Kuala Lumpur, 16 September 1963
602. Secret Immediate
Our 599.1
Terms of letter2 have been cleared by Critchley with Razak personally. Although Razak said arrangement including its publicity would be alright with his Government, as far as we know it has not gone to Cabinet. In any case letters have not been exchanged.
2. Malayans are anxious not to exacerbate relations with Indonesia and would prefer, I have little doubt, that there should be no publicity given to the new arrangements. For my part I am sure that both for domestic purposes and now for our Indonesian relations, we should publicise the arrangement as soon as practicable. If it were not for Malayan sensitivity I would favour a statement of the new arrangement as mutually acceptable by tomorrow, Tuesday, at the latest. However, unless you think a deferment until I have talked to Razak and Tunku unmanageable I think it better to defer public statement as to the arrangement. Perhaps you could say that the matter of a new arrangement is in a definitive stage of discussion as of now. This might suffice for this week.
3. I am seeking to see the Tunku before dinner this evening, but in midst of these celebrations, a considered view may be difficult to obtain. We should also seek to ascertain what the New Zealanders are proposing to do. I will wire you again later this evening.
[NAA: A 1209, 1963/6637 part 3]
Malaysia Day Aftermath
The advent of Malaysia Day brought simmering tensions between Malaysia and Indonesia to a climax. On 15 September, Indonesia and the Philippines announced that they would not recognise the new federation. Both countries withdrew their ambassadors from Kuala Lumpur, the Philippines Government asking, however, that its embassy be reduced to a consulate. On 16 September, the day of Malaysia’s inauguration in Kuala Lumpur, anti-British and anti-Malaysian agitation came violently to a head in Indonesia. Thousands of demonstrators stoned the Malaysian (formerly Malayan) Embassy, smashing its windows. They then stormed the British Embassy, tearing down the Union Jack, burning the ambassador’s car, and again smashing the building’s windows. Similar outbreaks occurred in Medan where mobs wrecked the British and Malaysian Consulates.
The next day, Tunku Abdul Rahman announced the breaking of relations with Indonesia and the Philippines. About 1,000 demonstrators stoned the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, removed the Garuda crest—the Indonesian state emblem—from the building and dragged it through the streets to the Prime Minister’s residence. While making a personal plea to the demonstrators to disperse peacefully, he was lifted up bodily and stood on the coat of arms.
On 18 September, further anti-British riots broke out in Jakarta. Indonesian mobs sacked and burned the British Embassy and systematically wrecked and looted, and in a number of cases burned, the homes of British nationals. British cars were stopped in the streets and set on fire after their occupants had been evicted. Meanwhile, the British and US Governments condemned the attacks, and demanded that the lives and property of British diplomats and citizens be safeguarded. Late in the evening of 18 September, martial law was imposed in Jakarta. In Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian Cabinet decided to put the country in a ‘state of preparedness’, setting up a Malaysia Defence Council, calling up reserves, increasing the strength of the armed forces, extending them to Sarawak and Sabah, and strengthening the police and Civil Defence organisations.
During the rioting in Indonesia many British concerns were also taken over by the trade unions, including the large Shell refinery in South Sumatra. In order to counter further action by the unions, on 20 September President Sukarno ordered the takeover of all British firms in Indonesia by government departments. All regional civil and military governors were to prevent the workers from seizing British enterprises, and specifically the workers’ control of the refinery was to be ended. Over the next few days all shipments of Indonesian oil and natural gas to Malaysia were banned, the processing of tin concentrates in Penang cancelled and diverted to Europe, and Malayan Airways’ landing rights at Jakarta and Medan withdrawn. In a speech to university students on 25 September, General Nasution said that Indonesia would not prevent ‘volunteers’ from joining the ‘guerrillas’, and it was announced in Jakarta that highly-trained parachute troops had been flown to the Borneo border and were ‘combat ready’.
1 14 September. It reported the Malayans’ anxiety not to give the Indonesians any pretext for opposing Malaysia, and their consequent concern about an Australian statement on Australian-Malayan defence relations.
2 Document 109.