"There was racial uneasiness even before the formation of Malaysia on 16 Sept 1963", explained DAP state chairperson Ngeh Koo Ham in his speech at the Hari Malaysia forum themed "Towards a United Malaysia" in conjunction with the 46th anniversary celebrations of Malaysia Day yesterday.

In the 1950's Singapore agreed to the merger with Malaya but Malaya was apprehensive that Singapore's overwhelming Chinese population would endanger the existing political primacy of the Malays in an enlarged state.

NONE Ngeh (left) said "eventually the catalyst for the merger was the common fear of the spread of communism by both the First Premier Tunku Abdul Rahman and Lee Kuan Yew".

In 1961, the Peoples Action Party (PAP) in Singapore was split between English-speaking moderates led by Lee and the predominated Chinese-educated rank and file radicals, who were more inclined to communism.

When some 13 PAP assemblymen announced their support for the dissidents, Lee's hold on power fell by a bare majority on a motion of confidence in his fort and PAP was on the verge of a downfall.

Chinese exodus

Tunku was worried of a 'Chinese exodus' at Malaya's doorstep. If it was earlier seen as a peril to keep Singapore within the Federation, now it was dangerous to keep it out.

Tunku, by bringing in North Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak and Brunei were seen as counter balancing the Singapore Chinese population as the population of Malaya then was 6,279,000, Sabah, 454,400; Sarawak, 744,500; while Singapore had 1,446,000.

In May 1961, when Tunku announced the Malaysia plan there were no political parties in Sabah but Brunei had one party whilst Sarawak had two.

However, there was opposition to the merger from Brunei, Indonesia and Philippines.

Many in Brunei wanted to unite with Sarawak and Sabah to form greater Brunei while Philippines wanted to claim North Borneo and Indonesia laid claim on Brunei, Sarawak and Sabah to form Kalimantan.

The Sultan of Brunei agreed to join the union but was unhappy with the following two issues:

1) Kuala Lumpur will only allow Brunei to control oil revenue for only 10 years

2) Brunei Sultan will become the most junior Sultan in the system of a rotating monarchy.

Indonesian confrontation

In July 1963, Brunei indicated that she would not join the federation.

As early as 1945, Indonesian president Sukarno visualised a pan Indonesia state to include Malaya, Singapore, all the North Borneo states and Philippines.

Then a confrontation took place between Malaysia and Indonesia between 1963 and 1966.

lee kuan yew At the same time, Lee's (right) type of democracy did not go well with Malaysia and Singapore broke off from the union to become an independent state on Aug 9 1965.

"If not for Singapore's entry into Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak could not have been part of Malaysia", Ngeh claimed.

"Malaysia Day was originally slated for 1 June 1963 but was changed to Aug 31 to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the federation's independence.

A further postponement took place due to Sukarno's challenge to the Malaysia plan. The bill was ascended by the Agong on Aug 26, 1963 and Sept 16 was later declared as Malaysia Day", he said.