Kuala Lumpur, 6 August 1965
1703 . Unclassified
Prime Minister’s Return
The Tunku returned to Malaysia yesterday.1
2. Speaking to the press in Singapore and in Kuala Lumpur, the Tunku made the following points:
(i) That he would certainly be meeting Lee Kuan Yew soon for talks and attempt to resolve misunderstandings between Central and Singapore Governments;
(ii) He supported United States’ policy in Vietnam but criticised United States’ aid of atomic reactor to Indonesia;2
(iii) He saw little hope of solution to Malaysia/Indonesia dispute unless Sukarn of orced a show-down with the communists;
(iv) He mentioned that only Ceylon was interested in the idea of a regional court of appeal to replace appeals to the Privy Council. Australia and New Zealand had not outrightly rejected the idea but were ‘not very keen’;3
(v) He foreshadowed no major internal or external policy changes other than ‘touch ups’ here and there.
[NAA: A1838, 3027/2/1 part 24]
1 See footnote 5, Document 272.
2 US nuclear assistance to Indonesia had originated in June 1960 when both countries signed a five-year bilateral agreement under the US Atoms for Peace program. Construction of a nuclear reactor at Bandung had begun in April 1961 and the facility had conducted Indonesia’s first successful nuclear reaction on 17 October 1964. A TNI claim in November 1964 that Indonesia would acquire an atomic bomb by 1965 had been dismissed, as Bandung was suitable only for research and training and was not viable source for fissile material for a nuclear explosion. The Tunku was reacting here to an announcement by Sukarno in Bandung, on 24 July, that Indonesia would ‘shortly produce its own atom bomb’. Sukarno had stressed, however, that Indonesia would only use the bomb if ‘we are obligated to defend our homeland’.
3 See paragraph 2, Document 272.