CHINESE OBJECT TO DISLOYALTY LABEL

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30822, 6 August 1965, Page 8

CHINESE OBJECT TO DISLOYALTY LABEL

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter)

KUCHING.

The Chinese in Sarawak object to the suggestion that they are disloyal Malaysians. In their view, the recent round-up of some 8000 Chinese residents along a strategic road to the interior created a discouraging precedent.

They were ordered out of their homes and into five resettlement centres after Indonesian and Chinese guerrillas killed nine persons along the Kuching-Serian highway recently. Officials accused the villagers and fanners of helping the attackers. On July 6, the day the round-up was ordered, Sarawak’s Chief Minister, Mr Stephen Kalong Ningkan, said that 80 per cent of the Chinese in the region were disloyal. He said that other residents, the indigenous land Dyaks and Malays, were “untainted” by Communism and would not be affected by the resettlement order. Many Chinese inside and outside the controlled zone accepted the resettlement decree as a commonsense move but they bristled at the suggestion that only 20 per cent of the Chinese were loyal. They also said that internment was unlikely to increase the loyalty of those who were good Malaysians to begin with. There was speculation that the chief minister’s disloyalty percentage was based on the number under Communist intimidation or the number belonging to the opposition, the predominantly Chinese left wing Sarawak United Peoples’ Party. In any case, Mr Ningkan did not withdraw the statement and State officials refused to take exception to his remarks. More troubling to the Chinese was the fact they were the only ones singled out for resettlement.

The Chinese make up about 30 per cent of Sarawak’s 800,000 residents. They are the shopkeepers, general merchants and office workers of the cities and towns, and the small farmers elsewhere. Their ranks include labourers and timber-rich millionaires. No matter how loyal individual Chinese are, State officials are still convinced Communist influence is almost completely limited to the Chinese community. One great failure of the Communists, accordnig to an intelligence report, is their inability to influence Sarawak’s indigenous races.