I am grateful to my former supervisor A/P Natasha Hamilton-Hart for her robust guidance for the first 3 years of my candidature at the Department of Southeast Asian Studies.. I am gratef
Trang 1Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to A/P John Miksic for kindly agreeing to supervise this dissertation when my former supervisor left A/P Miksic’s supervision was a crucial factor in helping me finish this dissertation in a reasonable amount of time
Thanks to my examiners A/P Brian Farrell, Prof Rey and Dr Joey Long for their insightful and encouraging comments I benefitted tremendously from their expertise
I am grateful to my former supervisor A/P Natasha Hamilton-Hart for her robust guidance for the first 3 years of my candidature at the Department of Southeast Asian Studies
My committee members, Dr Alan Chong (former), Dr Douglas Kammen, and Dr Sai Siew Min, provided useful academic advice
I am grateful to my CLS Bahasa Indonesia teachers Ibu Fanny, Ibu Johanna, Ibu Siantik, Ibu Yuke, Ibu Lucy and Ibu Agnes for teaching me the language with patience and humour Thank you for your warmth and friendliness that extended beyond the classroom Thank you also for helping me with my Bahasa Indonesia so that I could read and analyse my Indonesian source material
My gratitude goes to Miss Ch’ng Kim See (Head, ISEAS library) who let me use the library for my research work The staff at the ISEAS library were of great assistance
to me as well Besides being very helpful with my research work, Kim See was also a wonderful source of moral support when the going got tough and I am grateful to her for that
The National Archives of Singapore (NAS) has a comprehensive range of material related to my dissertation topic and I am grateful that access to this material was smooth The staff at NAS displayed a high level of professionalism and efficiency in response to my requests and it was a pleasure doing my research at NAS
I am very grateful to the staff at the Indonesian National Archives (ARSIP) and the Ali Alatas Library in Jakarta for allowing me to use their facilities and rendering me their assistance to the best of their ability
In Jakarta, I would like to make a special mention of Dr Yekti Manauti and Prof Taufik Abdullah of LIPI, who were very kind and hospitable to me I thank Ibu Yekti for her encouragement and assistance, and I thank Prof Taufik for making time to share his knowledge with me
The Department of Southeast Asian Studies has been supportive of my graduate studies I wish to express my gratitude to the Head of Department, A/P Goh Beng Lan, for her support of the graduate students I would like to thank my professors at the Department who taught me and helped me develop intellectually I am also grateful to Ms Rohani Sungib of the Department for her advice and assistance on administrative matters
Trang 2I am grateful for the NUS research scholarship and fieldwork funding which provided financial support while I pursued my studies and research
To my friends in the grad room, thank you so much for your camaraderie and support The friendships I built in the grad room were some of the best things that have happened to me
Trang 3TABLE OF CONTENTS
Summary i
List of Abbreviations iii
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
1.1 The formation of Malaysia: The key role of Tunku Abdul Rahman and Lee Kuan Yew 5
1.2 Indonesian and Singaporean perspectives as a key driver of Confrontation 17
1.3 Creation of a post-colonial regional order for Southeast Asia 27
Chapter 2: The underlying “causes” of Confrontation and relations between Indonesia and the Federation of Malaya: 1957-1962 36
2.1 The “Greater Indonesia” concept 39
2.2 Colonial experience, national revolution, and the search for a post-colonial identity 45
2.3 Singapore and Confrontation as the continuation of the confrontation over West Irian 51
2.4 The fear of communism, the Tunku’s Greater Malaysia plan and the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) 60
Conclusions 68
Chapter 3: The proximate “causes” of Confrontation, 1962-1963: On the concept of Malaysia 72
3.1 The question of the North Borneo territories 73
3.2 The Singapore referendum of 1962 83
3.3 The Brunei revolt as a blow to the Malaysia Plan 92
3.4 The failure of Maphilindo 98
Conclusions 104
Chapter 4: The Confrontation years in Singapore and Indonesia, 1963-1965: The contest over Malaysia’s right to exist 107
4.1 Confrontation, diplomacy and international politics 109
Trang 44.2 The moral dimension of economic confrontation 121
Chapter 5: The political and military fronts of Confrontation,
1963-1965: Creating a new Southeast Asia 135 5.1 The systemic imperatives of the political theatre of
5.2 The avoidance of war on the military front
Chapter 6: The separation of Singapore from Malaysia and
6.1 Foundations of Malaysia’s establishment and
the PAP-Federal Government tensions as a
key feature during the Confrontation Years 168
6.2 Separation, Singapore’s strategic interests, and
Chapter 7: Confrontation and the re-organisation of
7.3 Confrontation as a feature of the hostile
“Malay” geo-political world that Singapore
7.4 Indonesia and Singapore: An asymmetric