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History in Short
The Muslim sultanate of Brunei, founded in the late 15th century,
dominated northern Borneo and the Sulu Archipelago during the 16th
century.
From the 17th to the 19th centuries, the British and Dutch made
sporadic attempts to control the island's trade, particularly pepper.
In the mid-18th century, Chinese immigrants established gold-mining
communities in western Borneo, but the settlements were destroyed by
the Dutch in 1854. Many of the Chinese then turned to agriculture and
trade. During the 19th century, the Dutch imposed treaties on some
south- and west-coast rulers who ceded vast territories to them, but
their authority in the interior was minimal.
British traders established footholds along the northern coast, most
of which was under the Brunei sultanate. An English adventurer, James
Brooke, arrived at Sarawak in 1839. At that time, the locals were
rebelling against the Brunei sulanate, and James Brooke played a major
role in quelling the rebellion. As a reward, the Pengiran Mahkota of
Brunei made Brooke the Rajah of Sarawak. Brooke asserted Sarawak's
independence in 1853, and he and his heirs extended the state's
borders at Brunei's expense. His nephew, Charles Brooke, succeeded
him. The second Rajah built a fabulous palace on the bank of Sarawak
River as a gift for his bride. The next Rajah was Charles' eldest son,
Charles Vyner.
From 1881, a company chartered by the British Crown administered North
Borneo (now Sabah). In 1888, along with Brunei and Sarawak, it was
made a British protectorate. The Japanese occupied much of Borneo from
1942 to 1945, after which all three protectorates were made British
Crown colonies. The Dutch transferred sovereignty of the southern
regions (Kalimantan) to Indonesia by the end of 1949.
Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation
Background
In 1961, the island of Borneo was divided into four separate states:
Kalimantan, an Indonesian province, was located in the south of the
island. In the north were the kingdom of Brunei and two British
colonies — Sarawak and British North Borneo (which was later renamed Sabah). As a part of its withdrawal from its Southeast Asian colonies,
the UK moved to combine its colonies on Borneo with those on
peninsular Malaya, to form Malaysia.
This move was opposed by the government of Indonesia; President
Sukarno argued that Malaysia was a puppet of the British, and that the
consolidation of Malaysia would increase British control over the
region, threatening Indonesia's independence. Similarly, the
Philippines made a claim for Sabah, arguing that it had historic links
with the Philippines through the Sulu archipelago.
In Brunei, the Indonesian-backed North Kalimantan National Army (TKNU)
revolted on December 8, 1962. They tried to capture the Sultan of
Brunei, seize the oil fields and take European hostages. The Sultan
escaped and asked for British help. He received British and Gurkha
troops from Singapore. On December 16, British Far Eastern Command
claimed that all major rebel centers had been occupied, and on April
17, 1963, the rebel commander was captured and the rebellion ended.
The Philippines and Indonesia formally agreed to accept the formation
of Malaysia if a majority in the disputed region voted for it in a
referendum organized by the United Nations. However, on September 16,
before the results of the vote were reported, the Malaysian government
announced that the federation would be created, depicting the decision
as an internal matter, with no need for consultation. The Indonesian
government saw this as a broken promise and as evidence of British
imperialism.
Contrary to popular belief, no firm evidence has ever been unearthed
to support claims that Sukarno had territorial ambitions over Sarawak
(he always held firmly to the 1945 decision which delineated
Indonesia's boundaries to territories inherited from the former
Dutch-Indies, and this might explain why he eagerly pursued Papua's -
but not East Timor's - annexation). More likely was that Sukarno
invested hopes for the establishment of a North Kalimantan state
aligned to Jakarta's anti-colonial/imperialist geopolitics, in which
he found suitable allies.
Local opposition and sentiments against the Malaysian Federation plan
has often been under-represented in historical writings on the Brunei
Revolt and the subsequent Indonesian-Malaysian Confrontation. In fact,
political forces in Sarawak had long anticipated their own national
independence as promised (but later aborted) by the last White Rajah
of Sarawak, Charles Vyner Brooke, back in 1941. Left-wing and
communist cell groups, which grew rapidly among Sarawak's urban
Chinese communities since the 1950s (which later became the nucleus of
the anti-Malaysia PARAKU and PGRS guerrilla forces), supported and
propagated the unification of all British Borneo territories to form
an independent leftist North Kalimantan state, an idea originally
proposed by Dr. Azhari, leader of the Parti Rakyat Brunei, who had
forged links with Sukarno's nationalist movement in Java since the
1940s. The North Kalimantan (or Kalimantan Utara) proposal was seen as
a post-decolonization alternative by local opposition against the
Malaysian Federation plan. Local opposition throughout the Borneo
territories was primarily based on economic, political, historical and
cultural differences between the Borneo states and the Malayan
peninsula, and the refusal to be subjected under peninsular political
domination.
