Politics of decolonisation : a tangled ‘Greater Malaysia’ and the local secondary leaders 1961-63

Abstract

As direct participants, local secondary leaders from the Borneo Territories, Malaya and Singapore played significant roles during the ‘Greater Malaysia’ negotiations from 1961-63. However, historians have preferred to focus on the primary leaders such as Malaya’s Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman and Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew. Resultantly, existing works commonly seek to explain later key events, such as Singapore’s separation in 1965. A deterministic structured narrative has thus emerged, to limit our current understanding of the time period. This paper seeks to argue that ‘Greater Malaysia’ was an evolving concept, to which the local secondary leaders’ varying reactions helped to shape it during the negotiations from 1961- 63. By presenting the perspectives of the Borneo Territories, Malaya and Singapore respectively, the local secondary leaders influenced outcomes, and at certain junctures, even superseded the primary leaders. In this light, the negotiations can be analogised to a tangled web. And in turn, ‘Greater Malaysia’ was constantly in the making. As such, an assessment to evaluate the local secondary leaders’ under-appreciated contributions is necessary, for it emphasises the unintended outcome of ‘Greater Malaysia’.