A Doctor in The House: A Memoir of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (29 page)

Braced with this attitude and ambition, Lee set himself on a collision course with the governing parties of Malaysia. In the 1964 General Election, he made his bid for leadership of the Chinese in Malaysia. His first step was to displace the MCA. The rallies he organised were attended by huge crowds of Chinese and the PAP’s characteristic bullying tactics were displayed in full. People who tried to heckle the PAP speakers had powerful spotlights turned on them. The effect was dramatic and also decisive—no one dared raise objections at PAP rallies for fear of this intense embarrassment. But despite the huge numbers at its rallies, the PAP won only one seat in the 1964 elections, in Bangsar where its candidate was Devan Nair who later went on to become the President of Singapore. The PAP’s attempt to discredit the MCA and
replace it as UMNO’s partner failed spectacularly. Its “Malaysian Malaysia”
[4]
 campaign did not prove the winning formula that Lee expected.
 

The Malaysia proposal was initially not well received in Sarawak, British North Borneo and Brunei. In the end, the declaration of Malaysia’s establishment had to be delayed by two weeks to confirm that there was sufficient local support in Sarawak and British North Borneo for joining the new federation. But it was the reaction of Malaya’s neighbours, Indonesia and the Philippines, which proved decisive. The people of Sarawak and British North Borneo were divided. The Malays and indigenous Muslims generally favoured the idea of Malaysia. Other natives were ambivalent, while the majority of the Chinese were opposed. But no one wished to be a part of Indonesia or the Philippines. With the tacit consent of the British Government, though often not of the British officers serving in the two colonies, the Malayan Government set out to explain and win the support of the people there.

Large numbers of people from Sarawak and British North Borneo were brought to the peninsula and shown the progress made and the generally higher quality of life enjoyed by its people. The visitors were hosted at the best hotels and given tours of the sights and sounds of the mainland. Members of UMNO and the other Alliance parties acted as guides. This hospitality convinced most of them that being a part of the Federation of Malaysia would be beneficial. British North Borneo and Sarawak, they hoped, would become as developed as the states of the Peninsula. Brunei, however, decided not to join. Among other points of disagreement, its Sultan was not happy that Brunei’s oil would be taken over by the central Malaysian Government.

President Sukarno of Indonesia had actually first welcomed the proposal, but he changed his mind and began to agitate against it. As the people of Sarawak and British North Borneo began to express support for federation with Peninsular Malaya, Sukarno launched his 
Konfrontasi
 or Confrontation against Malaya. While it was less than a formal declaration of war, it involved Indonesian military intrusion and aggression as well as diplomatic measures. A 
Ganyang Malaysia
 (Crush Malaysia) campaign was launched and anti-Malaysia sentiments were whipped up among the Indonesians. Indonesian soldiers crossed the border into Sabah and Sarawak and parachutists were dropped into Johor. A key pillar of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
[5]
 ever since the Bandung meeting of 1954, Indonesia drew upon its international standing to mount a propaganda campaign depicting Malaysia as a “neo-colonial” project. Persuaded by its anti-colonial credentials if not its wild allegations, many newly independent countries sided with Indonesia. To counter this anti-Malaysia propaganda, a group of the younger Alliance members decided to set up a Malaysian branch of the Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organisation (AAPSO). I was then a Member of Parliament and led the delegation to Ghana, where a conference of the AAPSO was to be held. The AAPSO trip was a relatively minor event in the bigger scheme of things but, as I discuss elsewhere in these pages, it was to prove a definitive mission in my own political journey.
 

Malaysia took its case against Indonesian aggression to the United Nations. Our Foreign Minister Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman did an accomplished job in the Security Council, displaying Indonesian arms captured by Malaysia. The developed countries, in particular the ethnically European (or “Old”) Commonwealth countries, took Malaysia’s side. But the behaviour of the Americans was puzzling. A key supplier of arms to Indonesia, they encouraged the republic to be more belligerent. We learnt later that the Americans were actually cultivating the Indonesian military, particularly the army. When Sukarno was later overthrown and General Suharto took over the leadership of Indonesia, the Americans and their corporations gained a strong client state in Southeast Asia. So, in time, they got value for money from their support of Indonesian opposition to the Malaysia proposals.