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The War
On
3rd December 1963, The
KOYLI
arrived in Borneo for active service
On January 20, 1963, Indonesian Foreign Minister Subandrio announced
that Indonesia would pursue a policy of Konfrontasi with Malaysia. On
April 12, Indonesian volunteers — allegedly Indonesian Army personnel
— began to infiltrate Sarawak and Sabah, to engage in raids and
sabotage, and spread propaganda. On July 27, Sukarno declared that he
was going to "crush Malaysia" or in Indonesian Malay "Ganyang
Malaysia". On August 16, troopers of the Brigade of Gurkhas clashed
with fifty Indonesian guerillas.
While the Philippines did not engage in warfare, they did break off
diplomatic relations with Malaysia.
The Federation of Malaysia was formally formed on September 16, 1963.
Brunei decided against joining, and Singapore separated later.
Tensions rose on both sides of the Straits of Malacca. Two days later
rioters burned the British embassy in Jakarta. Several hundred rioters
ransacked the Singapore embassy in Jakarta and the homes of
Singaporean diplomats. In Malaysia, Indonesian agents were captured
and crowds attacked the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Along the remote jungle border in Borneo, there was an ongoing border
war; Indonesian troops and irregulars tried to occupy Sarawak and
Sabah, with little success.
In 1964, Indonesian troops began to raid areas in the Malaysian
peninsula. In August, 16 armed Indonesian agents were captured in
Johore. Activity by regular Indonesian Army over the border also
increased. The British Royal Navy deployed a number of warships,
including aircraft carriers, to the area to defend Malaysia and the
Royal Air Force also deployed many squadrons of aircraft. Commonwealth
ground forces — 18 battalions, including elements of the Brigade of
Gurkhas —The KOYLI were a regiment with the brigade of Ghurkas, also three Malaysian battalions, were also committed to the
conflict. The Commonwealth troops were thinly deployed and had to rely
on border posts and reconnaissance by light infantry KOYLI and/or the two
commando units of the Royal Marines.
Their main mission was to prevent
further Indonesian incursions into Malaysia.
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My Memories of Borneo in the 1st Bn KOYLI
1963-64 :
by: Milton Starkey
Haircuts & Airdrops
It was re-supply day at Long
Banga and Sinky (Lt.St. Claire Ford Platoon Commander ) in that
peculiar way of officers decided his platoon should all have
haircuts to enable them to carry out there duties in a smart and
soldier like manner. Arthur Jones fancied himself as a barber and
volunteered for the job. I watched Him shear a couple of lads
thinking Sweeney Todd could have done a better job with a machete
and went off to hide.
After pulling me out from under the basha where I’d been hiding I
reluctantly consented to let him operate on my head. He’d only
been snipping for a couple of minutes when the signaller called
out “airdrop coming in figures five” Arthur asked Sinky if he
should pack up to help with the drop but Sinky said scalping me
was more important.” Good idea whispers Arthur “we should be able
to spin this out a bit and get out of some heavy work”. Then off
he goes
again doing the full barber bit, talking about football, politics
and so on and me starting to doze off from the drone of his voice
and the sound of the plane coming in for the drop.
Then I realised
Arthur had stopped talking and the snipping had stopped. “What’s
wrong Arthur, run out of conversation at last?” No answer
“Arthur?” still no answer. Looking up I see a great roll of Dannet
wire Heading straight for me with a torn parachute trailing behind
and Arthur’s over on the other side of the airstrip. I must have
looked like a chicken with it’s head chopped off running round in
circles trying to work out it’s point of impact. I think it missed
me (despite what people have said about me in latter years.) There
was a ready made slit trench where it landed (not a bad bit of
digging for three seconds work). I asked Arthur why he didn’t give
me a heads up and he said “ I cracked you on the scone and took
off” everyman for himself when the ship goes down I suppose. He
never got near me with a pair of scissors again and I walked
around with half a haircut for the next couple of weeks. If
anybody’s in contact with him ask him if he remembers.
We built a beautiful long drop toilet on the other side of the
airstrip, even made a wooden thunderbox to sit on. Willie Wilson
and Ken Savage were best mates, (hardly ever saw one without the
other tagging along) It was Kens job to burn it off every morning,
This consisted of pouring petrol down the pit and setting light to
it, kept the flies down, supposedly.
Anyway this particular morning Ken did his routine and came back
over to his basha, Five minutes later Willie went for his
morning dump. Next thing there’s a terrific WOOMF and Willie comes
roaring out of the scrub Sans eyebrows and other parts of his body
hair and doesn’t stop until he hits the river. Turns out that Ken
was a bit sleepy when he did his job that morning and the petrol
ignited then blew itself out. Willie came along, sat down, lit a
fag, dropped the match down the hole and became part of 2Pl
history.
Another time the boss sent our section off to another longhouse
(Long Balong I think). Our job being to patrol out from there and
keep the world safe for democracy. Willie’s a solid little bloke,
legs like tree trunks, walk all day and still do a bird dance at
night. This day we’re having Tiffin in the longhouse and Willies
eating his makan with a fork. He’s the most placid feller you
could ever meet and sometimes Ken would try to needle him and get
a rise out of him, break the boredom so to speak .This is one of
those days and he starts in on Willies
legs.
