11-17-2-75

According to the government, some 500 guerillas of the underground Sarawak Communist Organisation have given up the struggle. There is no indication as to how many still remain in the jungle. According to earlier White Papers on the SCO there were only about 500 guerillas. If that were so, then the government would have already wiped out the whole organisation. But there is no suggestion even by the Government that it has done so, which leads one to the conclusion that the figure of 500 in both references were inaccurate. Alternatively the SCO has since the publication of the White Paper, expanded its forces significantly to more than 500 members.

If $90 million are spent in Sarawak one can well imagine the amount spent on the counter-insurgency operations in the Malayan jungles which is a more sustained and developed campaign.