Ooi-Malaysia-and-the-Cold-War-Era

Malaysia and the Cold War Era

From the end of the Second World War in 1945 to the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991, there was a great deal of turmoil, tension and violence in
what became Malaysia as a result of the 1963 Federation; upheavals in-
cluded the Malayan Emergency of 1948–1960, the independence of Malaya
in 1957, Konfrontasi with Indonesia of 1963–1966, the Philippines’ claim
to Sabah, the Sarawak Communist Insurgency (1962–1990) and the Second
Malayan Emergency of 1968–1989. This book breaks new ground in arguing
for a longer trajectory of the Cold War, tracing this phenomenon back to
1920s’ colonial Malaya and Sarawak. Many new research findings showing
how Malaysia coped with and overcame the many trials, challenges and dif-
ficulties are presented here, further enriching the historiography.

Ooi Keat Gin was Professor of History and Coordinator of the Asia Pacific
Research Unit (APRU), School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Since October 2019, he is an independent researcher based in George Town,
Penang, Malaysia.

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MODHISTASIA

Malaysia and the Cold War Era

Edited by
Ooi Keat Gin

First published 2020
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Names: Ooi, Keat Gin, 1959– author.
Title: Malaysia and the cold war era / Ooi Keat Gin.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2020. |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2019055754 (print) | LCCN 2019055755 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781138317475 (hardback) | ISBN 9780429455186 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Malaysia—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC DS592.6 .O58 2020 (print) |
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ISBN: 978-1-138-31747-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-45518-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
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Contents

List of illustrations vii
List of contributors viii
Preface
A note about currencies xi
Glossary xix
List of abbreviations xx
Introduction: Abu Talib bin Ahmad: from kampung xxii

boy to professor of history xxvii

OOI KEAT GIN

1 ‘Big’ picture and ‘small’ picture: an introductory essay 1
25
OOI KEAT GIN 96

2 Between left and right: Chinese politics in Malaya/ 120
Malaysia, 1920s–1990s 144

OOI KEAT GIN

3 Kuomintang man behind special force: Wu Tiecheng and
Force 136, 1942–1945

TAN CHEE SENG

4 Anti-Japanese movement to Haadyai Peace Accord: the
mobilization of Malayan women in the Malayan Communist
Party (MCP), 1930s–1989

MAHANI MUSA

5 From Malayan Union to Malayan Emergency: nationalists’
resistance and colonial reaction in post-war Malaya, 1946–1948

AZMI ARIFIN

vi Contents 181
6 Malaysia, the Cold War and beyond 203

OOI KEAT GIN 228
252
7 The Philippines’ claim over Sabah from the Cold War perspective

MAT ZIN MAT KIB

8 The regression of Malaysian socioeconomic policy: rise of state
discrimination in the Cold War era, 1970s–1980s

SI VAC H A N DR A LI NGA M SU N DA R A R A JA

9 Malaysia and the Cold War: the longue durée approach

OOI KEAT GIN

Appendix: constitutional proposals for Malaya, 267
1947. A comparison 269
299
References
Index

Illustrations

Tables
2.1 Population by ethnicity in Sarawak, Brunei and North

Borneo, 1939–1960 26
4.1 Organizational framework of the Malayan Communist

Party (MCP), 10th Regiment 121
8.1 Allocation of public expenditure for selected government

agencies, 1971–1985 (in Malaysian ringgit, RM million) 233
8.2 Employment based on occupation and ethnicity, 1970 (%) 234

Plates
3.1 Resplendent in their revolutionary uniform in 1910, a

youthful Wu Tiecheng (left) stands next to Lin Sen (right) 97
3.2 Wu Tiecheng as Secretary-General of the KMT CEC

broadcasting overseas, 30 May 1941 105
3.3 Wu Tiecheng (right) and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek

(left) during a flag inspection parade, 14 June 1943 106
3.4 Wu Tiecheng (centre of the first row) with a group of

returned overseas Chinese who went back to China for
training on 1 January 1941 107
3.5 Wu Tiecheng (standing on the stage) as President of the
OCA delivering his speech at the OCA Annual General
Meeting, 4 May 1952 112
6.1 A gathering of anti-Malaysia forces 188

Contributors

Azmi Arifin  is a senior lecturer of Malaysian political history, School of
Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). He obtained his BA and
MA from Universiti Sains Malaysia, and PhD in Malaysian historiogra-
phy from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in 2006. Recent
works are Nasionalisme dan Revolusi di Malaysia dan Indonesia: Penga-
matan Sejarah [Nationalism and Revolution in Malaysia and Indonesia:
An Historical Observation] (2006); Sejarah Malaysia: Wacana Kedaula-
tan Bangsa, Kenegaraan dan Kemerdekaan [Malaysian History: Discourse
on Nation, Citizenship and Independence] (2016); and Di Sebalik Tabir
Sejarah Malaysia 1945–1957 [Behind the Scenes of Malaysian History
1945–1957] (2016).

Mahani Musa earned her PhD from Universiti Malaya and is currently pro-
fessor of History in the School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malay-
sia. She specializes in the socio-political history of Malaysia. Author of
the award-winning volume, Malay Secret Society in the Northern Malay
States, 1821–1940s (2007), she has recently published her research find-
ings as ‘Women in the Malayan Communist Party, 1942–1989’ (Journal of
Southeast Asian Studies, 2013) and ‘Malayan Women during the Japanese
Occupation’ (Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Soci-
ety, 2016).

Mat Zin Mat Kib is an associate professor in History at the Faculty of Hu-
manities, Arts and Heritage, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia. He is currently engaged in a diplomatic history of major
powers in nineteenth- and twentieth-century North Borneo (Sabah) and
research into democratic elections. His book-length works include Kris-
tian di Sabah 1881–1994 [Christianity in Sabah 1881–1994] (2003); Persat-
uan Buruh Kereta Api Maut Siam–Burma (2005) with an English version,
Death Railway Siam–Burma Labors’ Association (2010); and Institusi Iba-
dat di Kota Kinabalu (2005), and in English, Religious Institutions in Kota
Kinabalu (2010). His articles have been featured in, among others, Jour-
nal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Asian Profile,

Contributors  ix

MANU (Centre for the Promotion of Knowledge and Language Learn-
ing, Universiti Malaysia Sabah), Jurnal Kemanusiaan (School of Human-
ities, Universiti Sains Malaysia), Jurnal Pengajian Melayu (Malay Studies
Academy, Universiti Malaya), Jurnal Islamiyat (Faculty of Islamic Stud-
ies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia), KANUN (Jurnal Undang-Undang
Malaysia), Historia (Journal of Historical Studies), Tamkang Journal of
International Affairs, and book chapters. He has also written for the na-
tional newspapers, viz. Berita Harian and Dewan Masyarakat. His book-
length work Pluralisme: Etnisiti Sabah dan Sarawak [Pluralism: Ethnicity
Sabah and Sarawak] (Penerbit Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 2016) received
the Malaysian National Book Award for Best Social Science Book 2017.
He serves as Honorary Secretary of the Sabah chapter of the Malaysian
Historical Society.

Ooi Keat Gin, FRHist, is an award-winning author and accomplished his-
torian of Southeast Asia whose recent works include, inter alia, A Story
of George Town, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia c. 1780s to c. 2000s (2019);
Historical Dictionary of Malaysia, 2nd ed. (2018); co-editor with Volker
Grabowsky, Ethnic and Religious Identities and Integration in Southeast
Asia (2017); co-editor with Hoang Anh Tuan, Early Modern Southeast
Asia, 1350–1800 (2016). His trilogy on Borneo – The Japanese Occupa-
tion of Borneo, 1941–1945 (2011); Post-war Borneo, 1945–1950: Nation-
alism, Empire, and State-building (2013); and Borneo in the Cold War,
1950–1990 (2019) – is a breakthrough in scholarship where the entire is-
land is examined, analysed and evaluated as a whole moving away from
the hitherto practice of focusing on specific parts or territories. A Fellow
of the Royal Historical Society (London), he is founder-editor-in-chief
of the Scopus-listed International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (http://
ijaps.usm.my/).

Sivachandralingam Sundara Raja  is an associate professor and formerly
headed the Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,
University of Malaya. His main area of specialization is in the field of
Malaysian economic history and also works on British imperial history
of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Christian missionary
activities in Malaya and Southeast Asia in the nineteenth century, con-
temporary Indians in Malaysia and British policy towards Tamil edu-
cation in colonial Malaya. Significant recent publications include The
Economy of Colonial Malaya: Administrators versus Capitalists (2017);
with Ummadevi Suppiah, The Chettiar Role in Malaysia’s Economic His-
tory (2016); with Ummadevi Suppiah, ‘Chettiar Capital and the Emer-
gence of the Chinese Bourgeois in British Malaya’, Kajian Malaysia, 35,
1 (2017): 1–21; and, ‘Historical Review and the Malaysian Indian’, Con-
temporary Malaysian Indians, edited by Denison Jayasooria and K. S.
Nathan (2016).

x Contributors

Tan Chee Seng is lecturer in history, School of Humanities, Universiti Sains
Malaysia (USM). He obtained his doctorate (2017) in Chinese studies
(Chinese history) from the National University of Singapore; both his
MA (Southeast Asian History) and BA (Hons) were from USM. He spe-
cializes in modern Chinese history with particular interest in Overseas
Chinese history. His works (in Chinese and English) have been featured
in scholarly journals and books, viz. Asia-Pacific Forum, Studies on Re-
publican China, Southeast Asian Affairs, Kemanusiaan: The Asian Journal
of Humanities and Wu Tiecheng and Modern China. He was a Visiting
Student at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica (2010, 2011),
Taipei, Taiwan.

Preface

The very concept of history implies the scholar and the reader. Without
a generation of civilized people to study history, to preserve its records,
to absorb its lessons and relate them to its own problems, history, too,
would lose its meaning.

(George F. Kennan (1904–2005), American diplomat,
historian, and advocate of a policy of containment
of Soviet expansion during the Cold War)

The genesis of this present edited volume, a Festschrift to Abu Talib bin
Ahmad (hereinafter Abu), came about when ‘rumours’ of his intended ‘re-
tirement’ transited into facts. He had, in fact, retired more than a decade
ago and had been serving on a short-term contract basis consequent of the
university’s policy of retaining experienced staff. When it became relatively
apparent in the later part of 2018 that his ‘retirement’ was imminent, an idea
of presenting him with a tribute in the form of a book dedicated to his aca-
demic career became concretized with commitment from several colleagues
and former students. Abstracts were submitted and the task fell to the vol-
ume’s editor to pinpoint a possible theme to string all the contributions into
a plausible cohesive volume.

The Cold War was identified as the overall theme and this twentieth-
century global phenomenon was considered in the context of Malaya/
Malaysia. Furthermore, in adopting the longue durée approach in this study,
not only do we present a paradigm shift in examination, evaluation and
interpretation, but also widen the scope and perspective of the Cold War’s
influences and impacts. Thus, Malaysia and the Cold War Era was born.

During my early years in contact with Abu, he once told me, as I vividly
recalled, ‘I’m a kampung boy’ and that utterance stuck with me over the
decades. Hence, ‘From kampung boy to professor of history’ aptly forms the
opening chapter of this Festschrift.

The volume’s chapter proper opens with a piece that utilized the 1920s as
the point of departure to set the stage and background for the entire tome in
presenting an interplay between events and situations from within Malaya/
Malaysia (‘small’ picture) interacting with global and regional developments
from without (‘big’ picture) (Chapter 1). Commencing from this background

xii Preface

scenario, the subsequent narrative (Chapter 2) continues with a focus on
the dilemma facing the Chinese in the pre-war KMT-leftist rivalry for their
support and, similarly, in the post-war period until the 1990s. Thereafter, is
a piece set against the Pacific War (1941–1945) period of occupied Malaya of
KMT–British special forces relations (Chapter 3), followed by anti-Japanese
movements and the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) specifically high-
lighting the pivotal role played by female members of the latter (Chapter 4).

The turbulent immediate post-war political landscapes that subsequently
led to the declaration of the ‘Emergency’ in the last quarter of the 1940s is
presented in Chapter 5, whereby the doubts and questions surrounding the
onset of the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) is re-evaluated. The ‘twist’
and ‘turns’ of Malaysia’s foreign relations vis-à-vis in the Cold War era and
beyond (Chapter 6) is examined and evaluated, likewise, the unresolved is-
sue of Manila’s ‘Sabah claim’ (Chapter 7). The watershed ‘May 13’ tragedy
that led to Malaysian socioeconomic restructuring is revisited (Chapter 8)
and a final chapter (Chapter 9) ascertains the benefits in utilizing a longue
durée approach in assessing the Cold War era in the context of Malaya/
Malaysia, viewed not only as an immediate post-war development, but also
tracing its influences that could be discerned as early as the 1920s and 1930s.

