Acknowledgements 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 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. I 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. TABLE OF CONTENTS Summary i List of Abbreviations iii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 The formation of Malaysia: The key role of Tunku Abdul Rahman and Lee Kuan Yew 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 4.1 Confrontation, diplomacy and international politics 107 109 4.2 The moral dimension of economic confrontation 121 Conclusions 129 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 Confrontation 140 5.2 The avoidance of war on the military front of Confrontation 151 Conclusions 163 Chapter 6: The separation of Singapore from Malaysia and the impact on Confrontation 165 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 Confrontation 179 Conclusions 192 Chapter 7: Confrontation and the re-organisation of Singapore-Indonesia Relations 196 7.1 Fear of a Sukarno-style leadership 197 7.2 Suharto as the initiator of ASEAN 206 7.3 Confrontation as a feature of the hostile “Malay” geo-political world that Singapore is located in 209 7.4 Indonesia and Singapore: An asymmetric bilateral relationship 216 7.5 The need for Singapore to defer to Indonesia 219 Conclusions Conclusion and epilogue References 228 231 . of Confrontation 14 0 5.2 The avoidance of war on the military front of Confrontation 15 1 Conclusions 16 3 Chapter 6: The separation of Singapore from Malaysia and the impact on Confrontation. strategic interests, and Confrontation 17 9 Conclusions 19 2 Chapter 7: Confrontation and the re-organisation of Singapore-Indonesia Relations 19 6 7 .1 Fear of a Sukarno-style leadership 19 7. Singapore and Indonesia, 19 63 -19 65: The contest over Malaysia s right to exist 10 7 4 .1 Confrontation, diplomacy and international politics 10 9 4.2 The moral dimension of economic confrontation