The radical Malay activists
Farish A NoorPublished: Mar 4, 2001 12:05 PM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 6:21 PM
In a country like Malaysia where politicians and political parties suffer from a myriad of hang-ups about the past, it is easy to understand how and why so many political parties claim that they have been part of the national struggle for independence and development all the time.
Just a few months ago we were treated to yet another open discursive conflict between the ruling conservative parties and the Islamic opposition party over the thorny and embarrassing question of which side was the first to launch the campaign for independence.
In the midst of this hullabaloo and furore, one only hopes that the politicians themselves would turn to the history books for a while. There they will come face to face with some painful realities that some of them may find difficult to stomach.
For, like it or not, the fact remains that the political parties and organisations that led the way in the struggle for independence in Malaya happened to come from the (secular) Left. Among the first political parties to be formed in the country (both legally and illegally) were the Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM) and the Malayan Communist Party (MCP).
These parties had their origins in other informal activist groups like the Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) and the various trade unions and workers movements that sprang up during the 1930s.
The arriviste conservative parties that came on the scene later were not only much smaller and loosely organised, many of them were in fact led by the local royalty and aristocratic elite who were themselves very much beholden to the British colonial government.
The fact that many of the local Malay elite were working hand in glove with the British should not come as a surprise to us. It must be remembered that under British rule, the self-serving feudal political culture of the Malay royalty and aristocracy was allowed to develop and prosper in many ways.
In 1915 for instance, the Majlis Ugama Kelantan (Kelantan Board of Religious Affairs) was formed in the Sultanate of Kelantan. It came into being thanks to the initiative of the conservative Kelantanese elite led by the Majlis Ugama's president, Haji Nik Mahmud who wished to gain some control over religious affairs in the state.
But dominated as it was by the Kelantanese elite, the Majlis Ugama Kelantan soon became a tool for aristocratic patronage and dominance. It focused its attention mostly on tax and revenue collection, via zakat contributions.
The Majlis Ugama Kelantan fulfilled some of its traditional duties as patron and benefactor to Muslim concerns (like building mosques, suraus and religious schools), but its real aim was the perpetuation and reproduction of aristocratic power.
It built a school for the (male) children of the Kelantanese elite, based on the model of British colonial schools. This was so that the children of the elite could later proceed to British colonial schools and then enter the British colonial civil service.
The dominance of the Majlis Ugama was resented by ordinary Kelantanese, who began to support the ulama and the radical nationalists instead. Similar attempts at institutional reform in the other Malay kingdoms like Terengganu and Johor only ended up serving the interests of the ruling elite.
In both British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, the conservative Islamists and traditionalist elite proved to be useful to the colonial regimes. It was not only the Malay Sultans and the Indonesian Priyahi nobles who lent their support to the colonial establishment: the Islamists of the conservative-traditionalist camp did so as well.
The Nahdatul ulama of the East Indies, for instance, had gone as far as proclaiming the Dutch colony as part of Dar'ul Islam, on the grounds that the welfare of the Indonesian Muslims was catered for and they were being ministered by (Dutch-approved) ulama and penghulus who enforced the Shariah.
While the traditional Malay ulama of British Malaya never went as far in their support of the British colonial government, they did play an active role in trying to curb the critiques that were increasingly being directed towards the traditional feudal elite by the radical vernacular Malay press.
In both of these colonies, the forces of conservative and traditional Islam provided additional bulwarks for the colonial governments against the growing tide of anti-colonial nationalism that was slowly developing among the radical vernacular intelligentsia. The Malay and Indonesian aristocratic elite's support for the colonial powers were recorded on many an occasion.
In 1939 the various conservative and traditionalist Malay organisations and movements held their first annual nation-wide Congress in Kuala Lumpur. The congress was chaired by the conservative Malay leader Tengku Ismail bin Tengku Muhammad Yasis himself (who was on the editorial board of the Malay newspaper Majlis). At one point Tengku Ismail spoke to the assembled audience thus:
"Pemerintah Inggeris itu adalah seumpama air. Orang-orang tidak mengambil berat akan air kerana dimana-mana ada air, tetapi kalau seorang sampai ke suatu padang pasir, air tidak ada, maka baharulah orang mengerti bagaimana baiknya, pentingnya dan mustahaknya air. Begitulah pemerintah Inggeris itu, andai kata kalau dia pergi dari kita, barulah kita rasa bagaimana baiknya pemerintah Inggeris itu kepada bangsa kita".