Added to the Indonesian Confrontation was the Philippines’ claim over British North Borneo, which at one time had been part of the Sulu Sultanate. It had been ceded by the Sultanate to the British via the British North Borneo Company, which paid a fee every year. As political successors to the Sulu Sultanate, the Philippines claimed North Borneo as part of its national territory. Our response to that claim rested on the fact that when the British held British North Borneo, no demand was made that it be included in the Philippines. Neither was a claim made when—and since—the Philippines gained independence. On our side, we were prepared to pay what the British were paying.

But law and legal rights are one thing, politics and diplomatic advantage another. President Diosdado Pangan Macapagal appeared to be working with President Sukarno to frustrate the formation of Malaysia. The suddenly reactivated Philippine claim to North Borneo rode on the coattails of Indonesia’s aggressive territorial expansionism, a stance adopted at the time to shore up President Sukarno’s increasingly shaky domestic political position.

Responding to Indonesian and Philippine opposition to Malaysia, the United Nations then set up the Cobbold Commission
[6]
 to assess the support for the proposed inclusion of Sarawak and British North Borneo in the proposed Federation among the peoples of the two states. Singapore had already carried out a referendum and the result was almost unanimous support for joining the Federation. Although it was stipulated that the findings could not be announced until after the Cobbold Commission findings were officially revealed, the Government went ahead and celebrated Malaysia Day on the Federation’s Independence day to the chagrin of the United Nations. The announcement was made two weeks later on 16 September 1963.
 

The beginning of the end of 
Konfrontasi
 unfolded around the time I went to the United States in 1965 as Malaysia’s delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. Malaysia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations then was Mr Radhakrishna Ramani, a lawyer who was initially active in the politics of India and had once entertained hopes of becoming its Foreign Minister. I remember him suffering from severe insomnia. He apparently could sleep only once a week after an injection of a sleeping drug. New York, with its skyscrapers and the Empire State Building, then the tallest building in the world, fascinated me. But I also found it dirty, decayed and very depressing. Police sirens blared day and night. Men who seemed quite mad walked along 42nd Street, one of the major streets in Manhattan, shouting incoherently as they made their way.

While I was at the United Nations the Indonesian Communist Party attempted to seize power in the republic. Five top military officers were rounded up by a group of soldiers, murdered and dumped into a well, infamously known as Lubang Buaya. General Nasution, the Chief of the Armed Forces, escaped. From the subsequent counterattack by the armed forces, General Suharto emerged. He successfully defeated the communists and their sympathetic Air Force officers, but in the ensuing bloodbath nearly half a million people were said to have been killed. Very soon after, moves were made to end Indonesia’s Confrontation against Malaysia. After Sukarno’s Foreign Minister, Subandrio, was jailed, Adam Malik took over. He was well-disposed towards Malaysia and even had Malaysian relatives in Perak. Contact was made between General Benny Moerdani, who later became Indonesia’s Chief of the Armed Forces, and our Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tun Ghazali Shafie, which led to an agreement to end the conflict.

But the Philippines continued to claim Sabah, as British North Borneo was renamed, and relations remained strained. Despite this tension the five countries of Southeast Asia—Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia—resolved in 1967 to form ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The moving force behind this measure was Adam Malik. This was the beginning of the normalisation of regional relations which in turn provided a secure context for strong economic growth and development. The progress they achieved enabled the ASEAN members to raise their profile and project themselves internationally, and Malaysia has made the most of that opportunity.

So in the end the Tunku was vindicated. He succeeded in determining the development of his homeland and through his vision and initiative, the Federation of Malaya became Malaysia. It was a great achievement for the prince who had become a politician and leader by default. Like Malaysia, Singapore has also raised its international standing and profile under Lee and his successors—but not as part of Malaysia. Lee has come very far, but his reaching across the Causeway into peninsular politics came to nought.

