Recent developments suggest that the country is fragmentising.
Racial issues are taking centre stage, something our founding fathers never wanted to happen. Issues like the teaching of khat, boycotting of non-Muslim products and Dong Zong do not help in creating a united nation.
It has been 62 years since independence but many are still ignorant of the compromise or “historic bargain” among all races that brought our independence. One needs to wind back the clock to understand the present scenario.
Malaysians at large do not seem to understand the position of the Malays in the country. The accusation that Malays were “pendatang” like the Chinese and Indians is simply preposterous.
Before the Chinese and Indians arrived in Malaya in big numbers in the early 20th century, the British had already been dealing with the sovereign Malay rulers. Treaties signed with the rulers recognised local Malays as native inhabitants and guaranteed their protections vis-à-vis the non-Malays.
As pointed by (then prime minister) Tunku Abdul Rahman: “The Malays only chance of keeping their identity in this country alive is to insist on the retention of their inherent rights guaranteed by the Federation of Malaya Agreement, by treaties made between the British government and the rulers.”
Before World War 2, the Indians and Chinese had not even developed permanent interests in the country.
The Indians tended to sympathise with developments in India. The Central Indian Association of Malaya, formed in 1937 purportedly to champion the interests of Indian immigrant communities, was evidently India-oriented.
During WW2, plantation workers volunteered to join (Indian nationalist) Subash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army for Indian independence. As a matter of fact, the Malayan Indian Congress itself was formed to take up Bose’s call to bolster patriotic sentiment among the Indians in Southeast Asia.
As for the Chinese, their struggle during the Emergency led to the formation of the Malayan Chinese Association, which was primarily concerned with the social welfare of the community. However, many today are not aware of the help rendered by the Malay rulers to settle the Chinese in new villages on plots of land reserved for and owned by the Malays. The land eventually became permanent possession of the Chinese, who used it to improve their socio-economic status. Meanwhile, the Malays were suffering in the kampung.
During the 1955 federal election, non-Malay members of the Alliance won largely because of political support from the Malays. Tunku, in his speech on Radio Malaya on April 22, 1956, said: “Seventeen non-Malay candidates were returned by an electorate the vast majority of whom were Malays and without the loss of a single seat.”
It was based on this mutual understanding that the three races cooperated to achieve independence in 1957. There was also a gentleman’s understanding that whatever (rights) enjoyed by the non-Malays under the British would be retained by the newly independent government.
This was clearly stated by Tunku in a speech to the Federal Legislative Council on July 10, 1957: “A formula agreed upon by which it was decided that in considering the rights of the various people, no attempt must be made to reduce such rights which they have enjoyed in the past. As a result you find written in the constitution rights of various peoples they have enjoyed in the past and new rights accorded to new people whom it was the intention to win over into the fold of the Malayan Nation.”
Tunku added: “Under the changes visualised by the new Constitution, the Malays were prepared within reason to share those rights with others who owe loyalty to this country. I must ask non–Malays to be fair and considerate and not to make unreasonable demands, for it is well to remember that no natives of any country in the world have given away so much as the Malays have done. No natives have been friendly to immigrant people as the Malays have been. Nobody need have any fear as to their future wellbeing in independent Malaya.”
Therefore, it is vital for non-Malays to understand the historical position of the Malays and for them to understand that the non-Malays have contributed in equal measure to the building of Malaysia.
As rightly pointed out by then British high commissioner Sir Gerald Templer when he launched the Malaysian Historical Society in 1959: “A nation which does not look with pride upon its past can never look forward with confidence towards its future.”
Associate Professor Dr Sivachandralingam Sundara Raja
Department of History, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur