North Kalimantan Communist Party
North Kalimantan Communist Party | |
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| Chinese name |
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| Malay name | Parti Komunis Kalimantan Utara |
| Abbreviation | NKCP |
Mao Zedong Thought[1] | |
| Political position | Far-left |
| Colours | Red |
| Party flag | |
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| This article is part of a series on the |
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The North Kalimantan Communist Party (
Name
The organisation was initially referred to by its members as the Sarawak Communist Movement and subsequently the North Kalimantan Communist Party after 1970. Documents published by the Sarawak colonial and Malaysian governments tended to label any anti-colonial group operating in Sarawak as either the Sarawak Communist Organisation (SCO) or the Clandestine Communist Organisation (CCO). Due to the Cold War atmosphere, anti-colonial groups and left-leaning individuals were often categorised as Communists by the authorities.[3] According to the Japanese academic Fujio Hara, the NKCP's two main military formations were the Sarawak People's Guerilla Force (SPGF) or Pasukan Gerilya Rakyat Sarawak (PGRS), and the North Kalimantan People's Army (NKPA) or the Pasukan Rakyat Kalimantan Utara (PARAKU). The SPGF operated in western Sarawak while the NKPA operated in eastern Sarawak. In addition, the main component organisations were the Sarawak Liberation League (SLL), the Sarawak Advance Youths' Association (SAYA), and the NKPA.[2]
History
Origins
According to Hong-Kah Fong, the North Kalimantan Communist Party was officially formed on 30 March 1970. However, 19 September 1971 was selected as the official commemoration date in order to commemorate the Pontianak Conference of 17–19 September 1965, which is regarded as the birth date of the Sarawak Communist Movement. The NKCP traces its origins to local Chinese Communists who had migrated from China to Sabah during the 1930s and 1940s. The NKCP was also preceded by several Communist movements including the Races Liberation Front and the Borneo Anti-Japanese League (which consisted of two organisations: the North Borneo Anti Japanese League and the West Borneo Anti-Japanese League), which had resisted the Japanese occupation during World War II.[3]
During the post-war period, other communist groups active in Sarawak included the Overseas Chinese Youth Association, the Liberation League, and the Sarawak Advanced Youths' Association (SAYA). By 1965, these had coalesced into two main organisations: the North Kalimantan People's Army (Pasukan Rakyat Kalimantan Utara, PARAKU) and the Sarawak People's Guerillas (Pasukan Gerilya Rakyat Sarawak, PGRS). These were collectively referred to by most British and Western sources as the Sarawak Communist Movement or Clandestine Communist Organisation (CCO), which came into existence during the Pontianak Conference in September 1965.[3][6]
According to the
Opposition to Malaysia
The Sarawak Communist Movement was also opposed to the formation of
According to a British government
The Sarawak People's Guerilla Force was formed on 30 March 1964 at Gunung Asuansang in West Kalimantan with the assistance of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The GPRS's leaders included Bong Kee Chok, Yang Chu Chung, and Wen Ming Chyuan.[2] According to Conboy, the PGRS numbered about 800 and was based in West Kalimantan at Batu Hitam, with a contingent of 120 from the Indonesian intelligence agency and a small cadre trained in China. The Indonesian Communist Party was also present and was led by an ethnic Arab revolutionary, Sofyan. The PGRS ran some raids into Sarawak but spent more time developing their supporters in Sarawak. The Indonesian armed forces did not approve of the leftist nature of the PGRS and generally avoided them.[10]
According to the former British soldier and writer Will Fowler, these Sarawak Communists received military-style training at Indonesian camps.[6] At that time, President Sukarno was pro-Communist and anti-Western. As with Sukarno and the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), the Sarawak Communists opposed the newly formed Federation of Malaysia as a "neo-colonialist conspiracy" and supported the unification of all former British territories in Borneo to create an independent leftist North Kalimantan state.[4] In addition, the Sarawak Communists had plans to launch attacks on police stations and to ambush security forces, paralleling similar tactics used by the Malayan National Liberation Army during the Malayan Emergency.[6]
Meanwhile, the North Kalimantan People's Army was formed by Bong Kee Chok near
The Indonesians had planned to use the Sarawak Communists as an indigenous front for their operations during the
Following the 1965
Decline and fragmentation
Between 1965 and 1990, there were skirmishes which pitted the Sarawak Communist Movement against the
On 30 March 1970, Wen Ming Chyuan, the Head of the Sarawak People's Guerrillas in Sarawak's First Division, formed the North Kalimantan Communist Party.
The
Following the successful Hat Yai peace accords between the Malayan Communist Party and the Malaysian government in 1989, the remaining North Kalimantan Communist Party guerillas decided to end their insurgency after one of their Chinese contacts Weng Min Chyuan convinced them to negotiate with the Sarawak state government. In July 1990, a series of negotiations between the NKCP and the Sarawak government took place at the town of Bintulu. By 17 October 1990, a peace agreement formally ending the Sarawak communist insurgency was ratified at Wisma Bapa Malaysia in the state capital Kuching. Shortly afterwards, the last remaining NKCP operatives led by Ang Cho Teng surrendered. These developments ended the Sarawak Communist insurgency.[5][4]
References
- ^ a b Hara 2005.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Hara 2005, pp. 489–513
- ^ a b c d e f g h Fong 2005, pp. 183–192
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Chan & Wong 2011
- ^ a b c d e f g Cheah Boon Kheng2009, pp. 132–52
- ^ a b c d e f Fowler 2006, pp. 11, 41
- ^ Porritt 2004, p. 69.
- ^ Pocock 1973, pp. 129.
- ^ a b Corbett 1986, p. 124.
- ^ Conboy 2003, pp. 156.
- ^ Conboy 2003, pp. 93–95.
Bibliography
- Chan, Francis; Wong, Phyllis (16 September 2011). "Saga of communist insurgency in Sarawak". The Borneo Post. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
- Cheah Boon Kheng (2009). "The Communist Insurgency in Malaysia, 1948–90: Contesting the Nation-State and Social Change" (PDF). New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies. 11 (1): 132–52. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
- Conboy, Ken (2003). KOPASSUS Inside Indonesia's Special Forces. ISBN 978-979-95898-8-0.
- Corbett, Robin (1986). Guerilla Warfare: from 1939 to the present day. London: Orbis Book Publishing Corporation. ISBN 978-0-85613-469-2.
- Fong, Hon-Kah (2005). "Book Review: Vernon L. Porritt "The Rise and Fall of Communism in Sarawak 1940–1990"" (PDF). Taiwan Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 2 (1): 183–192. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
- Fowler, Will (2006). Britain's Secret War: The Indonesian Confrontation 1962–66. London: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84603-048-2.
- Hara, Fujiol (December 2005). "The North Kalimantan Communist Party and the People's Republic of China". The Developing Economies. 43 (4): 489–513. S2CID 153955103.
- Pocock, Tom (1973). Fighting General – The Public and Private Campaigns of General Sir Walter Walker (First ed.). ISBN 978-0-00-211295-6.
- Porritt, Vernon L. (2004). The Rise and Fall of Communism in Sarawak, 1940-1990. Monash Asia Institute. ISBN 9781876924270.