Manila, 1 August 1963
494. Confidential Immediate
Yesterday’s communique (our 490)1 reflects the unexpected rapid agreement by the leaders regarding means of settling their differences. The way for this was possibly paved by a personal call upon Sukarno paid by the Tunku prior to the meeting, presumably to offer his personal explanations and assurances regarding the London agreement. Following the meeting the United Nations observer, McKenzie,2 was asked to transmit communique to the Secretary-General.
2. In the afternoon the Foreign Ministers discussed implementation of their original recommendations3 (now accepted by the leaders). After a meeting which a Filipino source described as ‘stormy’ and Ghazali as ‘shin-kicking’, the three Ministers asked McKenzie to seek the Secretary-General’s advice as to how long he would take, in the event of a request from the Summit for ‘ascertainment’, to do so under terms of Principle 9 of the Annex to the General Assembly Resolution 1541(XV).4 For the purpose of estimating, the Secretary-General was informed that ‘ascertainment’ should not be based on what had been done by the British authorities.
3. In reply to press questions in the evening the Tunku said ‘we are completely bound by whatever the Secretary-General says. We cannot wriggle out of that. Indonesia and the Philippines have also agreed to accept the ruling of U Thant on whether the Borneo people wish to join Malaysia’. Asked if he would postpone Malaysia, he said ‘you must draw your own conclusions’. He went on to say that in his view the leaders had cleared an important hurdle and that the task ahead now looked easier.
4. In the course of a brief private conversation following his remarks to the press, the Tunku said I could tell the Minister that he was pleased with the day’s proceedings. Ghazali added the observation that ‘we are not out of the woods yet’.
5. It appears from terms of the Tunku’s message to the Minister (reference my telegram 488)5 and his remarks to the press (above) that Malayans may now be prepared to accept some delays in the establishment of Malaysia to permit satisfactory implementation of ‘ascertainment’ agreement, provided that reasonably expeditious procedures can be agreed to. I asked Malayan Ambassador (Ibrahim)6 directly about this and he said they would probably accept some delay provided it was:
(a) not protracted; and
(b) agreed to in context of Maphilindo and other guarantees which could make it possible for the Tunku to at first sell it in Malaya.
Ibrahim said they had come to believe that a brief delay would be preferable to ‘confrontations’ which would involve inter alia considerable expenditure and effort on armaments. They felt too that a last effort of this kind to satisfy Indonesian sensibilities would improve their international position if they had in any case to face ‘confrontations’ eventually.
6. Secretary-General’s reply to enquiry directed to him (paragraph 2 above) will no doubt confirm that procedures under General Assembly Resolution 1541 (XV) (involving inter alia ‘universal adult suffrage’) would take months to complete. As this would clearly be unacceptable to Malayans, Ministers will presumably then consider less elaborate means of ‘ascertainment’. It seems obvious, however, that any but the most cursory procedures (which would not satisfy Indonesians or Filipinos) will occupy more time than is available before 31 st August.
[NAA: A 1838, 3006/4/7 part 9]
1 Not published. The communique was issued after the morning meeting of the three heads of government on 31 July 1963.
2 Alfred Mackenzie, the Secretary-General’s representative at the conference, and Canadian head of the UN technical aid mission in Manila.
3 See Document 72.
4 The Resolution on Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and People, dated 15 December 1960. Principle 9 stated: ‘Integration should have come about in the following circumstances: (a) The integrating territory should have attained an advanced stage of self-government with free political institutions, so that its peoples would have the capacity to make a responsible choice through informed and democratic processes; (b) The integration should be the result of the freely expressed wishes to the territory’s peoples acting with full knowledge of the change in their status, their wishes having been expressed through informed and democratic processes, impartially conducted and based on universal adult suffrage. The United Nations could, when it deems it necessary, supervise these processes’.
5 31 July. It conveyed the Tunku’s response to Barwick’s message to him prior to the summit meeting (see paragraph 3, Document 93). The Tunku assured Barwick that he would ‘do all I can within my power to reach an agreement without unduly sacrificing our national honour and dignity’.
6 Inche Zaiton Ibrahim.