At the start of the 1920s, British territories in Malaya and Borneo were divided between traditional sultanates, a trading company, and British port towns. The Straits Settlements was a British colony that comprised disparate islands and towns like Singapore, Penang, and Labuan. North Borneo was a company possession, and thus a pseudo-privatised organisation. The remaining states were British protectorates with traditional ruling classes that had essentially lost most of the power to British Residents. Some of the states on the peninsula had joined in a Federation, whose central executive government only strengthened the British position, while the others remained unfederated. Essentially, this means that at the time, there was no single ‘British Malaya’.
On 31 March 1922, the Malaya Borneo Exhibition opened to much fanfare on reclaimed land adjacent to the Telok Ayer basin. Occupying 65 acres (around 263,046 sq m), the colonial spectacle was put together in less than six months. After several extensions, the fair ended on 17 April.
Governor of the Straits Settlements Laurence Guillemard conceived the idea for the exhibition. As he noted in the souvenir guide, its objective was to “bring together, for the first time in history, representatives of all classes from the two important Malayan countries under British influence”, namely British Malaya and Borneo, so that “by interchange of ideas and discussion of matters of interest to each, considerable mutual benefit might be derived by all, and a revival of local trade possibly stimulated”.
However, in truth, the revival of colonial trade was probably the key reason for organising the exhibition. In Singapore, the post-World War I euphoria quickly gave way to a recession in 1920, which only started easing in 1922.
There was also the minor matter of coinciding with the visit by the Prince of Wales who officiated the opening. The souvenir guide also highlighted that the exhibition would show the prince the “natural resources and possibilities of Malayan countries under British influence, and to illustrate as far as possible some of the characteristic features of these countries and their people”.
To that end, plans were made for members of the Malay, Dayak and Murut communities to create life-size replicas of their traditional houses for display. While 42 Dyaaks arrived from Sarawak to build their longhouse, the North Borneo Chartered Company, however, failed to round up enough men to re-create a Murut house. In any case, the Arts and Crafts Section remained one of the most popular exhibits at the fair, featuring some 20,000 items made by or belonging to the indigenous communities of Malaya and Borneo. Many of these items were also available for sale.
The exhibition included performances to entertain visitors, such as Sulu and Dayak dances, mak yong and menora dance forms from Kelantan, boria theatre from Penang, mek mulung theatre and wayang kulit shadow play from Kedah, regimental band music and even a Tamil fire dance.
Many major businesses in Singapore, such as Fraser and Neave, Robinson and Co., and Sime Darby and Co., participated in the Commerce Section and bagged medals and diplomas for their best products. This was the key objective for staging the fair in the first place.
To commemorate this exhibition, special postage stamps were issued. Stamps of Straits Settlement, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Brunei and North Borneo had the words " MALAYA BORNEO EXHIBITION" overprinted on the stamps. it was only available during the duration of the exhibition.
