The Borneo Confrontation

The Borneo Confrontation looks at a period of history in South East Asia and at what was has been termed an undeclared war between Indonesia and Malaysia; this was to become known as Confrontation or Konfrontasi. Between 1963 and 1966 Indonesia instigated cross border incursions in what is known as Borneo in an effort to disrupt the formation of Malaysia as Indonesian president Sukarno saw this as a perceived last ditch attempt by Britain to cling to power within South East Asia. This, however, was not the case as Britain wanted to withdraw its regiments leaving enough manpower to cover SEATO obligations and re-purpose the remaining forces within Europe, NATO and BAOR.

Sukarno’s actions would eventually involve Commonwealth forces from Australia and New Zealand fighting alongside Ghurkha regiments who had been posted to Malaya prior to the country becoming Malaysia in 1963. The Borneo Confrontation shows that Sukarno wanted to rule the entire area, buoyed in part by removing the Dutch from the area. The formation of Malaysia dented his fragile ego and his plans for Indonesian expansion. The Borneo Confrontation shows that the roots of this may have occurred earlier with the communist insurrection in Malaya, sowing the seeds of future uprisings within the area, notably the Brunei uprising in 1963 and the Vietnam War.