The beginning of Malaysia
Malaysia was built from the unity of various states in peninsular Malaysia with Borneo states i.e. Sabah and Sarawak. Peninsular Malaysia which was known during pre-independence as Malaya and Persekutuan Tanah Melayu, was originally populated by indigenous people (orang asli) and Malay.
The peninsular Malaysia was governed separately by Malay Sultanate without any evidence of powerful civilisation comparable to China dynasty including our state of Melaka during year 1400-1500. Nevertheless the civilisation of Melaka is relatively advanced as compared to neighbouring states and countries in the region.
The glory of Melaka came to an end with the occupation by Portuguese on 1511. Then slowly western occupations creeping to the whole peninsular and other parts in the region including Indonesia and borneo. This mark the beginning of the dark ages of the Malay Sultanate.
The Tanah Melayu continued to be occupied for more than 400 years later until we achieved our independence from British on 1957. While under occupation, foreign traders and labours came in without any limit. As a result, the race composition of Tanah Melayu (then changed to Malaya) comprises not only of Malay as the dominant race in terms of numbers, but also Chinese, Indian and others. Back then, the British had never tried to assimilate all these races. All these races lived separately as planned by the British; Malays in rural kampongs, Chinese mostly traders and businessmen in the main cities and Indian mostly hard labourers in the estates.
The separation system continued for years before the advent of Japanese invasion in Malaya on December 8, 1941. A horrible nightmare for Malaya but an eye opener for occupied Asians. During the Japanese occupation, British fled the country leaving behind struggling locals including Chinese and Indian defending their rights to live. Realising that the British was never keen to protect the locals, the hidden call for independence was unravelled.
Japan lost the World War 2 to the allied forces in 1945. Then in 1946, Republic of Indonesia gained its independence from the Dutch by force. A sudden sentiment of Asian power began to intensify.
Either an act to weaken the nationalist spirit in Malaya or simply a plain act of stupidity, the British announced the formation of Malayan Union on August 1945. All existing local state governments to be centralised under the British rule which was absolute. For once, Malay Sultans and Malays all over Malaya united to protest the proposal. Then United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) was born, led by Dato’ Onn Jaafar. The unity was a phenomenon but unfortunately, we have never seen the same level of unity among Malays till now.
Due to enormous pressure from the Malays, on February 1948, Malayan Union was abandoned and replaced by the Persekutuan Tanah Melayu (Federation of Malaya). The fighting spirit of all Asian countries at that point of time was at its pinnacle, Mahatma Gandhi, India’s revered statesman was killed, giving the British a significant pressure from International world on their colonialism policy.
A different group of separatist, who is frustrated with the dawn of democracy in Malaya, launched an armed revolt against the government of Persekutuan. The group is called Communist Party of Malaya led by Chin Peng. The act of terrorism continued for almost 12 years even after independence. It was the longest period for Persekutuan to be in the state of Emergency.
Population of Persekutuan around 1949 is about 5 million, Malays filled up half of it and the rest are Chinese, Indian and others. The only workable way for independence of multiracial country was through an alliance of all races. Malayan Indian Congress (MIC) was formed in 1946 and Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) was formed in 1949. UMNO, MIC and MCA created a history of the first grand scale unity of all races in Persekutuan to form Parti Perikatan (Alliance Party). In the first public election of Persekutuan, Parti Perikatan won 51 out of 52 seats. Tuanku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, the President of UMNO who was also head of the Parti Perikatan, became the first Chief of Minister of Malaya. A dim light of independence began to shine.
On January 7, 1956, our founding fathers of Malaysia, went to London for talks on independence. February 21, 1956, Tunku announced, “Bismillahirrahmannirahim (In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful and the Most Compassionate), I hereby proclaim on behalf of all people of Malaya that full independence for the Federation of Malaya within the Commonwealth, in accordance with the agreement reached in London, will take effect by August 31, 1957. InsyaAllah (If Allah permits).”
At the stroke of midnight on December 31, 1957, a great roar of all Malayan people, Malays, Chinese, Indians and others, to tell the world that we are now a nation.
This should complete the first part of my article of Malaysia: Where are we heading to? The reason why I want to bring back to the origins of Malaysia is to remind us of the real objective and purpose of Malaysia, a great nation who struggled for more than 400 years with the British and others and few years after to unite all the different races to give birth to a nation we all share.
This first part is crucial to keep us on track of what Malaysia’s real objective should be. To ignore the history is to deny the core truth of our nation. Our current politicians currently are making more than suicidal actions to be in power without having the real objective of what real leaders should act or behave.
Sadly Malaysia now is in unchartered territory in political turmoil. Too much politics have been played and too much real developments have been ignored. My article will not try to pick any side, it is up to the readers to decide, but I hope all readers should take an objective stand to think really hard of what we really need now in our current conditions. Also to think very deeply, where our beloved country is heading to.
(To be continued)
