Japanese Occupation Of Malaya

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

POLITICAL EFFECTS of JAPANESE OCCUPATION

ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

Resistance Movements

Lawlessness & Violence

POLITICAL

Development of Malay Nationalism

British Prestige Lowered

Resistance Movements

MCP ( Malayan Communist Party )

Jap Occupation - MCP could strengthen & expand it’s organization

MCP estb MPAJA

MPAJA - assisted the British in the war against the Jap’s

Given weapons & ammunition by British

End of war - MPAJA disbanded & weapons were returned to British

In fact - weapons were hidden in jungle & not returned to British

Preparation for communist revolt in the future

MCP became a legal party

MCP leaders hoped to take control of Malaya & set up a communist republic

Development of Malay Nationalism

Japanese had encouraged Malay’s to act in government

Held administrative posts in govt - 1st time ever Malays were given power in country

Made them aware that they were the rightful owners & citizens of Malaya

Malays became eager to protect their rights & govern the country for themselves

Developed strong feelings of nationalism

These were not present pre-war

Wanted to take control of Malaya for themselves

Formation of UMNO

To protest Malayan Union Scheme in 1946

New British Plan for Malaya post war

Evidence of Malay nationalist spirit

British Prestige Lowered

Jap invasion & occupation had lowered the prestige of British

British were seen as invincible before the war

Jap defeat of the British - showed that British were not the strongest power in the world

People felt that the British had failed to protect Malay as they promised

British were not able to prevent the sufferings & hardships of the Jap occupation

People began to question the legitimacy of British rule - WHY should the British control us anymore?

This lead to the growth & development of Nationalism

Lawlessness & Violence

After Jap surrender - absence of law & order

Crime & violence

People took revenge against the Jap’s & their agents

MPAJA -> took control of Malaya

MPAJA : tortured & murdered Chinese suspected of being Jap agents & informers

MCP ( Malayan Communist Party) grew in strength

Took control over towns & villages

BMA - had to use strict measures to restore law & order

MPAJA disbanded - weapons were handed back to the British

SOCIAL

Health Services

in Disorder

1000’s People Dead

Racial Hostilities

Racial Hostilities: Sino-Malay antagonism

Jap’s deliberately / purposely created mistrust between the races

Policy of Divide & Rule

Used anti- Chinese propaganda to prevent the Chinese & Malays from uniting against them

Bad feelings between the races

Racial fights between the races broke out at the end of the war

Because of misery & long period of harsh military rule

Health Services in Disorder

Social & public health services were in chaos - disrupted by war

Looted , burned & destroyed

Schools were restarted & new ones built

More children wanted to attend school after the war

Govt provided more & better education

Hospitals re-equipped & sanitation services

Preventive measures against tropical diseases introduces - prevent outbreak of epidemics

Roads , railways & communications damaged & neglected

Repaired , improved & rebuilt

Food shortage problem

Solved - giving aid to local farmers & encouraging local farmers to grow more food

1000’s People Dead

Occupation caused death , suffering & hardship

1000’s people died in building of the Death Railway

1000’s people killed for helping resistance groups

ECONOMIC

Economic Problems

Economic Problems

Malayan economy disrupted : affected her income

Tim mines , rubber estates & industries closed down

People unemployed & not enough skilled workers: eg. Engineers & technicians

People physically unfit for work

Buildings & properties were damaged - bridges & docks were destroyed

Govt had to work to re-establish tin & rubber industries

had to 1. Provide work for people 2.repair & rebuild city installations

rubber & tin mines gradually re-opened

People slowly had work opportunities

Production of other export crops - palm oil , pineapple , tea , copra

Question 2

Elaborate on the factors favouring the formation of Malaysia and the consequent challenges.

