Part 2: Merdeka and Independence Carry Different Meaning

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The non-Malays were allowed to have their share of the prosperity of the country as citizens and they continue to do so as provided under the Federal Constitution. Our Federal Constitution provides for both Malays and non-Malays.

2014 MERDEKA had me thinking about what is the true meaning of Merdeka - hence I wrote in my previous post Part 1: Merdeka and Independence Carry Different Meaning. This year I decided to write a month earlier than 31 August simply because I found more facts and answers to this 50 over years struggle of our multicultural society. Many of my friends, particularly non-Malays, expressed concerns over my article that I posted last year. It seems that my views can be taken as racism. I never intended to portray racism. I was sincere to express that the Malays are a majority lot that needs their position to be safeguarded particularly on economy, land, culture and the right to govern matters. The non-Malays were allowed to have their share of the prosperity of the country as citizens and they continue to do so as provided under the Federal Constitution.

Our Federal Constitution provides for both Malays and non-Malays. The right term to use should be Bumiputeras and non-Bumiputeras. The link above should tell you sufficiently how the Malays struggled to protect their very existence on their own land. I had also written way back in 2010 about how Tunku Abdul Rahman had negotiated with Tun Tan Cheng Lock and Tun Sambanthan in arriving at a win-win "Social Contract" that was to be the prelude to what is now a Federal Constitution that looks after both sides. It is worth while reading it, hence, I present to you the link here - NEM Means?

The so called Social Contract is supported by the Federal Constitution of Malaysia. For reference, Article 153 (1) and (2) of the Federal Constitution in which Sub Article 1 "Special Position of the Malays and the Natives of Sabah and Sarawak, collectively known as Bumiputera" and Sub Article 2 "Legitimate Rights of Other Races (that include the right of citizenship)" were cemented in reciprocal basis (i.e. Jus Soli). Jus soli in Latin means the right of the soil that is the right of anyone born in the territory of a state to nationality or citizenship as an unconditional basis for citizenship. Both were not written in isolation to each other.

This has been agreed upon by our founding fathers in furtherance from the terms originated from the 1948 Federal Agreement that predates the Independence Day and even the formation of what it is now known as Malaysia. Can the Bumiputera status be challenged? Well, if you try, it'll probably fall under Sedition Act. Not only that, even the Bumiputera also find it difficult to challenge the legitimate rights of the non-Bumiputeras as it is equally seditious and a act of crime. This is a demonstration of the reflection of the principle where the two Sub Articles do not stand in isolation.

If someone is to legally revoke this, they'll have to get at least two thirds of the Parliamentary majority and with the Royal consent from the Majlis Raja-Raja (Conference of Rulers). This is why the Malays hold dearly their Kings as they are the guardians of the Federal Constitution that stipulates their rights as Bumiputeras. The non-Bumiputeras should, logically, also have the same view about the Kings from the perspective of protecting their rights under Sub Article 2 as mentioned earlier.

I came across a relevant blog post that actually tells the history of the relationship of the Malays and the non-Malays with the land we now call Malaysia (Credit to Blogger, Seademon, in his post on 23 August 2012 entitled “The Road to Merdeka – Being Malaysian (Part One)). It gives us why our Merdeka carries a different meaning to the concept of Independence of the other nations. The article has been summarised and re-edited as follows:

• The Malays have always been the recognised natives of the land. The Malay Peninsula has always been the home of the Malays. The Malays then lived without boundaries, and flowed between islands in the Malay Archipelago, even with the conquest of Malacca by the Portuguese who were there to seek revenge against Muslims in 1511, and the subsequent colonisation of Malacca by the Dutch in 1641, there was no stop to the flow of Malays between one point to the other until the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, a treaty that split the Malay Peninsula with Sumatra and the rest of the Malay Archipelago.

• The British were cunning when it comes to acquiring territories. As in the case of Australia, in order to avoid any problems with the native people, they would declare the land as terra nullius (no-man’s land), and this, to a certain extent was applied to the Malay Peninsula. Although in the Federated Malay States the British were employed by the respective Sultans, it is difficult to ignore the fact that the British were here to reap the benefits of this land without wanting to give much back to the native people, but with a degree of subtlety.

• In order to keep the Malays from creating trouble for the British, land reservations were introduced to transform the native Malay population into permanent agriculture peasants. It worked for the British well in 1900 when they introduced the Punjab Alienation of Land Act to control and supervise Punjabs as agricultural tribes. This was done on the basis of protecting and preserving the native people by secluding them from the immigrants who were invited to explore the country. The Malays were asked to grow food for the immigrants.

• The British brought in lots of immigrants directly for their benefit. Undeniably, they were the workforce badly needed to develop the country. The Indians were British subjects (India was a Colony, while Malaya was not). They were made to work in the estates, and as British subjects, were given basic necessities such as very basic accommodation and Tamil schools. The first Tamil school was opened in Penang in 1816. As the number of estates grew, so did the number of Tamil schools. By 1905, there were 13 government and Christian missionary Tamil schools, the latter were set up as a mean to proselytising Christianity.

