Mat Salleh Rebellion was a series of major disturbances in North Borneo, now the Malaysian state of Sabah, from 1894 to 1900. It was instigated by Datu Muhammad Salleh, better known as Mat Salleh.
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During the late 19th century North Borneo was under the administration of the British North Borneo Company. The Company was trying to transform North Borneo into a producer of various agricultural products, especially tobacco. As the Company introduced new cash crops, North Borneo underwent inevitable economic and social changes.
The Company tried hard to preserve local cultures, but certain local practices had to be regulated to ensure the Company's control. For instance, slavery was abolished. Other disruptive changes brought about by the Company were the introduction of taxes and the requirement for the keris (see Kris) , an instrument used as a weapon and also for traditional purposes, and boat licences which burdened the common people. Many disagreed with the new rulings.
One of the more influential dissenting local chiefs was Mat Salleh. He was born in Inanam, North Borneo, the son of the leader of the Brunei royals, and became a governor at Sugud River. A member of the Suluk and Bajau tribes / Sub-ethic of Bajau (Bajau Suluk), he married a Sulu princess.
In 1895, Mat Salleh entered into a long running dispute with the Company. Salleh had taken issue with the Company imposing new rules on the Sugud River region, but the Company ignored his complaints. For its part, the Company was unhappy with Mat Salleh collecting taxes from the local populace without Company approval. Soon after the dispute began, the Company burnt down Salleh's village, and in 1897 he retaliated by razing the Company's harbour at Pulau Gaya. As the rebellion grew, Salleh ordered a fort to be constructed in Ranau. The Company tried to capture the fort but met with heavy resistance and resorted to setting fire to it instead. After skirmishes near Pulau Gaya, Inanam and Menggatal, this phase of the conflict ended with Mat Salleh's forces retreating into North Borneo hitherland.
In due course the Company offered Mat Salleh peace, which Mat Salleh agreed to. Unfortunately for him, this truce with the British so outraged his own people that he was forced to flee to Tambunan. The British granted Mat Salleh control of Tambunan, and he built a new fort there which still stands today. In order to enforced his control over the people of Tambunan Mat Salleh applied the "divide and rule method" by reigniting the simmering rivalry between the Tagahas and the Bundu-liwan tribes of Tambunan. The Tagahas and the Liwans had been at war since the headhunting era of Bungkar, a Dusun warrior of the 18th Century. This inter-tribal warfare and headhunting had however stopped after 1864 when the pagan ceremony for receiving Toria's head, took place by coincidence with a phenomena which to the superstitious Dusuns was a sign of the deighty's anger. Mat Salleh sided with the Tagahas who had never been satisfied with the Liwans for having taken more victims then theirs. These heads which are now kept at the Sabah museum originated from Sunsuron a stronghold of the Liwans during the headhunting days. Despite the peace treaty, the Company decided to take Tambunan back from Mat Salleh in 1899 after Dusun leaders from Tambunan led by Sampuun sent a delegation to meet with the British at Brunei complaining about Mat Salleh's divisive activities. The british sent a small police force comprising mostly of Sikh members led by a Britsh officer. Mat Salleh refused to co-operate and fighting recommenced. This time the combined strength of the "gayang-weilding" Bundu-liwans and British "gun-power" overwhelmed Mat Salleh and his men. On January 31, 1900, his fort built on a hilltop at Kinabaan, with its cannon trained towards the Bundu-Liwan kampong Sunsuron, was breached by the British force and the Bundu-Liwan warriors. He himself was shot dead in a Kampung Toboh, Tambunan. His death left the rebellion movement leaderless and effectively ended it. Nevertheless some of his Tagahas followers, continued the fight on a small scale. Before the formation of Malaysia, the Bundu-Liwans were wary of entering into any Tagahas village for fear of "revenge-killing". In the early 1960 a certain Bundu-Liwan named Sergeant Madis, a pensioner from the British Colonial police force was mysteriously murdered at the Tagahas village of Kituntul. A Roman Catholic priest,a Westerner, who found Madis' body was initially investigated but later released. The Bundu-Liwan however continued to blame the Tagahas. It is no coincidence that the majority of colonial police force were recruited by the British authorities from among the sons and grandsons of Bundu-Liwans who had a hand in defeating Mat Salleh. Names such as Kitingan, Basinau, Tingkas and others were not unfamiliar to the British colonial police authorities.
In most parts of Malaysia, and even now in the state of Sabah, the word "Mat salleh" is used as a slang term for "Caucasian". In this context, the word might have been derived from "mad sailor" or could also have been derived from the meaning of the word "Mat Salleh" which means preacher or one who preaches due to the fact that early colonials came with the sub‐agenda of preaching Christianity.