Abdullah, Robert Rizal, 2008, My Adventure: An Iban Warrior's Autobiography.

Abdullah, Robert Rizal, 2008, My Adventure: An Iban Warrior's Autobiography. Abdullah, Robert Rizal, 2008, My Adventure: An Iban Warrior'sAutobiography. Coral Springs, Florida: Metier Books. Robert Rizal Abdullah (up to 1972, Robert Madang ak Langi)published his life story when he was 60 years old but will hopefullylive many decades longer and have more adventures to tell us later. I first knew of the author as a former student of Peace Corpsvolunteers and sundry other teachers at Tanjong Lobang School in Mid inthe 1960s. As he told me recently, he was enamored as a boy with therather elderly school matron there, also a Peace Corps volunteer, whorode around on an antique bicycle and also organized the great war onbedbugs in the boys' (Deanley) hostel. The bedbug war under thissupreme commander was Robert's first adventure in militarystrategy. Long before he arrived in Miri, however, he had been enamored withthe legends of Iban warrior heroes, recited in his natal longhouse ofLachau Ili. This eventually led him to emulate these heroes by joiningthe Malaysian Army. After two years as a cadet in Malaya, he was happilyposted to the Third Battalion of the Malaysian Rangers, then operatingin Sarawak. In between times, he climbed Mt. Kinabalu and canoed downthe Upper Perak River to Kuala Kangsar. Once assigned to Sarawak, theRangers were stationed along the Kalimantan border during Confrontationbut the writer's platoon did not make contact with any"CTs" (communist terrorists) in the first year of duty there.In the following years, in both Malaya and Sarawak, the Rangers didcarry out successful anti-CT operations, as described in the text, forwhich the author received the Panglima Gagah Berani (PGB) award. The only drawback to this volume is the lack of copyediting, butthe "adventure" comes through clearly despite this flaw.Indeed, adventure is the fitting title for this book. (A. Baer, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA)