By Bunga Pakma, Sarawak Report
On 16 September 1963, all the elements were in place for the unfolding of a political story which, whatever its outcome would be, was certain to go through strange and wrenching twists of plot. Some of these elements were clear to see, others hidden.
It must have crossed many observers’ minds that the component states that made up this new “Malaysia” were an odd quartet. Malaya was a patchwork of small states, most of them feudal régimes headed by Malay kinglets. Singapore was a commercial city-state, predominantly Chinese with a strong British cast, but wholly business. Sarawak—Britain’s last pukka colony—had been ruled by a white family for 100 years, and Sabah had emerged from the strange position of being run by a Limited Company.
Each partner-to-be in the Malaysian enterprise joined with vastly differing experiences and expectations. The only thing they had in common was that each territory was home to a bewildering variety of peoples, languages and cultures, and none of these people had ever known anything except authoritarian rule. Upon what did they believe they were to agree?
As we have seen, Malaysia was a marriage of convenience, particularly for the convenience of the Malayan élite and the British. Love had no place in the arrangement, and inevitably members would be fighting as to who “wore the pants” in the foursome. KL took a traditional Islamic view of the federation. KL was the husband, and he took three wives. Singapore disputed KL’s position and demanded to be treated as an equal partner. KL booted Singapore out of Malaysia.
That left Semenanjung and Sabah and Sarawak. KL was hardly as noble as D’Artagnan, and the principle that governed Federal/East M’sian relations was not “One for all and all for one.” The mere notion of treating others as equal partners is as repugnant to the Malay élite as a ham sandwich.
My main source for today’s piece is Michael Leigh’s The Rising Moon: Political Change in Sarawak, published by Sydney University Press 1974. Much has happened since then, but Leigh’s study remains quite fresh. The pattern of Sarawak/Semenanjung relations Leigh demonstrates at the very beginning of Malaysia remains intact today.
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