(50 marks)

The Formation of Malaysia

Tunku Abdul Rahman in a speech given before the Society of Foreign Press at a hotel in Singapore on 27 May 1961, suggested a plan to form Malaysia which will consist of the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, Brunei, Sarawak and Sabah. Among other things, it is intended to impede the spread of communism, as well as to balance the ratio of populations, improve the country’s economy, and hasten independence for Singapore, Brunei, Sarawak and Sabah. Singapore received the suggestion well, while Brunei declined the offer. Sarawak and Sabah declined at first but later agreed to join after given the assurance to be able to rule independently.

To give freedom and justice for all sides, on 17 January 1962 a commission was announced to observe the views of the people and was known as the Cobbold Commission. The commission consisted of 5 members, and was chaired by Lord Cobbold and joined by two British Government representatives, Sir Anthony Abell and Sir David Watherston, while the two representatives from the Federal of Malaya were Datuk Wong Pow Nee and Encik Mohamed Ghazali Shafie and Mr. H. Haris acted as the Secretary.

Throughout February-April 1962, the Commission have gathered 4000 people and received 2200 memorandum from various parties which were made of political parties, members of government and guest assembly, religious leaders, workers union and the public for their opinions. On the whole, more than 80 percent of the assembly agreed with the idea and on 21 June 1962, the report was sent to the British government.

A unified decision was reached between the Prime Minister of the Federation of Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman with Harold Macmillian, the Prime Minister of Britain to have a negotiation in London. The negotiation was held for two weeks. On 9 July 1963, an important agreement was signed at the Commonwealth Relation Office at Malborough House, London. The agreement for the formation of Federation of Malaya was signed by representatives of the British government, Federal of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore. The British was represented by Prime Minister, Mr. Harold Macmillian, Mr. Ducan Sandys and Lord Landsdowne.

The Federal of Malaya government was represented by Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak, Encik Tan Siew Sin, Datuk V.T. Sambathan, Datuk Ong Yoke Lin and Dr. Lim Swee Aun. Sabah was represented by Datuk Mustapha bin Datuk Harun, Mr. Donald A. Stephen, Mr. W.K.H. Jones, Encik Khoo Siak Chiew, Mr. W.S. Holley and Encik G.D. Sundang. Representatives from Sarawak were Encik P.E.H. Pike, Temenggung Jugah, Datuk Bandar Abang Haji Mustapha, Encik Ling Beng Siew and Datuk Abang Haji Openg. Whereas Singapore was represented by Encik Lee Kuan Yew and Encik Goh Keng Swee. Both countries agreed to return the sovereignty of Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore to the Malaysian government and Malaysia will be formed on 31 August 1963.

During the discussions of Malaysia’s formation was to become a reality, Philippines and Indonesia gave great oppositions to such an idea. Philippines claimed that Sabah is a part of its territory while Indonesia had plans to include it in the formation of Indonesia Raya, and tried to hinder it through force by proclaiming a confrontation on 20 January 1963 with the ‘Ganyang Malaysia’ slogan. Indonesian army was dispatched to Malaysia’s borders in Sabah, Sarawak and Johor.

This great challenge faced by the citizens of Federal of Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak does not hamper their spirits in seeing a country unified. The plan for the declaration to be made on 31 August 1963 was forced to be postponed. Lawrence Michelmore of the United Nations once again carried out a gathering of opinions from the people of North Borneo and Sarawak. On 14 September 1963, reports were released and confirmed a majority of the people supported to join the Federal of Malaya. Thus, on 16 September 1963, the idea of a unified country became a reality with the birth of nation called Malaysia.

The proclamation was made at Stadium Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. The proclamation of Malaysia’s formation was read in front of the Yang Di Pertuan Agong, the Council of Rulers, and Governors of Penang, Malacca, Singapore and Sabah. Leaders from three new states were also present, En. Lee Kuan Yew, Mr. Donald Stephens and Mr. Stephen Kalong Ningkan. However, Singapore’s ties lasted only for two years before it had to separate in 1965.

