Problem For West In Malaysia Plan

Press, Volume C, Issue 29671, 15 November 1961, Page 20

Problem For West In Malaysia Plan

(By

SID MOODY}

[AJ’. Feature* Service} A new problem is sprouting in the crisis-rich lands of South-east Asia. This is the Greater Malaysia Union, so far only an idea but already one that could have deep repercussions, either good or bad, to the West’s position in the uneasy area.

Malaysia is the brainchild of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Prime Minister of Malaya. He has proposed a confederation of Singapore, Malaya, North Borneo, Brunei, and Sarawak. (See map.) While separated by water, the territories have common bonds with the British Commonwealth as well as economic and racial similarities. But it is the status of the big British base at Singapore as well as possible Communist infiltration into the proposed Union that are causing concern. ' /

Britain’s naval base at Singapore is one of the key points of the South-east Asia Treaty Organisation’s military system. Neither Malaya nor Singapore are S.E.A.T.O. members.

For .Defence Only Malaya,’ self-proclaimed as “non-aligned” although it has a defence treaty with Britain since becoming independent in 1957, says Britain can use the base only to implement that treaty and to protect Singapore. Singapore is selfgoverning, but Britain handles its defence and foreign affairs. Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the socialist Prime Minister of Singapore, is putting pressure on Great Britain to discontinue use of the base for S.E.A.T.O. purposes- Mr Lee, who says his Government is non-Communist but not antiCommunist, holds a thin onevote majority in the legisla-

ture and presumably adopted an anti-S.E.A.T.O. attitude under pressure from the strong pro-Communist Left Britain has said it will honour its commitments to its S.E.AT.O. allies and will make this clear when the Tunku flies to London for talks this month.

However, the vulnerability of a fixed base in nuclear warfare has caused England to seriously consider abandoning its ancient policy of naval bases in favour of a more self-sufficient mobile flleet. This could ease the Singapore problem. But Malaysia poses longer range difficulties. While broadly supporting the Union, Britain is apprehensive that Singapore, with its 75 per cent. Chinese population, might some day turn from the Commonwealth to the Communist bloc. Furthermore, a federation between Malaya and Singapore would give a slight population edge to the Chinese, a cause of worry also to Malaya. Britain thinks the addition of Brunei, North Borneo and Sarawak to the federation would provide a mediating balance. Foreign policy decisions, for instance, would be on a majority basis. But the Borneo territories themselves are divided. Sarawak’s 750,000 people are about half native Dyaks, a third Chinese, and the rest Malays.

Dyak spokesmen fear federation now would mean economic control by the Chinese as well as growing Communist agitation financed from Chinese Communist sources in Singapore. The majority Dyaks also are apprehensive merger would bring cultural and religious pressures from the Moslem Malays. The Borneo territories have long been associated with the British Crown. Sarawak and North Borneo are British colonies. Brunei is a sultanate under British protection. Sarawak was the personal kingdom of James Brooke, the famous White Rajah, for a number of years in the nineteenth century. It became an English protectorate in 1888 and was ceded to the United Kingdom in 1946 by its third Rajah, a descendant of Brooke. Sarawak had 5082 telephones in 1958. It exported rubber, pepper, oil and other commodities worth about 150 million dollars in the same year.

Adjacent Brunei, population about 80,000, is a substantial oil producer. Rubber is its only cash crop of any size. All citizens over 60 get a seven-dollar monthly pension for which they contributed nothing. North Borneo is a rubber producer, populated by 500,000 persons of numerous tribes. It is heavily forested and it has a mountain range reaching over 13,000 feet