Every inch of Sarawak was James Ritchie's home

Free Malaysia Today

05-05-2025

Few knew the land and soul of Sarawak like James Ritchie, who earned the trust of its indigenous communities through decades of storytelling. (Firdaus Abdullah pic)
KUCHING : Quintessential journalist James Alexander Ritchie didn't just report on Sarawak — he lived it, loved it, and preserved its stories.
With an explorer's heart, Penang-born Ritchie became a great chronicler of Sarawak.
Through decades of storytelling, JR or Sandy, as he was fondly known, forged a bond with the land and its people that few could match.
At the launch of an exhibition in 2013 by Sarawak library entitled, 'JR the writer', Adenan Satem, then the Sarawak minister with special functions, paid a glowing tribute to Ritchie.
He said: 'Even though he was born in Penang, over the years he has become one of us…he wants to be known as a Sarawakian.
James Ritchie (second, left) with Penans at the Magoh forest reserve in Mulu. His kelabit name is Belaan Aran – the bringer of good news. (James Ritchie pic)
'He has a kelabit name Belaan Aran — the bringer of good news. In a way, it is appropriate because he is a contemporary historian.
'The things that he had written over the years will become history.
'In the years to come the generations that read his books will know what Sarawak was like in the old days.'
In 2023, Ritchie produced 'The 'Legacy of Adenan Satem' six years after the leader died as the fifth chief minister of Sarawak.
Goodbye Sarawak. His reporting was steeped in a profound knowledge of Sarawak's land and love for its people, earning him lasting trust. (Firdaus Abdullah pic)
Ritchie wrote about 45 books, six on Taib Mahmud, the late Sarawak chief minister, alone.
His Sabahan friend, Anuar Ghani said: 'Had he wanted to, he could have been a very rich man. But money didn't interest him. Stories did.'
There will be a hundred James Ritchie stories told for quite some time, with the root that the soul of journalism resides in human connection.
Ritchie, who died on Saturday aged 74, never forgot that every story, like every life, matters.
Courage and integrity
James Ritchie at a protest in London with British journalist and activist Clare Rewcastle Brown. (James Ritchie pic)
As an investigative and campaigning journalist, columnist, author and mentor, Ritchie remained a living bridge to vanished times.
His energy was irresistible in his advanced age as it had been when he first set foot in the rainforests of Sarawak in the 1980s.
From the offices of chief ministers to the longhouses of the interior, Ritchie wore the mantle of generalist with pride.
He moved easily between power and periphery, convinced that journalism's highest calling lay in telling the stories of the underclass, the downtrodden, and the dispossessed.
'Journalism is nothing if it's not about people's lives; everything else is glitter,' he often said.
It was the credo he lived in every deeply reported article and in each of some 45 books he published on history, culture, political and tribal leaders, warriors, sporting heroes, and his own reporting adventures.
Ritchie cut his teeth as a cub reporter in Kuala Lumpur before venturing to Sarawak. There, he would come to proclaim, 'I know every inch of Sarawak.'
Not as boast, but as testament to decades spent forging bonds of respect and trust with indigenous communities from the Iban and Bidayuh to the Penan and Orang Ulu.
He immersed himself in their world, learning among other things from their time‑honoured practices of sustainable management of natural resources.
He explored the historical, spiritual and social keystones of Bornean life, and became an outspoken advocate for their rights.
Ritchie's unblinking perspective and singular voice remained unbroken through crises both political and environmental.
He exposed corruption in high places; he chronicled the loss of traditional lands to logging; he celebrated the resilience of people who, in his words, 'carry history in their hearts.'
Last year, Ritchie was named Tokoh Hawana (journalism icon) at the National Journalists' Day celebrations in Kuching, for his work of long-lasting significance, clarity, fairness and innovation.
It followed the Special Jury Award he received the previous year at the annual Malaysian journalism awards, and about 20 other prizes over the years.
Scoops and heat from SB
There are few things Ritchie would not do to get a story. He was after all a thrill-seeker and a tenacious reporter with daring.
He gained fame for tracking down and writing about Bruno Manser, the Swiss environmentalist who led the Penan nomads to carry out blockades in the Baram region when their existence was threatened by relentless deforestation.
