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The Sarawak—Indonesian Border Insurgency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Justus M. Van Der Kroef
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Extract

On 28 November 1967, outnumbered Indonesian commandos, battling against more than five hundred guerrillas in the heavily jungled, mountainous area near Bengkajang, in the extreme western part of Indonesian Kalimantan (Borneo) close to the south-western frontier of Sarawak, were compelled to call for air support and reinforcements from the nearby crack Siliwangi army division, as the heavy automatic rifle and mortar fire of the insurgents was decimating commando ranks. The plight of the Indonesian regulars gave added significance to the concern voiced in the Indonesian Parliament a few weeks before that the Communist-led insurgents along the Sarawaken-Indonesian border should be prevented ‘from becoming a Viet Cong type terrorist band’, and to reports that Indonesian forces, engaged for some time in running battles with the guerrillas, had recently discovered in the forests near Sajung Kampong, Sebaloh and Punti various guerrilla caches of arms and supplies, including 'insignias with quotations of Mao Tse-tung’s teachings inscribed on them’.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , May 1968 , pp. 245 - 265
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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References

1 Antara Daily News Bulletin, 10 October 1967, p. 1, and 14 October 1967, p. IV.Google Scholar

2 Peking Review, 1 December 1967, p. 39.Google Scholar

3 The Straits Times (Singapore and Kuala Lumpur), 25 September 1967, editorial ‘A Common Enemy’.Google Scholar

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5 van der Kroef, J. M., ‘Chinese Minority Aspirations and Problems in Sarawak’, in Pacific Affairs, 39 (1966), pp. 64–82;CrossRefGoogle ScholarLeigh, Michael B., The Chinese Community of Sarawak: A Study of Communal Relations, Malaysia Publishing House, Singapore, 1964;Google ScholarPalmer, Judith, ‘The Chinese of Sarawak’, in The Sarawak Gazette (Kuching), 31 March and 31 May 1965;Google Scholar and Tilman, Robert O., The Socialization of the Chinese into Malaysian Politics: Some Preliminary Observations, New Haven, Conn., 1967.Google Scholar

6 Other major ethnic groups are the 241,000 Ibans or Sea Dayaks and the 136,000 Malays.Google Scholar

7 In 1963, for example, more than 66,000 of the 123,612 children attending all types of schools in Sarawak were Chinese. The Sarawak Gazette, 31 July 1965, p. 207.Google Scholar

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9 E.g. Article 153. See Groves, Harry E., The Constitution of Malaysia, Malaysia Publications Ltd., Singapore, 1964, pp. 203–6.Google Scholar

10 See e.g. van der Kroef, J. M., Communism in Malaysia and Singapore: A Contemporary Survey, The Hague, 1967, chapter IV, passim.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 The Sarawak Tribune (Kuching), 27 November 1965 and 5 March 1966.Google Scholar

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13 The Sarawak Tribune, 2, 10, 28 August, 3 September and 23 November 1965;Google ScholarThe Straits Times, 15, 20, 21 July and 9 December 1965;Google ScholarThe Sunday Tribune, 12 September 1965;Google ScholarSabah Times (Kota Kinabalu), 31 August 1965.Google Scholar

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17 As late as 9 April 1966, General Suharto, who by this time had already acquired much of the de facto executive authority in Indonesia, declared that Indonesia was compelled to continue its confrontation policy against Malaysia. Shortly before, the Indonesian Naval Minister, Muljadi, emphasized that the ‘crushing’ of Malaysia remained an ‘absolute’ objectives, The New York Times, 10 April 1966; and Antara Daily News Bulletin, 4 April 1966, p. IV.Google Scholar

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22 The Sarawak Tribune, 1 May 1967.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., 20 July 1967.

24 E.g. in the insurgencies in the Thai–Malayan, the Thai–Laotian, the Cambodian–Vietnamese, and latterly the Sino–Burmese border areas.

25 District Officer Abdul Rahman bin Awang Hamzah, ‘Lubok Antu District Annual Report 1966’, in The Sarawak Gazette, 30 June 1967, p. 158.Google Scholar

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32 The Straits Times, 30 September 1967;Google ScholarSouth China Morning Post (Hong Kong), 2 August 1967;Google ScholarRoeder, O. G., op. cit., p. 435; Antara Daily News Bulletin, 10 October 1967, p. 1. Already by mid-October 1967, Indonesian naval units were patrolling the Kalimantan coast fronting the South China Sea to prevent possible reinforcements, as meanwhile, Indonesian officials kept saying that the guerrillas were ‘being directed by Peking’. The Sarawak Tribune, 23 october 1967.Google Scholar

33 The Sarawak Tribune, 2 September 1967.Google Scholar

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35 Cf. Standish, W. A., ‘Malay Moslem Mixtures’, in Far Eastern Economic Review, 6 July 1967, pp. 19–22; Ong, B. C., ‘Chin Peng and his Border Terrorists’, in Sabah Times, 13 August 1965.Google Scholar

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37 E.g. Zaidi continues to be at large, and is now believed to be underground again in West Kalimantan after having enjoyed Indonesian protection for a number of years.

38 Antara Daily News Bulletin, 29 November, pp. II–III; I and II December 1967, p. III. In November 1967 (see The Sarawak Tribune, 30 November 1967), the Philippine government also denied that Kifli was the guest of its defence department, according to Malaysian deputy premier Razak. Kifli had earlier gone to Manila declaring his readiness to lead a new guerrilla campaign if Malaysia did not agree to a referendum on the status of Sabah and Sarawak. Despite Manila's disavowal, recent discovery of an alleged guerrilla training camp on Corregidor island, in Manila Bay, where forces were allegedly trained for a campaign in Sabah in conjunction with the Philippine claim on Sabah, has given Kiffi's visit to Manila a new significance. For some time to come the conflicting interests of Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Djakarta, combined with secessionist sentiment in Sarawak and Sabah, are going to provide a setting for the machinations of ambitious opportunists and their guerrilla followers in the North-west Borneo region.Google Scholar

39 For details, see Lockhard, op. cit., pp. 111–21;Google ScholarTilman, Robert O., ‘The Alliance Pattern in Malaysian Politics: Bornean Variations on a Theme’, in South Atlantic Quarterly, 63 (1964–1965), pp. 60–74;Google Scholar and ‘The Sarawak Political Scene’, in Pacific Affairs, 37 (1964–1965), pp. 412–25;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPaul Bradley, C., ‘Communal Politics in Malaysian Borneo’ in The Western Political Quarterly, March 1968, pp. 123–40.Google Scholar

40 The Straits Times, 12 December 1966.Google Scholar

41 Antara Daily News Bulletin, 20 November 1967, p. 11Google Scholar

42 The Sarawak Tribune, 25 September 1967, editorial ‘Government Action’.Google Scholar

43 The Sarawak Tribune, 29 November and 5 December 1967; The Djakarta Times, 18 January 1968; Peking Review, 26 January 1968, p. 22.Google Scholar

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47 The plight of the West Kalimantan Chinese seems to be worsening. The Djakarta student paper Kami, reported on 15 April 1968 that about 1500 Chinese refugees had died in West Borneo camps after being driven from their homes by massacring Dayas. Most of the fatalities were children or pregnant women who died from lack of food or medical attention. Indonesian spokesmen have denied that the Army incited the Dayaks against the Chinese, and have stressed that the underground PKI and the PGRS itself have been responsible for the murder of Chinese and have forced them to flee their homes. An official refugee relief committee in the Sambas regency of Indonesian West Kalimantan estimated in early 1968 that a total of 25,800 Chinese ‘have left the rural areas where they used to live’, and of this number nearly 12,000 entered the town of Singkawang alone. The Djakarta Times, 21 December 1967 and 18 January 1968; Antara Daily News Bulletin, 6 January 1968, p. II.Google Scholar