Sheikh Azahari bin Sheikh Mahmud (3 September 1928 – 20 April 2002), better known as A.M. Azahari, was a Brunei politician. According to historian Hussaymiya, it is not possible to verify the truth about his 'Brunei birth'. Many people claimed he was born in Labuan, but Azahari strongly denied the claims and said he was born in Brunei Town in a house on the site where the Churchill Memorial Museum (currently Royal Regalia Museum) was later built.

Biography

Born of mixed Arab-Malay heritage in

Labuan Labuan (), officially the Federal Territory of Labuan ( ms, Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan), is a Federal Territory of Malaysia. Its territory includes and six smaller islands, off the coast of the state of Sabah in East Malaysia. Labuan's capi ...

, he was educated in

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

and later fought against the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

. There he met

Mohammad Hatta Mohammad Hatta (; 12 August 1902 – 14 March 1980) was an Indonesian statesman and nationalist who served as the country's first vice president. Known as "The Proclamator", he and a number of Indonesians, including the first president of Indon ...

in Java, and was involved in the

Battle of Palembang The Battle of Palembang was a battle of the Pacific theatre of World War II. It occurred near Palembang, on Sumatra, on 13–15 February 1942. The Royal Dutch Shell oil refineries at nearby Plaju (then Pladjoe) were the major objectives for th ...

and

Battle of Surabaya The Battle of Surabaya was fought between regular infantry and militia of the Indonesian nationalist movement and British and British Indian troops as a part of the Indonesian National Revolution against the re-imposition of Dutch colonial r ...

. He was the leader of the Brunei People's Party which sought to reduce the power of Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin III to a constitutional monarch during the Brunei revolt in 1962. Azahari's party won all 16 elected seats in the 33-member legislative council and as a

left-leaning Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

politician, Azahari strongly objected to the idea for Brunei's membership in the Federation of

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, along with

British North Borneo (I persevere and I achieve) , national_anthem = , capital = Kudat (1881–1884); Sandakan (1884–1945); Jesselton (1946) , common_languages = English, Kadazan-Dusun, Bajau, Murut, Sabah Malay, Chinese etc. ...

(which was later renamed to

Sabah Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory ...

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...

and Singapore. The idea of the

North Kalimantan North Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Utara) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. North Kalimantan borders the Malaysian states of Sabah to the north and Sarawak t ...

was originally proposed by Azahari, who had forged links with

Sukarno Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader ...

's nationalist movement, together with

Ahmad Zaidi Adruce Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the v ...

, in

in the 1940s. The idea supported and propagated the unification of all Borneo territories under British rule to form an independent leftist North Kalimantan state. Azahari personally favoured Brunei's independence and merging with

and

to form the federation with the

Sultan of Brunei The sultan of Brunei is the monarchical head of state of Brunei and head of government in his capacity as prime minister of Brunei. Since independence from the British in 1984, only one sultan has reigned, though the royal institution dates ba ...

as the constitutional monarch. However, the

Brunei People’s Party Brunei People's Party (Malay: ''Parti Rakyat Brunei, PRB'') is a banned political party in Brunei. PRB was established as a left leaning party in 1956 and aimed to bring Brunei into full independence from the United Kingdom. The party sought to ...

was in favour of joining Malaysia on the condition it was as the unified three territories of northern Borneo with their own Sultan, and hence was strong enough to resist domination by Malaya, Singapore, Malay administrators or Chinese merchants.Pocock p. 129 The North Kalimantan (or Kalimantan Utara) proposal was seen as a post-

decolonisation Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on independence m ...

alternative by local opposition against the Malaysia plan. Local opposition throughout the Borneo territories was primarily based on economic, political, historical and cultural differences between the Borneo states and Malaya, as well as the refusal to be subjected under peninsular political domination. Prior to the Brunei revolt, which he was involved in planning, Azahari relocated to

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital city, capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is Cities of the Philippines#Independent cities, highly urbanize ...

in order to prevent the risk of being captured by

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with " republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from th ...

forces after the rebellion occurred. However, the rebellion ultimately failed after Commonwealth forces aided the Bruneian government in rapidly suppressing it.

Life in exile and death

After his defeat, Azahari fled to Jakarta where he was granted asylum by President

in 1963 and lived in Bogor, West Java. A. M. Azahari later died in 2002 in Bogor, Indonesia. He was 73. He is survived by a wife and more than 10 children. Azahari was the strong voice against the proposal by then Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra to merge Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei to form Malaysia. Instead, Azahari, who led BPP from the time it was formed in 1956 to when the party was disbanded in 1962, proposed the formation of a unified state consisting of Brunei, Sarawak and North Borneo.

Biography

Life in exile and death

Footnotes

Further reading