Brunei Revolt
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The Brunei Revolt broke out on 8 December 1962 and was led by Yassin Affandi and his armed rebels. The rebels began co-ordinated attacks on the oil town of Seria (targeting the Shell oil installations) and on police stations and government facilities around the protectorate. Contemporary accounts also refer to it as the Brunei Rebellion. This uprising is seen as one of the first stages of the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation.
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[edit] Background
Between 1959 and 1962, the United Kingdom, Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak were involved in negotiations to form a new Malaysian Federation. However, the Philippines and particularly Indonesia opposed any move towards unification of Sarawak with the new federation. This support was given strength by evidence of widespread anti-Federation sentiment in Sarawak and Brunei itself.
Local opposition and sentiments against the Malaysian Federation plan have often been under-represented in historical writings on the Brunei Revolt and the subsequent Indonesia-Malaysia 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, 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 A.M. Azahari, leader of the Brunei People's Party, 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 an unwillingness to be subjected to peninsular political domination.
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.
In effort to thwart any effort to form Malaysia, Indonesia became actively involved in subterfuge operations and later declared war on Malaysia. During this period, Indonesian agents came into contact with local opposition that was against the idea of a federation.
[edit] The Battle for Seria
The town of Seria was under rebel control when two Gurkha Rifles companies began to clear the area of rebels. With the airfield sufficiently clear, a Blackburn Beverley transport delivered its cargo of Queen's Own Highlanders at Anduki Airfield and met up with 1/2 Gurkha Rifles.[1]
Anduki Airfield today [1] is a grass airstrip with a concrete ramp used almost exclusively by Brunei Shell Petroleum aircraft and helicopters servicing Brunei's extensive offshore petroleum production installations. The Sultan of Brunei and members of the Royal Family sometimes use it in their helicopters when they wish to visit Seria, especially on State occasions[2]. Regarded as strategically important because of its proximity to the oil town of Seria, its history in the Brunei Revolt and the paucity of other Brunei airstrips usable by fixed-wing military aircraft, Anduki and the adjacent highway to Bandar Seri Begawan is one of the first areas to be secured by Gurkha and Brunei Army troops when they deploy on contemporary war exercises.
[edit] Eyewitness accounts
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Several government buildings in the capital which were regarded as key targets by the rebels were occupied and officials working at the time were held hostage. They included the Bruneian ministers who were in the building at the time when the rebels entered the compound and held them as hostages briefly. There were some interesting and rather obvious facts during the revolt, that many people in Bandar seri Begawan reported seeing groups of men buying army uniforms and equipments at the local shops. The rebels were in fact preparing themselves for the revolt. While in the Tutong district, the supporters of the rebellion confirmed that they had engaged with the British in a firefight and some exchanges of fire. They reported that one had killed a Gurkha riflemen patrolling the region around the district. The news of one of the first casualties on the British army since the revolt began.
[edit] Executions at Temburong
On 8 December, from two till five in the morning, shots could be heard near police stations all over Brunei. According to news received from Temburong, the District Officer Pengiran Haji Besar bin Pengiran Haji Kula, a few others from Brunei security forces and a number of civilians were executed for refusing to join in the rebellion.
By five in the morning, TNKU already managed to control Pekan Besar. More news came out that a number of civil servants at Pekan Besar had managed to escape capture. Around an hour later at downtown, Deputy Chief Minister Pengiran Dato Setia Haji Mohd Ali bin Pengiran Dato Setia Haji Muhammad Yusuf bin Pengiran Haji Abdul Rahim was granted audience by the Sultan. After the meeting, the Sultan made a public appearance through radio to condemn TNKU, which was the armed wing of Parti Rakyat Brunei, for treason.
[edit] The Assault on Limbang
In Limbang insurgents attacked the local police station, killing five local policemen. The insurgents then obtained the surrender of British official R.H. Morris, his wife, four other Europeans, an American peace Corps worker and took the remaining Police officers hostage. On the first night of their captivity they were crowded into the police cells, the second night they were moved to the local hospital where they overheard the insurgents planning their hangings the following day.
A British team of rescuers, led by Captain Jeremy Moore (who later commanded the British Forces during the Falklands War), was recruited from the Royal Marines. After acquiring two landing craft, the marines were transported to Limbang by Royal Navy crews led by Captain Black (who later commanded the Invincible during the Falklands War) and staged their arrival at dawn. The landing craft had manually operated ramps which took too long to lower and the senior officer took the decision that the Marines would vault over the sides or over the ramps under covering fire from Vickers machine guns mounted on the bridges. One landing craft's bridge was raked with Bren Gun fire disabling the crew and the craft rammed into the river bank and quay.
It is worth noting that the only map they had was 10 years old at the time. The marines lost the element of surprise due to the loud noise of their boats, but succeeded nevertheless in suppressing the insurgent's machine guns and landed.
The attackers started their search for the hostages who, on hearing shots, began singing the English song "She'll be coming round the Mountain", allowing the first rescue party to quickly locate them. The first rescue party was attacked and two of the three marines were killed. A second rescue party fought off the insurgents from around the hospital and freed the hostages. About 200 insurgents, who had little if any military training and a paltry assortment of weapons (about a dozen Bren and Lee-Enfield rifles, but mainly shotguns, muskets and daggers), tried to resist, but were beaten back.
Five marines were killed and eight wounded in the attack. British sources do not list insurgent losses in this incident, but Clodfelter estimates losses in the Brunei Revolt as 40 insurgents and six marines. There is a memorial to all the dead in Limbang. The leader of the Limbang Insurgents was caught and tried and received an eleven year prison sentence. He lives (2007) on the outskirts of Limbang.[2]
[edit] Consequences of the revolt
The revolt ended after five months when the last rebel leader, Yassin Affandi, being shot in the hip, was captured by British troops in mangrove swamps. The Revolt also played a role in the Sultan of Brunei's subsequent decision for Brunei to not join the Federation of Malaysia.
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