Even by the standards set by the other anglophiles and sycophants of the conservative camp, Tengku Ismail's laudatory paean to the virtues of his colonial masters must have staggered some of the members of the audience.
The radical Malay nationalist Ibrahim Yaakob who was also present at the gathering as an observer noted that at least a couple of the leaders of the Malay leftist camp were so staggered by Tengku Ismail's shameless toadying that they were reduced to silence for once.
Like their Indonesian counterparts, the conservative Malay elite made up of aristocrats and members of the royal families such as Tengku Ismail were quite open about their support of the British colonial government at the time.
The Malay organisations that had sprung up between 1938 and 1939 were all led by conservative members of the traditional ruling elite who were themselves wary of the growing influence of communism, socialism and Islamic reformism within their midst.
Worse still was the prospect of being abandoned by the British colonial rulers in the event of war breaking out and Britain being defeated by Japan.
At the 1939 Congress the Persatuan Melayu Selangor (PMS - Selangor Malays Organisation) led by Tengku Ismail made it clear that they were fully behind the imperial government of Britain in the event of war breaking out in the Pacific. When the British colonial government began rounding up radical Malay activists like Ibrahim Yaakob prior to the Japanese invasion of Malaya, hardly a word of protest was uttered by the conservative nationalists.
In fact, they expressed their determination to support the British even stronger: Apart from agreeing to contribute to the "Lady Thomas Patriotic Fund", the PMS also suggested that a "Spitfire fund" be established to help Britain pay for more fighter planes in order to help defend the mother-country of the Commonwealth.
The other conservative Malay organisations agreed with this proposal, but their efforts came to naught as the Japanese blitzkrieg across Southeast Asia came so fast that the only planes that were airborne in time were the Japanese Zeros.
The big break for the Malay conservative elite came in the post-war years when a state of national emergency was declared in the country between 1948 to 1960. It was during this time that the PKMM, the Malayan Communist Party and country's first Islamic party the Hizbul Muslimin were effectively wiped out, thus opening the way for the rise of Umno and the MCA.
Those conservative leaders who rule the roost should always be reminded of the simple fact that their own position and standing in the country today is due to a number of variables that were outside their control.
Had the war ended a different way, or had the radical nationalists been given a chance to defend themselves against the security apparatus of the British colonial government, Malaysia's history might have been more than a bit different than what we know today.
Just a few months ago we were treated to yet another open discursive conflict between the ruling conservative parties and the Islamic opposition party over the thorny and embarrassing question of which side was the first to launch the campaign for independence.
In the midst of this hullabaloo and furore, one only hopes that the politicians themselves would turn to the history books for a while. There they will come face to face with some painful realities that some of them may find difficult to stomach.
For, like it or not, the fact remains that the political parties and organisations that led the way in the struggle for independence in Malaya happened to come from the (secular) Left. Among the first political parties to be formed in the country (both legally and illegally) were the Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM) and the Malayan Communist Party (MCP).
These parties had their origins in other informal activist groups like the Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) and the various trade unions and workers movements that sprang up during the 1930s.
The arriviste conservative parties that came on the scene later were not only much smaller and loosely organised, many of them were in fact led by the local royalty and aristocratic elite who were themselves very much beholden to the British colonial government.
The fact that many of the local Malay elite were working hand in glove with the British should not come as a surprise to us. It must be remembered that under British rule, the self-serving feudal political culture of the Malay royalty and aristocracy was allowed to develop and prosper in many ways.
In 1915 for instance, the Majlis Ugama Kelantan (Kelantan Board of Religious Affairs) was formed in the Sultanate of Kelantan. It came into being thanks to the initiative of the conservative Kelantanese elite led by the Majlis Ugama's president, Haji Nik Mahmud who wished to gain some control over religious affairs in the state.
But dominated as it was by the Kelantanese elite, the Majlis Ugama Kelantan soon became a tool for aristocratic patronage and dominance. It focused its attention mostly on tax and revenue collection, via zakat contributions.
The Majlis Ugama Kelantan fulfilled some of its traditional duties as patron and benefactor to Muslim concerns (like building mosques, suraus and religious schools), but its real aim was the perpetuation and reproduction of aristocratic power.
It built a school for the (male) children of the Kelantanese elite, based on the model of British colonial schools. This was so that the children of the elite could later proceed to British colonial schools and then enter the British colonial civil service.
