One week after its stormy birth, the infant
nation of Malaysia was hoping for peace but preparing for war. Two
Malayan infantry battalions packed their kit bags and prepared to
embark for the steaming jungles of Sarawak and Sabah ; in
Sarawak, orders were issued to raise a native infantry battalion. A
round-the-clock watch was begun on the Malayan shore of the Malacca
Straits, and 6,000 British, Gurkha and local troops and constabulary
units doubled their patrols along Sarawak's tangled, 400-mile border
with Indonesian Borneo. Guarding the Strong Room. The crisis was triggered by Indonesia's puffy,
demagogic President Sukarno, who has sworn to crush Malaysia at all
costs. On the Sarawak frontier, an Indonesian mortar company lobbed
shells across the border. Deepening Indonesia's quarrel with Britain,
which is pledged to defend Malaysia, government troops in Djakarta
barred British diplomats from entering their embassy, gutted fortnight
ago by an unchecked mob. The guards even tried to break into the
embassy's fireproof code room until they were stopped by tough, stocky
Ambassador Andrew Gilchrist, who forced his way into the embassy and
stood guard over the strong room himself. In a flurry of edicts, Sukarno cut off all phone, telegraph, postal,
airline and shipping links with Malaysia and abruptly halted all
Indonesian trade with the federation. The trade embargo was childishly
spiteful and totally without logic, for it would do far more damage to
Indonesia than to Malaysia. Over 52% of Indonesia's total annual ex
ports of $674 million is to the federation, and most of Indonesia's
shipping is funneled through Singapore and Penang. Only Singapore has
the facilities to process the low grades that make up much of
Indonesia's rubber crop. While Malaysia has other markets in the British Commonwealth, Indonesia
faces economic isolation. Even the Phil ippines, which once joined
Sukarno in opposing the federation, is now seeking a graceful way to
recognize Malaysia. Distressed by Sukarno's bluff and bluster, the U.S.
is reconsidering its economic-aid program to Indonesia and has backed
away from participation in a multinational, $250 million program to
help balance Sukarno's huge trade deficit. Cornered Giant. But logic never counts for much in Sukarno's Indonesia.
To the Bung, Malaysia is a challenge to his grandiose dream of a new
Indonesian empire that would cut an arc through Southeast Asia from the
tip of Malaya to the northern islands of the Philippines. Moreover, he
is doubtless embarrassed by the contrast between Malaysia's economic
well-being and Indonesia's own chaotic economy, which Sukarno has sadly
mismanaged. A nationalistic crusade against Malaysia gives Sukarno a
badly needed issue to divert his people's attention from the desperate
shortages in food and clothing at home.
