Sabah (North Borneo) Historical Background By Datuk James P.Ongkili

Sabah (North Borneo) Historical Background

By

Datuk James P.Ongkili

The history of Sabah from the beginning until the nineteenth century remains unclear and little recorded. Sabah was a land of freedom until the middle of the nineteenth century in the sense that there was no organised form of government and a state did not exist until 1881. Before that, geographically Sabah had existed since time immemorial. But there was no community, no overall administration, no state economy, no state government; only mountains, jungles, rivers, the surrounding seas, and isolated villages scattered over more than 29,000 square miles of tropical and warm equatorial land.