00c_Brunei_i-xii 5/6/07 5:18 PM Page i REBELLION IN BRUNEI 00c_Brunei_i-xii 5/6/07 5:18 PM Page ii 00c_Brunei_i-xii 13/6/07 4:31 PM Page iii REBELLION IN BRUNEI The 1962 Revolt, Imperialism, Confrontation and Oil by Harun Abdul Majid 00c_Brunei_i-xii 13/6/07 4:31 PM Page iv Published in 2007 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com In the United States of America and Canada distributed by Palgrave Macmillan a division of St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 Copyright © 2007 Harun Abdul Majid The right of Harun Abdul Majid to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978 1 84511 423 7 International Library of Twentieth Century History 14 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available Designed and Typeset by 4word Ltd, Bristol, UK Printed and bound by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall, UK 00c_Brunei_i-xii 13/6/07 4:31 PM Page v Contents Dedication vii Glossary ix Map of Brunei Darussalam xi Chapter One: Brunei: The Dawn of Modern Times 1 This is Brunei 1 Brunei: The Small State Factor 7 Chapter Two: Brunei in the Second World War and After 12 Brunei after 1945 21 Britain, Southeast Asia and Brunei after 1945 27 Chapter Three: Malaysia and the Background to the Rebellion, 1960–62 37 Brunei comes under pressure from London to join the Malaysian Federation and reform its political system The International Context 38 The Creation of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces: The Early Days 40 Membership of Malaysia: The Background 46 Membership of Malaysia: Debate and Process 54 Elections and the Run-down to the Rebellion 67 00c_Brunei_i-xii 5/6/07 5:18 PM Page vi Contents Chapter Four: The Brunei Rebellion Part One: The Popular Uprising 74 A detailed account of the outbreak of the Rebellion on 8 December 1962 and the circumstances around that outbreak The Outbreak of the Rebellion 75 Map of Brunei Town in 1962 90 The People of Brunei and the Rebellion 98 Chapter Five: The Brunei Rebellion Part Two: The British Counter-offensive 103 A detailed account of Britain’s position, its response and the military campaign in Brunei and neighbouring territories The British Response 105 The Broader Picture 127 Map of Brunei and its Neighbours in the South China Sea 134 Chapter Six: Confrontation 1963–66 135 An account of Indonesia’s confrontation and the implications for Brunei What was Confrontation? 136 The Motives for Confrontation 137 Confrontation 1963–66: What Happened? 146 Confrontation and Brunei 163 Chapter Seven: Conclusions and Consequences 168 Conclusions about why things developed as they did in Brunei, the fate of the main participants and the abdication of the Sultan Appendix One Proclamation of Independence 8 December 1962 177 Notes 182 Index 195 vi 00c_Brunei_i-xii 5/6/07 5:18 PM Page vii For Pehin Datu Pekerma Dewa Dato Paduka Haji Abdul Rahim, my grandfather, a close friend to Sultan Sir Omar Ali Saifuddin during those turbulent years. 00c_Brunei_i-xii 5/6/07 5:18 PM Page viii 00c_Brunei_i-xii 5/6/07 5:18 PM Page ix CONCLUSIONS AND CONSEQUENCES Glossary Mentri Chief Minister Besar: Dato: A title conferred for life by the Sultan for services to government; the equivalent of a British knight- hood. There are various classes of Dato and people may be advanced through the ranks. Foreigners can be made a Dato. Major General Walter Walker and Sir Dennis White, the High Commissioner, were made Datos for their contri- bution to Brunei’s survival after the rebellion. The female title is Datin. Pehin: A life peerage for services to the Sultan and, as with a Dato, there is a hierarchy. The title is open to men and women and can be awarded to for- eigners. A Pehin can also be awarded a Datoship. Pengiran: The title Pengiran is used by men who can trace their bloodline or ancestry back to the royal fam- ily; so unlike the other two titles, this is a birthright rather than a conferred honour. ix 00c_Brunei_i-xii 5/6/07 5:18 PM Page x RebellionGlossary in Brunei Among quite an extensive list of Pengirans, there are some who are active in government and who can be awarded a Datoship. Some become Cheteri: advisors to the Sultan. Lastly there are Wazirs: Cheteri who are the closest advisors or confidantes to the Sultan and who are usually members of the immediate royal family. x 00c_Brunei_i-xii 5/6/07 5:18 