Category: British Colony

  By CPI We are reproducing excerpts from two recent articles in The Guardian exposing attempts by the departing British government to cover up embarrassing state crimes carried out during the final years of its empire, including in colonial Malaya. The newspaper reports concern the discovery of sequestered records that have put the British colonial… Continue reading British role in the distortion of Malaysian history

This paper is a preliminary report of an ongoing research on the reactions of the Malays in Malaya to the coming of the Cold War to the region, with particular reference to the importance of the year 1948. For the majority of the Malays, the Cold War was most popularly associated with the Emergency, which… Continue reading Samplings of Malay reactions to the Emergency in 1948

  The origins of the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960) have been debated over the years in both the academic world and in the intelligence community. This paper incorporates the contemporaneous views of the Malayan Special Branch that have not been recorded previously. It also examines the role of Lawrence (Lance) Sharkey, the acting Secretary-General of the… Continue reading The case of CPM (1948-1960) – a Special Branch perspective

Yesterday’s introduction to this article by CPI and Richard Mason of UKM’s Institute of Occidental Studies can be read here. This paper brings forward the idea of Malayan Communist Party’s (MCP) plan for the revolt by examining various MCP documents at that time and oral history records of several important senior MCP cadres in order… Continue reading Re-examining the 1948 revolt of the MCP in Malaya

  Introduction by Dr Lim Teck Ghee In an earlier commentary titled Media lynching and academic collaborators, I asked the question: “So what is the verdict of professional historians on the communist insurgency and its contribution to the movement for independence from which a real debate and the historical truth can have its starting point?”… Continue reading Scholars’ views on nationalists and their struggle for Merdeka

The greatest threat to Britain’s continued presence in Malaya was the rising Malay nationalism during the several decades prior to Merdeka. To neutralize this threat, the British rulers chose to appease Malays with pro-Malay policies that protected the community while at the same time discriminating against Chinese and Indians – a strategy known as ‘divide… Continue reading Colonial rule (2): British bias paved the path for racial antagonism

Introduction by CPI “But what began to aggravate and worsen ethnic relations in the early 1930s was a series of ‘pro-Malay’ policies, which the British initiated to help Malays cope with the economic depression and to meet the demands of rising Malay nationalism based on treaty obligations.??? This statement extracted from the article below should… Continue reading Colonial rule (1): British played favourites with the various races

There was the intention both in the Alliance and the Reid Commission that the provision in Article 153 on Malay special position should be transitional – i.e. reviewed 15 years after independence. Drafting the Malayan Constitution: Compromises and Consensus, 1956-57 The sequence of political events leading to independence, according to Donald Horowitz, was a factor… Continue reading Road to Independence (3): Inherent tension in the Constitution

Why did Umno and MCA to work together? Why did Tan Cheng Lock break off with Onn Jaafar? Could the whole political scenario for the country have taken a different direction in the early 1950s? Local elections: The demise of the IMP and the emergence of the Alliance Party, 1952 In late 1951, local elections… Continue reading Road to Independence (2): MCA’s missed opportunity

  Introduction by CPI Dr Lee Kam Hing’s essay is originally titled ‘Forging Inter-ethnic Cooperation: The Political and Constitutional Process towards Independence, 1951-1957’ and published in the book Multiethnic Malaysia — Past Present and Future (2009). CPI with permission from the author is reproducing his essay in three parts for online reading in our website.… Continue reading Road to Independence (1): Birth of Umno and Malayan Union