North Borneo Federation

Federation of North Borneo State Negara Kesatuan Kalimantan Utara
Flag
The territory of the proposed federation.
Status	Proposed federation states
Capital	Brunei Town (de facto)
Recognised regional languages	Malay
Religion	Sunni Islam
Membership	Brunei Sarawak North Borneo
Government	Constitutional monarchy
• Sultan	Omar Ali Saifuddin III
• Prime Minister	A.M. Azahari

The North Borneo Federation, also known as North Kalimantan or Negara Kesatuan Kalimantan Utara in Malay, was a proposed political entity which would have comprised the British Colonies of Sarawak, British North Borneo (now known as the Malaysian state of Sabah) and the protectorate of Brunei.

In 1956, the governments of Sarawak, North Borneo and the State of Brunei announced that they would abandon the Malayan dollar and adopt a common currency of their own, but that never came into being.

The idea of the North Kalimantan was proposed by Brunei's People Party President, A. M. Azahari, who had forged links with Sukarno's nationalist movement, together with Ahmad Zaidi, in Java 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 British North Borneo and Sarawak to form the federation with the Sultan of Brunei as the constitutional monarch.

However, the Brunei People’s Party 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.

The North Borneo (or Kalimantan Utara) proposal was seen as a post-decolonisation 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. Joining to form Malaysia was seen as a new form of colonialism under Malaya.