, pp. 40/41
- ↑ Tregonning, page 97
- ^ Gavin Long: Australia in the War: The Final Campaigns (Army) , Australian War Museum, Canberra, pp. 495, 564
- ↑ Bob Reece: Masa Jepun , Sarawak Literary Society, 1998
- ↑ Goodlet, page 129
- ↑ Goodlet, pages 167-172
- ↑ Goodlet, Appendix 3
- ↑ Goodlet, page 133
- ^ State of Sabah: Tawau Municipal Council (Change of Status and Amalgamation) Enactment, 1981 of December 21, 1981
- ↑ Goodlet, page 249
- ↑ Web presence of Kalabakan Plywood Sdn Bhd ( Memento of the original from July 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Accessed July 10, 2012
- ↑ Old Tawau Airport one of the worlds scariest runways ( Memento of the original from March 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed November 14, 2011
- ↑ a b Tawau Airport on Malaysia Airports website , accessed November 14, 2011
- ↑ Airport information on the official Tawau website , accessed November 14, 2011
- ↑ 50 things you never knew about the early years of Tawau, Part 2 ( Memento of the original from April 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed November 15, 2011
Remarks
- ↑ a b In addition to the official figures from the 2010 Census, there has been a large number of illegal immigrants from Indonesia and the Philippines for decades. In previous years, e.g. Subsequent legalizations carried out in 1981, for example, probably exacerbated the problem, as they sent an undesirable signal for the influx of further illegals. (Goodlet, page 248 and page 299)
- ↑ Cowie Bay was also known as Kalabakong Bay in the early 19th century. Sometimes it is also called Sebuko Bay.
- ↑ The final contractual stipulation of this border was of course not confirmed until 1912 by the joint border commission and on February 17, 1913 paraffined by Dutch and British negotiators.
- ↑ Cole Adams spent 44 months in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, first on Berhala Island near Sandakan, and later in Batu Lintang Camp near Kuching. He died on the day he was liberated by the 9th Division of the Australian Forces in September 1945.
- ↑ The airport was declared as captains only sector , i. H. all flight maneuvers, including take-offs, were only allowed to be carried out personally by the flight captain. The flight captain was qualified in special simulator training courses for the airport and had to complete several landing approaches under the supervision of a trainer before he was approved for the airport in Tawau. The airport itself was only licensed for day flights; at the slightest chance of rain, flights were postponed, diverted or canceled.
Large cities Kota Kinabalu (capital) | Sandakan | Tawau
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