Oei Tjoe Tat in the Crush Malaysia Operation

August 17, 2026 | 03:20 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The "Crush Malaysia" campaign launched by President Sukarno in 1963 drew State Minister Oei Tjoe Tat into intelligence operations. It was Army Commander Gen. Ahmad Yani who brought Oei into the confrontation between Indonesia and Malaysia.

Yani, who oversaw intelligence operations during the "Crush Malaysia" campaign, enlisted Oei's help in mobilizing ethnic Chinese communities. Yani believed Oei's Chinese Indonesian background would allow him to reach ethnic Chinese communities living around what are now Singapore and Malaysia and rally their support for the Dual Command for the People (Dwikora) operation. In Yani's calculations, there were some 15 million overseas Chinese across Southeast Asia.

Oei had a single task: use his influence to persuade ethnic Chinese communities to oppose the formation of the Federation of Malaysia, which Sukarno denounced as a British puppet state. "Oei was sent to attend a conference intended for overseas Chinese communities," said Stanley Adi Prasetyo, author of Memoar Oei Tjoe Tat: Pembantu Presiden Soekarno (The Memoirs of Oei Tjoe Tat: Assistant to President Sukarno), in Jakarta on July 2, 2026.

Stanley, who had heard Oei recount his involvement in the campaign, said Yani was willing to use his network of contacts to help Oei meet leaders of ethnic Chinese communities around the Riau Islands off Sumatra and Nunukan on the island of Kalimantan, both bordering Malaysian territory.

Read the Complete Story in Tempo English Magazine

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