12dz Chapter 353 Disputes in Southeast Asia
Chapter 353 Disputes in Southeast Asia
In Johor, Peninsular Malaysia, the British colonial governor was reckless in his response to the growing nationalist sentiment among the Chinese and overseas Chinese. As Chinese soldiers returned from the European War, their baptism by fire by the Chinese army intensified their sense of national identity.
The last British Governor in Malaysia was Tun Abdul Razak, a Malay. With the increasingly strong wave of national autonomy among the Malays, the Malays established many national political parties. Among them, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) had the greatest influence. In just two years, it had spread like wildfire in the West Malay region.
Born in 1922, Tun Abdul Razak studied law at Cambridge University in England. A British-trained elite, he was imbued with Western-style thinking. He was also a pan-Malay nationalist. He was infuriated by the British's tacit approval of the Chinese autonomous government in Sabah, East Malaysia, effectively acknowledging their independence. However, Chinese comprised a staggering 33% of the Malay population, while Malays comprised only around 50%. Furthermore, the Chinese's contributions during World War II earned them special respect from the British colonial authorities, particularly in Singapore, Penang, and Malacca, where Chinese communities were predominantly high. Furthermore, with the tacit approval of the British colonial government, the Chinese formed autonomous armed forces, which were quickly joined by returning veterans. Throughout Malay territory, the Chinese autonomous armed forces even surpassed the colonial army in some respects.
At this time, the British government was buffeted by a wave of national awakening, particularly in the Indian peninsula, where independence activists adopted a non-resistance sit-in that spread across the continent. Britain was forced to focus significant efforts on India, attempting to quell the independence movement in its largest colony. In Malaysia, the British chose Tun Abdul Razak as Governor, apparently to elevate the status of the Malays and temporarily ease tensions there.
At this point, Tun Abdul Razak had not yet joined any political party advocating for Malay national independence, but this did not prevent him from engaging with these independence activists. Clearly, he understood that independence and freedom for Malaysia was inevitable. He simply had not yet decided on a strategy for how to achieve it.
Similarly, the British allowed the Chinese to establish autonomous armed forces, which clearly intended to use the Chinese to threaten the Malays. The biggest problem for Malaysia's independence is to resolve the relationship between the Malays and the Chinese.
In fact, driven by the United States, the United States, and the Soviet Union, national independence movements were taking place throughout Southeast Asia. The most typical example was South Vietnam. To assert its presence, France resolutely suppressed its independence tendencies, even deploying large numbers of troops from within the country to suppress them by force. However, the Soviet Union and other powers provided invisible support for South Vietnam's independence movement. The South Vietnamese People's Army clearly enjoyed support from all sides, including numerous volunteers from other Southeast Asian powers. The military's influence was clearly influenced by Soviet military advisors.
Similarly, in the Indonesian region controlled by the Netherlands, the Second World War completely destroyed the Netherlands. They urgently needed a transfusion from the Indonesian colony. For this, they spared no effort and organized a large number of troops to be deployed here in an attempt to stabilize the situation and control this large colony.
The Dutch faced far more serious problems than those faced by Britain and France. They faced not only protests from Indonesia's indigenous peoples but also the push for autonomy from overseas Chinese. Previously, Dutch colonists had exploited indigenous Indonesians to attack overseas Chinese in order to deflect conflict and profit. However, with the rise of the Flower Plantings, now the world's fourth-largest power, and the United States' covert support for the establishment of an autonomous territory on the Chinese-populated island of Java, the Dutch colonies were experiencing the most severe unrest.
Wang Chengwu, a Chinese American, stayed on the island of Java and secretly controlled a large number of Chinese armed forces. They obviously had the support of the American Navy. In addition, Wang Chengwu himself was a famous general from the First Army of the Chinese Marine Corps. He was originally of South China Chinese descent. A large number of former Chinese soldiers of the Expeditionary Force joined his subordinates after retiring. In fact, Wang Chengwu was already the controller of the Chinese area on the island of Java.
Unlike the Luo Bing of the South China Autonomous Region to the north, Wang and his allies clearly enjoyed the support of the Flower Planting Party. Both the United States and the United Kingdom implicitly and explicitly acquiesced to their support, even though their autonomous territory occupied a small portion of Indonesian territory in North Kalimantan, a fact the Dutch had to reluctantly acknowledge. However, Wang's support for the South China Autonomous Government was different. The ideological opposition between them and the South China Autonomous Government remained unclear, but it was generally foreseeable that Wang's acceptance of the United States' support was a clear attempt to establish an American-style democratic government in Indonesia. Among them, they incorporated a large number of Indonesian people from Java, foreseeably signaling the establishment of a multi-ethnic Javanese autonomous government with a predominantly Chinese population.
To maintain its colonial position, Britain naturally supported the Dutch's legitimacy in Indonesia. However, the United States, the most powerful power in the world, wanted Indonesia to be independent, even divided into multiple island nations. Some sources reported that the United States wanted Indonesia to be divided into three countries, primarily Sumatra, Java, and Kalimantan, and to promote the independence of the entire island of New Guinea. This was completely unacceptable to the Netherlands.
Hubert Jan van Mock was ordered to take over the Dutch Indonesia after the surrender of the Japanese army and became the Governor of the East Indies. In order to maintain colonial rule, the Netherlands sent 15 troops and recruited local tribesmen who were inclined towards them to join their troops. They heavily guarded areas such as Sumatra and South Kalimantan.
Hubert Jan van Mock was very distressed at the moment. Sukarno, a descendant of a wealthy royal family in western Indonesia, was organizing a free army seeking independence to fight against him, which made it impossible for him to concentrate his forces on Java Island. He could only turn a blind eye to Wang Chengwu's Chinese armed forces and watch them grow.
The Dutch government, clearly aware of this, approached Britain and France to discuss colonial concerns in Southeast Asia. Having already reached an agreement with the Florentines to cede North Vietnam and much of Laos, the French concentrated their efforts on controlling South Vietnam and Cambodia. To this end, approximately 30 French troops were stationed there, continuously suppressing the South Vietnamese People's Army. Fighting raged daily, and for the common good, France offered the most support to the Netherlands, deploying a division of its own mercenaries to assist the Dutch in suppressing resistance on some obscure islands.