The book proper begins with an introductory essay (Chapter 1) that sets
the stage, the props and backdrop for the entire volume in presenting an
interplay between local events, developments and situations from within
Malaya/Malaysia, regarded as the ‘small’ picture vis-à-vis global and re-
gional developments from without, the ‘big’ picture. This interrelationship
between the ‘big’ picture on the world’s stage vis-à-vis the ‘small’ picture,
local situations and circumstances, determines the unfolding of events and
developments, that, in turn influenced subsequent progressions. Sketches
of the background scenarios, both from within and from without, allows
the contextualization of each local historical episode that was played out.
It ensures that the details in the respective essays are placed in the relevant
background. The ‘small’ picture opens with a sketch that describes the local
situation in Malaya, Sarawak and North Borneo during the pre-war dec-
ades of the 1920s and 1930s against the unfolding of the ‘big’ picture tapes-
try of global developments and happenings then. This ‘small’–‘big’ picture
scenario background proceeds chronologically until the volume’s conclud-
ing period of the 1990s. Adopting this longer view of the Cold War offers a
deeper understanding of the overall influences and impacts from without on
local, internal developments from within Malaya/Malaysia.

From this background scenario, Chapter 2 focuses on the political vi-
cissitudes of the Chinese in Malaya/Malaysia from the 1920s to the 1990s.
During the early decades of the twentieth century, the majority of immi-
grant Chinese communities in British Malaya and British Borneo continued
to be sojourners with strong and close familial ties with the mainland with
comings and goings that had scant restrictions at both entry and depar-
ture points. Accompanying this free flow of people and goods came also

Preface  xiii

thoughts and ideologies. In 1910 Sun Yat-Sen came to the British Crown
Colony of Penang to garner support and aid for his anti-Qing revolutionary
movement. It was then that his political organization, Tong Meng Hui, was
headquartered in George Town. Although the British colonial government
was not unduly concerned then, it became increasingly apprehensive from
the late 1920s when leftist literature (including Chinese vernacular school
curriculum and textbooks) and activists (schoolteachers from the mainland
were especially influential in and outside the classroom) ever more entered
the Straits Settlements (Penang, Melaka and Singapore) and the western
peninsular Malay states. Communist-style anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist
subversive propaganda coupled with seditious activities aroused the atten-
tion of the British colonial authorities in Malaya and the Brooke adminis-
tration in Sarawak that spurred both governments to implement legislation
on Chinese vernacular schools hitherto unregulated that were nurseries for
nurturing leftist thoughts and recruitment of supporters and sympathizers.
Their partiality towards the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT, Guomindang)
notwithstanding, both the British colonial administration in Malaya and
the Brooke regime in Sarawak were concerned with the KMT-CCP (Chinese
Communist Party) rivalry for support of the overseas Chinese during the
1930s. Such anxieties and anxiousness were justifiable as the Malayan Com-
munist Party (MCP) was constituted in 1930 by Vietnamese Communist
revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh and Chinese Communist propagan-
dist Fu Daqing (alias Fu Dajing). The MCP from the outset had support
from international communism, in particular the CCP. Not surprisingly,
MCP membership was predominantly Chinese, including its leadership.
Although in occupied Malaya (1941–1945), British special forces Force 136
worked hand in hand with the MCP-organized Malayan People’s Anti-
Japanese Army (MPAJA) behind Japanese lines (see Chapter 3), the post-
war scenario saw the British colonial government declaring an ‘Emergency’
(1948–1960) against the MCP. It was during this struggle for winning the
‘hearts and minds’, largely of the Chinese communities in Malaya, that the
British orchestrated the formation in 1949 of the Malayan Chinese Asso-
ciation (MCA), initially a welfare organization that became an alternative
political force to the MCP. Unsurprisingly, MCA’s top echelon featured
some KMT elements. This present essay argues for a longer trajectory, dat-
ing back to the 1920s, of the Cold War phenomenon beyond the conven-
tionally accepted periodization of 1947–1990, impacting on the Malayan/
Malaysian context.

Still on the Chinese political trail, attention is directed to the relations
between the KMT and British special forces during the period of war and
occupation (1941–1945) (Chapter 3). The pivotal role played by Wu Tiecheng
(1888–1953), one of the senior statesmen of the Kuomintang (KMT) and
Republican China, is here examined and evaluated. Wu was a pragmatic
politician, skilful in political networking and eloquence in speech and ne-
gotiations. He served as Secretary-General of the KMT Central Executive

xiv Preface

Committee (CEC) (1941–1948), and in this capacity as ex officio of the Bu-
reau of Investigation and Statistics of the CEC of KMT China or Zhongtong,
the KMT intelligence agency. Force 136, a specialized military unit set up
in 1942, born of collaboration between Britain’s British Special Operations
Executive (SOE) and Nationalist China through Zhongtong. Force 136, with
its Chinese recruits drawn mainly from Singapore–Malaya, infiltrated oc-
cupied Malaya to undertake underground activities behind Japanese enemy
lines. Focus is on Wu and his role in the establishment and development of
Force 136, Wu’s relationship with the British and his connections with Over-
seas Chinese in Singapore–Malaya. Force 136 posed as a counterweight to
the leftist-created Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA). It was
clear that the British colonial administration in Malaya was partial to the
KMT and Chiang’s nationalist government on the mainland long before the
onset of the Cold War (1947–1990).

Turning to the MPAJA and its creator, the Malayan Communist Party
(MCP), Chapter 4 takes up the mobilization and role of women in the war-
time anti-Japanese movement and in the protracted post-war revolutionary
struggle. It examines the role and involvement of women in the planning
of strategies and execution thereafter. Female members were indispensable
and they contributed substantially and significantly to the survival, sustain-
ability and relevancy of the MCP.

In Malaya, the immediate post-war period of the second half of the 1940s
was not only exciting, packed with a rollercoaster of events – Malayan Un-
ion (1946–1948), Federation of Malaya (1948–1957), Malayan Emergency
(1948–1960) – but also controversial, particularly as related to the declara-
tion of ‘Emergency’ by the British colonial administration. But what was
the real reason to provoke such a serious proclamation, the essayist inquires
(Chapter 5)?

Discussions of the anti-colonial resistance and the British reaction and
response between 1946 and 1948, notably from the inception of the Malayan
Union to the onset of the Malayan Emergency, a critical period in Malayan/
Malaysian political developments. The primary aim is to elucidate in detail
the position and actions of Malay nationalists in response to the various
British recolonization policies during the immediate post-war period and
the counter-measures executed by the colonial authorities to eliminate Ma-
lay resistance and overall weakened Malay nationalism. It shall be shown
how the British colonialist manipulated the ideological dichotomy inherent
in the various nationalist movements and accentuated the bipolarity be-
tween Malay/non-Malay, elite/non-elite, right/left, nationalist/communist
groups to create wide chasms and, in the process, weakened their pursuit
for merdeka (independence). Moreover, the British utilized biased histori-
cal interpretations and in conjunction with political propaganda to fabri-
cate a negative image of the various above-mentioned groups, undoubtedly
that global Cold War politics had a hand in British colonial policy and the
subsequent line of action. Communist aggression, in fact, was widely used

Preface  xv

and manipulated, in order to justify the highhandedness of British actions,
including the declaration of a state of Emergency, as a means to pressurize
and eliminate nationalist movements in Malaya.

Next, Chapter 6 examines Malaysia’s foreign relations and national pol-
icy in the context of the Cold War era. Newly independent Malaya had been
battling a communist insurgency (Malayan Emergency) since 1948, some-
thing that saw the arrival of military assistance from Britain and its Com-
monwealth, viz. Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji, in the form of ground
combat troops and equipment. British and Commonwealth military contri-
bution continued post-merdeka (independence). Understandably, the Ma-
layan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman remained partisan and loyal
to Britain and the Western democracies, eschewing communism, from both
Moscow and Beijing. When Tunku proposed ‘Malaysia’ in 1961, for a wider
federation to co-join British Borneo to independent Malaya, it was apparent
that an anti-communist design was in the agenda. Having only a year earlier
(1960) declared an end to the 12-year Malayan Emergency, Tunku was confi-
dent that communism could be ‘contained’ and ‘arrested’. The geopolitical
situation in the region, and Vietnam in particular, was most troubling. Fol-
lowing the French withdrawal from Indochina after Dien Bien Phu (1954),
the US stepped in with increasing commitment to ensure that the commu-
nist North Vietnam did not swallow the non-communist South Vietnam.
Undeniably, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s (t. 1953–1961) ‘falling
domino’ principle was applicable in the idea of ‘Malaysia’ as a bulwark to
the prevailing communist wind. British-trained lawyer Tun Abdul Razak,
Tunku’s successor as the second Prime Minister of Malaysia (t. 1970–1976),
was a pragmatist. Razak subscribed to the concept of non-alignment in the
bipolar Cold War world hence Malaysia’s participation in the Non-Aligned
Movement (NAM) Conference (1970) at Lusaka, Zambia. Within the Asso-
ciation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) where Malaysia was a founder-
member, Razak pushed for the adoption of ZOPFAN (Zone of Peace, Free-
dom and Neutrality) intending the region not to be drawn into the raging
conflict on the Indochina front. Furthermore, in 1974, in an unprecedented
initiative, Razak led a delegation to Beijing to normalize relations with
the People’s Republic of China (PRC) the fact that Kuala Lumpur was
in the midst of suppressing the Second Malayan Emergency (1968–1989)
notwithstanding. In spite of Kuala Lumpur–Beijing diplomatic normaliza-
tion, Malayan Communist Party (MCP)–Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
relations continued unabated with moral and material aid. Third Prime
Minister Tun Hussein Onn (t. 1976–1981) was equally committed to NAM
and ASEAN-ZOPFAN. But Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the fourth premier
(t. 1981–2003) was radical in positioning Malaysia’s foreign relations. He
turned away from the West, initiating a ‘Buy Britain Last’ campaign to lit-
erally ‘Look East’, and to Japan in particular, South Korea and Taiwan,
for trade and markets, technology transfer, work ethics and management
model. Meanwhile, his diatribe against the rich and powerful of the First

xvi Preface

World, targeting the US, UK and Western Europe, earned him respect and
adoration among Third World nations in Africa and Asia. Consequently,
Mahathir energized South–South dialogue and cooperation (Langkawi
Dialogue). Mahathir’s Malaysia emerged as the model of a moderate Is-
lamic country to emulate, actively playing significant roles within the Or-
ganization of Islamic Conference/Cooperation (OIC). While Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi continued to be active within the OIC during his premier-
ship (t. 2003–2009), Najib Razak, son of Razak, as the fifth Prime Minister
(from 2009–present), reaped mileage from the more than three decades of
Malaysia–PRC relations. The chapter’s underlying thesis is in arguing the
triumph of pragmatism over ideological and/or traditional considerations
as the major guiding principle of Malaysia’s positioning vis-à-vis within the
region and on the global arena in the Cold War era as well as in the post-
Cold War scenario.

Malaysia’s birth as a nation-state in September 1963 was not all fanfare
and cheers. There were many challenges besetting the new political entity.
Besides the formidable and aggressive Konfrontasi launched by Sukarno’s In-
donesia, Macapagal’s Philippines opposed the newly created federation on
the basis of a territorial claim over North Borneo, renamed Sabah from 1963.
This territorial claim is intertwined to the fact that the Sulu Sultanate in
1878 ceded the territory to Baron Gustavus von Overbeck, formerly the Aus-
trian Consul (t. 1864–1867), and Alfred Dent (1844–1927), a London-based
British colonial merchant and entrepreneur. This issue of the Philippines’
claim over Sabah since 1963, and how it impacted on Kuala Lumpur–Manila
relations against the background of the regional and international political
arena, forms the main discourse of study in Chapter 7. Specifically, focus is
on the significant role played by the US and Britain during the Cold War,
in particular both their influence on Kuala Lumpur and Manila, respec-
tively. The US, in particular, and Britain, to a lesser extent, were perceived as
powerful nations in the post-war bipolar world. Britain–Malaysia and US–
Philippines relations were determinant influences in political relations be-
tween the two Southeast Asian nations. The support of both the US and Britain
lent to the creation of Malaysia in 1963, and therein, explains the dissimilari-
ties in interrelations between Malaysia–Indonesia and Malaysia–Philippines.

