Journal of Southeast Asian Studies http://journals.cambridge.org/SEA Additional services for Journal of Southeast Asian Studies: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here Malcolm MacDonald and Brunei: Diplomacy with intimacy B.A. Hussainmiya Journal of Southeast Asian Studies / Volume 45 / Issue 03 / October 2014, pp 393 - 418 DOI: 10.1017/S0022463414000344, Published online: 03 September 2014 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0022463414000344 How to cite this article: B.A. Hussainmiya (2014). Malcolm MacDonald and Brunei: Diplomacy with intimacy. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 45, pp 393-418 doi:10.1017/S0022463414000344 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/SEA, IP address: 202.160.36.23 on 04 Sep 2014 393 Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 45(3), pp 393–418 October 2014. © The National University of Singapore, 2014 doi:10.1017/S0022463414000344 Malcolm MacDonald and Brunei: Diplomacy with intimacy B.A. Hussainmiya This article narrates the long-standing diplomatic relationship between Malcolm MacDonald and Brunei. Macdonald played a significant role in safeguarding Brunei’s survival as an independent Malay Islamic sultanate during decolonisa- tion. He prevented Brunei from becoming a British crown colony in 1946 unlike the neighbouring states of Sarawak and North Borneo. Having failed to unite the three North Borneo territories into a federation, he may have concurred with Brunei’s decision to opt out of the Malaysian Federation in August 1963 and thereafter. Due to his empathy with the Brunei sultans, especially Omar Ali Saifuddin the III, MacDonald’s approach for Brunei’s future contradicted the vision of his contemporaries for democratising Brunei. One of the most important and colourful British officials to influence the course of modern Brunei history was Rt. Hon. Malcolm MacDonald (1901–81), Governor-General of the British dependencies of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, North Borneo (now Sabah), and High Commissioner for the Sultanate of Brunei from 1946–1948. Subsequently he was appointed Commissioner-General for the United Kingdom in Southeast Asia and was based in Singapore from 1948–1955.1 Even after leaving the region, he visited Brunei on several missions as a special envoy of the British government until 1979. During this long association with Brunei, he interacted with three successive rulers — Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin (r.1929–50), Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin III (r. 1950–1967), and Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah (r.1967–).2 B.A. Hussainmiya is an Associate Professor of History at Universiti Brunei Darussalam. Correspondence in connection with this article should be addressed to: bachamiya.hussain [email protected]. A first draft of this article was read at the Borneo Research Council Conference, 25–27 July 2012, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. The author would like to thank Professor A.J. Stockwell for his constructive comments and suggestions. 1 Nicholas Tarling, Britain, Southeast Asia and the onset of the Cold War, 1945–1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). 2 Bob Reece, ‘“The Little Sultan”: Ahmad Tajuddin II of Brunei, Gerard MacBryan, and Malcolm Macdonald’, Borneo Research Bulletin 40 (2009): 81–108; B.A. Hussainmiya, 394 B . A . HUSSAINMIYA MacDonald’s diplomatic involvement with the sultans did contribute to the survival of Brunei as an independent Malay sultanate. He was follow- ing in the footsteps, on a lesser scale, of Malcolm Stewart McArthur, a pre- vious British consul and the first Resident of Brunei (1906–08).3 If not for the latter’s advice, Brunei would have been swallowed up by the White Rajahs of Sarawak.4 In comparison, MacDonald’s role was an indirect one — in 1946 he prevented Brunei from becoming a crown colony like its neighbouring states of Sarawak and Sabah which also came under the Foreign Jurisdiction Act of 1890. Moreover, when his original vision of a union of the three Borneo states could not be implemented due to reasons beyond his control, he seemed to have discreetly countenanced the Brunei sultans’ intransigence in keeping out of the Malaysia Federation in August 1963 and thereafter. This article seeks to find a common thread in the official correspond- ence, telegrams, memoranda, dispatches, minutes, and so on that linked MacDonald with Brunei while acknowledging the fact that there were many other factors and actors that determined the course of modern Brunei.5 It is beyond the scope of this article to provide a comparative per- spective of his service in several other colonial territories.6 Brunei was the smallest state he dealt with during decolonisation. By highlighting MacDonald’s dealings in Brunei, this article seeks modestly to add to the literature on his life and career, and also as another episode in the decol- onisation of the British Empire. I have consulted the relevant Malcolm MacDonald Papers at the library of Durham University,7 as well as the Colonial and British Commonwealth Office files. The only extant biography, by Clyde Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin and Britain: The making of Brunei Darussalam (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1995). 