MALAYSIA’S OTHER TROUBLES FEDERATION’S PRIORITY FOR RURAL ECONOMIC PROGRESS

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30827, 12 August 1965, Page 12

MALAYSIA’S OTHER TROUBLES FEDERATION’S PRIORITY FOR RURAL ECONOMIC PROGRESS

(By a Stag Reporter of "The Press" recently in Malaysia.>

For all its concern over President Sukarno’s confrontation policy, and differences with Singapore, the Malaysian Government has been looking uneasily toward the north and the events in Vietnam. During an interview in his Kuala Lumpur office, the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Abdul Razak, made his Government’s attitude plain: “We are deeply concerned with the situation in Vietnam,” he said. “It is vital to us and endangers the security of Thailand and ourselves.”

Saigon, Tun Razak pointed out, is the nearest foreign capital to Kuala Lumpur, and Malaysia regards a Communist advance as a direct threat, perhaps greater, ultimately, than Indonesian confrontation. “We hope the South Vietnamese will be able to hold on to their country,” he said. “We realise their difficulties, but they must find a way to get the will of the people to support a South Vietnamese Government. We share the view of Mr McNamara that the situation in Vietnam is serious and also his confidence that it can be brought under control.” The Double Threat Malaysian politicians and officials have come to regard the double threat to the federation as one, though, in discussing the expansion of Chinese Communist influence and Indonesian antagonism, they speculate on an ultimate confrontation between Chinese expansion and President Sukarno’s concept of an Indonesian and Malay bloc. President Sukarno, they argue, has made a coldblooded assessment of the future in which he sees Chinese expansion and the expulsion of the United States from South-east Asia as inevitable. At present, China’s lack of air and naval strength, and the presence of the United States in South-east Asia, especially of the United States 7th Fleet, is calculated to give Indonesia perhaps 10 or 15 years’ breathing space During this period. President Sukarno sees no point in adopting an anti-Chinese posture and he can afford to use the coincidence of Chinese anti-Western policy with his own. President Sukarno, said a foreign affairs observer in Kuala Lumpur, did not expect China to absorb the Indonesian archipelago and might eventually fall back on Russia or Western countries to ward off any threat of this. The American response to the imminence of a Communist take-over in South Vietnam has complicated President Sukarno’s calculations Expulsion of the United States from South-east Asia no longer seems so certain, and President Sukarno finds himself under pressure from China to get on with his confrontation policy against Malaysia. Events in South-east Asia have forced increasing collaboration between the United States and the Commonwealth and although the Indonesian Army must appear dedicated to the crushing of Malaysia so as to keep in the forefront of the Indonesian revolution, it is now wary of getting into action against 50,000 Commonwealth troops. What action, then, in view

of these fears and theories, is Malaysia taking? The Fed eration’s military strength is modest, if increasing. It has a daily military expenditure 1.6 million dollars, or nearly £200.000 and a five-year expansion programme costing 4,900 million dollars which should at least double the strength of its navy and air force.

Its army now numbers 17.000 men, its air force 1000 and its navy 2000. Expansion of these forces depends largely on technical training in Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, and Britain The shortage of officers is slowing the plan to create a second division in the army Last month the Government announced plans to add three, possibly four squadrons to the existing five in the Malaysian Air Force. It will have at least one squadron of jet strike aircraft, a squadron of Caribou transports and a further squadron of Alouette helicopters Two squadrons of helicopters are already operating in Sabah.

On August 31. the Kuala Lumpur airfield will become exclusively a military air base thus increasing Malaysia’s operational air bases to five with strategic airstrips at Kuching and Taiping. The Malaysian Navy has one frigate, minesweepers, fast patrol boats and three landingcraft provided by Australia To guard against Indonesian infiltrators the regular forces are supplemented by a police force of 20,000 men, a territorial army and village vigilante corps. All this amounts to a modest, if efficient defenceforce aimed primarily at internal security. Its enlargement is inhibited by the Government’s determination to maintain a balance between Malays and Chinese in the armed forces. The traditional reluctance of Chinese to join the army makes it difficult to meet the racial quotas.

“We shall need more help," said Tun Razak commenting on current developments in South-east Asia. “We are now negotiating for this with New Zealand. Australia and Britain.” Economic Front-Line But it is not on the military front that Malaysia is making its most significant efforts to counter threats from abroad. On the principle that a population enjoying prosperity and seeing both the promise and results of progress is one of the strongest defences against insurgency, Malaysia is attacking the problems of economic development, especially in rural areas with all the urgency of a military campaign. The dynamic head of this operation is Tun Razak, who

'combines the roles of Minister of Defence and Minister of National and Rural Development. The National Operations room from which social and economic developn «nt is planned and directed has much of the appearance and air of a military headquarters. This room exemplifies the spirit with which the development programme is endowed. In this room are kept the up-to-date details of the plans and progress on every development scheme in Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak These may involve vast land development projects or the details of progress on a school, water scheme or the provision of a telephone kiosk for a village.

Administrative and Interdepartmental delays arc not tolerated. When checks are made on individual schemes and the charts reveal that progress is lagging there is immediate action. No time is wasted on exchanging letters between departments, on committee meetings or redtape delays. The Ministry’s first directive when It was established last year called for “the absolute maximum effort" to be concentrated on the development of the country, “with emphasis first and foremost on rural economic development.” This called for an administrative revolution. When delays are exposed the Minister himself may reach for a telephone in the operations room to demand the reasons. After consultation with the National Development Committee he is likely to give his directive for action on the spot. Successful System Such directions can cut through inter-departmental disputes and are based on a streamlined system of records which in minutes can lay open all the information on surveys, planning and action m every district The system has been so successful in co-ordinating departmental work that it has attracted hundreds of inquiries from other Governments fighting bureaucratic bottlenecks. Local needs for roading, water supply, education, electric supply, telephones, postal services, land drainage and development and health services have been established by district committees. Priorities have been fixed and. at the national level, related to economic resources. Maps, charts and graphs reveal the divergencies between promise and performance. In the national and state operations rooms, discrepancies swiftly become obvious and action, at Ministerial level if necessary, is immediate. Malaysia has not overlooked the lessons of ten years of the “Emergency" and is losing no time in building a defence against the threats of a new insurgency movement.