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,[1] 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.

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.

When it was first proposed during the 1960s the Sultan of Brunei favoured joining Malaysia, though, in the end, disagreements concerning the nature of such a federation, and also disputes over oil royalties stopped this from happening.