Challenges of Independence or Formation of Malaysia

At the time of independence Malaya had great economic advantages. It was among the world’s leading producers of three valuable commodities, rubber, tin and palm oil, and also a significant iron ore producer. These export industries gave the Malayan government a healthy surplus to invest in industrial development and infrastructure projects. Like other developing nations in the 1950s and '60s, Malaya (and later Malaysia) placed great stress on state planning, although UMNO was never a socialist party. The First and Second Malayan Plans (1956–60 and 1961–65 respectively) stimulated economic growth through state investment in industry and repairing infrastructure such as roads and ports, which had been damaged and neglected during the war and the Emergency. The government was keen to reduce Malaya’s dependence on commodity exports, which put the country at the mercy of fluctuating prices. The government was also aware that demand for natural rubber was bound to fall as the production and use of synthetic rubber expanded. Since a third of the Malay workforce worked in the rubber industry it was important to develop alternative sources of employment. Competition for Malaya’s rubber markets meant that the profitability of the rubber industry increasingly depended on keeping wages low, which perpetuated rural Malay poverty.

Foreign objection

Indonesian President Sukarno, backed by the powerful Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), chose to regard Malaysia as a "neocolonialist" plot against his country, and backed a Communist insurgency in Sarawak, mainly involving elements of the local Chinese community. Indonesian irregular forces were infiltrated into Sarawak, where they were contained by Malaysian and Commonwealth of Nations forces. This period of Konfrontasi, an economic, political, and military confrontation lasted until the downfall of Sukarno in 1966. The Philippines objected to the formation of the federation, claiming North Borneo was part of Sulu, and thus the Philippines. In 1966 the new president, Ferdinand Marcos, dropped the claim, although it has since been revived and is still a point of contention marring Philippine-Malaysian relations.

Racial strife

The Depression of the 1930s, followed by the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, had the effect of ending Chinese emigration to Malaya. This stabilized the demographic situation and ended the prospect of the Malays becoming a minority in their own country. At the time of independence in 1957, the Malays were 55% of the population, the Chinese 35% and the Indians 10%. This balance was altered by the inclusion of the majority Chinese Singapore, upsetting many Malays.[14] The federation increased the Chinese proportion to close to 40%. Both UMNO and the MCA were nervous about the possible appeal of Lee's People's Action Party (then seen as a radical socialist party) to voters in Malaya, and tried to organize a party in Singapore to challenge Lee's position there. Lee in turn threatened to run PAP candidates in Malaya at the 1964 federal elections, despite an earlier agreement that he would not do so (see PAP-UMNO Relations). Racial tensions intensified as PAP created an opposition alliance aiming for equality between races.[19] This provoked Tunku Abdul Rahman to demand that Singapore withdraw from Malaysia, which it did in August 1965.[48]

The most vexed issues of independent Malaysia were education and the disparity of economic power among the ethnic communities. The Malays felt unhappy with the wealth of the Chinese community, even after the expulsion of Singapore. Malay political movements emerged based around this.[14] However, since there was no effective opposition party, these issues were contested mainly within the coalition government, which won all but one seat in the first post-independence Malayan Parliament. The two issues were related, since the Chinese advantage in education played a large part in maintaining their control of the economy, which the UMNO leaders were determined to end. The MCA leaders were torn between the need to defend their own community’s interests and the need to maintain good relations with UMNO. This produced a crisis in the MCA in 1959, in which a more assertive leadership under Lim Chong Eu defied UMNO over the education issue, only to be forced to back down when Tunku Abdul Rahman threatened to break up the coalition.

The Education Act of 1961 put UMNO’s victory on the education issue into legislative form. Henceforward Malay and English would be the only teaching languages in secondary schools, and state primary schools would teach in Malay only. Although the Chinese and Indian communities could maintain their own Chinese and Tamil-language primary schools, all their students were required to learn Malay, and to study an agreed "Malayan curriculum." Most importantly, the entry exam to the University of Malaya (which moved from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in 1963) would be conducted in Malay, even though most teaching at the university was in English until the 1970s. This had the effect of excluding many Chinese students. At the same time Malay schools were heavily subsidised, and Malays were given preferential treatment. This obvious defeat for the MCA greatly weakened its support in the Chinese community.

