Malaysian Citizens Request to Join Indonesia, Vow Loyalty and Love for the Homeland

Eighty years ago, Indonesia and Malaysia nearly united in a single nation called Greater Indonesia. However, the plan failed, even though the Red and White flag was once raised by citizens in Malaysia as a show of support.

On 12 August 1945, three PPKI figures—Soekarno, Hatta, and Radjiman Wedyodiningrat—travelled to Dalat, Vietnam, to meet Marshal Terauchi. In that meeting, the Japanese military promised independence for Indonesia on 24 August 1945.

During the return journey, Soekarno’s entourage stopped in Singapore and Taiping to meet Malay nationalist leaders Ibrahim Yaacob and Burhanuddin Al-Helmy. The two were leaders of KMM and KRIS, who were fighting to free Malaya from British rule.

That meeting gave birth to the idea of the State of Greater Indonesia, which included Indonesia, Malaya, Singapore, Brunei, and North Borneo. According to researcher Graham Brown in his 2005 study, this idea arose from the collaboration between local figures and Japan.

On that occasion, Soekarno said: “Let us create one homeland for those of Indonesian blood.”

Ibrahim Yaacob replied: “We Malays will loyally create a homeland by uniting Malaya with independent Indonesia.”

However, the unification plan did not receive full approval. Historian Boon Kheng Cheah wrote in Red Star Over Malaya (1983) that Mohammad Hatta and other figures possibly rejected the idea of unity.

Not long after, Japan surrendered to the Allies on 14 August 1945. This situation prompted the young generation in Jakarta to urge immediate proclamation of independence. After the Rengasdengklok drama, Indonesia finally became independent on 17 August 1945, earlier than the Japanese plan.

Since then, the idea of Greater Indonesia fell through. Ibrahim Yaacob had to change the direction of his struggle, while Malaysia achieved independence 12 years later, on 31 August 1957.