Malaysia of the late 1960s faced one of its most formidable challenges,
even more threatening than that posed by the communist insurgency
(Second Malayan Emergency, 1967–1989), notably the Sino-Malay riots, re-
ferred to as the ‘May 13, 1969’ tragedy. Consequent to this tragedy, the gov-
ernment embarked on the New Economic Policy (NEP) (1970–1990) with its
two-pronged objective of eradicating poverty and restructuring society. But
the NEP was racially divisive. What took shape in Malaysia in the 1970s was
the implementation of a racial ideology in capitalist and social development,
a policy that previously largely characterized the US during the pre-war
period. During the Cold War, there was a sort of ideological revitalization
in the US to remedy its own institutional racism to legitimize its geopolitical

Preface  xvii

ascendancy and prominent role in international capitalism, when the disen-
franchisement of Americans of African heritage was used as propaganda
by Soviets against the Western bloc. By contrast, Malaysia regressed, as
there began to emerge significant government interest and action to articu-
late and implement a preference in national socioeconomic development for
the ethnic Malays, the predominant ethnic and demographic majority of the
country. Chapter 8 considers the ways in which the 13 May tragedy led to
the systematization of Malay preference, or the rise of bumiputeraism in the
1970s and 1980s. It evaluates the regressive aspects of the policy in a mixed
capitalistic economy that Malaysia was keen to adopt during the Cold War
period. Moreover, it assesses the extent to which the poorer non-Malay pop-
ulation, especially the Indians in Malaysia, who held a meagre 1 percent
stake in national wealth, was marginalized under the NEP.

Finally, Chapter 9 utilizes the longue durée approach to assess the Cold
War era in the context of Malaya/Malaysia that was seen not only as a post-
war phenomenon, but also traces of its influences can be discerned as early
as the 1920s and 1930s. Adopting a longue durée approach to the Cold War,
going beyond its conventional confines of 1947–1990, offers a wider and
deeper comprehension of external influences and impacts on local, internal
developments. In taking the viewpoint in the context of Malaya/Malaysia
that the Cold War was not only a post-war spectacle, but also could be ex-
tended back to the 1920s and 1930s as well as beyond the 1990s, presents
a refreshing look on this twentieth-century global phenomenon. Adopting
the longue durée approach indicates a paradigm shift in examination, eval-
uation, and interpretation that also widens the scope and perspective of
the Cold War’s influences and impacts. Malaya/Malaysia as a case study of
stretching the conventional Cold War period, viz. between 1947 and 1990,
on either end of the timeline might set the agenda for other nation-states
and/or regions to follow in their footsteps, thereby further enriching our
understanding of the influence and impact of this global phenomenon.

As with all scholarly endeavours, many parties were involved in realizing
the fruition of this present edited volume that was designed as a Festschrift
to Abu Talib bin Ahmad. All contributors, comprising both colleagues and
former students, deserve an accolade of thanks in their efforts in honouring
a fellow scholar and teacher. The professionalism exhibited by all parties
involved is much appreciated towards easing the load of responsibility of an
editor. As with historical works, source materials are undisputedly essen-
tial and necessitated numerous visits to archives and other repositories (see
Bibliography). Likewise, various libraries with their collections of second-
ary works were also consulted. The helpfulness and cooperation extended
by staff of all these institutions are gratefully acknowledged. In the same
vein, the respective universities and institutions that the contributors are
affiliated also deserve our appreciation in providing the ambience, facilities
and bureaucratic support in this scholarly pursuit, namely in undertaking
research sojourns, time out for writing and other related activities.

xviii Preface

On my part as editor, I wish to express my deep gratitude to Peter Sowden
of Routledge in taking on this title (and the many other previous works as
well as forthcoming undertakings) for his faith and confidence in my stew-
ardship over the past decade. To the anonymous reviewer(s), I am indebted
to the critical criticisms and comments, suggestions and proposals that had
been considered and addressed, understandably aimed in further uplifting
the scholarly quality of the contents.

Ooi Keat Gin
The Pongo

Island Glades
Penang, Malaysia

A note about currencies

Prior to the Pacific War (1941–1945), the Straits dollar (S$) was the predomi-
nant currency in the Straits Settlements, peninsular Malay states, Sarawak,
Brunei and North Borneo. From 1906 the Straits dollar was linked to ster-
ling with the exchange rate of S$1 approximating 2s. 4f. or S$8.57 to £1. Then
in 1939, the Malayan dollar (M$) became the medium of exchange at par
with the Straits dollar. During the occupation, despite the arbitrary issue
of the wartime currency (derogatorily referred as ‘banana money’) by the
Imperial Japanese military administration in Malaya, Sarawak, Brunei and
North Borneo, the Malayan dollar remained invaluable, even command-
ing legal tender status, albeit illegally. In the post-war period, the Malayan
dollar remained tenable until 1953. After that year, the Malaya and Brit-
ish Borneo dollar replaced the Malayan dollar on par. The Malayan dollar
continued in use in the post-independent period – Malaya (1957), Malaysia
(1963), Singapore (1965). Then, from 1967, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei
discarded the common currency arrangement and each respectively issued
its own currency, viz. Malaysian dollar (from 1993, ringgit RM), Singapore
dollar and Brunei dollar.

Glossary

arrack Malay, arak, locally distilled alcohol
Bahasa Malaysia Malay, language of Malaysia, namely Malay
bangsa Melayu Malay, ethnic Malay
bumiputera Malay, lit. ‘son or prince of the soil’, indigenous
chou kou Chinese, lit. ‘filthy dog’
daulat Malay, sovereignty
Dewan Negara Upper House of Parliament, Malaysia
Dewan Rakyat Lower House of Parliament, Malaysia
durhaka Malay, disloyalty, treason
Guo-yu Chinese, vernacular Mandarin
huaqiao Chinese, overseas Chinese; Chinese in the diaspora
huiguan Chinese, clan organization
istana Malay, palace
Kapitan China Chinese, lit. Chinese Captain; communal head
Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia Sultan Malay, in the Name of His High-

ness the Sultan
Kempei Tai Japanese, military police
kopitiam Sino-Malay, (M. kopi) coffee (H. tiam) shop
madrasah Arabic, religious school
merdeka Malay, independence
Min Yuen Chinese, ‘mass organization’
mohor Malay, (royal) seal
negeri Malay, state, country
Nihon-go Japanese, Japanese language
Orang Asli Malay, lit. ‘original peoples’; native, indigenous, aboriginal

peoples
orang kaya baru Malay, new rich, nouveau riche
parang Malay, knife for domestic usage rather than military purposes
rakyat Malay, peoples, masses
ronggeng Javanese, a Javanese dance whereby couples dance to the accom-

paniment music of a rebab or violin, and a gong; while dancing, the
couple exchange poetic verses, often compliments to one another

Glossary  xxi

shu-jin Japanese, lit. ‘life-redeeming money’, ‘blood money’; monetary ‘do-
nation’ to atone for pre-war sins against Imperial Japan

sook ching Chinese, lit. ‘purification’, ‘cleansing’; elimination of anti-
Japanese elements

takhta Malay, throne
towkay Chinese, Hokkien, proprietor of property (shop, mine, plantation,

etc.), generally attributed to a person of substance, economically and
socially
wakil Malay, representative
Yang Dipertua Negeri Malay, Head of State/Province; Governor

Abbreviations

ABL Anti-British League
ADO assistant district officer
AEBUS Anti-Enemy Backing-Up Society
AH Academia Historica (Guoshiguan 国史馆), Taipei,
Taiwan ROC
AIF Australian Imperial Forces
AMCJA All Malaya Council of Joint Action
AMDA Anglo-Malayan Defence Agreement
AMS Askar Melayu Setia (Loyal Malay Soldiers)
ANM Arkib Negara Malaysia (National Archives of Malaysia),
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
API Angkatan Pemuda Insaf (Awakening Youth Force)
ARVN Army of the Republic of Vietnam
ASAS Angkatan Semangat Anaknegeri Sarawak (Fervour of the
Generation of Sarawak Natives)
ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations
AWAS Angkatan Wanita Sedar (Conscious Women’s Front)
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
BCP Burma Communist Party
BMA British Military Administration
BN Barisan Nasional (National Front)
BNB British North Borneo
BNBCC British North Borneo Chartered Company
CCO Clandestine Communist Organization
CCP Chinese Communist Party
CEC KMT Central Executive Committee
CHMS Chung Hwa Middle School, Kuching, Sarawak
CHOGM Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
CIA Central Intelligence Agency, US
CIAM Central Indian Association of Malaya
CO British Colonial Office, London
COMINTERN Communist International or Third International
CPA Communist Party of Australia

CPM Abbreviations  xxiii
CPM–ML
CPM–RF Communist Party of Malaya; see MCP
CPSU Communist Party of Malaya–Marxist-Leninist
CPV Communist Party of Malaya–Revolutionary Faction
CTs Communist Party of the Soviet Union
DO Communist Party of Vietnam
DSG Communist terrorists
district officer
EC Kuomintang Party Archives (Zhongguo Guomindang
EEIC Dangshiguan 中国国民党党史馆), Taipei, Taiwan ROC
EPU European Commission
ESSZONE English East India Company
FAMA Economic Planning Unit
FELCRA Eastern Sabah Security Zone
Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority
FELDA Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation
FIDA Authority
FMS Federal Land Development Authority
GDP Federal Industrial Development Authority
HICOM Federated Malay States
HMSO Gross Domestic Product
ICJ Heavy Industries Corporation
ICP His/Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
IISH International Court of Justice
Indochina Communist Party
IJA International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam,
IJN the Netherlands
INSAN Imperial Japanese Army
ISA Imperial Japanese Navy
ISC Institute of Social Analysis, Kuala Lumpur
ISEAS Internal Security Act
IWM Internal Security Council
KESBAN Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
Imperial War Museum, London
KITLV Program Keselamatan dan Pembangunan (Security and
Development Programme)
KMT Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde
(Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and
LID Caribbean Studies)
LSE Guomindang (Kuomintang) or Nationalist Party of
MARA China
Langkawi International Dialogue
MATA London Stock Exchange
Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Council of Trust for Indigenous
People)
Majlis Agama Tertinggi (Supreme Religious Council)

xxiv Abbreviations

MBPI Malayan Political Bulletin of Political Intelligence
MCA Malayan/Malaysian Chinese Association
MCP Malayan Communist Party; see CPM
MCS Malayan Civil Service
MDU Malayan Democratic Union
MGLU Malayan General Labour Union
MIC Malayan/Malaysian Indian Congress
MIDF Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Berhad
MILF Moro Islamic Liberation Front
M-L MCP ‘Marxist–Leninist’
MNLA Malayan National Liberation Army
MNP Malay Nationalist Party
MPAJA Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army
MPLA Malayan People’s Liberation Army
MRLA Malayan Races Liberation Army
NAM Non-Aligned Movement
NAUK National Archives, Kew
NDP National Development Policy
NECC National Economic Consultative Council
NEP New Economic Policy
NGO non-governmental organization
NKCP North Kalimantan Communist Party
NKPA North Kalimantan People’s Army
NLFCS National Land Finance Cooperative Society
NOC National Operations Council
NTI Nuclear Threat Initiative
NYTC National Youth Training Centre
OCA Overseas Chinese Association
OCAJA Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Army aka KMT
guerrillas
OCAJMF Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Mobilization
Federation
OIC Organization of Islamic Conference/Cooperation
OIR Office of Intelligence Research, Department of State,
Washington DC
PAPERI Parti Persaudaraan Islam (Islamic Brotherhood Party)
PARAKU Pasukan Rakyat Kalimantan Utara (North Kalimantan
People’s Army, NKPA)
PARTINDO Partai Indonesia (Indonesia Party)
PAS Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (Malaysian Islamic Party).
PCC Political Consultative Conference
PERNAS Perbadanan Nasional Berhad (National Corporation)
PETA Pembela Tanah Ayer (Defender of the Homeland)
PGRK Pasukan Gerilya Rakyat Kalimantan Utara (North
Kalimantan People’s Guerrilla Force)