For Ritchie, his investigative reports about the activities of Manser and the Penans involved days of jungle trekking to reach settlements that are only accessible by helicopter.
He met Manser after a year at Long Seridan, a Kelabit settlement in Miri, and forged a relationship that is well known locally and internationally.
In 1986, he found himself in trouble with the Special Branch (SB) after he arranged for Manser to be interviewed by RTM in the jungles of Long Seridan.
On the same day his investigative report appeared in New Straits Times, the SB seized the three-hour long RTM interview footage.
As a result, the exclusive interview over RTM was scrapped while he was almost arrested under the Official Secrets Act.
It was Ritchie's tip-off that led to the arrest of Manser in 1999 following his paraglider stunt over the chief minister's residence in Demak Jaya.
Manser flew around the residence of Sarawak's most powerful man with the message 'Taib + Penan' plastered over his paraglider, appealing for dialogue between the chief minister and the Penan.
The officials were baffled as to how Manser, declared persona non grata by the state government for his anti-government activities in the 1980s, could have entered undetected.
Ritchie reported that Manser had entered Sarawak using a fictitious name 'Alex Betge'.
That episode aside, Ritchie often related how he went to the aid of a Penan student whom he met at the scene of Manser's stunt.
Ezra Uda, from Long Lamai, was carrying a file and wanted to complain that he had passed his STPM two years earlier and had applied to study at University of Malaysia, Sarawak, but was rejected.
After the immigration director Robert Lian Saging and his team left with Manser, Ritchie rushed to the chief minister's office with the boy.
He later gained admission to the university, thanks to Ritchie's humanity.
Ritchie's first encounter with the police was in 1976 when he was asked to explain an article he had written on communist activities in Gua Musang, Kelantan.
Apparently, the SB wanted him to make a statement that Samad Ismail had influenced him to write against the government, and had rewritten his copy.
Ritchie, the son of John George Ritchie, Sarawak's first Malaysian commissioner of police, took full responsibility for the article.
His first scoop as a crime reporter was on the passing of Malaysia's second IGP Mohamed Salleh Ismael on the night of January 31, 1973.
Ritchie, who was then on hospital rounds recollected: 'Tun Salleh, who was a colleague of my father, had been rushed to the general hospital by family members after a heart attack.
'As he was in sarong and did not have identification papers, the clerk on duty would not admit him until I vouched for him. He passed away soon after.'
Ritchie Junior
Everybody loved James Ritchie, seen here in a light moment with the former king and queen at the Sports Flame event in 2023.
This man has looked deep into the eyes of many orangutans and seen a special wisdom he believes could help us become better people.
Ritchie would say they are patient, loving, independent and capable of complex thought.
In 1989, he was on an assignment to write about an Iban longhouse in the Batang Ai dam area when a poacher offered to him a baby orangutan.
He was ushered to a spot under the longhouse where the 18-inch debilitated primate had been squeezed into an 18-inch square cage.
Ritchie gave the poacher a telling-off, paid him RM100 and rescued the orangutan.
The primate was taken by forestry officials to the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre, and the then state secretary Hamid Bugo christened it 'Ritchie'.
At Semenggoh, 'Ritchie' fathered at least 10 orangutans.
We'll meet again
Dreamy crooner James Ritchie singing together with his daughter Rebekah (left) and wife Helen (right). (James Ritchie pic)
Just as Ritchie was zealous behind the yellow tape at a crime scene, he was formidable as a golfer and rugby, football, hockey and cricket player, and adorable as a pianist-singer.
How many of us can claim to have the qualities of an accomplished writer, sportsman and entertainer at the same time?
Everyone who has ever met Ritchie for even a fleeting moment will feel the deepest possible sense of loss at the terrible news he has been taken from us.
Ritchie is survived by his wife Helen, daughter Rebekah and granddaughter who was born on Easter Sunday.
*The wake for Ritchie is at the multipurpose hall B, St Thomas Church, Kuching, and the funeral service will be held at the same church tomorrow at 9am before cremation at Nirvana.