The Malay Communist Party is now not allowed to exist. But I am certain that, apart from those who were killed or left the country, there are still some of its supporters in that area who have found other parties through which they can work. It stands to reason that active militants of this kind would not sit still. They would find some vent for their own political convictions, which seems to me to indicate that they must have found other political avenues for the expression of political convictions of the same nature as were expressed during that time of Communist insurgence a few years ago.
I believe that federation is desirable in order to secure a closer association of the four territories and, if possible, with Brunei. I recognise that there is an element of military strategy in this. But is that unreasonable? I remember that when I toured these areas eight years ago I discussed this concept of Malaysia. I am certain that the discussions which then took place were not bound up with the idea of military strategy but with the simple idea that if there were these four or five territories each living their separate lives, it would be desirable for political and economic reasons to bring them into closer association.
I do not deny the military element But what of it? It does not necessarily follow that because these overseas territories wish to secure military protection, they are therefore imperialistic. If they wish, for military protection, to be associated with British protection and the resources we possess, what then? After all, India, which pursues a policy of non-alignment—quite rightly in my opinion—was profoundly grateful for the swift rushing of supplies by us to that country within 48 hours in India's hour" of need when Chinese aggression was threatening to over-run Assam on the one side and did over-run Ladakh on the other. I do not see anything necessarily malign about the fact that, just as this country wishes to find what associations it can in other parts of the world in order to secure better defence, these territories may desire to do exactly the same thing and find that the best way to do so would be by an arrangement with this country.
I agree with my right hon. Friend the Member for Smethwick (Mr. Gordon Walker) that it is highly desirable that such an arrangement should be on the basis of free assent by both parties rather than by some kind of imperialist insistence. I again emphasise that there is in this part of the world a very real fear of pressure, or even worse, from the Chinese People's Republic and even from the Indonesian Republic, although that fear may be unfounded. Let us not forget India in this respect. For years India never expected the kind of successful military expedition into her territory, which took place. That in itself has alarmed many people in the Far East and in South-East Asia. Therefore, in this part of South-East Asia there is a very real fear about the tension and conflict between the two concepts of life there.
On the one hand, India has stood in the past for a concept of free democracy, while beyond the Himalayas the Chinese People's Republic is treading a totalitarian pathway. The repercussions of that are affecting the whole of South-East Asia. There is Indonesia, with 100,000,000 inhabitants and its Communist Party of 2 million we are told, and on the other hand the Federation of perhaps 12 million at the outside, trying to tread that democratic pathway. We have here yet again an arena in which this great basic historical battle of ideas and principles is being fought.
There is not only this fear, but there is also a fear of racial tension and conflict, which is very real—although, happily, there are many heartening signs of interracial friendship transcending comunal homogeneity. Nevertheless, although there are political parties which stress their non-racial or inter-racial policies, there are others in Malaya, such as the Pan-Islamic Party—which is very powerful—whose objective seems to be to secure comprehensive territorial unity in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaya and Borneo under Islamic domination.
So significant is this party that at the last election in Malaya eleven out of the 104 seats in the Malayan Assembly were secured and, more important, it secured 322,000 votes compared with 861,000 cast for the Inter-Communal Alliance, the total over-all voting being 1,600,000. That is a considerable proportion of the total and it represents a purely communal party which, if it had its way, would secure territorial unity of all Malays under Islamic domination and thereby a kind of theocratic State possibly hostile to other communities. Although it is fortunate that there is the