ENDNOTES

[
1
] When North Borneo joined to form the Federation of Malaysia it became known as Sabah, and was declared independent of British sovereignty.

[
2
]  When the Philippines achieved independence it made no claim to the territory of British North Borneo.

[
3
] Sukarno led Indonesia’s push to win independence from the Netherlands and was the country’s first President from 1945 to 1967.
 

[
4
] This was in contrast to what the PAP alleged was a “Malay Malaysia”, which was supposedly being imposed by the Alliance Government.
 

[
5
] Founded in 1955, NAM is an international grouping of countries that consider themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.
 

[
6
] The Cobbold Commission was also responsible for drafting the Constitution of the Federation of Malaysia.
 

In 1958, after I had left Government service and set up my own medical practice, I was elected a member of the Kedah UMNO committee and headed its political sub-committee. I had differences with the Kedah UMNO chief, the late Tun Syed Ahmad Shahabudin, the same Syed Ahmad who had been sent to my house when we were schoolboys to study under my father’s strict tutelage. He was a member of the Federal Legislative Council, elected in the 1955 General Election. It was my view that candidates for state and federal elections should have some educational qualifications, and at least be able to read and write. I was not the only one to think so and within the committee there was strong objection to those who did not have the educational credentials to become candidates. Syed Ahmad, however, disagreed and took the matter to the Tunku.

The Tunku decided that educational qualifications would exclude many UMNO stalwarts from contesting. Displeased with me, he ordered the Kedah UMNO political committee to be dissolved. When I got the news I decided to resign from the committee first, and when I was asked to contest in the 1959 General Election, I refused. I was still sore at being asked to dissolve the committee and at the stand the Tunku had taken.

As the 1964 General Election approached, many in the Kedah UMNO branch came to see me to persuade me to be a candidate for a parliamentary seat. They hinted that Tun Razak, the Deputy Prime Minister, wanted me to contest. I eventually agreed to contest the Kota Star Selatan parliamentary constituency, previously held by Tunku Kassim, Tunku Abdul Rahman’s half-brother. The head of the UMNO division there was a well-to-do farmer, Haji Ali. Even though I was not a member of the division, there was no objection to my candidature as Tunku Kassim was not well and did not wish to contest. In those days—so unlike today—few would push themselves forward to become candidates for elections. As the division head, Haji Ali would contest one of the two state seats rather than a parliamentary seat in his constituency.

At this time my medical practice was still very popular. Although I was widely known as “the UMNO doctor”, many of my patients were strong supporters of PAS. One of them was a very influential religious teacher in Pendang, which was in the Kota Star Selatan constituency. I made a point of going to see him to seek his support. He advised me to concentrate on my practice and warned me that my political partisanship might make me unpopular as a doctor. I told him that the purpose of my visit was to let him know that I was about to enter his territory. This is Malay courtesy—even when entering a forest, Malays always ask the spirits for permission first. I was adhering to the 
adat
, but from his rather discouraging reply, I knew I would not have an easy passage in the elections.

Kota Star Selatan was a rural constituency of about 26,000 registered voters. On the night that I set out to campaign for the first time, I had to use an open four-wheeler to travel on the dirt track roads to a small rally. When I arrived I was greeted with laughter, which had me mystified and a little miffed. It turned out that, because the roads were unpaved, the vehicle in front of us had kicked up clouds of dust which covered our four-wheeler and all the passengers in it. In the light of the pressure-lamp, my face and hair looked completely white from the dust. My spectacles had protected my eyes, but when I took off my glasses to clean them, matters got even worse. I now looked like what the Malays call a 
mawa
, a kind of masked gibbon with white furry rings round its eyes—I must have looked a sight. Though memorable, this was not the kind of impression I had intended to make. Today, most of those roads have been paved and there is very little danger of looking like wildlife.