"Indonesia will invade Sabah and Sarawak if they seek independence". We hear it all the time.
But the truth about the confrontation is because Indonesia wanted a Borneo referendum before the formation of Malaysia, it's not because they want to invade the Borneon States."
"The press report is interesting in that despite Gen. Suharto's extreme right wing tendencies, he still upheld the anti-colonial policy of the previous Sukarno gov't in opposing Malaysia had rejected the Cobbold Commission Report as unreliable on the ground that did not have legal basis.
The legal basis was the compliance with UNGAR 1541 Principle 9 requirement to allow the exercise of self-determination by the people in a referendum on the Malaysia Question that is, the people's consent must be freely given.
The Manila Accord (made by Malaya with Indonesia and the Philippines) was to correct this by making Malaysia formation subject to the pre-condition that the people’s wishes (consent) must be assessed by way of a referendum in compliance with the UNGAR 1541 Principle 9 requirement. But this was not properly done.
However, the British & Malayan governments diverted this to a UN “assessment”. As the proponents of Malaysia, they were keen to avoid not only a referendum but also to avoid the scrutiny of the UN Decolonization Committee which would have insisted that UNGAR 1541 be complied with. This was seen how the UN officials had colluded to right the assessment results n favour of the British Malayan plan.
The British Gov't had superficially claimed that the transfer of SS to Malaya was part of its "decolonization" under UNGAR 1541 for the colonies to federate with an independent state.
A properly UN-supervised referendum should have allowed the people 2 options:
(a) choose to "federate with Malaya & Singapore or
(b) choose independence
After General Suharto gained power in the bloody Sept coup, Konfrontasi ceased with the 1966 Peace Treaty. The main term of the treaty with Malaysia was that the M'sian Gov't agreed to conduct a vote to confirm the people's decision on the federation. This was never done as with most other promises on Malaysia rights."
Source: Conan Drum
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