The Road To Merdeka – Persekutuan Tanah China

Although the Federation of Malaya gained its independence from the British without bloodshed in 1957, it had to struggle with the opposition from Indonesia and local leaders who were infiltrated with the communist agenda.

In this first series of the Road to Merdeka, a blogger known as John F. Seademon wrote how the Japanese mooted an idea to Indonesia leader Sukarno for Malaya to be included in Indonesia's declaration of independence before the Allies could retake both Malaya and Indonesia.

The idea was then brought up by Soekarno to Ibrahim Yaakob, the founder of KMM (Kesatuan Melayu Muda- a radical nationalist group that aimed to overthrow the British by force) and another Malay leader Burhanuddin Helmi for the prospect of Malaya joining the Indonesia Raya.

However before the Indonesia Raya plan could be pushed forward, the Japanese surrendered to the Allies, forcing Ibrahim, his wife, brother-in-law and a fellow KMM member Hassan Manan to be flown to Jakarta to escape the British.

“Together with Mokhtaruddin Lasso, Burhanuddin Helmi then formed the Persatuan Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM), a republican association, on 17th October 1945, taking over where Ibrahim’s KMM had left. This got PKMM at loggerheads with the British. PKMM was then joined by other Jakarta-leaning members such as Shamsiah Fakeh, who led PKMM’s women wing, AWAS (Angkatan Wanita Sedar); and Ahmad Boestamam who led the youth wing, API (Angkatan Pemuda Insaf).”

In November 1955, after the Alliance won 51 of 52 seats in the first General Elections, Tunku Abdul Rahman who was the Federation of Malaya’s first Chief Minister, went to Jakarta to call Sukarno. The Tunku put forth Malaya’s idea to pursue an independence from the British. Ibrahim went to meet Tunku there, pushing forward his ambition to have Malaya’s independence within the framework of Indonesia Raya.”

The plan was for an Indonesia Raya and a greater China where all Malay island nations (that possibly include the Philippines as well) would be under Indonesia Raya, while all mainland nations including the Peninsula of Malaysia would come under China.

Post-Merdeka (post-1957), Indonesia was further enraged with the inclusion of Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia in 1963.

“Sukarno was influenced to teach Malaysia a lesson by D.N Aidid, leader of the Indonesian Communist Party, and by the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Dr Subandrio, who went to China to meet its Premier, Zhou En-Lai.”

Seademon asked: “What does that say about people like Mat Indera, Abdullah CD, Rashid Maidin, Shamsiah Fakeh et al., the so-called nationalists who fought on the side of the communists?”

“The election results also proved that the Malays disapproved of them fighting for the communists from the onset of the Malayan Emergency in 1948, and definitely disapproved of Mat Indera’s slaughter of the men, women and children of the Bukit Kepong Police Station.”

(The Mole will be publishing the Road to Merdeka series in the run up for our Merdeka Day. For more of the above article read HERE.

Source: MOLE