He kept prodding away until Willie flew into rage, jumped up
fighting iron in hand and shouted “Shut up or I’ll stab you” Ken
says “You can’t stab me, that’s a fork”. Then I’ll stab you four
times yells Willie. It broke everyone up and we rolled around with
laughter.
Hornets, Ants & Babies
We choppered into this longhouse one time and landed on a small
hill a few hundred yards away where we were to dig in and set up
camp. Sinky set the harbour position but before we could start
digging in a swarm of hornets came right over the hill. He tells
everyone not to move and we’re frozen in tableau while these great
big insects in rugby shirts float past. It was the eeriest thing
I’ve ever seen, we were right in the middle of them for what
seemed like minutes, and then they were gone and not one sting
among us. They frightened me more than the Indos though.
We dug in and re-vetted with trees and dirt. We were to stay in
the area for a while so we made pretty solid bunkers. We were on
stand to on the third or fourth day when there was a hell of a
commotion, shouting and yelling but no shooting. Seems that Arthur
Jones ,Terry Nichols and I think Mick Grainger had used a fruit
tree for re-vetment and their doover was full of ants. When it got
light we were amazed to see a long column of soldier ants about
two feet wide snaking down the hill and over at least two other
hills in the distance, a sight I’d only ever seen in pictures. We
poured diesel on them and within ten minutes they were gone.
Scary.
On a lighter note while we were at
this location an event occurred that could have been straight out
of a carry on film. Mick Ellis had scored the medical bag which
made him the platoon medic even though he never had any first aid
training, somebody had to carry the bag and he was it. Not that it
contained much more than a few bandages, Aspro and shit tablets.
The border scout brought an old bloke up one day saying he had a
headache so Sinky told Mick to give him an Aspro. Next day we had
about a dozen people lined up. This became a daily sick parade and
Mick, after a shaky start as medic developed a Dr Kildaire manner.
He got real cocky bullying them into line, taking temperatures,
checking pulses and such while the rest of us would encourage him,
at the same time trying not to laugh and destroy his new found
confidence. By this time all he had left to give them was shit
tablets but that didn’t worry Mick. One afternoon about an hour
before stand to a local came running up the hill saying a women
was ill and needed the doctor (Mick) “Doctor Ellis” someone calls
out”, Okay, okay I’m coming “says a bored sounding Mick and
saunters nonchalantly off down the hill with the border scout
,medical bag over his shoulder and orders to be back before stand
to. Ten minutes later he’s running back up the hill screaming
“She’s having a baby! She’s having a baby” That was the end of
Mick’s medical career. He flatly refused to carry the medical kit
again.
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Milts Photos in a Slideshow
will APPEAR !!
(Takes a few minutes to load up on dial up)
Click on photos for "Enlarged
one"
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L to R Denis Hurdwood,
Mick Grainger, Trigg Nicholls , Scouse Sharrocks, Johny Kel, Lou
Stocks, Phil Brown, ?, Standing at back: Colin Bedford ( Sigs
Sgt.) and Lt. St Clair Ford ( Pl Cmdr. )
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We are off somewhere ? (PhotoBario airstrip)
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L to R: Dodds, Adamson, Nicholls & Grainger
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Govt guesthouse
on the hill overlooking Bario airstrip. Lou Stocks is on the gun
and the bloke with the tin hat and binos is the MMGs gunner, Don't
know his name.
Denis Maughn )is standing on the Steps
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Letter home, Bario
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One grenade and
we're all goners, Patrol Borneo
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This bird had a bit of a crush on Sinky,
wouldn't leave him alone, he used to hide when he saw her coming
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L to R Scouse
Sharrocks, Arthur Jones, Lou Stocks, Colin Wilson & Phil Brown at
Long Banga.
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Colin Bedford ( Sigs Sgt.
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Alan Peasegood and D coy on board the Auby
These are some of
the D Coy.lads aboard The Auby on the way back to Singapore. I can
remember every face but I'm blowed if I can put a name to one.
Until TODAY 13th May 2008, Sheila Peasgood tells me " the "Lad"
with the very short blonde hair in the right hand foreground
playing cards is my late husband, Alan Peasegood".
Thanks Sheila (Les Parkin)
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Should have a
sign saying Slippery when wet
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That's Phil Brown
skipping stones
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These people were nomadic,they used to take over
abandoned longhouses, According to missionary many went blind from
pink eye before reaching thirty.
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Taken after
contact by Andy Bracken's section, Captured weapons
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Borneo Beauty Queen
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Visitors at Long Banga, Local tribes people
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After
completion of duty the 1st Bn Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
returned to Terendak camp on the 5th April 1964.
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"Copyright Les Parkin © 2006. All rights reserved." |
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