page_title: Landing at Pontian
section_title: Landings
hierarchical_section_title: Landing at Pontian / Landings
context_page_description: The Landing at Pontian was an amphibious landing made by a small body of Indonesian troops in the Pontian District of southwestern Malaysia. The landing took place during the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation, an undeclared war fought between Malaysia and Indonesia during the early 1960s over the creation of a Malaysian Federation encompassing parts of northern Borneo, areas that Indonesia sought to increase her own power in Southeast Asia.
  On 17 August 1964, Indonesian President Sukarno announced a 'Year of Dangerous Living' as a part of his country's Independence Day celebrations. To reinforce his point, Sukarno had ordered that a force of Indonesian troops and exiled Malaysian-Chinese land in mainland Malaysia to kick off a campaign of such invasions to create guerrilla bases in enemy territory and stir up Communist sympathizers. The effort was a failure, as targeted Malaysians proved unreceptive to Indonesian efforts and the invaders were swiftly rounded up by Anglo-Malaysian security forces.
  The landing shocked the British, who had not expected such a strong and prominent step from the Indonesians, but did not incite them to respond to Sukarno's escalation of tensions.
context_section_description: Sukarno planned to begin his 'Year of Dangerous Living' immediately, starting with an amphibious landing that very night (17 August) by Indonesian paratroops and Malaysian-Chinese exiles, who served as guides. Their mission was twofold: the Indonesians were to establish a guerrilla base and begin to recruit and train locals in that style of warfare, whilst the others would commit acts of sabotage and carry out assassinations. The former would establish a foothold for later raids into Malaysian territory as well as attempt to create unrest among the population against the government and the British, and the latter would increase the threat of that Indonesian presence so as to exacerbate internal stresses there. The Indonesians also hoped that the cover of the immense mangrove swamps would conceal the arrival of their intruders.
  The landings were carried out as planned, with the troops being secretly landed in three locations along the Pontian coast during the night of 17 August. From there, however, Indonesian plans went quickly astray. The local populace proved extremely unreceptive to the Indonesian incursion, and before they could begin to set up any sort of toehold and provisional government, Malaysian security forces began to arrive on the scene. A number of units were deployed by the Malaysian government, including a company of the Royal Malay Regiment, a reconnaissance regiment, and a squadron of the Senoi Praaq jungle police, who would prove important in rounding up future landings. Half of the raiders were captured immediately upon landing, and as the Malaysians cordoned off an area with a radius of 200 miles surrounding Pontian, it became simply a mopping-up operation to apprehend the others. The Senoi Praaq would be instrumental in this process, proving adept at catching Indonesian intruders while they broke cover to obtain food from Malaysian villagers, as well as following their tracks through the jungle. The perimeter was quickly shrunk to one of only an 8-mile radius as tighter checkpoints were established and security units swept the area, and Indonesian resistance quickly collapsed. All but four were captured or killed in this effort (the vast majority captured).
caption: The landings took place in the Pontian District, on the west coast of the Malaysian state of Johor, highlighted on the map above.
exif: {}