Malaysia: Pressed but Uncrushed

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Indonesia's President Sukarno once boasted that his campaign to "crush Malaysia" would triumph before the cock crowed on Jan. 1, 1965. Last week the deadline passed with the 15-month-old, British-backed federation pressed harder than ever but apparently as far as ever from being crushed.

Though the 800-mile Malaysia-Indonesia frontier on Borneo, where Sukarno began his guerrilla raids, has been the scene of only sporadic clashes of late, Indonesia has stepped up its attacks on the Malay Peninsula itself. So far, each little marauding band has been wiped out almost as fast as it arrived. Christmas week was typical: 30 raiders debarked in southwestern Johore State, took to the adjacent swampland; within hours, three were dead, the rest captured. Next day the British frigate Ajax intercepted seven sampans carrying 22 raiders trying to sneak across the Malacca Strait to Malaysia.

All told, since Sukarno first sent his guerrillas into Malaya last August, 55 have been killed and 243 captured; last week Malaysian security officials claimed that only one invader was unaccounted for. The main reason for the Indonesians' lack of success has been Britain's firm determination—continued by the Labor government—to honor her treaty obligations for the defense of Malaysia. In the past six months Britain has doubled her troop strength in Malaysia, to some 20,000, and British tommies are doing most of the actual fighting in the bitter little war.

By tacit agreement, the U.S. has left Malaysia to the British, while concentrating on the expensive war in Viet Nam. However, during a visit to Washington last July, Malaysian Premier Tunku Abdul Rahman let it be known that he would welcome some American aid too, and a U.S. delegation recently arrived in Kuala Lumpur for talks. But last week, when the delegation got down to crossing the t's and dotting the i's on an aid deal, howls of shock and chagrin arose from the Malaysians.

The U.S., it seemed, was offering a loan for the purchase of jet trainer aircraft, at the 5% interest rate that the State Department called "standard" for military purchases. What the Malaysians apparently expected was a straight grant from the U.S. or a credit on softer terms. After all, was Washington not supplying Malaysia's archenemy Sukarno an annual gift of $10 million in aid? Declared Malaysian Defense Minister Abdul Razak: "We are disappointed. If our friends wish to help us, now is the time."