As in education, the UMNO government’s unspoken agenda in the field of economic development was to shift economic power away from the Chinese and towards the Malays. The two Malayan Plans, and the First Malaysian Plan (1966–70), directed resources heavily into developments which would benefit the rural Malay community, such as village schools, rural roads, clinics and irrigation projects. Several agencies were set up to enable Malay smallholders to upgrade their production and increase their incomes. The Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) helped many Malays buy farms or upgrade ones they already owned. The state also provided a range of incentives and low-interest loans to help Malays start businesses, and government tendering systematically favoured Malay companies, leading many Chinese-owned businesses to "Malayanise" their management. All this certainly tended to reduce to gap between Chinese and Malay standards of living, although some argued that this would have happened anyway as Malaysia’s trade and general prosperity increased.

The crisis of 1969

The collaboration of the MCA and the MIC in these policies weakened their hold on the Chinese and Indian electorates. At the same time, the effects of the government’s affirmative action policies of the 1950s and ‘60s had been to create a discontented class of educated but underemployed Malays. This was a dangerous combination, and led to the formation of a new party, the Malaysian People’s Movement (Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia) in 1968. Gerakan was a deliberately non-communal party, bringing in Malay trade unionists and intellectuals as well as Chinese and Indian leaders. At the same time, an Islamist party, the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) and a Chinese socialist party, the Democratic Action Party (DAP), gained increasing support, at the expense of UMNO and the MCA respectively.

At the May 1969 federal elections, the UMNO-MCA-MIC Alliance polled only 48 percent of the vote, although it retained a majority in the legislature. The MCA lost most of the Chinese-majority seats to Gerakan or DAP candidates. The victorious opposition celebrated by holding a motorcade on the main streets of Kuala Lumpur with supporters holding up brooms as a signal of its intention to make sweeping changes. Fear of what the changes might mean for them (as much of the country's businesses were Chinese owned), a Malay backlash resulted, leading rapidly to riots and inter-communal violence in which about 6,000 Chinese homes and businesses were burned and at least 184 people were killed. The government declared a state of emergency, and a National Operations Council, headed by the Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak, took power from the government of Tunku Abdul Rahman, who in September 1970 was forced to retire in favour of Abdul Razak. It consisted of 9 members, mostly Malay, and wielded full political and military power.

Using the Emergency-era Internal Security Act (ISA), the new government suspended Parliament and political parties, imposed press censorship and placed severe restrictions on political activity. The ISA gave the government power to intern any person indefinitely without trial. These powers were widely used to silence the government’s critics, and have never been repealed. The Constitution was changed to make illegal any criticism, even in Parliament, of the Malaysian monarchy, the special position of Malays in the country, or the status of Malay as the national language.

In 1971 Parliament reconvened, and a new government coalition, the National Front (Barisan Nasional), took office. This included UMNO, the MCA, the MIC, the much weakened Gerakan, and regional parties in Sabah and Sarawak. The DAP was left outside as the only significant opposition party. The PAS also joined the Front but was expelled in 1977. Abdul Razak held office until his death in 1976. He was succeeded by Datuk Hussein Onn, the son of UMNO’s founder Onn Jaafar, and then by Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad, who had been Education Minister since 1981, and who held power for 22 years. During these years policies were put in place which led to the rapid transformation of Malaysia’s economy and society, such as the controversial New Economic Policy, which was intended to increase proportionally the share of the economic "pie" of the bumiputras ("indigenous people", which includes the majority Malays, but not always the indigenous population) as compared to other ethnic groups—was launched by Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak. Malaysia has since maintained a delicate ethno-political balance, with a system of government that has attempted to combine overall economic development with political and economic policies that promote equitable participation of all races.