The Kingdom of Sarawak and Malaysia?

And how will that will gravely affect their popularity? I mean, the locals aren't strangers to Muslim rule under Brunei, and the crown is already under Islamic inheritance laws, which is agnatic. It's a huge trigger for Vyner's wife and queen, who had a vested interest in pushing for absolute primogeniture, and inadvertently driving Sarawak into Direct Rule From London.

It is. Brunei control only effective at coastal regions, especially after the two Iban tribes allied to kicked out a Brunei officer.
 
But there are more Christians than Muslims in Sarawak...

"are" but not "were". at the time Islam was more numerous in Sarawak as the indigenous Dayak community was split between Christianity & animism. Nowadays of course the animism already close to die out & most of the Dayaks already converted to Christianity so there are more Christians now.

As for Indonesia, Sukarno is an ambitious SOB. Just look at what happened in East Timor. His claim there is essentially 'anti-colonialism', which rings very hollow considering he annexed an independent nation shortly after Portugal left.
You confuse Sukarno with Suharto.
 
"are" but not "were". at the time Islam was more numerous in Sarawak as the indigenous Dayak community was split between Christianity & animism. Nowadays of course the animism already close to die out & most of the Dayaks already converted to Christianity so there are more Christians now.
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But the kind of Christianity that practiced by the Iban/Dayaks are/were of syncretic type, right? You know, mixed with native animism, so the latter is just a religious substratum
 
I don't think Singapore would be able to get jack out of the deal, even with the miracle worker that is LEE. Malaya has a better shot, but merging Sabah with Sarawak or Brunei would have been more viable regardless.

As for Indonesia, Sukarno is an ambitious SOB. Just look at what happened in East Timor. His claim there is essentially 'anti-colonialism', which rings very hollow considering he annexed an independent nation shortly after Portugal left. It's the same argument he used IOTL for Konfrontasi against Malaysia. In fact, a fractured Borneo outside Malaya's control would embolden him even more.

As for the Philippines, not too sure. Their claim to Sabah laid with the Sulu sultanate, but the claim can also be a double-edged sword for the Sultanate's pretenders to pry its island territories from Manila's control, maybe even as far as Mindanao is things really go south.
The tunku himself said Sarawak could have survived as a Christian bulwark.
 
But the kind of Christianity that practiced by the Iban/Dayaks are/were of syncretic type, right? You know, mixed with native animism, so the latter is just a religious substratum

Yes and no. As long as it's allowed. Remember, the largest denomination is Roman Catholic, followed by Anglican, Methodist, Borneo Evangelicals and Baptist, on that order. Mormonism is known to compete with the Evangelicals for adherents.
 
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