'We had to tell our neighbours'

WITHIN this 1972 photograph of a top secret Malaysian mission to China are two Indonesian intelligence officers.

It was November 1972, recalled veteran diplomat Tan Sri Razali Ismail (pic), and Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein had tasked his Special Economic Advisor Raja Tun Mohar Raja Badiozaman to put two questions to Premier Zhou Enlai.

 

“There were certain things that had to be answered before normalising relations with China,” explained the President of the 51st session of the United Nations General Assembly.

“But first, we had to tell our neighbours.”

Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand were all informed of Malaysia’s plans and the two Chinese-speaking Indonesians were included in the delegation, carrying Malaysian passports under different names.

“We wanted Indonesia to understand what we were doing and the answers to our questions would be very important for the Indonesians,” he said.

Moving Malaysia’s foreign policy from the right to the centre was “a huge sea-change,” Razali noted.

“It was a daring thing. China was seen as a huge threat.”

Not long after United States Secretary of State John Foster Dulles’ Yellow Peril doctrine “came this man [Tun Abdul Razak] who wanted to put the equation right and find the right equilibrium. He took the biggest gamble with China.”

The two questions centred on China’s support for the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) and the country’s stand on Chinese in Malaysia.

“Suara Revolusi Malaya was a radio station in China, talking about the downfall of Malaysia and all kinds of dreams,” he pointed out.

“And some Chinese in Malaysia looked at China as the motherland. In that context and with the propaganda about China luring overseas Chinese, how would the Chinese in Malaysia behave and how would the Government of China behave after normalisation of relations with us?”

A sign of those times was the choice of Razali, who was then principal private secretary for Southeast Asia, to be the most senior Wisma Putra official on the trip. He was not covering China, but the relevant officer was a Chinese.

“They decided to send a Malay to accompany Raja Tun Mohar,” he shrugged. “It was a consideration.”

There is no public record of the visit, according to Razali: “We went surreptitiously, masquerading as a Pernas delegation to Canton’s autumn fair.”

The group landed in Hong Kong and waited while tycoon Tan Sri Robert Kuok made the arrangements. Then they attended the fair in Canton for a few days, until word came from Beijing that Zhou was ready to see them.

The Premier made an “indelible impression” on the young diplomat, who was busy taking notes.

“In that head there was a lot of balanced focus,” he remembered. “His face, expression and words were all in symphony. He put us at ease very easily.”

To Raja Tun Mohar’s question about China’s relations with the CPM, Zhou said: “Everything is a factor of history. China has historical affiliations to people and causes close to China.”

This applied to the CPM operating in China, he admitted, but “the obligation of history will decrease as relations expand at the Government and country level. China respects the Government and people of Malaysia and will not do anything that would prove to be a burden to Malaysia.”

And on the question about the Chinese in Malaysia, the Premier replied: “These are your people. The Government of Malaysia has total responsibility to these people, whatever their historical origin.”

Then Zhou asked Raja Tun Mohar about the Five Power Defence Arrangements between Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Malaysia and Singapore, which had begun in 1971.

Raja Tun Mohar looked at Razali, who replied: “This is a factor of history. When there is no need to deal with this kind of situation, this kind of association will slowly become less and less necessary”.

He thinks Zhou accepted that explanation.

After the meeting, the delegation headed to Hong Kong.

“Raja Tun Mohar decided we must write everything down, even if it took two or three days, so that when he arrived he had a ready document,” said Razali, who was tasked with the job.

And being “pro-normalisation” even before the trip, he decided: “I would write in such a way as to get the right answer, with a tilt to make things happen. I ignored the bright lights of Hong Kong!”

It was a good thing he had prepared the report because “the moment we arrived at Subang, there were instructions for Raja Mohar to go straight to see Tun Razak”.

And the combination of Zhou’s answers, Razali’s writing skills and Raja Tun Mohar’s arguments had an immediate impact.

At the next Cabinet meeting, the diplomat said, Tun Razak decided to normalise relations with China.