The dominance of the Majlis Ugama was resented by ordinary Kelantanese, who began to support the ulama and the radical nationalists instead. Similar attempts at institutional reform in the other Malay kingdoms like Terengganu and Johor only ended up serving the interests of the ruling elite.
In both British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, the conservative Islamists and traditionalist elite proved to be useful to the colonial regimes. It was not only the Malay Sultans and the Indonesian Priyahi nobles who lent their support to the colonial establishment: the Islamists of the conservative-traditionalist camp did so as well.
The Nahdatul ulama of the East Indies, for instance, had gone as far as proclaiming the Dutch colony as part of Dar'ul Islam, on the grounds that the welfare of the Indonesian Muslims was catered for and they were being ministered by (Dutch-approved) ulama and penghulus who enforced the Shariah.
While the traditional Malay ulama of British Malaya never went as far in their support of the British colonial government, they did play an active role in trying to curb the critiques that were increasingly being directed towards the traditional feudal elite by the radical vernacular Malay press.
In both of these colonies, the forces of conservative and traditional Islam provided additional bulwarks for the colonial governments against the growing tide of anti-colonial nationalism that was slowly developing among the radical vernacular intelligentsia. The Malay and Indonesian aristocratic elite's support for the colonial powers were recorded on many an occasion.
In 1939 the various conservative and traditionalist Malay organisations and movements held their first annual nation-wide Congress in Kuala Lumpur. The congress was chaired by the conservative Malay leader Tengku Ismail bin Tengku Muhammad Yasis himself (who was on the editorial board of the Malay newspaper Majlis). At one point Tengku Ismail spoke to the assembled audience thus:
"Pemerintah Inggeris itu adalah seumpama air. Orang-orang tidak mengambil berat akan air kerana dimana-mana ada air, tetapi kalau seorang sampai ke suatu padang pasir, air tidak ada, maka baharulah orang mengerti bagaimana baiknya, pentingnya dan mustahaknya air. Begitulah pemerintah Inggeris itu, andai kata kalau dia pergi dari kita, barulah kita rasa bagaimana baiknya pemerintah Inggeris itu kepada bangsa kita".
Even by the standards set by the other anglophiles and sycophants of the conservative camp, Tengku Ismail's laudatory paean to the virtues of his colonial masters must have staggered some of the members of the audience.
The radical Malay nationalist Ibrahim Yaakob who was also present at the gathering as an observer noted that at least a couple of the leaders of the Malay leftist camp were so staggered by Tengku Ismail's shameless toadying that they were reduced to silence for once.
Like their Indonesian counterparts, the conservative Malay elite made up of aristocrats and members of the royal families such as Tengku Ismail were quite open about their support of the British colonial government at the time.
The Malay organisations that had sprung up between 1938 and 1939 were all led by conservative members of the traditional ruling elite who were themselves wary of the growing influence of communism, socialism and Islamic reformism within their midst.
Worse still was the prospect of being abandoned by the British colonial rulers in the event of war breaking out and Britain being defeated by Japan.
At the 1939 Congress the Persatuan Melayu Selangor (PMS - Selangor Malays Organisation) led by Tengku Ismail made it clear that they were fully behind the imperial government of Britain in the event of war breaking out in the Pacific. When the British colonial government began rounding up radical Malay activists like Ibrahim Yaakob prior to the Japanese invasion of Malaya, hardly a word of protest was uttered by the conservative nationalists.
In fact, they expressed their determination to support the British even stronger: Apart from agreeing to contribute to the "Lady Thomas Patriotic Fund", the PMS also suggested that a "Spitfire fund" be established to help Britain pay for more fighter planes in order to help defend the mother-country of the Commonwealth.
The other conservative Malay organisations agreed with this proposal, but their efforts came to naught as the Japanese blitzkrieg across Southeast Asia came so fast that the only planes that were airborne in time were the Japanese Zeros.
The big break for the Malay conservative elite came in the post-war years when a state of national emergency was declared in the country between 1948 to 1960. It was during this time that the PKMM, the Malayan Communist Party and country's first Islamic party the Hizbul Muslimin were effectively wiped out, thus opening the way for the rise of Umno and the MCA.
Those conservative leaders who rule the roost should always be reminded of the simple fact that their own position and standing in the country today is due to a number of variables that were outside their control.
Had the war ended a different way, or had the radical nationalists been given a chance to defend themselves against the security apparatus of the British colonial government, Malaysia's history might have been more than a bit different than what we know today.
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