THE SARAWAK BORDER SCOUT - The Eyes and Ears on the Kalimantan Frontier

That photo is iconic - 1966, deep in Konfrontasi. Three young Dayak men in jungle hats, FN rifles, "BORDER SCOUTS" patch on the arm. This is what the unit was at its peak.

History of the Sarawak Border Scouts

1. Origin - from the Brunei Revolt

The Scouts didn't start as a formal army. When the Brunei Revolt broke out in December 1962, a civilian, Tom Harrison, mobilized Kelabits from the highlands around Bario to hunt the retreating rebels.

When Major General Walter Walker arrived as Commander British Forces Borneo, he built directly on that:

"Walker raised the Border Scouts, building on Harrison's force of Kelabits, who had mobilised to help intercept the fleeing TNKU forces from the Brunei Revolt."

2. Official Formation - 1963

With Indonesia under Sukarno opposing the formation of Malaysia (Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore on Sept 16, 1963), cross-border infiltrations from Kalimantan began.

The Malaysian government recruited some 1,500 men from the indigenous tribes of Sabah and Sarawak as Border Scouts under the command of Richard Noone and other officers from the Senoi Praaq to counter the infiltrations.

Walker used Royal Marines and the experience of the Sarawak Rangers from the Malayan Emergency, and selected Lt Col John Cross, a Gurkha officer, to organize them. This was approved by the Sarawak government in May as "auxiliary police".

A recent academic study from Universiti Sains Malaysia defines them clearly:

"The Sarawak Border Scouts, a special security force established at the Sarawak border in 1963, played a crucial role as the "eyes and ears" of the police in countering Indonesian guerrillas infiltrating Sarawak."

3. Who they were

They were not regular soldiers. The Sarawak Tribune described them well:

"All the Border Scouts were mainly ordinary, unassuming and simple village folks and farmers who volunteered and enlisted to fight alongside the Commonwealth forces to protect the Sarawak-Kalimantan borders."

Recruited specifically for jungle knowledge, the squad was formed by various indigenous groups including the Iban, Bidayuh, Kayan, Kenyah, and Kelabit, who possessed extensive knowledge of the local forests

4. What they did in Konfrontasi (1963-1966)

The 1966 photo is from the most intense period. Their jobs were:

• Tracking and intelligence - When an incursion was detected, troops, sometimes relying on the Border Scouts' local knowledge of tracks and terrain, were deployed by helicopter to track, block and ambush it. Their tracking skills were highly valued.
• Stay-behind and early warning - They lived in border longhouses, listening for movement.
• Operation Claret - They assisted in the military operation launched by the Commonwealth forces codenamed "Claret", undertaken by the British, New Zealand and Australian armies, their SAS regiments and the Gurkhas along the porous mountain and jungle borders where they were cross border track-and-ambush raids.
• Hearts and minds - Because they were local, they kept villages from siding with Indonesian infiltrators.

They were mostly trained by 22 SAS, armed with WWII surplus.303s then later FN FALs/SLRS like in your photo, and worked attached to Gurkha, British, Australian and New Zealand patrols.

5. After Konfrontasi

After the Bangkok peace treaty ended Konfrontasi in 1966, the threat didn't end. The Scouts shifted to fighting communist insurgents - the Clandestine Communist Organisation (CCO) and later PARAKU along the same border until the 1970s.

In Sabah and Sarawak, their intelligence role continued - marking enemy locations and opening up helicopter landing sites deep in the border rainforest. The Sabah-based unit was disbanded in 1986.

In Sarawak, many Border Scouts were absorbed into the Sarawak Rangers, then into the Royal Ranger Regiment (Rejimen Renjer Diraja), and today their legacy is continued by the Border Regiment - Rejimen Sempadan.

They are still called the "unsung heroes" today - there are active calls in Sarawak to give them formal recognition and pensions for the 1963-66 service.

Hj Zulheimy Maamor

4 September 2026: 9.04 a.m