PGRS Abbreviations  xxv

PKI Pasukan Gerilya Rakyat Sarawak (Sarawak People’s
PKMM Guerrilla Force SPGF)
Partai Komunis Indonesia (Indonesian Communist Party)
PKMS Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (Malay Nationalist
Party)
PMCJA Persatuan Kebangsaan Melayu Sarawak (Sarawak Malay
PMFTU National Union)
PMJ Pan Malayan Council of Joint Action
PNB Pan-Malayan Federation of Trade Unions
Persatuan Melayu Johor (Johor Malay Association)
PRB Permodalan Nasional Berhad (National Equity
PRC Corporation)
PUTERA Partai Rakyat Brunei (Brunei People’s Party)
RASCOM People’s Republic of China
RF Pusat Tenaga Rakyat (Centre of People Power)
RHL Rajang Area Security Command
MCP Revolutionary Faction
RIDA Bodleian Library of Commonwealth & African Studies
RISDA at Rhodes House, Oxford
SACSEA Rural Industrial Development Authority
SBCA Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority
SCO Supreme Allied Commander South-East Asia
SEANWFZ Straits Chinese British Association
SEATO Sarawak Communist Organization
SEDC Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone
SFTU Southeast Asian Treaty Organization
SIRD State Economic Development Corporation
Singapore Federation of Trade Unions
SMGs Strategic Information and Research Development
SMP Centre, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
SMSA sub-machine guns
Second Malaya Plan, 1961–1965
SOE Sarawak Museum and State Archives, Kuching,
SPGF Sarawak, Malaysia
SS British Special Operations Executive
STC Sarawak People’s Guerrilla Force
STS Straits Settlements
SUARAM Singapore Town Committee
SUPP 101 Special Training School
TNI Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Voice of the People of Malaysia)
Sarawak United People’s Party
TNKU Tentera Nasional Indonesia (National Armed Forces of
Indonesia)
Tentera Negara Kalimantan Utara (Army of the State of
North Kalimantan)

xxvi Abbreviations

TPNM Tentera Pembebas Nasional Malaya (Malayan National
Liberation Army, MNLA)
US United States of America
UDA Urban Development Authority
UK United Kingdom
UMNO United Malays National Organization
UMS Un-Federated Malay States
UNPROFOR United Nations Protection Force
WO British War Office, London
ZOPFAN Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality

Introduction

Abu Talib bin Ahmad: from
kampung boy to professor of history

Ooi Keat Gin

On 31 December 2019, Abu Talib bin Ahmad served his last day as Professor
of History in the School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia, an end
to a formal career as an academic of over four decades. It is a memorable
milestone for a schoolteacher of Bahasa Melayu (Malay language), who had
decided back in 1976, that academia – of lectures and tutorials, research,
writing, postgraduate supervision, penning journal articles, reviewing pa-
pers, authoring books – was to be his calling. Bidding farewell to a school
in the salubrious Cameron Highlands amid tea plantations and strawberry
farms, he returned to his alma mater Universiti Malaya to undertake a tu-
torship at the Department of History where he had graduated with a BA in
history barely more than a year earlier.

Fate was undoubtedly kind in the form of the Mombusho Scholarship
awarded by the government of Japan. Hence, 24-year-old Abu, a kam-
pung (village) boy, embarked on a scholarly adventure to the University
of Tsukuba, reputedly one of the oldest public universities that has one of
the most comprehensive research programmes in the country. He spent the
greater part of his research and study on the university’s main campus lo-
cated in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, some 61 kilometres southwest of To-
kyo. Japanese language training was obtained from Osaka University of
Foreign Studies, Osaka (1976), and thereafter, while at Tsukuba University
(1976–1977). His MA dissertation, ‘Japan’s post war economic relations with
Burma, the Philippines, South Vietnam and Indonesia’, was under the tute-
lage of Professor Watanabe Toshio.

Armed with a MA in international relations (1979), his next scholarly
quest took him to Melbourne, Australia. At Melbourne’s Monash Univer-
sity, he undertook his doctoral work under the guidance of then Professor
David P. Chandler (presently Emeritus Professor). Meanwhile, he had pri-
vate tuition in Burmese language in Melbourne (1980–1981) as his doctoral
study necessitated some basic proficiency. After having attained his PhD
in history (Southeast Asia) with a thesis titled, ‘Collaboration, 1941–45: An
aspect of the Japanese Occupation of Burma’ in 1984, he returned home.

xxviii Introduction

Abu Talib bin Ahmad joined the School of Humanities, Universiti Sains
Malaysia as lecturer in the History Section and the commencement of his
life in academia. His field of study included, inter alia, modern Burmese
history, Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia, Japanese history (c. 1600s
to c. 1970s) and Japan–Southeast Asia relations. Undergraduate courses
that he conducted include the modern history of mainland Southeast Asia,
history of East Asia focusing on Japan, themes related to the Japanese
occupation of Southeast Asia. He shared with colleagues, postgraduate
courses in the MA (history of Southeast Asia) mixed-mode programme,
namely ‘20th-century history of Southeast Asia’, and ‘Asian history: intel-
lectuals and change’. He supervised full-research MA and PhD candidates
as well as students of the MA mixed-mode programme and undergraduate
academic exercise.

Career development in the School of Humanities moved steadily from
lecturer (1984) to associate professor (1991) to professor (2003). Likewise,
administrative duties also in the School of Humanities progressed as
chairperson of the History Department (1984–1986, 1993–1995), deputy
dean (1986–1989, 2003–2007) and dean (2007–2012). At the university level,
he was a member of the Senate (2013–2019), promotions board committee
(arts cluster) and Senate representative in the committee for the selection,
confirmation, promotion and extension of services of the Registrar, Bur-
sar, Chief Librarian, Senior Positions, Senior Professors and Professors
(2013–2017).

Introduction  xxix

Universiti Sains Malaysia honoured him with the USM Excellent Service
Award (1999, 2001 and 2005). His home state of Pahang in 2007 bestowed on
him the royal award of Darjah Indera Mahkota Pahang (DIMP) that carries
the title Dato.

Besides appointment as associate editor of the Journal of the Malaysian
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IMBRAS) (since 2015), he serves as
honorary member of the advisory board of the Journal of Southeast
Asian Studies (JSEAS) (National University of Singapore and Cambridge
University Press), Kemanusiaan (School of Humanities, Universiti Sains
Malaysia), and Kajian Malaysia (Journal of Malaysian Studies) (Universiti
Sains Malaysia). He once served on the editorial board of MANU: Jurnal
Pusat Penataran Ilmu dan Bahasa (Universiti Malaysia Sabah) as well as of
Jurnal Sejarah (Universiti Malaya).

Born on 7 July 1952 in Kampung Teroh, Karak, Bentong, Pahang, Abu
is the son of Ahmad bin Abdul Rahman and Lipah binti Imam Don. He
is married to Professor Datin Dr Mahani Musa and they are blessed with
three daughters. Strumming the guitar on weekend afternoons is one of his
favourite pastimes.

Published works

Books

Sejarah Tanah Besar Asia Tenggara [History of Mainland Southeast Asia]. Kuala
Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia. Singapore: National University of Sin-
gapore (NUS) Press, 2015; reprint 2017.

ed. Perniagaan Haji di Pulau Pinang dan Dokumentasi Sultan Kedah [The Haj
Business in Penang and Documentation of the Sultan of Kedah] Monograph
no.  48. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
(MBRAS), 2015.

ed. Utara Semenanjung Malaysia: Esei-Esei Warisan [Northern Peninsular Malay-
sia: Essays on Heritage]. Pulau Pinang: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2012.

(with Muhammad Haji Salleh, and Md Salleh Yaapar) Sebutir Mutiara Di Taman
[A Pearl in the Garden]. Pulau Pinang: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2010.

Pendudukan Jepun (1941–45) dan Asia Tenggara [The Japanese Occupation
(1941–45) and Southeast Asia]. Pulau Pinang: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia,
2007. (Inaugural Lecture)

(with Richard Mason) (ed.) Reflections of Southeast Asian History since 1945.
Penang: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2006.

Tamadun Jepun [Japanese Civilization]. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pus-
taka, 2005.

Malay-Muslims, Islam and The Rising Sun: 1942–45. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (MBRAS), 2003.

xxx Introduction

(with Tan Liok Ee) (ed.) New Terrains in Southeast Asian History. Athens, OH: Ohio
University Press, 2003.

Sejarah Myanmar [History of Myanmar]. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pus-
taka, 2000.

Sejarah Tanah Besar Asia Tenggara [History of Mainland Southeast Asia]. Kuala
Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1991.

(with Cheah Boon Kheng) (ed.) Isu-isu Pensejarahan (Esei Penghargaan kepada Dr
R. Suntharalingam) [Issues in Historiography (Essays in Appreciation to Dr R.
Suntharalingam)]. Pulau Pinang: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 1995.

(with Cheah Boon Kheng) (ed.) Kolonialisme di Malaysia dan Negara-negara Lain
[Colonialism in Malaysia and other Countries]. Petaling Jaya: Fajar Bakti, 1990.

(with Paul H. Kratoska) (ed.) Pendudukan Jepun di Tanah Melayu, 1942–1945
(Kumpulan Esei Sejarah Malaysia oleh Pelajar-pelajar USM) [The Japanese Oc-
cupation in Malaya, 1942–1945 (Essays on Malaysian history by USM students)].
Pulau Pinang: Pusat Pengajian Ilmu Kemanusiaan, [Occasional Papers] No. 4,
1989.

Book chapters / articles / encyclopaedia entries

‘Northern Malayan States’ Museums and the Historical Reconstruction of the
Japanese Occupation of Malaya’. pp. 111–133. In Reconstructing Historical Memo-
ries, edited by Richard Mason, and Esmaeil Zeiny. Bangi: Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia Press, 2018.

‘Muhammad Haji Salleh yang saya kenali [Muhammad Haji Salleh whom I am ac-
quainted with]’, pp. 35–38. In Muhammad Haji Salleh di Mata Kami [Muhammad
Haji Salleh from our Viewpoint], compiled by Rahimidin Zahari, and Ridzuan
Harun. Kuala Lumpur, Institut Terjemahan dan Buku Malaysia Bhd, 2018.

‘Pahang State History: A Review of the Published Literature and Existing Gaps’.
Kemanusiaan: The Asian Journal of the Humanities, 23, 1 (2016): 35–64.

‘Sejarah, Muzium Kebangsaan dan Muzium Tempatan [History, National and Lo-
cal Museums]’, pp. 1–29. In Sejarah Malaysia: Wacana Kedaulatan Bangsa, Kene-
garaan dan Kemerdekaan [History of Malaysia: Discourse of National Sovereignty,
Citizenship and Independence], edited by Abdul Rahman Haji Ismail, and Azmi
Arifin. Pulau Pinang: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2016.

Abu Talib Ahmad. ‘The Place of Malays in a New World Order’’ pp. 257–258. In
End of Empire: 100 Days in 1945 that Changed Asia and the World, edited David
P. Chandler, Robert Cribb, and Li Narangoa. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of
Asian Studies (NIAS) Press, 2016.

‘Penang Museums, Culture and History’, Kajian Malaysia Special Issue: Historical
and Cultural Heritage of the Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia, 33 Supp. 2
(2015): 153–175.

‘Muzium, Pemeliharaan dan Pemuliharaan Warisan Budaya [Museum, Preserva-
tion and Conservation of Cultural Heritage]’, pp. 207–224. In Utara Semenanjung
Malaysia: Esei-Esei Warisan [Northern Peninsular Malaysia: Essays on Heritage].
Pulau Pinang: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2012.

‘The Tun Abdul Razak Memorial and the Promotion of a National Memory in Ma-
laysia’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JMBRAS),
84, 2 (Dec 2011): 1–33.

Introduction  xxxi

‘Museums Preservations and Conservation of Cultural heritage in the Northern
Region of Peninsula Malaysia’, SARI: International Journal of the Malay World
and Civilization, 28, 2 (Dec 2010): 1–33.

‘Pengasasan USM (1969–1982): 13 Tahun Pertama [Establishment of USM
(1969–1982): The First 13 Years ]’, pp. 1–87. In Sebutir Mutiara di Taman [A Pearl
in the Garden] edited by Muhammad Haji Salleh, Abu Talib Ahmad, and Md.
Salleh Yaapar. Penang: Universiti Sains Malaysia Press, 2010.

‘Kehidupan di Kampus Minden (1969–1980-an): Dunia Pelajar dan Kakitangan
[Life on Minden Campus (1969–1980-an): The World of Students and Staff  ]’,
pp.  89–151. In Sebutir Mutiara di Taman [A Pearl in the Garden] edited by
Muhammad Haji Salleh, Abu Talib Ahmad, and Md. Salleh Yaapar. Penang:
Universiti Sains Malaysia Press, 2010.

‘Aliran Kiri dalam Nasionalisme Melayu, 1945–57 [The Left-Wing in Malay Na-
tionalism, 1945–57]’, Malaysia dari Segi Sejarah, Journal of the Malaysian His-
torical Society, 36 (2008): pp. 24–51.

‘Rohingya dan Konflik Etnik di Arakan (Rakhine) [Rohingya dan Ethnic Conflict
in Arakan (Rakhine)]’, pp. 100–126. In Konflik Dunia Abad ke-20 [World Conflicts
of the 20th Century], edited by Abdullah Zakaria Ghazali, and Zulkarnain Has-
san. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pusataka (DBP), 2008.

‘State Museums and their Representations of the Past in Malaysia’, Journal of the
Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JMBRAS), 81, 2 (Dec 2008): 45–70.

