Singapores role in indonesias confrontation of malaysia and the impact of confrontation on singapore indonesia relations 1

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to A/P John Miksic for kindly agreeing to
supervise this dissertation when my former supervisor left. A/P Miksic’s supervision
was a crucial factor in helping me finish this dissertation in a reasonable amount of
time.

Thanks to my examiners A/P Brian Farrell, Prof Rey and Dr Joey Long for their
insightful and encouraging comments. I benefitted tremendously from their expertise.

I am grateful to my former supervisor A/P Natasha Hamilton-Hart for her robust
guidance for the first 3 years of my candidature at the Department of Southeast Asian
Studies.

My committee members, Dr Alan Chong (former), Dr Douglas Kammen, and Dr Sai
Siew Min, provided useful academic advice.

I am grateful to my CLS Bahasa Indonesia teachers Ibu Fanny, Ibu Johanna, Ibu
Siantik, Ibu Yuke, Ibu Lucy and Ibu Agnes for teaching me the language with
patience and humour. Thank you for your warmth and friendliness that extended
beyond the classroom. Thank you also for helping me with my Bahasa Indonesia so
that I could read and analyse my Indonesian source material.

My gratitude goes to Miss Ch’ng Kim See (Head, ISEAS library) who let me use the
library for my research work. The staff at the ISEAS library were of great assistance
to me as well. Besides being very helpful with my research work, Kim See was also a
wonderful source of moral support when the going got tough and I am grateful to her
for that.

The National Archives of Singapore (NAS) has a comprehensive range of material
related to my dissertation topic and I am grateful that access to this material was
smooth. The staff at NAS displayed a high level of professionalism and efficiency in

response to my requests and it was a pleasure doing my research at NAS.

I am very grateful to the staff at the Indonesian National Archives (ARSIP) and the
Ali Alatas Library in Jakarta for allowing me to use their facilities and rendering me
their assistance to the best of their ability.

In Jakarta, I would like to make a special mention of Dr Yekti Manauti and Prof
Taufik Abdullah of LIPI, who were very kind and hospitable to me. I thank Ibu Yekti
for her encouragement and assistance, and I thank Prof Taufik for making time to
share his knowledge with me.

The Department of Southeast Asian Studies has been supportive of my graduate
studies. I wish to express my gratitude to the Head of Department, A/P Goh Beng
Lan, for her support of the graduate students. I would like to thank my professors at
the Department who taught me and helped me develop intellectually. I am also
grateful to Ms Rohani Sungib of the Department for her advice and assistance on
administrative matters.

I am grateful for the NUS research scholarship and fieldwork funding which provided
financial support while I pursued my studies and research.

To my friends in the grad room, thank you so much for your camaraderie and support.
The friendships I built in the grad room were some of the best things that have
happened to me.



TABLE OF CONTENTS
Summary i

List of Abbreviations iii

Chapter 1: Introduction 1
1.1 The formation of Malaysia: The key role of Tunku
Abdul Rahman and Lee Kuan Yew 5

1.2 Indonesian and Singaporean perspectives as a key
driver of Confrontation 17

1.3 Creation of a post-colonial regional order for Southeast Asia 27

Chapter 2: The underlying “causes” of Confrontation and relations between
Indonesia and the Federation of Malaya: 1957-1962 36

2.1 The “Greater Indonesia” concept 39
2.2 Colonial experience, national revolution, and the search for a
post-colonial identity 45

2.3 Singapore and Confrontation as the continuation of the
confrontation over West Irian 51

2.4 The fear of communism, the Tunku’s Greater Malaysia plan
and the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) 60

Conclusions 68
Chapter 3: The proximate “causes” of Confrontation, 1962-1963: On
the concept of Malaysia 72

3.1 The question of the North Borneo territories 73
3.2 The Singapore referendum of 1962 83

3.3 The Brunei revolt as a blow to the Malaysia Plan 92
3.4 The failure of Maphilindo 98
Conclusions 104
Chapter 4: The Confrontation years in Singapore and Indonesia, 1963-1965:
The contest over Malaysia’s right to exist 107

4.1 Confrontation, diplomacy and international politics 109
4.2 The moral dimension of economic confrontation 121
Conclusions 129
Chapter 5: The political and military fronts of Confrontation,
1963-1965: Creating a new Southeast Asia 135

5.1 The systemic imperatives of the political theatre of
Confrontation 140

5.2 The avoidance of war on the military front
of Confrontation 151

Conclusions 163
Chapter 6: The separation of Singapore from Malaysia and
the impact on Confrontation 165

6.1 Foundations of Malaysia’s establishment and
the PAP-Federal Government tensions as a
key feature during the Confrontation Years 168

6.2 Separation, Singapore’s strategic interests, and
Confrontation 179

Conclusions 192

Chapter 7: Confrontation and the re-organisation of
Singapore-Indonesia Relations 196

7.1 Fear of a Sukarno-style leadership 197
7.2 Suharto as the initiator of ASEAN 206
7.3 Confrontation as a feature of the hostile
“Malay” geo-political world that Singapore
is located in 209

7.4 Indonesia and Singapore: An asymmetric
bilateral relationship 216

7.5 The need for Singapore to defer to Indonesia 219
Conclusions 228
Conclusion and epilogue 231
References