We are what we are today because of what happened in the past (part 2)

The British ‘master plan’ was for the Malays to take over the administration of Malaya, for the Chinese to manage the finance and commerce of the country, and for the Indians to do the labour work in the plantations, railway and public works. And, to satisfy this master plan, from the mid-1800s to 1920 (when the policy ended), the Chinese and Indians from Southern China and Southern India/Ceylon respectively were brought into the country by the shiploads.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The fallacy we have been fed all this while is that Umno was created to fight for independence or Merdeka from the British. This, of course, is not true. The majority of the Malays ‘loved’ their British colonial master. This is mainly because the Malays are extremely feudalistic in nature, as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has more than once pointed out (with great regret on top of that), and for a long time Hang Tuah was the hero while Hang Jebat the villain.

For those who do not get the meaning to this, Hang Tuah was one of the five warriors of Melaka -- as legendary as Robin Hood of England -- who obeyed the Sultan even when the Sultan was cruel and unjust while Hang Jebat defied the Sultan and hence was considered a traitor. The only thing is Hang Jebat defied the Sultan because of the cruelty towards Hang Tuah -- just like Robin Hood opposed Prince John because the ‘acting-monarch’ was evil -- but Hang Jebat became the baddie while Hang Tuah is considered the goodie.

Such is the feudalistic mind of the Malay. Hence, when the British implemented the Malayan Union, which would reduce the powers of the Raja-Raja Melayu (Monarchs of the Malays), the elitist and intellectual Malays rose up in protest. This probably startled the British -- who were still recovering from the aftershocks and affects of World War II and just did not need another ‘war’ on their hands -- because never before have the Malays resisted their ‘bosses’.

The Malays were once Hindus (except those in Negeri Sembilan who were Buddhists). However, when their Ruler converted to Islam, the entire population followed suit without question. Considering that Melaka depended on the Arabs and the Muslims from India for trade, it made sense for the Malays to become Muslims, which would improve foreign relations and hence trade as well.

Northern Malaya was ruled by Thailand and the Malays obediently sent the Bunga Emas tribute to Thailand every year. There was no resistance whatsoever. Southern Malaya was part of the Riau Empire and the Malays had no problem with this as well. In short, it was very easy to colonise the Malays. Hence when the Portuguese colonised Melaka followed by the Dutch and then the British, and for a short while the Japanese, the Malays loyally served all colonial masters and became what today we would probably call the running dogs of the colonial masters.

The British knew they could win the loyalty of the Malays just as long as you did not ‘disturb’ their customs, traditions, language, religion (by that time Islam, of course) and the ‘symbol’ of their kedaulatan or sovereignty (the Raja-Raja Melayu). Touch any one of those and the Malays would melenting (leap up like a cat whose tail you stepped on).

The British knew even back in 1900 that they needed to ‘gently’ educate the Malays to become more ‘modern’. Hence, for this purpose, they built schools modelled after the English public schools. And the Malay College Kuala Kangar (MCKK) was one such example. The objective was to ‘modernise’ the Malays while at the same time maintaining and ‘not disturbing’ the Malay customs and traditions plus their religion, Islam.

It is probably cruel for me to say that the British wanted to turn the Malays into ‘brown Englishmen’ who played rugby and cricket and drank tea at four and sipped brandy after dinner. But that is basically what happened, whether by accident or by design. The plan to create these ‘brown Englishmen’ was so that they could groom ‘English-minded’ Malays to take over the country when the British decided to ‘wind down’ or leave Malaya some time in the future.

The British ‘master plan’ was for the Malays to take over the administration of Malaya, for the Chinese to manage the finance and commerce of the country, and for the Indians to do the labour work in the plantations, railway and public works. And, to satisfy this master plan, from the mid-1800s to 1920 (when the policy ended), the Chinese and Indians from Southern China and Southern India/Ceylon respectively were brought into the country by the shiploads.

But the Chinese and Indians had begun coming to Malaya more than 500 years before that. And many, since then (after 20 generations or so), were now more Malayan than Chinese or Indian. In fact, some Chinese, the Straits Chinese -- a.k.a. the Babas and Nyonas -- were more Malay than Chinese and some spoke Malay at home and no longer spoke a word of Chinese.

And many Indians (in particular the Muslims) had since married Malays to the extent that in some places the majority of the ‘Malays’ were of mixed Indian blood (Mamaks) that outnumbered the ‘pure’ Malays’. For all intents and purposes, the definition of ‘pure’ Malay was now very blurred and to find a ‘pure’ Malay was as difficult as finding a ‘pure’ Englishman (something that also no longer exists).

