North Borneo Federation - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The North Borneo Federation, also known as Kalimantan Utara or North Kalimantan was a proposed political entity which would have comprised the British Colonies

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

of Sarawak

Sarawak

Sarawak is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. Known as Bumi Kenyalang , Sarawak is situated on the north-west of the island. It is the largest state in Malaysia followed by Sabah, the second largest state located to the North- East.The administrative capital is Kuching, which...

, British North Borneo (now known as the Malaysian state of Sabah

Sabah

Sabah is one of 13 member states of Malaysia. It is located on the northern portion of the island of Borneo. It is the second largest state in the country after Sarawak, which it borders on its southwest. It also shares a border with the province of East Kalimantan of Indonesia in the south...

) and the protectorate of Brunei

Brunei

Brunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...

.

By 1956, the governments of Sarawak

Sarawak

, North Borneo

North Borneo

North Borneo was a British protectorate under the sovereign North Borneo Chartered Company from 1882 to 1946. After the war it became a crown colony of Great Britain from 1946 to 1963, known in this time as British North Borneo. It is located on the northeastern end of the island of Borneo. It is...

, and the State of Brunei

Brunei

Brunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...

announced that they would abandon the Malayan dollar and adopt a common currency of their own, but that never came into being.

The idea of the North Kalimantan was originally proposed by A. M. Azahari

A. M. Azahari

Sheikh Azahari bin Sheikh Mahmud , better known as A.M. Azahari, was a Brunei politician turned rebel.Born of mixed Arab-Malay heritage in Labuan, he was educated in Java and later fought against the Dutch there...

, who had forged links with Sukarno

Sukarno

Sukarno, born Kusno Sosrodihardjo was the first President of Indonesia.Sukarno was the leader of his country's struggle for independence from the Netherlands and was Indonesia's first President from 1945 to 1967...

's nationalist movement, together with Ahmad Zaidi, in Java

Java

Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

in the 1940s. The idea supported and propagated the unification of all Borneo territories under British rule to form an independent leftist North Kalimantan state.

Azahari personally favoured Brunei's independence and merging with British North Borneo and Sarawak

Sarawak

to form the federation with the Sultan of Brunei as the constitutional monarch.

However, the Brunei People’s Party was in favour of joining Malaysia on the condition it was as the unified three territories of northern Borneo with their own Sultan, and hence was strong enough to resist domination by Malaya, Singapore, Malay administrators or Chinese merchants.

The North Kalimantan (or Kalimantan Utara) proposal was seen as a post-decolonization

Decolonization

Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent Territory over another...

alternative by local opposition against the Malaysia plan. Local opposition throughout the Borneo territories was primarily based on economic, political, historical and cultural differences between the Borneo states and Malaya

Federation of Malaya

The Federation of Malaya is the name given to a federation of 11 states that existed from 31 January 1948 until 16 September 1963. The Federation became independent on 31 August 1957...

, as well as the refusal to be subjected under peninsular political domination. Joining to form Malaysia was seen as a new form of colonialism under Malaya.

The basic concept behind the formation of a union of British Borneo was partly based upon the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland

Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland

The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, also known as the Central African Federation , was a semi-independent state in southern Africa that existed from 1953 to the end of 1963, comprising the former self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia and the British protectorates of Northern Rhodesia,...

in Southern Africa

Southern Africa

Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...

. After the defeat of the pro-democracy revolutionaries in the Brunei Revolt

Brunei Revolt

The Brunei Rebellion broke out on 8 December 1962. The rebels began co-ordinated attacks on the oil town of Seria and on police stations and government facilities around the protectorate...

, the idea was put to rest. Had the federation been formed, the capital city would probably have been chosen from Kuching

Kuching

Kuching , officially the City of Kuching, and formerly the City of Sarawak, is the capital and most populous city of the East Malaysian state of Sarawak. It is the largest city on the island of Borneo, and the fourth largest city in Malaysia....

, Jesselton (present-day Kota Kinabalu) or Bandar Seri Begawan

Bandar Seri Begawan

Bandar Seri Begawan, with an estimated population 140,000 , is the capital and largest city of the Sultanate of Brunei...

, the historical capital of the region.

The Sultanate of Brunei has traditionally opposed such a federation. When it was first proposed during the 1960s the Sultan of Brunei favoured joining Malaysia, though, in the end, disagreements concerning the nature of such a federation, and also disputes over oil royalties stopped this from happening.

Currently, there still remain groups of people who favor the creation of such an independent state and desire separation from the rest of Malaysia. These groups see union with Malaysia as being unfair to the people of Borneo, particularly Sabah

Sabah

, as the majority of the region's wealth goes to the Malaysian federal government. Only about 5% of the region's oil revenue goes to the state governments of Sabah

Sabah

and Sarawak

Sarawak

.

Malaysian politics have usually been centred in Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia , also known as West Malaysia , is the part of Malaysia which lies on the Malay Peninsula. Its area is . It shares a land border with Thailand in the north. To the south is the island of Singapore. Across the Strait of Malacca to the west lies the island of Sumatra...

, and critics see the federation neglecting the needs of East Malaysians. Some opposition parties in the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly have tried to promote a North Borneo federation. The matter was refused to be debated in the Assembly due to its sensitivity, by the coalition of governing parties in Sarawak, namely the Barisan Nasional

Barisan Nasional

Barisan Nasional is a major political coalition in Malaysia, formed in 1973 as the successor to the Alliance . Along with its predecessor, it has been Malaysia's federal ruling political force since independence...

led by Abdul Taib Mahmud

Abdul Taib Mahmud

Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud is the fourth and current Chief Minister of Sarawak. He is also the state Financial Minister and Planning and Resource Management Minister. Taib is the President of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu , which is part of the Barisan Nasional coalition...

.

In the Malaysian general election, 2008

Malaysian general election, 2008

The 12th Malaysian general election was held on March 8, 2008, in accordance with Malaysian laws for national elections, which states that a general election must be held no later than five years subsequent to the previous elections; the previous general election was held in 2004...

the populations of both the East Malaysian states voted to keep the ruling Barisan Nasional

Barisan Nasional

coalition in power, which saw it lost support in its traditional Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia

n strongholds. This has seen an increase in development in the two states.

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