Malaysia in 1970

The Federation of Malaysia in a documentary film. Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of 13 states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo).

Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia. East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam.

Kuala Lumpur is the national capital and largest city while Putrajaya is the seat of federal government.

Indonesian “independence” was initially realised with the help of Japan

For years now the Indonesians have been bragging that they gained independence through the “blood and sweat” of Revolution from the Dutch, and that Malaysian independence was literally handed over “on a silver platter” by the British. The true story behind Indonesian “independence”, however, is that it was initially realised with the help of Japan during World War II.

“In March 1945, Japan organized an Indonesian committee (BPUPKI) on independence. At its first meeting in May, Soepomo spoke of national integration and against personal individualism; while Muhammad Yamin suggested that the new nation should claim British Borneo, British Malaya, Portuguese Timor, and all the pre-war territories of the Dutch East Indies. The committee drafted the 1945 Constitution, which remains in force, though now much amended. On 9 August 1945 Sukarno, Hatta, and Radjiman Wediodiningrat were flown to meet Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi in Vietnam. They were told that Japan intended to announce Indonesian independence on 24 August. After the Japanese surrender however, Sukarno unilaterally proclaimed Indonesian independence on 17 August. A later UN report stated that four million people died in Indonesia as a result of the Japanese occupation.”

Bolded emphasis are my own. The citation above is pretty much self-explanatory.

It is true, however, that the Indonesians were engaged in a protracted war with the Dutch when they returned to the Indonesian islands after 1945. However, by this time Indonesia was already de jure an independent state (with the help of Japan) which was not recognised by the Dutch. Hence the Dutch invaded the islands and the rest is, as they say, history. That is the “Revolution” which ultra-nationalistic Indonesians speak of in no uncertain terms.

It is amusing, however, that when Indonesians accuse Malaysia of having gained independence “with the help of the British”, they suffer a short-term memory loss by failing to realise that one could also say the same for them, that they had gained independence “with the help of Japan”!

Tokoh dan Pahlawan Malaysia

tokoh

As the Indogs were barking off their heads deriding Malaysia’s so-called “lack” of pre-Independence leaders, by the grace of God I found the image above circulated on the World Wide Web. It does speak a lot for the Indon lack of ability to efficiently use a search engine, but never mind that.

The image above displays a list of several influential politicians and leaders in the pre-independence Malayan period. The list isn’t complete, of course, but since there isn’t a name list that came with it, I will make a list of that here.