‘Re-reading Adat Laws and Legal Texts as Sources of Malay Social Stability’,
pp. 61–96. In New Perspectives and Directions in Malaysian Historical Research,
edited by Cheah Boon Kheng. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society (MBRAS), 2007.

‘Adat (Customary) Laws and Social Stability in the Malay World’, pp. 1–34. In Legal
Traditions of Southeast Asia, edited by SEAMEO Regional Centre for History
and Traditions, Yangon, 2007.

‘Scribes and Historians: Museum Histories and State Histories’, pp. 9–60. In New
Perspectives and Directions in Malaysian Historical Research, edited by Cheah
Boon Kheng. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
(MBRAS), 2007.

‘Penulisan Sejarah Pulau Pinang: Pencapaian dan Harapan [The Writing of the His-
tory of Penang: Accomplishment and Hope]’, pp. 19–30. In Dari Tanjung Penaga
ke Georgetown: Membongkar Sejarah Negeri Pulau Pinang [From Tanjung Penaga
to Georgetown: Discovering the History of Penang], edited by Sohaimi Abdul Aziz.
Pulau Pinang: Kementerian Kebudayaan, Kesenian dan Warisan Malaysia &
Persatuan Karyawan Pulau Pinang, 2007.

‘Kajian tentang sejarah Kedah di kalangan Pelajar Universiti Sains Malaysia, 1972
hingga 1990-an [Studies on the history of Kedah among students of Universiti
Sains Malaysia, 1972 to 1990]’, Cetera, Journal of the Malaysian Historical Soci-
ety, Kedah Branch, 13 (Sept 2006): [unavailable].

‘Museums and the Japanese Occupation of Malaya’, pp. 25–53. In Reflections on
Southeast Asian History Since 1945, edited by Richard Mason, and Abu Talib
Ahmad. Penang: Universiti Sains Malaysia Press, 2006.

‘The Impact of the Japanese Occupation on Colonial and Anti-colonial Armies in
Southeast Asia’, pp. 213–238. In Colonial Armies in Southeast Asia, edited by Ro-
bias Retig, and Karl Hack. London: Routledge, 2006.

xxxii Introduction

‘Zaman Pra-Melaka/Pra-Islam dalam identiti politik Malaysia’, pp. 15–68. In Ma-
laysia: Sejarah Kenegaraan dan Politik [History of Statehood and Politics], edited
by Abdul Rahman Ismail. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2005.

‘Writing Malaysia’s Social History from the Records of the States’ Religious Affairs
Department’, pp. 249–273. In New Terrains in Southeast Asian History, edited by
Tan Liok Ee, and Abu Talib. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2003.

‘Japanese Policy towards Islam in Malaya: A Reassessment’, Journal of Southeast
Asian Studies, 33, 1 (Feb 2002): pp. 107–122.

‘Perkahwinan dan Perceraian di Johor, 1942–45: Satu Aspek Sejarah Sosial Zaman
Jepun [Marriage and Divorce in Johor, 1942–45: An Aspect of Social History
during the Japanese Period]’, pp. 161–168. In Sorotan Terpilih dalam Sejarah Ma-
laysia (Sumbangsih kepada Dr Cheah Boon Kheng) [Selected Themes in Malaysian
History (Contribution to Dr Cheah Boon Kheng)], edited by Mahani Musa, and
Tan Liok Ee. Pulau Pinang: Universiti Sains Malaysia Press, 2000.

‘The Malay Community and Memory of the Japanese Occupation’, pp. 45–89. In
War and Memory in Malaysia and Singapore, edited by P. Lim Pui Huen, and Di-
ana Wong. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), 2000.

‘Changing Perceptions of Malaysians towards Japan since World War Two’, Kajian
Malaysia, 171 (1999): pp. 70–94.

‘Research on Islam and the Malay-Muslims during the Japanese Occupation of Ma-
laya, 1942–45’, pp. 81–119. Asian Research Trends: A Humanities and Social Sci-
ence Review, 9, 1999. Tokyo, Toyo Bunko/Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies
for Unesco.

‘Marriage and Divorce in Johore among the Malay-Muslims during the Japanese
Occupation, 1942–45’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Soci-
ety (JMBRAS), 71, 2 (Dec 1998): pp. 63–90.

‘Pendudukan Jepun di Nusantara [Japanese Occupation in the (Malay) Archipel-
ago]’ III: 1790–1793. In Ensiklopedia Sejarah & Kebudayaan Melayu [Encycloape-
dia of Malay History and Culture].Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka,
1998.

‘Pendudukan Jepun di Tanah Melayu [The Japanese Occupation in Malaya]’ III:
1793–1796. In Ensiklopedia Sejarah & Kebudayaan Melayu [Encycloapedia of Ma-
lay History and Culture]. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1998.

‘Zaman Jepun, 1942–45: Krisis Sosial Masyarakat Melayu dan Kelesuan Agama
Islam’ [The Japanese Period, 1942–45: Social Crisis in Malay Society and Apathy
to the Islamic Faith], Jurnal Ilmu Kemanusiaan, 4 (Oct 1997): pp. 15–52.

‘Pendudukan Jepun di Burma (Myanmar), 1942–45: Dasar Jepun, Tindakbalas
British dan Dr Ba Maw, Aung San, U Ba U dan Sir Paw Tun [Japanese Occupa-
tion of Burma (Myanmar), 1942–45: Japanese Policy, Response from the British
and Dr Ba Maw, Aung San, U Ba U and Sir Paw Tun]’, pp. 193–217. In Isu-Isu
Pensejarahan (Esei Penghargaan kepada Dr R Suntharalingam) [Issues in Histori-
ography (Essays in Appreciation to Dr R Suntharalingam)]. Pulau Pinang: Pener-
bit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 1995.

‘The Impact of the Japanese Occupation on the Malay-Muslim Population’,
pp. 1–36. In Malaya and Singapore during the Japanese Occupation, edited by Paul
Kratoska. Singapore: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (JSEAS), 1995.

‘Giyu Gun’ II: 801. In Ensiklopedia Sejarah & Kebudayaan Melayu [Encycloape-
dia of Malay History & Culture]. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka,
1998.

Introduction  xxxiii

‘Giyu Tai’ II: 802. In Ensiklopedia Sejarah & Kebudayaan Melayu [Encycloapedia of
Malay History and Culture]. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1998.

‘Japanese Studies in Southeast Asia: Selected Papers – Malaysia’, pp. 65–80. In Jap-
anese Studies in Southeast Asia: Towards a Cooperative Approach, edited by David
Chee Meow, and Hayden Lesbirel. Singapore: Department of Japanese Studies,
National University of Singapore, 1994.

(with Saleha Haji Hassan). ‘Pergolakan Dunia dan Kerjasama Masyarakat Antara-
bangsa’, pp. 394–488. In Sejarah Perkembangan Tamadun Dunia [History of the
Development of World Civilization], edited by Wan Abdul Rahman Latif et. al.
Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1993.

‘Pemberontakan Hsaya San (1930–32): Budhisme, Kekerasan dan Hpongyi [Hsaya
San Rebellion (1930–32): Buddhism, Violence and Hpongyi]’, pp. 177–195. In Ke-
kerasan dalam Sejarah: Masyarakat dan Pemerintah [Violence in History: Society
and Government] edited by Qasim Ahmad. Kuaka Lumpur: Dewan Nahasa dan
Pustaka, 1993.

‘Between Tradition and Modernity: Can the Balance be Sustained?’, pp. 67–82. In
Japan in Transition: Economy, Politics and Society, edited by Steven C. M. Wong,
and Kazue Sugiyama. Kuala Lumpur: Institute of Strategic and International
Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, 1992.

‘Neutralism in the Cold War: Burma–US relations, 1945–55’, Journal of Oriental
Studies (Hong Kong University), 30, 1 and 2 (1992): pp. 46–59.

‘Imperialisme Jepun dan Kemerdekaan Burma: Satu Penilaian Semula [Japanese
Imperialism and Independence of Burma: A Re-evaluation]’, pp. 292–310. In Ko-
lonialisme di Malaysia dan Negara-negara Lain [Colonialism in Malaysia and other
Countries], edited by Abu Talib Ahmad, and Cheah Boon Kheng. Petaling Jaya:
Fajar Bakti, 1990.

‘Catitan Kolonel Ishi Akiho berkenaan pentadbiran tentera Jepun di Burma, 1942–
45 [Colonel Ishi Akiho’s notes on the Japanese military administration in Burma,
1942–45]’, Jebat, 16 (1988): pp. 55–62.

‘Biruma gunsei no Kaiko (Kenang-kenangan pentadbiran tentera Jepun di Burma)
oleh Lt General Iida Shojiro [Biruma gunsei no Kaiko (Memories of the Japanese
military administration in Burma) by Lt General Iida Shojiro]’, Jebat, 14 (1986):
pp. 96–116.

‘Ohba Tadashi dan Kokubu Shozo dalam hubungan Burma–Jepun, 1937–40’ [Ohba
Tadashi and Kokubu Shozo in Burma–Japan relations, 1937–40], Jebat, 13
(1984/85): pp. 3–17.

Conference proceedings, magazines, newspapers, etc.

‘Muzium Diraja dan Pembentukan Negara Bangsa 2 [Royal Museums and Forma-
tion of Nations 2]’, Dewan Budaya, 1 (2014): pp. 16–19.

‘Dewan Budaya dan Pembentukan Negara Bangsa 1 [Royal Museums and Forma-
tion of Nations 1]’, Dewan Budaya, 12 (2013): [unavailable].

‘Abdul Aziz Ishak: His Contributions to the Independence Struggle’, The Star,
Monday 6 Ogos 2007.

‘Razak Drove a Hard Bargain’, The Star, Monday 2 July 2007.
‘The Rising Sun and the Crescent’, Millennium Markers, The Star, 21 August 2000.
‘Aspects of Malaysia-Japan Cultural Relations’, pp. 185–199. Proceedings of Inter-

national Conference on Japanese Studies 1999 Japan-Southeast Asia Relations.

xxxiv Introduction

Singapore: Department of Japanese Studies, National University of Singapore,
March 2000.
‘Zaman Jepun, 1942–45 dan Krisis Sosial Masyarakat Melayu [The Japanese Period,
1942–45 and Social Crisis in Malay Society]’, pp. 127–151. In Sejarah dan Proses
Pemantapan Negara Bangsa – Prosiding Kongres Sejarah Malaysia Kedua [History
and the Process of Enhancement of the Nation State – Proceedings of the Second
Malaysian History Congress], edited by Nik Hassan Shuhaimi et. al. Kuala Lumpur:
Persatuan Sejarah Malaysia, 1998.

Book reviews

Goh Geok Yian, John N Miksic, and Michael Aung Thwin. eds. Bagan and the
World: Early Myanmar and Its Global Connections. Singapore: Institute of South-
east Asian Studies (ISEAS), 2017. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society (JMBRAS), 91, 1 (June 2018): pp. 166–168.

Souchou You. The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a Small, Distant War. Copenha-
gen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) Press, 2016. International Journal
of Asia Pacific Studies, 14, 2 (2018): pp. 191–194.

Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied. Radicals: Resistance and Protest in Colonial Ma-
laya. Illinois, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2015. International Journal of
Asia Pacific Studies, 13, 1 (2017): pp. 115–118.

Barbara Watson Andaya and Leonard Y Andaya. A History of Malaysia. London:
Palgrave, 2017. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JM-
BRAS), 91, 1 (June 2017): pp. 139–144.

Leon Comber. Templer and the Road to Malayan Independence: The Man and His
Time. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2015. Kajian Malaysia:
Journal of Malaysian Studies, 34, 1 (2016): pp. 135–138.

Nik Anuar Nik Mahmud, Muhammad Haji Salleh, dan Abd. Ghapa Harun. Bio-
grafi Tun Abdul Razak: Negarawan dan Patriot [Biography of Tun Abdul Razak:
Statesman and Patriot] Bangi, Selangor: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malay-
sia, 2011. Kajian Malaysia: Journal of Malaysian Studies, 32, 1 (2014): pp. 149–158.

Duncan McCargo. Tearing Apart the Land: Islam and Legitimacy in Southern Thai-
land. Singapore: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) Press/National Uni-
versity of Singapore (NUS) Press, 2009. Kajian Malaysia: Journal of Malaysian
Studies, 31, 2 (2013): pp. 119–125.

Yamamoto Hiroyuki et al. eds. Bangsa and Umma: Development of People Grouping
Concepts in Islamised Southeast Asia. Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2012. Jour-
nal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JMBRAS), 85, 1 (June
2011): pp. 118–122.

