Malaysian Studies

Presentation by

NURUL BADRIAH BINTI

ANWAR ALI

Number 3 :The opposition against the colonist in

Malaysia was of two types , that is ,

opposition with bloodshed and opposition

through peaceful means.

Which type of opposition would you have

supported and why???

What does

Colonization

mean???

to send colonists to or establish a colony in an

area.

to settle in an area as colonists.

to transform a community into a colony.

the act of colonizing; the establishment of

colonies

to take control of an area by any means.

~ I would support the opposition through bloodshed

because everything is fair in war. There is no rules in

war for me. From the history point of view, the struggle

for independence can be divided into two phases that is

a)the struggle with bloodshed and

b)the struggle through negotiation that is through

peaceful way.

~ The first phase of struggle had seen many people

killed. The second phase had witnessed the efforts to

avoid bloodshed in which many associations were

formed and the mass media were utilized to stir the

spirit of nationalism.

Do you still remember how

long does Malaysia had

been colonized by foreign

powers???

Approximately, it is about 446 years. From Portuguese, Dutch,

Japanese, Communistand finally British, there were many

struggles and bloodshed in order to gain independence from the

foreign forces. The European Colonization of Malaysia started in

year 1511, when the Portuguese captured Malacca. The

Portuguese were in turn defeated in 1641 by the Dutch, who

colonized until the advert of British in 1824. During the World

War II, Japanese had colonized Malaysia too in 1941 – 1945.

These left many European and Japanese influences in Malaysia

later on.

Throughout the era of colonization, many efforts were taken in

earnest to free the country from the foreign powers. The local

inhabitants (especially the Malays) constantly opposed the

colonists.

The Bloodshed Struggle

The bloody struggle began since the Portuguese occupied Malacca in 1511 until the beginning of the 20th century.

The people fought the colonists by using arms. It occurred in every state due to the colonists’ action that imposed excessive tax rates, violated Malay customs and religions of the local population, restricted the higher officials’ source of income from taxes and oppressed the people. For an instance, in Pahang, Tok Gajah and Dato’ Bahaman launched a holy war when the British resident introduced the post of tax collector and magistrate. Another example is the struggle of Tok Janggut in Kelantan when the British imposed taxes on the local people.

The Portuguese and Dutch

Colonization

Portuguese colonized Malacca in 1511 under the lead of Alfonso de Albuquerque.

Their objective was to control the maritime trade in the east and to spread Christianity.

However, they could not expand their power due to inconsistency of their trading policy oppression over people and merchants.

The Malays who were mainly Muslims viewed them as enemies of Islam, thus launched series of attacks against them.

Among their traces left in the country are Eurasian community, Catholics teachings, the Romanized writing, language, terminologies (almari, jandela, tuala).

The Portuguese and Dutch

Colonization

The Dutch defeated Portuguese and took

over Malacca in 1641.

Their main objective was to control the tin

ore in Malay Peninsula.

After the Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1824,

Malacca was passed over to British.

No much impact recorded from the

Portuguese and the Dutch colonization on

the country.

The British ColonizationThere is a long story about the British colonization. Let ussummarize their colonization in a chronology:

1786 : Francis Light founded Penang

1819 : Stamford Raffles founded Singapore

1824 : The signing of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty between the British and the Dutch in which Malacca was passed over to the British.

1826 : The combination of Penang, Malacca and Singapore under one administration which was called the Straits Settlements

1841 : James Brooke took over Sarawak

1874 : British interfere the Malay state affairs of Perak after the signing of Pangkor Treaty and also their intervention in Sungai Ujong, Negri Sembilan

1878 : British took over Sabah from the King of Brunei

1888 : British intervened the affairs of Pahang

1896 : British formed the Federated Malay States that put Perak, Selangor,

Negri Sembilan and Pahang under one administration

1909 : Siam (Thailand) handed over Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, and Terengganu

to British under the Bangkok Treaty and put them under one Administration

which was called the Non-Federated Malay States

1914 : British intervention in Johor when Johor accepted a British advisor

1945 : The establishment of the British Military Administration (BMA)

1946 : The establishment of Malayan Union (MU)

1948 : The establishment of the Federation of Malaya to replace the

Malayan Union

1957 : The independence of Malaya

Do you know why the

British could easily

interfere the affairs

of the Malay States

????

Internal weaknesses of the states such as unrest

and civil war.

No unity among the people.

The abandon of economic resources such as tin

ore and agriculture products found in these

states.

The strong competition among western powers for

colonize as much as colonies to meet the quest of

industrial revolution in the West.

The British wanted to secure their trade business

in this region.

Reaction towards the Western

Colonization The local inhabitants did not happy with the

colonization, thus they fought the colonialists.

The Johor Kingdom, for example, launched war

repeatedly against the Portuguese from 1511-1596

to win back Malacca from the Portuguese and the

same resistance also given to the Dutch as well as

the English.

In which the people used arms to free themselves

from the control of colonialists.

Do you know why the

people opposed the

colonialists ???

The factors of their opposition can be

summarized as follow:

Local rulers and leaders lost power and control over their

own country

Exploitation of national resources by the colonists and

their control over the taxation system that had become

the source of income of local leaders

The colonists did not understand the local customs and

customary practices such as slavery and the tradition of

hunting for human heads in Sarawak.

When the colonists tried to eradicate those practices, the

local people opposed them.

The Japanese Colonization

The Japanese occupied Malaya from 15th of

February 1942 to 15th of August 1945

(approximately three and a half years).

The occupied the whole country and Singapore

within 70 days.

One of the interesting war tactics was using

bicycle even in the jungles and villages.