3 McArthur’s ideas on rescuing Brunei are republished in M.S.H. McArthur, Report on Brunei in 1904, introduced and annotated by A.V.M. Horton (Athens: Monographs in International Studies, Southeast Asia Series no. 74, Center for International Studies, Ohio University, 1987). See also B.A. Hussainmiya, Brunei: Revival of 1906, a popular history (Bandar Seri Begawan: Brunei Press, 2006). 4 R.H.W. Reece, The name of Brooke: The end of White Rajah rule in Sarawak (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1982); Steven Runciman, The White Rajahs: A history of Sarawak from 1941 to 1946 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960). See also Hussainmiya, Brunei. 5 See further A.J. Stockwell, ‘Britain and Brunei, 1945–1963: Imperial retreat and royal ascendancy’, Modern Asian Studies 38, 4 (2004): 785–819. 6 For instance, in Kenya, where his skill, charm, and patience helped bring about stable democratic independence in 1963. See Keith Kyle, The politics of the independence of Kenya (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999). 7 Malcolm MacDonald was appointed as the Chancellor of Durham University in 1970. MALCOLM MACDONALD AND BRUNEI 395 Sanger,8 is a useful source. It is based on material in MacDonald’sdraft autobiography ‘Constant surprise’,9 written in his mid 70s, which contains interesting revelations about the Brunei royal family. Macdonald also pub- lished two quasi-autobiographical books — People and places: Random reminiscences of Malcolm MacDonald (1969) and Titans and others (1972).10 As a long-serving public servant and a unique figure in British decolonisation, MacDonald’s career and achievements deserve far more attention by scholars, and as his would-be biographer Peter Lyon states, MacDonald’s role in history has been neglected for far too long.11 Malcolm John MacDonald was the second son of Ramsay MacDonald, Britain’s first Labour prime minister. Malcolm MacDonald became a mem- ber of parliament at the age of 27, a minister by 29, and a cabinet minister by 33.12 Away from mainstream British politics, he became successively high commissioner, governor-general, governor, commissioner-general, high commissioner again, ambassador-extraordinary, special envoy, and held a host of other positions as well. Apart from a stint of five years in Canada as Britain’s high commissioner from 1941, he spent ten years in Southeast Asia, five years in India, and six years in Africa. 8 Clyde Sanger, Malcolm MacDonald: Bringing an end to empire (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995). 9 ‘Constant surprise’, evidently an early (probably the first) draft, MacDonald Papers, Durham University Library (henceforth ‘MacDonald Papers’), MS 121/6/1-263. Some add- itional pages have been inserted at various points, presumably intended to be incorporated in a revision, MacDonald Papers, MS 121/20/1-597. There are various drafts of ‘Constant sur- prise’ with many alterations, repetitions and gaps. For a full list of the MacDonald Papers, see http://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docId=ead/pol/macdon.xml (last accessed 13 June 2013). 10 Malcolm MacDonald, People and places: Random reminiscences, S.I. (London: Collins, 1969); Malcolm MacDonald, Titans and others (London: William Collins & Sons, 1972). 11 Peter Lyon came to know the ageing Macdonald well and, having reviewed Sanger’s book, had planned to write another biography. Lyon was the first to see MacDonald’s papers before they were officially weeded and dispatched to Durham, but died in 2010 without com- pleting the biography itself (pers. comm. from A.J. Stockwell, June 2013). Lyon also wrote the entry on MacDonald in the Oxford dictionary of national biography (http://www. oxforddnb.com/index/31/101031388; last accessed 30 July 2014) and ‘Clyde on Malcolm MacDonald: The public and private lives of a British envoy’, Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs 86, 341 (1997): 109–17. The late historian Mary Turnbull never completed her planned biography of MacDonald (pers. comm., 2 Feb. 2006, Langham Hotel, Auckland). Other sources include: Joe Garner, The Commonwealth Office 1925–68 (London: Heinemann, 1978); D.J. Morgan, The official his- tory of colonial development, 1924–1945 (London: Macmillan, 1980); Stephen Constantine, The making of British colonial development policy 1914–40 (London: Cass, 1984); Anthony J. Stockwell, British policy and Malay politics during the Malayan Union experiment 1942– 1948 (Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1979); Anthony J. Stockwell, ‘British imperial policy and decolonization in Malaya 1942–52’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 13, 1 (1984): 68–87. 12 In the 1930s he had been secretary of state for both the Dominions and the Colonies. 396 B . A . HUSSAINMIYA MacDonald had the experience to have a unique approach to the decol- onisation of British territories in Asia and Africa.