1 ‘Big’ picture and ‘small’ picture

An introductory essay

Ooi Keat Gin

In focusing on the central theme of the impact of the Cold War phenomenon
on Malaysia from a long-term perspective (circa 1920s to 1990s), the inter-
play between developments from within (internal, Malaya/Malaysia wide)
and situations and scenarios from without (external, regional, global) pos-
sessed influences and repercussions on one over the other, and vice versa.
This interrelationship between the ‘big’ picture on the world’s canvas vis-à-
vis the ‘small’ picture, the local scenarios of situations and circumstances
that determine the unfolding of events and developments that in turn influ-
enced subsequent progressions. Sketches of the background scenarios both
from within and from without allows the contextualization of each local his-
torical episode that was played out. It ensures that the details in the follow-
ing chapters are located in the relevant background. This introduction, to
all intents and purposes, lays the props, sets the stage with backdrops of sce-
narios for the rest of the volume. The ‘small’ picture, therefore, opens with
a sketch that describes the local situation in Malaya, Sarawak and North
Borneo during the 1920s and 1930s against the unfolding of the ‘big’ picture
tapestry of global developments and happenings then. This ‘small’–‘big’
picture scenario background offers a deeper understanding of the overall
influences and impacts from without on local, internal developments from
within Malaya/Malaysia.

But before proceeding to the subject matter per se, it is prudent from this
starting point to furnish various general information, clarification of terms
and some historical background. The singular purpose is to contextualize
the historical analysis, criticisms, development and progress.

Geographical settings

Malaysia is a federation of 12 states and four designated federal territories.
Divided into two parts, West Malaysia and East Malaysia, the former com-
prises the Malay Peninsula, hence also known as Peninsular Malaysia and
the latter, the northern upper half of the island of Borneo. West Malaysia
has nine states each headed by its respective Malay sultan, clockwise from
the northwest: Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Johor, Negeri

2  Ooi Keat Gin

Sembilan, Selangor and Perak. Penang and Malacca (Melaka) each has a
Yang Dipertua Negeri or governor. Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, the na-
tional capital and administrative centre respectively are federal territories,
likewise Langkawi, an island off the coast of Kedah. Across the South
China Sea on northern Borneo are the East Malaysian states of Sabah and
Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan, an island off the southwest-
ern coast of Sabah. Both Sabah and Sarawak have a Yang Dipertua Negeri,
while a federal minister is entrusted with the administration of the four fed-
eral territories.

With coordinates 4.2105° N, 101.9758° E, Malaysia lies slightly above the
Equator and hence enjoys a hot, humid and wet equatorial-type climate.
Although consistently high throughout averaging about 32/33°C (90/91°F),
in highland areas and nights, temperatures could dip to as low as 23/25°C
(73/77°F). Between November and January, there is a slight drop in the ther-
mometer to 29/30°C (84/86°F). Average relative humidity ranged from a high
of 88 percent to a low of 84 percent.

Malaysia experiences an annual mean precipitation of approximately
2,540mm. On the peninsula, the wettest area is Maxwell’s Hill with an an-
nual average of over 5,000mm while the inland town of Kuala Kelawang
has 1,650mm yearly rainfall. Owing to the diverse terrain, Sabah’s annual
rainfall ranges from 2,030mm to 3,560mm.

Although there are scant differences in the overall climate throughout
the year, there are months that experience higher rainfall hence the cool-
ing effect and alternatively the drier period that appear to see a spike in
the temperature. Malaysia is in the monsoon zone where the prevailing
winds (monsoon) determine the climatic, albeit slight, changes. The north-
east monsoon, commencing in mid-October running through to January,
brings precipitation to the east coast of the peninsula and the northeast
coast of Sarawak and Sabah. It is during this period that the South China
Sea sweeps the shores of the peninsula’s northeast coasts and likewise of
Sarawak’s and Sabah’s endangering small crafts and flooding coastal areas.
Comparatively, the southwest monsoon is much weaker, prevailing during
the months of June through September, overall bringing less rain to the
country. The impact of global warming slightly affects the monsoonal cycle
with shifts in the commencement of the prevailing winds hence the coming
of the rains.

Heavy downpours, strong winds blowing against the backdrop of flashes
of lighting and loud thunder claps are commonplace in Malaysia and such
natural spectacles may startle newcomers. But that is as dramatic as it gets.
Unlike neighbouring Indonesia and the Philippines, both of which lie within
the Pacific ‘Rim of Fire’ where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are per-
ennial threats and sources of natural calamities, Malaysia is safely located
on the outskirts of the aforesaid fiery zone.

Contemporary Malaysia possesses a vibrant, colourful and eclectic
sociocultural scenario with scores of ethnicities, religions and cultures

An introductory essay  3

juxtaposing one another in harmonious equilibrium. Indigenous Malay is
the predominant ethnic group, conspicuously on the peninsula with pockets
in coastal settlements in Sabah and Sarawak. Two substantial minorities
are the Chinese, in particular, and the Indians, in West Malaysia. Although
there are Chinese communities in Sarawak, and smaller groups in Sabah,
a diverse host of indigenous peoples dominated the diverse human tap-
estry of East Malaysia. Sabah has some 30 ethnic communities with the
Kadazandusun the largest native inhabitants. Sarawak’s 20 ethnic groups
are equally exotic, disparate, each unique in its respective characteristics.
The Orang Asli, a generic reference to numerous aboriginal inhabitants of
West Malaysia, are equally diverse with numerous communities each with
its own language, beliefs, creed and livelihood.

Bahasa Malaysia, that is basically Malay, is the national language of
Malaysia, the main medium in administration and education. But all other
languages and dialects are allowed to be used, taught and promoted without
hindrance. Similarly, while Islam is the official religion of the country, all
other religions and beliefs are allowed to be practised. Therefore, it is not
uncommon to witness the proximity of a mosque next to a Hindu temple
that itself is adjacent to a church. Opposite the last may be a Chinese house
of worship.

Malaysia is undeniably and conspicuously multi-ethnic, multi-religious
and multicultural, a country wherein all communities exist alongside one
another without rancour in spite of the diversity in beliefs, creed, economic
livelihood, cuisine, language. Malaysia is a showcase of harmonious coex-
istence or unity in diversity, to borrow neighbouring Indonesia’s Bhinneka
Tunggal Ika, which is a saying in Old Javanese: ‘Out of many, emerges one.’

Terms and names

Malaya at one time did not actually exist. It was appropriated from British
Malaya, a magazine created specifically to inform and update British tin
miners and rubber planters and colonial bureaucrats of local developments
in the peninsula.1 The Malay Peninsula, of what later in the early twentieth
century came to be referred as ‘British Malaya’, or simply ‘Malaya’, com-
prised the nine Malay states each with its sultan and the three British Crown
Colonies of Penang (1786), Malacca (1824) and Singapore (1819), which
formed the so-called Straits Settlements (SS, 1826). Of the nine monarchi-
cal Malay states, there was the Federated Malay States (FMS, 1895), viz.
Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang, and the remainder, known
as the Un-federated Malay States (UMS), namely Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan,
Terengganu and Johor. The UMS initially came into being from the 1910s
following the transfer of the Siamese Malay States – Perlis, Kedah, Kelan-
tan, Terengganu – from Bangkok to London under the terms of the Treaty
of Bangkok (1909). Then in 1914, Johor, the last Malay state to finally receive
a British officer at its royal court as adviser, joined the ranks of the UMS.

4  Ooi Keat Gin

It  was the abortive attempt to get the non-FMS Malay states to join the
FMS that the UMS was reluctantly created. All nine Malay states possessed
a British officer (‘resident’ in FMS, and ‘adviser’ in UMS) to act as adviser
to the Malay monarch.

Malaya, therefore, comprised the Straits Settlements, the FMS, and
the UMS. While the former were directly administered by a Whitehall-
appointed governor, the last two were sovereign native states each with its
own monarch (sultan) but under British protection, hence protectorates.
The nine Malay states (FMS and UMS) were ‘indirectly ruled’ by the British
government through an ingenious device of advisorship based on the Pang-
kor Engagement of 1874.2 Ingenious in a sense that the advice of the British
officer – resident/adviser – must be sought and acted on in all state affairs
other than matters relating to Malay customs and traditions and the Islamic
faith. A single British officer was accredited to the royal court of each Malay
state whereby the sultan was responsible for his emolument, residence and
well-being. Hence, indirectly, the British officer was the executive and leg-
islative power behind the takhta (throne). Moreover, Malay loyalty to their
ruler was unsurpassed, a sociocultural trait the British colonial authority
was quick to appropriate to its advantage. All state policies, rulings, leg-
islations, decrees were issued Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia Sultan, that
is ‘in the Name of His Highness the Sultan’, with the ruler’s mohor (seal)
appended. Therefore, any transgressions shall be considered a durhaka (dis-
loyalty, treason), against the sociocultural milieu of the Malays whereby,
Anak Melayu pantang durhaka (Malays abhorred disloyalty).

The Malaysia that came into being in 1963 comprised independent Ma-
laya (1957)3 and the three British Crown Colonies of Singapore, Sarawak
and North Borneo. This wider federation of Malaysia initially considered
the ancient Malay Sultanate of Brunei, but for various justifiable reasons,
this principality preferred to retain its status as a British protectorate.4
There were many controversies and widespread opposition to the formation
of Malaysia when the concept was first publicly announced in mid-1961.5

When the British Crown Colony of North Borneo became one of the
states in the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, there was a name change to
its ancient reference of Sabah. Sabah occupies the northeast portion of the
island of Borneo, neighbouring Brunei to its southwest.

A company (1786), a family (1841), a government (1874) and
another company (1881)

The genesis of ‘Malaya’, ‘Malaysia’, dates back to the last quarter of the
eighteenth century with the establishment of a British trading outpost on
the island of Penang in 1786. Francis Light, an English country trader, had
been active for the greater part of two decades in the coastal waters and ter-
ritories of southern Siam and the northwest region of the Malay Peninsula.
Although an independent, freelance trader, Light occasionally undertook

An introductory essay  5

commercial assignments on behalf of the English East India Company
(EEIC) in negotiations with native rulers. He had tried, although it was an
abortive attempt, to convince the EEIC to acquire or at least to establish a
trading outpost on the Siam-controlled island of Junk Ceylon (present-day
Phuket).

An opportunity was seized when the Sultan of Kedah offered the island
of Penang to the EEIC in return for protection against its overlord, Chakri
Siam, and also, from a formidable threat in Burma under the Konbaung.
The sultan appointed Light as his wakil (representative) in negotiations
with the EEIC officials in Calcutta. The EEIC was averse to political and/
or military involvement in native affairs but keen on a naval station and
trading outpost on the eastern flank of the Bay of Bengal against French
encroachment.6

The Calcutta authorities deferred decision of the question of military
assistance to the EEIC Court of Directors in London. Even before an an-
swer was received from London, determined that a trading outpost be
established, Light undertook pre-emptive action to land on Penang on 24
August 1786 claiming the island in the name of King George III of Britain
and the Honourable East India Company. The northeast promontory on
which he landed was designated as the township ‘George Town’, in honour
of the British monarch. ‘Prince of Wales Island’ was attributed to this is-
land off the northwest coast of Kedah. When it was finally known by the
Kedah court that the EEIC had decided not in favour of providing military
assistance, Light was instructed to leave the island. Instead of complying,
he launched an assault on Kedah, routing the Malay forces. The sultan had
little choice but to pen a so-called Treaty of Trade and Friendship that was
overall favourable to the victors. In 1800, a rectangular strip of land on the
mainland facing the island was acquired to guarantee uninterrupted food
supplies to the island. This acquisition was named Province Wellesley, after
the First Duke of Wellington.

Penang was the first British settlement. Anglo-Dutch rivalry over the East
Indies7 subsequently led to the establishment of Singapore by Stamford
Raffles in 1819 and Malacca in 1824. The latter was in exchange for Bencoolen
under the terms of the Treaty of London (1824). In 1826, the Straits Set-
tlements was constituted administratively enjoining Penang, Malacca and
Singapore with the main intention to safeguard and supply the EEIC ships
plying the lucrative China trade of luxuries (silk, tea and chinaware).