Their main aim was to establish a New Great East

Asia government.

They promised to give independence to certain

South East Asian countries.

Among the impacts of the Japanese

occupation are:

Social impact :-

Their occupation worsened the racial relationship as they against the Chinese and on the side of the Malays.

As a result, the Chinese looked at the Malays as their enemies.

For an example, when the Japanese used the police force (mainly Malays) to fight the MPAJA (mainly Chinese) had caused racial friction and tension between the Chinese and the Malays.

After the defeat of the Japanese in the World War II, MPAJA took over the country for fourteen days and they took revenge on the Malays whom they accused of supporting the Japenese.

Economic impact :-

The country had experienced a very bad economic

recession.

During their invasion, they had destroyed many

economic infrastructures.

Inflation became rampant and it caused hardship

to the live of the people.

Political impact :-

The Japanese administration was a misery and

nightmare to the people.

The misery had raised political awareness among

the Malays.

The Japanese slogan “Asia for Asians” had

attracted the Malays and stirred them to get

independence for their land and to build their

own government.

The Chinese, however, established an association

called Malayan Peoples’ Anti-Japanese Army

(MPAJA) to fight the Japanese.

The Era of Emergency The era is closely related to the development of

communist ideology in the country.

It lasted for 12 years. Through the activities of Malayan Communist Party (MCP) who were mainly Chinese, they tried to instill and spread the communist ideology among the people.

After the World War II ended, some of the MCP guerrillas hid in jungles and formed Malaysian Races Liberation Army (MRLA) or better known as Three Stars (Bintang Tiga).

Their aim was to establish the Communist Republic of Malaya.

The communist ideology was not accepted by the majority of the population.

Do you know why the

people did not accept

the ideology ???

The ideology against the Islamic teachings

because it denied the existence of God.

Many Chinese were more interested in economic

activities and to focus on improving the economy.

They did not want to involve in the guerrilla

activities. To secure the interest of the Chinese in

this country, they established Malayan Chinese

Party (MCA).

The climax of the communist guerillas activities

happened in 1948 after the Calcutta Resolution in

which they launched attacks on rubber estates,

tine mines, police station and general public

especially the Europeans.

Many people were dead. As a result, the British

government came out with some steps to wipe

out the guerilla activities.

The steps can be summarized as follow :-

a) The British government declared state of

emergency and enacted Emergency Law

16 June 1948 : Declaration of emergency in Perak & Johor

17 June 1948 : Declaration of emergency on the whole

peninsula

The enactment of Emergency Law 1948:

- outlawed the MCP

-gave powers to police and soldiers to arrest and detain

communist suspects without court trial

Registration System was introduced in which citizens aged

12 years and above must register and own an identity card

b) The Briggs Plan

Introduced by Sir Harold Briggs

To relocate the squatter areas near to forest to a

new village in order to restrict the Chinese from

supplying food, medicine and information to the

communist guerillas. About 400,000 Chinese were

relocated to 400 new villages.

The plan succeeded in eradicating communist

violence.

c) Use of Military Force

Sir Gerald Templer used army force to fight the

communists

He recruited 67,000 Malay special soldiers and

formed home guards systems with 210,000

strength

He also sought assistance from the

Commonwealths military

More aggressive attacks were launched against

the communists

d) Launch Psychological Warfare

Sir Gerald Templer took the following measures:

i) Made easier for non-Malays to obtain citizenship.

ii) Award pardon to large number of MCP members who surrendered

iii) Reward people who supplied information about communists activities

iv) Distribute pamphlets calling communist guerillas to surrender

v) Introduced “white and black areas”. White areas indicated free communist areas while black areas were the opposite.

vi) Introduce curfews system in the areas where the guerillas were hunted

The warfare succeeded in ending the communist activities and bringing back people to work together.

e) The Baling Negotiation 1955

The MCP lastly decided to negotiate with the

British after series of steps taken by the British to

contain their activities

The negotiation failed as the MCP rejected the

government’s counter offer and refused to lay

down their arms

The era of emergency left many

negative impacts on the country.

Among the impacts are: Huge number of people killed

The infrastructures, properties were destroyed

The economy was cripple

New villages (mainly Chinese) were equipped with

facilities. This had created hatred among the

Malays towards the Chinese. Thus, social gap

widened.

ConclusionThe struggle for independence can be divided into two phases the

struggle with bloodshed and the struggle through negotiation. The first

phase of struggle had seen many people killed. The second phase had

witnessed the efforts to avoid bloodshed in which many associations

were formed and the mass media were utilized to stir the spirit of

nationalism.

The struggle became earnest when the British introduced the Malayan

Union specially the Malays who had shown the strongest opposition due

to the erosion of the Malay rulers’ powers and sovereignty as well as the

Malays’ rights. To make their struggle more effective, many political

parties were formed with various objectives. Some were formed on

ethnicity base and some were cross ethnicity.

Even though the British government had received much opposition,

they were still reluctant to grant independence to the country because

of the problem of unity among the people.

Among those four colonists, it was the British and Japanese who left the greatest impact on the country. The British wisely intervened in the administration of the Malay states and introduced different forms of administration such as Resident System, the Federated Malay States and the Non-Federated Malay States. It was the British who created plural society with different economic, social and political functions.

The Japanese on the other hand, had created tension among the people especially between the Chinese and the Malays. It was the Japanese who driven the Chinese to form communist guerillas. The activities of communists became rampant until the British government had to declare the emergency throughout the country. The era of emergency had witnessed the loss of lives and the destruction of property. However, the emergency was also a blessing because it expedited the process of achieving independence.