Always a Commando: The Life of Singapore Army Pioneer Clarence Tan by Thomas A. Squire

Author:Thomas A. Squire [Squire, Thomas A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub

21 This practice is no longer recommended due to risks of the leech vomiting bacteria back into the wound. Current recommened practices suggest using a sharp tool, like a knife, to slide the leech off, or simply to leave it be and let it fall off naturally once it has had its fill.

22 Being an officer in the Malayan army meant Clarence got free travel anywhere on the train network. In First Class too!

Chapter 13

Confrontation

After his two weeks of leave, Clarence was on the train again heading across the Causeway and back up north to Taiping to rendezvous with his men and the rest of 1 MIR. Early the following morning they boarded a C130 Hercules transport aircraft bound for the town of Tawau in the state of Sabah, on the island of Borneo. It was a flight that took around four hours and covered roughly 1,900km pretty much due east in this lumbering troop carrier. By the end of the day, Clarence and his colleagues would be in the jungles of East Malaysia, only a few miles from the border with Indonesia.

It was now 1 MIR’s turn for deployment to the Confrontation.

__________

The Confrontation, or Konfrontasi in Malay and Indonesian, was a low-level military conflict between Indonesia and Malaysia. For various reasons Indonesia was opposed to the amalgamation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo (Sabah), and Sarawak, into this new country called Malaysia. In part they perceived it to be a colonial plot by the British – a way for Britain to retain an element of control in the region, particularly over their commercial assets (like oil fields and rubber plantations) and allow them to maintain a military presence in the region. This was a potential threat to Indonesia who were just on their doorstep, and with whom they shared a 2,000-km land border on the island of Borneo.

The what, how, why, and when leading up to the beginning of the Confrontation is a little complex and a detailed explanation is beyond the scope of this work, so I will keep this explanation of it as concise as I can. An event known as the Brunei Revolt, in December 1962, is often cited as a key moment. While Indonesia denied explicit involvement in this, on 20th January 1963, a month after the Brunei Revolt, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Subandrio, publically declared that his nation was against the formation of Malaysia and announced a policy of Confrontation against Malaysia. This was not initially a threat of armed conflict or a declaration of war, but more economic and social in nature, since a significant amount of Indonesian trade went through Singapore’s port, and reductions in this directly affected Singapore’s economy.

However, some months later, on 13th April 1963, an incursion into Sarawak from Indonesia and an attack on a police station at a town called Tebedu, not far from the border, is generally cited as the beginning of the militarisation of the Confrontation. Cross border raids from Indonesia increased over the following months.23

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