THE SECRET OF CHEQUERS LUNCH
On 28 July 1962, over lunch at Chequers, McMillan and Tunku hammered out a secret deal to establish Malaysia with the transfer of sovereignty of the Borneo territories by 31 August 1963.
Secondly the prime ministers of the UK and Malaya would exchange secret letters agreeing that;
‘If the present government of Singapore fell or appeared to be about to fall, the new Federation of Malaysia should be brought into being as soon as practicable’
On 31 July 1962, three days after the Chequers lunch an agreement in principle for setting up the Federation of Malaysia by 31 August was signed by McMillan and Tunku, with Lee Kuan Yew in attendance.
On 1st August 1962, a joint statement was made by both British and Malayan governments and the Cobbold Report was published.
BUT THE AGREEMENT ITSELF WAS NOT RELEASED, NOR WERE ITS ANNEX AND MOST OF ITS APPENDICES.
The reasons for this secrecy were, firstly the sensitivity of the Chequers formula allowing pre-emptive action, and secondly the likely opposition of the Borneo peoples to the constitutional structure.
All these manoeuvrings and stealth by McMillan and Tunku can but only confirm MALAYSIA WAS TO BE A MALAYAN ‘TAKE-OVER’.
None of these documents can be found in the Malaysian archives.
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Lina Soo is a candidate for State Reform Party (STAR) for P196 Stampin, Sarawak in GE-13
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