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Page 11
 
 
 
 

THE GENESIS OF KONFRONTASI 

by

Greg Poulgrain

EVERY FEW YEARS, history as we knew it is turned upside down by revelations of the truth or something near the truth by the periodic disclosure of selected confidential documents by the British government.

In 1964, we were told that the madman Soekarno had launched Konfrontasi. His object: the crushing of Malaysia and its conquest. In 1965, his infiltrators landed at Pontian, only to be captured by our surprisingly well-informed soldiers who were waiting for them. Someone was obviously working with the British intelligence somewhere in Sumatra. Weeks later came the detention of Dr Burhanuddin, Abdul Aziz Ishak and Ishak Mohamed for allegedly plotting a government in exile. Sceptics thought this rather contradicted the Soekarno plan. But they kept silent, fearing the ISA and listened to the propaganda which filled the air waves.

Now, thanks to “The Genesis of Konfrontasi,” by Greg Poulgrain, we learn that  Konfrontasi, was a joint operation programme by British and American intelligence. This study is valuable if only because the author has interviewed the principle actors: Azahari, General Nasution, Sir Alexander Waddell, former governor of Sarawak; Roy Henry, former head of the special branch in Sarawak and Brunei, and former employees of the British Malaya Petroleum (later Brunei Shell) the main beneficiary of the giant off shore oilfield known as South West Ampa, off Brunei

We learn from this well researched book that as part of the process of decolonisation the federation of Singapore, Malaya and the Borneo states had been hatched from as long ago as 1953, in the interest  of major oil companies. Britain was guided by two principles : one was that the local leaders who took over should be known to be amenable to continued British investment and second, that Soekarno should no longer continue to be president of Indonesia. From the British Public Record Office we now learn that evolution involved the so-called Communist Front Riots of October 1956 in Singapore, “deliberately provoked by the authorities to enable the arrest of some prominent anti-British Chinese.”  “Once under Lee Kuan Yew, however, Singapore was far less a Colonial Office problem-child;” the British were now able to turn their attention to Borneo.

The Real Azahari

  The problems that the British faced were Sarawak's threatened independence, with the distrusted Sarawak United People’s Party in the lead; in Brunei, Azahari's plan for a federation of the three British Borneo territories, Kalimantan Utara, becoming part of Malaysia, which was opposed to the British alternative that the three states should  individually take part in the Federation of Malaysia.  In 1957 the Colonial Office adopted a plan to eliminate Azahari, the popular leader of Brunei. The operation was influenced by Hales, managing director of British Malayan Petroleum, whose authority was superior to that of the governor of Sarawak, because he ran a separate intelligence network.

We also learn that in 1958 when Azahari suffered acute appendicitis pain, the doctor, a Dr Wolf, was not permitted to operate on him: strict orders had come from  higher up forbidding the operation. We do not know if that tactic was part of the plan but it was certainly a suspicious circumstance.  Azahari had to leave for Indonesia for his operation.

The British revised the Malaysia plan in 1958. The turnaround coincided with Azahari’s ideas but was opposed by the Sultan of Brunei. However the British disapproved of Azahari’s plan for an elected council in Brunei. A compromise was rejected  on the advice of the BMP intelligence network.  

Penetrating Azahari’s party the British planned a scheme for rebellion in Brunei, behind the back of Azahari, who, we now learn, was in fact against violence. This was the first step to the formation of Malaysia, an essential  part of  Konfrontasi. For the British, fomenting Konfrontasi was to facilitate the inclusion of Sarawak in the formation of Malaysia, the crux of which was the 1962 Brunei revolt, a “rebellion” which the Sultan of Brunei had wrongly thought was a challenge by Azahari to the throne and which lost Azahari his support. 

That Azahari was a popular leader was demonstrated in 1962 when he won 90% of the vote, winning 54 of 55 seats He held the potential key to government. He would have been able to oppose joining Malaysia on Tengku’s terms. The Legislative Council was even asked to frame a request to the British to return Sarawak and North Borneo to Brunei,  but its meeting was postponed again and again to defeat the proposes. Azahari then turned to Manilla and obtained its support for the Kalimantan Utara  project, successfully persuading the Philippines to agree to give up their claims to Sulu. Faced with the internationalisation of the Kalimantan Utara issue, the British engineered the shots that turned the Sultan against Azahari.

The Tengku Puzzle

 North Borneo was vital to British interests and had to be preserved and kept going as part of reliable Malaysia. As Pramoedya Ananta Toer explains in his foreword, the end of the Second World War  had brought Britain to its knees, heavily indebted to the United States. It was forced to look to Malaya, Singapore and North Kalimantan as  sources for its dollars. Revolutionary Indonesian influence had to be eliminated from the three colonies. Between 1963 and 1964 provocations by land and sea against Indonesia were mounted. Indonesia was accused of territorial ambitions even though Soekarno had stated that Indonesian territory comprised exactly the former Dutch East Indies. 

In less than a year  the American British inspired G30S, described by Toer as the metamorphosis of the British stance of anti-confrontation,  went into action leading to the end of Soekarno’s presidency and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands. British Prime Minister Macmillan’s and President Kennedy’s secret agreement of June 1962 “to liquidate Present Soekarno” had come to fruition.  

The Tengku’s eagerness to join with the distant British territories of north Borneo in the formation of Malaysia while the Philippines’ claim to Sulu was very much alive has remained an unsolved puzzle.  Greg Poulgrain’s book makes us wonder how much he knew of the British American plans, and if so how deeply he was involved. But our books remain closed, and our curiosity, nourished after the recent disclosure that the British had secretly stored atomic weapons in Singapore during the 60s, must remain unsatisfied. History in the rear mirror is decidedly more interesting than history in the daily newspapers #

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The Genesis of Konfrontasi  by Greg Poulgrain                                                 With foreword by Pramoedya Ananta Toer                                               Crawford House Publishing, Bathurst;                                                                C Hurst & Co (Publishers) Ltd London 1998

Reviewed by Lim Kean Chye

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