PM Page xi CONCLUSIONS AND CONSEQUENCES Map of Brunei Darussalam South China Bandar Seri Brunei Sea Begawan Bay • • Bangar BRUNEI • Miri MALAYSIA MALAYSIA 0 10 20 ml 0 10 20 km xi 00c_Brunei_i-xii 5/6/07 5:18 PM Page xii 01c_Brunei_001-011 5/6/07 6:32 PM Page 1 CHAPTER ONE Brunei: The Dawn of Modern Times This is Brunei The Sultanate of Brunei occupies a small section of the north coast of Borneo, and is surrounded on the landward side by the Malaysian state of Sarawak. The land area of Brunei is 5,270 square kilometres, of which three-quarters is still pris- tine rain forest. The population (2002 estimate) is 343,700. The population comprises Malays (between 64% and 67%) and Chinese (between 16% and 20%). In terms of religion, Muslims make up 63% of the population, Buddhists 14%, Christians 8% and indigenous and other beliefs 15%. In 1990 a Malay Muslim Monarchy was proclaimed, to promote Islamic values. In theory Brunei is a constitutional sultanate; in practice it is an absolute monarchy. A Constitution was adopted in 1959, but since the rebellion of 1962 a state of emergency has been in force and the Sultan had ruled by decree. There is no legis- lature and until recently political parties have been banned. Currently there are two political parties: one is Partai Kesedaran Rakyat (PAKR), established in 2002; a second is called Partai Perpaduan Kebangsaan Brunei (PPKB), or the 01c_Brunei_001-011 5/6/07 6:32 PM Page 2 Rebellion in Brunei Brunei People’s Party. But neither are important political forces in the land. The Sultan consults four advisory bodies: the Religious Council, the Privy Council, the Council of Cabinet Ministers and the Council of Succession, all of which he appoints.1 Brunei has an imperial history of conquest and the subju- gation of other peoples in the region, a history based on mar- itime trade and extensive naval power. Three empires can be distinguished: the First, which was pre-ninth century and stretched into the southern Philippines; the Second, between 1000 and 1350 AD, covering northern Borneo and the southern Philippines and backed by a navy of 100 warships; and the Third, in the fifteenth century, following the decline of Javanese power and where there were close trading links with China. Brunei’s influence reached its peak early in the sixteenth century, during the reign of Sultan Bolkiah, when it could claim to be paramount in almost the whole of Borneo, the Sulu Archipelago and part of the southern Philippines. Once the European powers appeared on the scene, however, the strength and extent of the empire began to decline. The Portuguese and the Spaniards appeared in the sixteenth cen- tury, the Dutch in the seventeenth and the British made con- tact in 1774 through the East India Company. The early Anglo-Brunei contacts were not particularly aus- picious. The East India Company tried and failed to establish a profitable trade with Brunei, in return for which it would protect the state from the ravages of piracy. By 1803 it had withdrawn, and Brunei was left alone and increasingly defenceless. It is interesting to note, and difficult to explain, that although these first contacts were not successful, when Brunei needed a protector it showed no real interest in look- ing elsewhere. Possible clues are the British presence in 2 01c_Brunei_001-011 5/6/07 6:32 PM Page 3 BRUNEI: THE DAWN OF MODERN TIMES Singapore and the growth of the port after 1819, and British dominance of the developing trade with China by the early nineteenth century. By the mid-nineteenth century, Brunei was in serious decline, and its influence and control were restricted to northern Borneo, to what today are Sarawak, Brunei, Labuan and Sabah. The situation worsened from the 1840s onwards when the territories controlled by the Sultan were wracked by internal strife and rebellion. A British adventurer, James Brooke, who arrived on the scene in 1839, was used by the Sultan to help quell a rebellion in Sarawak. His reward was to be made governor of Sarawak in 1841, and in 1842 he was declared by the Sultan to be the Rajah of Sarawak. The link with Brooke was a success story in the early 1840s, but for the next 50 years it was to have disastrous consequences for Brunei. James Brooke, and then his nephew, Charles, who succeeded him, did their best to take over the whole of north- ern Borneo.