say whether this is in fact the case—is that as a result of the elections the parties in favour of Malaysia have succeeded in getting the greatest number of votes. This is reflected in the Council Negri, which is the kind of Government which will run the territories. The Alliance Party, the powerful party which supports Malaysia, has 19 seats, a majority of two over all the other parties concerned, to there can be no doubt that as a result of the elections—and in this case I am sure my hon. Friends will agree with me that the elections were fought pretty fiercely over whether Malaysia was to be established or not—it can be said that in Sarawak the majority favour Malaysia.
In Brunei, the Partai Rikyat, which contested the elections last year, won all the seats except one, and ultimately the holder of that seat thought that it was better to join the majority and he came over. The fact that the Partai Rikyat won so many seats would seem to indicate that most politically alert people in Brunei were against Malaysia. We may be wrong in our judgment on this, but my hon. Friends and I feel that the revolt which took place after the elections was connived at by the Sultan. It is said that the Sultan of Brunei encouraged Azahari to form a party which won the Election. He thought that as a result of the revolt it would set in motion a movement for Sarawak, North Borneo, and Brunei to be joined together once more and for him to be the Sultan of the territories, but when he saw the dangers of the revolt and that he might be deposed instructions were given that it must be suppressed. Having talked to people out there it is interesting to realise that once those who were in the rebellion found that they had not the support of the Sultan and were challenged by the police, they laid down their arms. This, of course, did not apply to the hard core, who carried on, with the result that the Sultan became so alarmed that he asked Her Majesty's Government for troops to help quell the rebellion. Three of us formed this opinion, and I think it would be very unfortunate if we enabled the Sultan to carry on in a situation in which a political party, the Partai Rikyat, is banned.
We met the leaders of the four new political parties. They were in favour of Malaysia, but we could not accept their judgment as a true guide to the opinions of the people in Brunei. We hope that the Sultan of Brunei will not expect us to go on forever holding up his position as an autocratic ruler. It is encouraging to know that the Sultan is coming to this country, I think very shortly, and I ask the Colonial Secretary to impress on him the need for elections to be held in the territory as soon as possible. I hope to tell the Sultan that, in his own interests, it would be much better to go into Malaysia and accept his position as a constitutional monarch and not stand out for this right of autocracy.
We then went on to Malaya and met the Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet. They gave us their views as to why they thought Malaysia was absolutely necessary. They said that it was necessary for the peace and security of their part of the world. They felt that it would bring independence to a number of countries—North Borneo, Sarawak, Brunei and Singapore—which were at present under Colonial rule. They said that their discussions with people in the territories concerned had shown clearly that they were desirous of federating with Malaya. We also met leaders and representatives of all the Opposition parties. They were opposed to Malaysia, although not altogether in principle, because they thought that the coming together of the territories was logical, and might be essential. But they said that as at present conceived it was neo-Colonialism, and they did not believe that they would get their full freedom from British control and domination.
As was said by one hon. Gentleman opposite, our visit followed that of a member of the United Nations Secretariat, Mr. Narasimhan who went on a fact-finding mission, following which he said that in his opinion the majority of people whom he met favoured Malaysia.
During the debate today some hon. Members have, quite rightly, said that federations do not always succeed, and they quoted the Central African Federation which we have been in the process of dissolving this week. But I ask them to take note of the successful federations. We commence with the United States in 1787, then Canada in 1867, Switzerland in 1874, Australia in 1901, and then of course we have the Federal Republic of Germany, the Federal States of the Soviet Union, and the more recent examples of India, Pakistan and Nigeria As my hon. Friends have said, the Federation of Central Africa was imposed on the majority by a minority group, and it was obvious that it was doomed from the outset. I was pleased to hear the Parliamentary Secretary this morning acknowledging the
