"No, he hasn't got a flag, has he?"

Such was the initial reaction of one of the Duke of Sutherland's guests as the boat they were on came to dock at the capital of Johor Baru, seat of the throne of the independent Malay Sultanate of Johor, ruled by his Royal Highness Sultan Abu Bakar bin Ibrahim.

The bewilderment and surprise of the Duke's party was recorded by the British traveller and socialite, Florence Caddy, who was one of his guests on his tour of Malaya and Siam. Their encounter with the Sultan Abu Bakar, was perhaps all the more unique considering the fact that it came at a time when every other Malay kingdom was on the retreat from the encroaching influence of British indirect rule.

Sultan Abu Bakar, on the other hand, was not about to go on the defensive. He would meet the British challenge head-on, in the same way that he greeted his astonished European guests with all the confidence and bravado that they had come to expect only from other Europeans like themselves. Indeed, the Sultan would prove to be the most confounding obstacle that the Malay Kerajaan would hurl at the advances of the British colonisers.

For unlike his other brother-rulers, Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor was a different case altogether. He chose to use the Orientalist discourse which configured his role and identity to suit his own needs in many ways.

True to its contradictory and inconsistent nature, the colonial order of knowledge which portrayed his race as one which was 'naturally' lazy and prone to pathological disorders both real and invented, also happened to regard the Malays as 'nature's own gentlemen'.

Ronald Hyam notes that in official circles at least, "Malayo-Muslims satisfied the canons of gentlemanly manliness" in a way that many other colonial subject races did not. This was one disabling fiction which the Sultan turned to his advantage, and apart from living up to the reputation of a 'natural' gentleman, he would later prove himself to be quite a player as well.

Shrewd player

To appreciate the extent to which he managed to thwart the ambitions of the British colonial powers and to turn their ethnocentric preconceptions against themselves, it is important to understand both the character of Sultan Abu Bakar as well as the socio-political circumstances of his eventful life.