Borneo in the Cold War, 1950-1990

403 Pages·2019·2.219 MB·English

by  Keat Gin Ooi

Borneo in the Cold War, 1950–1990
I t is an admirable virtue of Professor Ooi’s most recent research . . . rather than
immersing himself in the details of Borneo’s recent history, which, in any case, he
does with great skill, he examines the island as a whole and the increasing impacts
of nation-building and the incorporation of constituent territories and peoples into
regional and global movements.
[ He] continued to draw attention to Borneo’s position in a wider regional
and . . . global history. . . . However, what struck me in Professor Ooi’s ambitious
study was the constant return to issues of political confi guration, the struggle over
the form and cultural content of the emerging nation-states involved in Borneo,
and the position of constituent populations and ethnic groups in these multicultural
national, and often uncertain adventures.
Victor T. King, Professor of Borneo Studies
Institute of Asian Studies,
Universiti Brunei Darussalam
Although by about 1950 both British Borneo, including the protected sultanate of
Brunei, and Indonesian Borneo seemed settled under their different regimes and
well on the way to post-war reconstruction and economic development, the
upheavals which affected Southeast and East Asia during the Cold War period also
deeply affected Borneo. Besides the impact of the Korean and Vietnam Wars and
the Malayan Emergency and communist uprisings in other Southeast Asian states,
there was within Borneo the attempted communist takeover of Sarawak from the
1950s, a failed coup d’état in Brunei in 1962, Sukarno’s Konfrontasi (confrontation)
with Malaysia, and the horrifi c purge of Leftists and ethnic Chinese in the late
1960s. This book details these momentous events and assesses their impact on
Borneo and its people. It is a sequel to the author’s earlier books, The Japanese
Occupation of Borneo, 1941–1945 (2011) and Post-War Borneo, 1945–1950:
Nationalism, Empire, and State-Building (2013), collectively a trilogy.
Ooi Keat Gin, FRHistS, is Professor of History and Coordinator of the Asia
Pacifi c Research Unit (APRU-USM) at the School of Humanities, Universiti Sains
Malaysia, as well as editor-in-chief, International Journal of Asia Pacifi c Studies
(IJAPS).
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of US-Japan Relations
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Bruce A. Elleman
For a full list of available titles please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-
in-the-Modern-History-of-Asia/book-series/MODHISTASIA
Borneo in the Cold War,
1950–1990
Ooi Keat Gin
First published 2020
by Routledge
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© 2020 Ooi Keat Gin
The right of Ooi Keat Gin to be identifi ed as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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ISBN: 978-1-138-91078-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-69320-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
To Swee Im, my wife
And for our loved ones: Beannie, Mebs, and Boo Bee

Contents
List of illustrations viii
Foreword by Victor T. King x
Preface xiii
Abbreviations and acronyms xviii
Currencies xxvii
1 Introduction 1
2 The global Cold War 29
3 British Crown Colonies of Sarawak and North Borneo 53
4 Bitterness and intrigue: the Chinese Left in Sarawak 96
5 British protectorate of Brunei: discontentment amidst
wealth 135
6 Kalimantan: from parliamentary democracy to guided
democracy 157
7 Igniting Borneo 200
8 A cauldron of violence: massacres and guerrilla war 237
9 Conclusion 288
Appendices 303
Glossary 338
Bibliography 341
Index 366
Illustrations
Maps
1.1 Geopolitical Location of Borneo and Malaysia within South
and Southeast Asia 2
1.2 Contemporary Political Boundaries of Borneo 3
8.1 West Kalimantan 252
8.2 Sarawak 270
Chart
3.1 Judicial Structure of Sarawak, Brunei, and North Borneo, 1951–1963 85
Tables
1.1 Second ‘Police Action’ to Round Table Conference at The
Hague, 1948–1949 23
3.1 Sarawak Exports during the Korean War (1950–1953) 70
3.2 Sarawak: Schools at Elementary Level (7–12-year-olds), 1946–1955 77
3.3 Sarawak: Schools at Secondary Level (13–17-year-olds), 1955–1963 78
3.4 North Borneo: Schools and Student Enrolment, 1947 and 1963 81
3.5 North Borneo: Plural School System, 1950s 83
4.1 Comparative Ethnic Breakdown of Population in Sarawak,
Brunei, and North Borneo, 1939–1960 97
4.2 Main Dialect Communities of Chinese in Post-war Sarawak 99
4.3 Leftist/Communist (Mainly) Clandestine Organizations in
Sarawak, c. Early 1940s and c. Early 1960s 108
4.4 First Strike Action by Students of Chung Hwa Middle School,
Kuching, Sarawak, 29 October 1951: Chronology of
Events/Activities 113
4.5 Second Strike Action by Students of Chung Hwa Middle
School, Kuching, Sarawak, 30 March 1955: Chronology of
Events/Activities 114
4.6 Communist Infi ltration of Labour Unions in Sarawak 122
Illustrations ix
4.7 Communist Infi ltration of the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) 128
5.1 Brunei Oil Exports during the Korean War (1950–1953) 141
5.2 Brunei: Economically Active Population by Industries, 1960 –
Percentages 142
5.3 Brunei: Projected Ten-Year Plan, 1948–1957 143
6.1 Governments in Indonesia under Constitutional Democracy,
1950–1959 161
6.2 Indonesia’s Inaugural Parliamentary General Elections and
Constituent Assembly, 29 September 1955 and 15 December 1955 162
6.3 MANIPOL (1959): A Mirror to MIRI (1957) 171
6.4 Local Elections in Indonesia, 1957 174
6.5 Kalimantan: Genesis of the Division of Provinces and Districts 178
6.6 Results of Parliamentary and Constituent Assembly Elections
according to Electoral Districts in Kalimantan, 29 September
1955 and 15 December 1955 187
6.7 Indonesia: Phenomena of Mal-distribution of Population, 1920–1971 192
6.8 Kalimantan: Transmigration according to Settlement Area,
1951–1972 193
7.1 Ethnic Breakdown of Population of Malaya in 1957 202
7.2 Ethnic Breakdown of Population of Singapore in 1957 202
7.3 Ambiguity over the Status of North Borneo (Sabah) 219
8.1 Demise of O rde Lama , Rise of Orde Baru 245
8.2 Military Command Structure for K onfrontasi and Post-
Konfrontasi in Kalimantan 253
8.3 Chinese Refugee Camps in West Kalimantan, November 1967
to August 1968 257
9.1 Borneo: Local Players and Cold War Protagonists 290
Figure
8.1 North Kalimantan Communist Party (NKCP), circa 1985 275
Appendices
2 .1 Cold War Timeline, 1945–1991 305
2.2 Vietnam War (1955–1975): Momentous Events and Developments 316
3.1 United Nations Chapter XI: Declaration Regarding Non-self-
governing Territories – Articles 73 and 74 326
3.2 Nine Cardinal Principles of the Rule of the English Rajah 328
7.1 Notable Developments in the Philippines’ ‘Sabah Claim’ 330