Patriots and Pretenders. Malayan Peoples' Independence Struggle

178 Pages·2011·5.191 MB·English

by  Kua Kia Soong

PATRIOTS & PRETENDERS
The Malayan Peoples’
Independence Struggle
By Kua Kia Soong
SUARAM
2011
By the Same Author
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(cid:127) Mediawatch: Use & Abuse of the Malaysian Media (editor, Huazi, Kuala
Lumpur 1990, RM20)
(cid:127) Malaysian Cultural Policy and Democracy (editor, Huazi, Kuala Lumpur
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(cid:127) Defining Malaysian Culture (editor, Huazi, Kuala Lumpur 1987, RM20)
(cid:127) Class and Communalism in Malaysia (aka Hua Wu Yin, Zed Press, London
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* Please include RM10 post & package cost
Author Tel: [phone]; Email - [email protected]
Suaram Tel: 603 - 77843525, Email — [email protected]
About the Author
Dr Kua Kia Soong is a director of SUARAM. He was arrested
under the Internal Security Act during “Operation Lalang” in 1987
and detained for 445 days without trial. Upon his release in 1989,
he helped to found SUARAM (Suara Rakyat Malaysia), the leading
human rights organisation in Malaysia.
Together with other civil rights activists, he joined the Opposition
Front in 1990 and was elected Opposition Member of Parliament
for Petaling Jaya from 1990 to 1995. He was prisoner of conscience
for a second time in 1996 when he spent seven days in prison with
other activists for organizing the Second Asia Pacific Conference
on East Timor which was disrupted by a mob from the ruling
coalition.
He was the Principal of the New Era College, a non-profit tertiary-
level institution run by the Chinese education movement (2000-
2008); Director of Huazi Research Centre set up by the Malaysian
Chinese community (1985-90) and Academic Adviser to the
Independent Chinese Secondary Schools (1983-85).
Kua received his BA Econ (1975), MA Econ (1976) and PhD in
Sociology (1981) from Manchester University, UK. He was also
a lecturer in sociology at the National University of Singapore in
1978-79.
Copyright © Kua Kia Soong 2011
ISBN 978-983-4407-9-4
First published: 2011
Published by
SUARAM KOMMUNIKASI
433A, Jalan 5/46
46000 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
Tel: [phone]
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All rights reserved. No part ofthis publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without priorpermission of the publisher.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the British Public Records Office and their
staff at Kew Gardens, London for their impeccable service in
making available these invaluable documents. I am also indebted
to the seminal works of earlier writers who clearly share a common
passion for truth telling and presenting the peoples ’side of history.
Thanks also to Sdr Nasir for writing the foreword to this volume.

Dedicated to
The Patriots
Who gave their lives & freedoms
To the Malayan Independence struggle
“History must not be written with bias,
Both sides should be given,
Even ifthere is only one side... ’’
- John Betjeman

CONTENTS
Foreword by Dr Mohd Nasir Hashim zx
Introduction: A People’s History of Merdeka
Western Imperialism and the Neo-colonial Solution 2
The So-called ‘Social Contract’ 4
Class Forces at Independence 5
Three Transformations of the so-called ‘Social Contract’ 9
Dubious Status of the ‘Quota System’ 12
Dominance of the Umnoputras 14
Chap 1: The Anti-Colonial Movement
Growth of the Radical Labour Movement 1 8
The Radical Malay Intelligentsia 23
The Japanese Occupation: Brutal Communalism 26
The Post-War Workers’ Struggles 32
Chap 2: The Politics of Communalism
The Malayan Union Proposals 42
Federation of Malaya Proposals 49
The Peoples’ Constitutional Proposals 53
Prelude to the Revolt: Reaction 58