Hence, to look at the Malays, Chinese and Indians in the proper perspective, you need to break them down into sub-groups such as pure Malays, Malays of mixed blood, pre-1800s Indians, pre-1800s Chinese, and post 1850-1900 Malays, Chinese and Indians who migrated to Malaya to participate in the economic boom at that time but still had strong ties with their motherland.

And these are probably whom Umno refers to as pendatang (immigrants). However, pendatang should not refer to just the Chinese and Indians. There are even more Malay pendatang than there are Chinese and Indianpendatang (those Malays who came to Malaya from the 1850s onwards).

Anyway, if you wish to argue this matter further, what is the definition of Malay? To call Malays Malay would be like calling someone a European. There are hundreds of ‘Europeans’. Even the British can be broken down into so many sub-groups. Hence Malay is merely the label you use for a dark- or brown-skin native of South East Asia -- who lives or came from the region South of China, East of India, and North of Australia.

And that is certainly a very large grouping indeed.

Tian Chua, therefore, is NOT a pendatang since his family went to Melaka 500 years ago and long before the mid-1800s, while Dr Mahathir, whose father migrated to Malaya in the early 1900s, can be classified as apendatang. Ironical, is it not? (I am of course using pre-1850 and post-1850 as my ‘yardstick’).

In 1948, after the British abandoned the Malayan Union in favour of the Federation of Malaya or Persekutuan Tanah Melayu, Umno, the organisation created in 1946 to oppose the Malayan Union, began to become more political. Nevertheless, it still remained very pro-British. Umno just wanted to participate in the government. It did not want to take over the country or sought independence from Britain.

In 1954, the first Umno-MCA delegation went to London to discuss this matter. By then Onn Jaafar had already left Umno because Umno refused to open its doors to the non-Malays and in 1951 he formed his Independence of Malaya Party or IMP. However, the IMP did not get much support (it got wiped out in the elections soon to come). The Malays, Chinese and Indians would rather be grouped into race-based parties such as Umno, MCA and MIC.

Tunku Abdul Rahman, the new Umno leader, together with Tun Razak Hussein and Tan Cheng Lok’s nominee, T. H. Tan, arrived in London in May 1954 to engage the British in talks regarding the administration of Malaya. (Tan Cheng Lok did not like to fly so he sent T.H. Tan in his place). The talks, however, failed.

The British did not want to layan (entertain) a loose grouping that did not represent the majority voice. Furthermore, Umno and MCA were not the only two players. On ‘the other side’ were the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM); the Malayan Democratic Union (MDU); the Malay Nationalist Party (PKMM); the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC); the Pan Malayan Federation of Trade Unions; the Clerical Unions of Penang, Malacca, Selangor and Perak; the Selangor Indian Chamber of Commerce; the Selangor Women's Federation; the Malayan New Democratic Youth's League; the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Ex-Comrades Association; the Singapore Chinese Association; the Peasant's Union. etc., which made up the All-Malaya Council of Joint Action (AMCJA) and which had a wider support base than Umno and MCA.

In short, the anti-British and the left wing (Socialists and Communists) group -- that also saw birth around the same time as Umno in 1946 -- was bigger and stronger. For the British to layan Umno and MCA, they must first show strength. So, in 1954, the Alliance Party was formed with MIC now also a member alongside Umno and MCA. And, in the first state elections held that same year, the Alliance swept 226 of the 268 seats and in the Federal Legislative Council election the following year (where 52 of the 100 seats were contested) Alliance swept all but one seat.

This proved that the Alliance was the choice of the people so the British started talking to them regardingMerdeka. It must be noted that the British wanted to grant Merdeka to Malaya as much as the Malayans wantedMerdeka. However, it would be better to hand the government to a pro-British group like the Alliance rather than the Malay Nationalists ('extremists', to the British), Socialists or Communists take power whereby Britain’s 80% economic interest in the country, which contributes to 30% of Britain’s economy, would be at risk of being nationalised.

And one more thing to note is, the Malays in the Alliance (meaning Umno) were mostly ‘brown Englishmen’ who had been groomed since 1900 to one day take over the country’s administration and at the same time protect British interests in Malaya. Hence it was what we would today call a win-win situation.

And that was how the nation-state of Malaya was created in 1957 and why until today we still have the same government in power.

TO BE CONTINUED

Read Part 1