• The Chinese were brought in to work the tin mines. Most were in Malaya to make money to be brought back to their families left back in the Mainland. As they had an allegiance to none, enriching themselves in order to achieve a good life once they return to China was a dream of virtually all the Chinese immigrants. Unlike the Malays, they were self-sufficient and very hard-working.

• While the British set up the Pauper Hospital (now the Kuala Lumpur Hospital), the Chinese united and collected amongst them enough to set up the first Chinese hospital, the Tung Shin Hospital, where it still stands now, to treat Chinese miners who refused to seek treatment at the Pauper Hospital when the number of Chinese miners who died at the latter hospital increased drastically. They thought the British were killing them on purpose. As the Chinese came from different parts of China, tribal and gang wars were rampant. The British allowed Opium in in order to control them.

• This was the way the British divided and ruled. Eventually, swayed by the profit they were earning from the Malay States that they forgot their promise to the Sultans which was to protect the interest and welfare of the Malays. The bulk of the Malays lived in rural areas and they had very minimal contact with the other races, the Chinese were basically in towns and tin mines, while the Indians were in rubber plantations. The effect to this was that the Malays remained backwards and were told to stay as peasants or tillers of the soil, the Chinese inherited all the tradings in the Malay States and became the richest residents, and the Indians remained as rubber-tappers without proper infrastructure.

• As a result, the Malays who were given land to cultivate, forced by economic disadvantages, began charging or creating a lien (collateral) over their land to the Chettiars. The Malays, already in a disadvantaged position, cried foul and started the “Malaya for Malays” movement in the late 1800s. EW Birch, the 8th British Resident of Perak, recognised this dire situation and quickly proposed a policy of preserving the Malay land. The only way to him to preserve the Malay race was to “free them from the clutches of those people who now remit to Indian large sums of money, which they bleed from the (Malay) people.” This later became the Malay Reservation Land Act which spirit is preserved in the Malaysian Federal Constitution.

• For the same reason the British ignored Tan Cheng Lock’s cry of “Malaya for the Malayans.” In the 1930s, Chinese and Indian leaders addressing the Straits Settlements Legislative Council, appealed for some measures of self-government, and to be considered as Malayan Chinese and Indians having a stake in their country of birth and adoption. The non-Malay Malayan Democratic Union and the Java-leaning Persatuan Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya supported the formation of the Malayan Union and had sought for immediate citizenship for the immigrants and a rule other than by the Malay Rulers respectively. It was at this juncture that the British had first offered Malaya its independence, but was rejected by UMNO fearing that the Malays, being minority in his own country, lacking education and economic backbone, might not survive against the other races soon after independence. The Singapore Institute of Management Malay Cultural and Muslim Society noted that the Malay man was an immigrant in his own country; confronted in his own world which he had little control.

• When the Communists ousted the Kuomintang from China in 1949, many overseas Chinese including those in Malaya and Singapore, did not know where to return to; while others sought for the unification of the Chinese in Malaya, with Communist China, through armed struggle. The more broadminded Chinese associations united to form the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA), and together with UMNO, set aside their differences to work together in the Kuala Lumpur Municipal Elections in 1952. It was also in 1952 that the British gave Malayans their term: we can only discuss independence if the people of Malaya are united.

• This happened when the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC), that was previously formed to support the fight for the independence of India from the British, joined the Alliance in 1954. The MIC, under Sardhar Budh Singh, was very critical of the Malayan Union. Together under the Alliance, these parties won the first General Elections in 1955, winning all but one seat. This solid mandate by the people of Malaya, comprising of the Malayan Malays, immigrant Chinese and Indians, paved the way for the road to Merdeka.

• The Reid Commission was formed in 1956, its members, Lord William Reid (Britian – Chair), Hakim Abdul Hamid (Pakistan), Sir Ivor Jennings (Britain), Hakim B Malik (India), and Sir William McKell (Australia) were proposed by the Constitutional Conference (comprised of members of Her Majesty’s Government, the four Malay rulers, and representatives of the Malayan government that had won the elections in 1955) and agreed by the Queen of England, and the four Rulers of the Federated Malay States representing the Malay States in Malaya. The Commission’s duty was to draft a proposal of the Constitution of Malaya that would incorporate the concepts of Federalism and Constitutional Monarchy, special position for the Malays, Islam as the religion of the Federation, and Bahasa Melayu as its official language, although the Chinese and Indians had their right to vernacular schools protected.

• The Reid Commission was not, as portrayed by some quarters, a party to the discussions between the British and Malayan governments, and the Malay Rulers. Their duty was to draft and make recommendations to the Constitution of Malaya. These recommendations were accepted or rejected in agreement by the Constitution Conference – namely the British Government, the four Malay Rulers, and the Government of Malaya that had the mandate of 98 percent of the Malayan people.

• The Malayan (subsequently Malaysian) Federal Constitution became the foundation of this nation, agreed upon by our forefathers who were united in their resolve to build a nation where all three races respect the historical background, rights, and nature of the other races, and to live as one in a country they call their own.

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