Meanwhile, in Bath, in the southwest of Britain, a gentleman-adventurer
was setting out for a scientific expedition to northern Borneo and Sulawesi
detailing his trip to the Royal Geographical Society. Investing his inher-
itance in a 142-ton schooner named Royalist, James Brooke (1803–1868)
sailed to the East in 1838 reaching Singapore. The colonial governor en-
trusted Brooke with gifts to the ruler of Sarawak for assisting shipwrecked
sailors providing them with a boat and sustenance to return safely to the
port-city. Upstream on the Sarawak River, the Royalist dropped anchor at

6  Ooi Keat Gin

Kuching in 1839. Brooke was greeted by Rajah Muda Hashim, heir apparent
and uncle to the ruler of Brunei, Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin II (1828–1852).
The fief of Sarawak was governed by Pangeran Indera Mahkota, who forced
the Malays of Siniawan and the Land Dayaks (Bidayuh) to work the anti-
mony mines in Upper Sarawak. The opening of Singapore as a port in 1819
offered a market for the ore. But the mistreatment of the native labour led to
an anti-Brunei Rebellion (1836–1841). Hashim’s presence in Kuching was to
quell the uprising but little progress was made during Brooke’s initial visit.
Owing to the unrest, Brooke was only allowed to visit a longhouse on the
Lundu.

Following this initial visit to Kuching, Brooke proceeded with his expe-
dition’s objectives to Marudu Bay in northern Borneo, and thence to the
Celebes. On his return journey, he decided to revisit Hashim and Kuching.
His arrival in 1841 witnessed a status quo with regards to the rebellion. It
was at this juncture that Hashim besieged his friend, Brooke, for assistance.
If successful, Hashim promised the rajahship of Sarawak to Brooke. Brooke
and his handful of English crew launched a charge on the Malay-Land
Dayak kubu (stockade). Unfamiliar with such ‘madness’, the rebels ran
helter skelter.

Hashim was stern in wanting the several rebel Malay datu (non-royal
chiefs) to be put to the sword. Brooke begged for their mercy; Hashim
relented to his friend’s appeal. Brooke sailed to Brunei to be bestowed as
the Rajah of Sarawak, basically a governorship over an area equivalent to
present-day Kuching District (formerly the First Division), namely from the
Lundu valley in the west to the Samarahan valley to the east. Brooke es-
tablished a dynasty of White Rajahs, himself as the incumbent (1841–1868),
his nephew, Charles Johnson (later Brooke) as the second rajah (1868–1917),
and Charles’s oldest son, Charles Vyner Brooke as the third and last rajah
(1917–1941, 1946).

The British presence in the Straits Settlements in such close proximity
to the Malay Peninsula notwithstanding, there was scant interference on
the part of the British in the Malay states. But intervention appeared inev-
itable towards the last quarter of the nineteenth century owing to disrup-
tive developments on the peninsula that adversely impacted British trade
and commerce and investments. In the late 1840s, tin ore was discovered
at Larut in the auriferous-rich Kinta Valley of Perak. After the practice
of the local chiefs of Bangka, a tin-rich island in the southern part of the
Straits of Malacca that engaged Chinese miners and coolies to undertake
the labour-intensive enterprise of mining, Long Jaffar of Larut likewise
extended invitations to Chinese. Towkays8 in Penang saw opportunities in
recruiting their countrymen from the Chinese mainland to work the penin-
sula tin fields. Two decades later in the 1860s, tens of thousands of Chinese
toiled in the alluvial tin fields of Perak, the Klang Valley of Selangor and
Sungai Ujong in Negeri Sembilan.9

An introductory essay  7

Recruited by agents based in the Straits Settlements, the penniless
Chinese coolies who arrived were subjected to an indentured scheme of
labour. In exchange for the passageway fee from China, the coolie had to
work for at least three years in order to pay off his debt. Once he settled this
debt, he was a ‘free’ man who could work for wages. But in practice, many
Chinese immigrants were indebted for life owing to vices, viz. opium smok-
ing, gambling, consumption of arrack (locally distilled alcohol), brothel
visits, and pawnshop transactions. Syndicates, the so-called secret socie-
ties in contemporary literature,10 were all powerful, notably as recruitment
agents, procurers of labour, control of labour on the mines, management of
opium dens, gambling joints, liquor shops, brothels and pawnshops. Rival
syndicates often clashed over disputed water supply in the tin fields (wa-
ter is fundamental in alluvial mining), territorial squabbles, quarrels over
women and other disagreements that more often turned to armed violence.
The Larut Wars (1861–1874) was a series of protracted inter-syndicate wars,
notably between two groups, the Hokkien-dominated Ghee Hin and Hakka-
dominated Hai San, which were disruptive to tin production and trade.

The warring scenario became worse between 1871 and 1873. Into the
Chinese quarrels were the succession disputes over the Perak throne between
three rival claimants. Meanwhile in Selangor, there was dissatisfaction
among the chieftains as to the appointment by the sultan of his son-in-law
Tunku Kudin as viceroy, a situation that led to open clashes. At the same
time, in Sungai Ujong, the clash was witnessed between the Dato Kelana
and the Dato Bandar over control of the tin fields and the Linggi River.

British and European entrepreneurs and Western agency houses based in
the Straits Settlements invested in the tin industry and trade. The aforesaid
armed conflicts and clashes were disruptive to the tin industry and threat-
ened investors and traders alike. Undoubtedly, the business community in
Penang and Singapore pressured the British colonial government to inter-
vene in order to safeguard their investments. Whitehall, too, was aware of
the dire situation on the west coast peninsula Malay states.

Newly appointed Straits Settlements Governor Sir Andrew Clarke was
provided with two convenient instruments; first, instructions from Secre-
tary of the Colonies to investigate the affairs of the Malay states and to
recommend whether it was prudent that a British officer be appointed to
assist in resolving issues and, second, a letter from Raja Abdullah, one of
the claimants to the Perak throne, appealing to the governor to intervene,
and when he assumed the throne, he was willing to receive a British officer
as advisor. Without further ado, Clarke swung into action.

The rival Chinese factions as well as the Malay royal claimants were all
summoned to the British steamer gunboat HMS Pluto anchored off Pangkor
Island. All the warring Chinese groups were slapped with a heavy fine, and all
to pledge non-violent behaviour in future. On the second day, the rival Malay
claimants arrived on board. The Pangkor Engagement (20  January  1874)

8  Ooi Keat Gin

was agreed on by all disputed parties and their respective mohor was placed
on the document as a binding pledge. Raja Abdullah was recognized as the
Sultan of Perak and agreed to receive a British officer styled ‘resident’ to his
royal court, ‘whose advice must be asked and acted on on all questions other
than those touching Malay Religion and Custom’.11

Similar Pangkor-style treaties were signed with disputants in Selangor
and Sungai Ujong in the same year. Later, in 1888, Pahang too was sub-
jected to similar terms in receiving a British ‘resident’ at the royal court.
By the Anglo-Siamese Treaty (1909), Perlis, Kedah, Terengganu, and
Kelantan became British protectorates whereby a British officer styled
‘adviser’ was accredited to the respective royal court. Johor only received
an ‘adviser’ in 1914.

Across the South China Sea to northern Borneo, the territory that later
became North Borneo was rumoured to be endowed with mineral and
agricultural richness. Between the 1860s and 1880s, various adventurers,
speculators and opportunists sought land grants from the Brunei ruler, ap-
parently in possession of the western half of this vast territory and the Sulu
sultan, the eastern portion. But all ventures proved abortive and were aban-
doned. Then the partnership between Baron Gustavus von Overbeck, an
Austrian consul based in Hong Kong, and Alfred Dent of the Dent Broth-
ers of London, proved viable. Overbeck succeeded in securing from both
Brunei and Sulu the entire area of what became North Borneo. Failure to
engage support from investors in Vienna forced Overbeck to withdraw from
the partnership leaving Dent as the sole proprietor of the grants. A provin-
cial committee was set up in London comprising notables to seek a royal
charter from the British Parliament. Once a royal charter was granted, Dent
sold off his rights to the provincial committee that in turn established the
British North Borneo Chartered Company (BNBCC)12 in London to as-
sume the reins of administration of British North Borneo (BNB) or simply,
North Borneo, from 1881.

The Board of Directors of BNBCC in London appointed a governor
and a small bureaucracy to administer North Borneo for profit. Each year,
BNBCC as a capitalist company, paid dividends to its shareholders, the
majority drawn from British nationals who had scant knowledge of where
North Borneo was, apart from the impression that it was in the tropical
East.

Therefore, on the eve of the Pacific War (1941–1945), the political and ad-
ministrative configuration of the territories that subsequently comprised
contemporary Malaysia is as follows. While the SS was directly governed
by a Colonial Office (CO)-appointed governor as a Crown Colony, FMS
and UMS through British resident/adviser were administered through a
system of indirect rule as protectorates. The nine peninsular Malay states
retained their sovereignty, the respective sultans reigned but did not rule.
Power was in the hands of the British resident/adviser and, in the FMS, the
resident general. Collectively, the Malay Peninsula, inclusive of the islands

An introductory essay  9

of Penang and Singapore, was known as British Malaya or Malaya. Sarawak
was under an English dynasty, that of the Brookes, where governance was
under the absolute power of the ‘White Rajah’ with assistance from native
and Chinese councillors offering non-binding advice. The London-based
BNBCC appointed a governor who administered BNC as a commercial en-
tity. Sarawak and North Borneo, together with Brunei, all protectorates of
Britain from 1888, were hence referred as British Borneo.13

The stealth aerial assault on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by the Imperial Jap-
anese Navy (IJN) on 7 December 1941 unceremoniously brought forth the
Pacific War (1941–1945), which engulfed the entire region that subsequently
came to be known as Southeast Asia.14 British Malaya and British Borneo
were prime military targets of Imperial Japan as they possessed essential
commodities to the war effort, namely rubber and tin in the former, and oil
in the latter. Due to strategic necessity, Sarawak and Brunei were the initial
targets, notably the oilfields at Miri and Seria, and the refinery at Lutong,
and the airfield on the outskirts of Kuching. Seizure of the last would enable
aerial bombing raids on Singapore and Batavia (present-day Jakarta).

By Christmas 1941, Sarawak and Brunei fell to Imperial Japan, and
shortly thereafter, North Borneo, too, was overrun. By late February 1942,
the impregnable ‘Fortress Singapore’ surrendered, the worst capitulation in
the annals of the British Empire.

For three years and eight months, the Malay Peninsula and northern Bor-
neo, as the rest of the territories in Southeast Asia with the exception of
Thailand,15 were under the military rule of Imperial Japan. The Imperial
Japanese Army (IJA) combined Malaya and Sumatra as one administrative
unit centred at Singapore, renamed Syonan-to (‘Light of the South Island’).
Northern Borneo, which comprised Sarawak, Brunei and North Borneo,
came under IJA rule. Pre-war Dutch Borneo was entrusted to the IJN.

As suddenly as war had broken out in December 1941, the conflict ended,
when Emperor Hirohito broadcasted the unconditional surrender of Im-
perial Japan on 15 August 1945. While British forces assumed control over
Malaya from the IJA, Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) likewise reoccupied
Sarawak and North Borneo and Brunei.

The immediate post-war years were marked by British Military Admin-
istration in British Malaya and British Borneo, reconstruction and rehabil-
itation of most essential services and public utilities. Comparatively, North
Borneo suffered the worst physical destruction of the war especially settle-
ments along the west coast including Jesselton (present-day Kota Kinabalu),
the administrative centre. Owing to the high costs of rebuilding, BNBCC
decided to hand BNC over to the British Crown in 1946. Similarly, Sarawak
too became a Crown Colony when ceded to the British Crown in 1946 fol-
lowing a brief post-war reign (15 April to 30 June 1946) of the rajah.

The post-war shortlived Malayan Union (1946–1948) comprised all the
Malay states and Penang and Malacca. Sovereignty of all the nine Malay
states was handed over to the British Crown. In other words, the Malay

10  Ooi Keat Gin

Peninsula, excluding Singapore, was transformed from protectorate to
colony. Malay opposition resulted in the Federation of Malaya (1948)
whereby all the nine Malay rulers retain the sovereignty of their respec-
tive domains, more restrictive citizenship terms for non-indigenous com-
munities (namely Chinese and Indian), and constitutional safeguards of the
special rights of Malays and the sultanates.

Within a decade, the Alliance Party of Tunku Abdul Rahman, won
merdeka (independence) on 31 August 1957. Tunku and the Alliance Party,
a coalition political party comprising the United Malays National Or-
ganization (UMNO), the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) and the
Malayan Indian Congress (MIC), convincingly demonstrated to Whitehall
of the workable and viable relations between the three major ethnic groups
(Malay, Chinese and Indian) in winning 51 out of 52 seats contested in the
1955 general elections to the Federal Legislative Assembly.

By the early 1950s, both Sarawak and North Borneo as British Crown
Colonies, embarked on a series of development initiatives and plans, par-
ticularly in the economy and social services (education, health) and infra-
structure (transport and communications, public utilities). Preparations for
self-rule in view of subsequent independence were underway and was espe-
cially accelerated in Sarawak than North Borneo. Undeniably, on the eve of
Malaysia, Sarawak and North Borneo lagged behind Malaya in most fields,
viz. political, economy, social services, infrastructure.

Between 1948 and 1960, the Malayan Emergency raged over the penin-
sula, characterized by terrorist acts and sabotage in towns, and guerrilla
war in rural areas, upriver, jungles and highlands and mountainous regions.
Besides British and Malayan forces, military units from the Commonwealth
(Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Rhodesia and Nyasaland) were involved in
suppressing an armed struggle by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP)16
committed to establishing a communist republic of Malaya.

Similarly, communist elements in Sarawak, labelled variously by the
authorities (viz. Clandestine Communist Organization (CCO), Sarawak
Communist Organization (SCO), North Kalimantan Communist Party
(NKCP)),17 that strived to create a communist republic of Sarawak, launched
an open armed struggle referred to as the Sarawak Communist Insurgency
(1962–1990). Meanwhile, independent Malaysia faced a resurgence of com-
munist insurrection, a more than two-decade jungle war known as the
Second Malayan Emergency (1967–1989).

Malaysia and the Cold War: the longue durée approach

The present collection shall demonstrate that the Cold War in the context of
Malaysia’s historical development had a long genesis that pre-dated the of-
ten cited time frame of 1947–1990. By the late 1920s, the Cold War situation
was in place in Malaya and in Sarawak where the British colonial author-
ities and the Brooke regime respectively exhibited serious concern of the

An introductory essay  11

presence and influence of leftist elements within the populace, in particular,
among the Chinese community.

By the early decades of the twentieth century, the Chinese diaspora in
Malaya and northern Borneo were making their economic mark and
presence in churning profits from capitalist enterprises such as mining,
commercial agriculture and a near monopoly over the distribution trade
in their host territories. It was no exaggeration to maintain that in every
district, small or large, there were Chinese-owned and managed businesses
represented by the iconic shop houses. Retail was the forte as well as the
main dealer in local produce from coconut to crepe rubber sheets where na-
tives traded to the Chinese towkay. Natives purchased their daily necessities
such as cooking oil, dried foodstuff, matches, crockery, soap, etc. from the
Chinese shopkeeper. In the cities such as George Town, Ipoh, Kuala Lum-
pur, Malacca Town, Singapore, Kuching, Sibu, Jesselton and Sandakan,
Chinese entrepreneurs had successfully cornered a sector of the wholesale
business especially that dealing with goods and products from the Chinese
mainland and a greater portion of the retail sector of consumer goods. Be-
sides being dominant in trade and commerce, second only to the European
agency houses, there were scores of towkay who owned tin mines, rubber
plantations, pepper gardens, again second only to the Western corporations.
There were Chinese-owned banks, shipping lines, transport companies
(buses, trucks). Market gardening of poultry, pigs, vegetables located on the
outskirts of most major urban areas had long been the preoccupation of the
Chinese eking out a livelihood.

Therefore, the Chinese in Malaya, Sarawak and North Borneo had long
shed their image of being penniless coolies in possession only of the cot-
ton shorts that they wore and were now considered to be successful and
respectable entrepreneurs, capitalists, bankers, traders. Undeniably, there
remained a sizeable portion of the community who remained in the ranks of
the lower working class, in livelihoods such as mineworkers, coolies, jinrik-
isha pullers, peasant farmers scarcely making ends meet to survive on their
own or others struggling hard to feed their families. Both groups, the haves
and the have nots, were equally important to the mainland political players.

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century and into the early twen-
tieth century, revolutionaries of the likes of Dr Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925),
had courted the overseas Chinese (huaqiao) in Southeast Asia for pecuniary
support. Visits to George Town, Penang, were well received, fruitful and
altogether worthwhile for Dr Sun and his colleagues in appealing to patri-
otism and Chinese ethnocentrism against the non-Chinese Qing/Manchu
dynasty. Despite their physical presence outside and far from the fatherland,
most huaqiao remained in heart and soul to mainland China and were ever
cognisant of developments there.

Aware of such sentiments and after the practice of Dr Sun, the Guo-
mindang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) competed for
the support (moral, financial, human resources, etc.) of the huaqiao across

12  Ooi Keat Gin

Southeast Asia, from Rangoon to Bangkok to Saigon to Hanoi to Penang to
Singapore to Batavia to Kuching to Sandakan to Manila. But owing to the
leftist adherence towards anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism, Western
colonial governments were much more suspicious and mistrustful of CCP
activities relative to that of the KMT. Canvassing for patronage begun from
the second half of the 1910s for the KMT and, from the mid-1920s, the CCP,
too, competed for support.

‘Big’ picture: the world and Southeast Asia, 1920s–1990s

Marxism and communism as ideologies had roots in Europe. Communist
parties sprouted in European capital and other cities. But it was the Bolshe-
vik Revolution that in October 191718 established a communist state, namely
Soviet Russia (1917–1922), and subsequently, the Soviet Union (1922–1991),19
that had put into practice the abstract ideology of Karl Marx (1818–1883).
But the Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (1870–1924) alias Lenin,
skipped Marx’s ‘bourgeois-democratic’ revolution; for the first phase, in-
stead, he focused on seizing political power, a dictatorship of the workers
(the proletariat) in establishing a communist state.20 Lenin also, by design
or circumstance, never attained Marx’s last and final stage, namely freedom
for all. Leninism, then, appeared as a ‘shortcut’ in establishing a communist
nation-state as Lenin had demonstrated and proved viable.21

Lenin and his interpretation of Marxism, Leninism, were fundamental in
developing communism into a global ideological phenomenon. Communism
derived from the philosophical and socio-political doctrines that were for-
mulated by Marx and Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), both socialists from
Germany, as laid out in the Political Manifesto published in 1848. In essence,
Marxism called for the overthrow and destruction of the hitherto capitalist
system through socialist revolution pitting the proletariat against the bour-
geoisie and the triumph of the former over the latter to usher in a new social
organization, viz. initially socialism and, ultimately, communism, the high-
est stage. When communism is in place, it meant the complete obliteration
of all class distinctions, and that all men and women are equal.

Marxist’s criterion for a socialist revolution to occur was in urban areas in
highly industrialized regions like Western Europe where a huge proletariat
suffered under the domination of the bourgeoisie who possessed capital and
land, and controlled labour, factors that oiled the mechanism of the capital-
ist system.22 From a Marxist perspective, Asia and Africa, then under Euro-
pean imperialism and colonialism, were peripheral regions owing to the fact
that the bulk of the native inhabitants in the Asian-African territories was
the peasantry, a social group designated as petty bourgeoisie.

Leninism, by way of contrast, pioneered the acceptance of the peasantry
as the ally of the proletariat.23 Moreover, Leninism saw the basic relation-
ship between capitalism and imperialism, and linked the colonized races

An introductory essay  13

for the right of self-determination with the anti-capitalist movement for a
‘World Socialist Revolution’. In fact, Leninism expected the proletariat and
the socialists of Western industrialized countries to fight and struggle for the
liberation of the colonized peoples. It was then that Asian nationalists could
engineer the colonized inhabitants for a ‘World Socialist Revolution’. Such
a move would liberate the colonized peoples and their lands hence deliver
a mortal blow to the exploitative capitalist system. Thus, it was imperative
that a ‘revolutionary bloc’ be established comprising the proletariat of the
Western industrialized countries and the oppressed and exploited peoples
of colonial lands to spearhead the triumph of the ‘World Socialist Revolu-
tion’. Leninism brought Asia and the colonial question from the periphery
of Marxism to its centre stage.

Consequently, Lenin who ruled Soviet Russia and Soviet Union until his
demise, sought to export a ‘World Socialist Revolution’. To this end, in 1919
the Communist International (COMINTERN), also referred as the Third
International (1919–1943), was established as an international organization
that promoted world communism through ‘struggle by all available means,
including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoi-
sie [democracies] and the creation of an international Soviet republic as a
transition stage to the complete abolition of the state’.24 What Moscow did
during the inter-war years was not only to export Marxist-Leninist thought
to nationalists and nationalist organizations in states throughout the world
but also to promote ‘World Socialist Revolution’. The COMINTERN was
tasked to undertake this mission and attain the ultimate vision of a commu-
nist world system.

Meanwhile, the CCP, constituted in 1921, possessed a leader in Mao
Zedong (1893–1976) who, like Lenin previously in Russia, attempted to con-
textualized Marxism and Leninism to local conditions in China. Mao
argued that, in the context of countries such as China where the bulk of the
population composed of peasant farmers living in rural regions, and the
proletariat or industrial workers were a small minority, it was impractical
and/or impossible for the latter to launch and head a socialist revolution
from urban industrial centres. Instead, the vanguard of the revolution would
be the peasantry in the rural regions. Therefore, under Mao’s stewardship,
the CCP sought to establish a rural base that was militarily well defended,
and from there, would spread its influence among the rural peasantry. Un-
like Lenin’s Bolsheviks who seized power through a lighting insurrection, a
protracted struggle would be the case in China, relying on the support of the
peasantry. Nonetheless, a principle steadfastly upheld was the supremacy of
the party over the military and of the proletariat over the peasantry.

Undeniably COMINTERN-CCP relations were flawed with tensions
and struggles. Mao and the CCP were no ‘followers’ and/or ‘obliging, pas-
sive students’ of COMINTERN didactic guidance. Neither did the CCP’s
willingness to fully acquiesce to Moscow’s pre-eminence in the communist

14  Ooi Keat Gin

circle. The ‘Sinification of Marxism’ was already underway as has been
shown in Mao reinterpreting Marxism and Leninism, adjusting them to fit
and accommodate China’s conditions. Nonetheless:

Comintern influence was of major importance in the [CCP’s] founding
and development but its authority was not always accepted nor decisive
in all periods. Yet it was a voice that could not be ignored and up until
1938, when the Comintern could articulate its message clearly and get
it through the communication network to the CCP leadership it had
a reasonably decisive say. The legitimacy of the Comintern to dictate
policy in China became a key point in the struggle between the pro-
Soviet group in the CCP under the leadership of Wang Ming [Moscow’s
trainee and protégé] and those who under Mao Zedong who were closer
to the indigenous roots of the revolution.25

Later, it became more apparent, that the COMINTERN appeared to be
partial to Mao, and not Wang Ming:

In the conflicts with Zhang [Guotao] and Wang [Ming], the actions and
words of the Comintern tended to favor Mao over his opponents.  …
Further, on a number of occasions the Comintern called for the CCP
not to ape Soviet experience, but to develop its own policy, and the Co-
mintern’s Seventh Congress (1935) accepted that individual parties
should have more freedom.26

Throughout Southeast Asia, the COMINTERN too had a hand to some
extent in influencing revolutionary movements and nationalist struggles
against imperialism and colonialism. Nationalist leaders across the world,
including in Southeast Asia, were attracted to various political ideologies
and some were drawn to Marxism, Leninism, and Maoism as possible pan-
acea to their struggle against Western colonial regimes.

One of the earliest communist parties in Southeast Asia, and the world,
that even pre-dated the Bolshevik Revolution and the COMINTERN, was
the Partai Komunis Indonesia (PKI, Indonesian Communist Party) that was
formed in May 1914 by the Dutch communist, Hendricus Josephus Fran-
ciscus Marie Sneevliet (1883–1942), better known as Henk Sneevliet or by
his pseudonym, ‘Maring’. In fact, it was Sneevliet, notably active in the
Netherlands East Indies (present-day Indonesia), who was sent by the CO-
MINTERN to the mainland to offer guidance that subsequently led to the
establishment of the CCP in 1921 in Shanghai.

The 1930s witnessed a proliferation of communist parties in the region,
namely the Indochina Communist Party (ICP, 1930), the Communist Party
of the Philippines (1930), the Malayan Communist Party (MCP, 1930) and
the Burma Communist Party (BCP, 1939). In most cases, home-grown
communists were already active (in propagation, recruitment, garnering

An introductory essay  15

support) even before the establishment of a formal organization. In Siam,
for instance, communist activism was evidence since 1927, but it was only
in December 1942 that the Communist Party of Siam officially adopted its
formal designation, the Communist Party of Thailand.

‘Small’ picture: Malaya/Malaysia, 1920s–1990s

The inter-war years saw the mushrooming of communist parties across
Southeast Asia. The MCP was one of the most prominent and active that
sought to transform Malaya then under British colonial rule to a communist
republic. Prior to the MCP’s inception in 1930, leftist activists had courted
the Chinese community in Malaya for backing, either by way of funding,
recruits, and/or material contribution, or simply moral support for their
cause. The Chinese in Malaya was undoubtedly one of the wealthiest among
the huaqiao in Southeast Asia hence financial assistance was often sought
from the towkay mercantile and commercial elite. Although the towkay was
reputedly conservative and rather cautious in terms of pecuniary matters,
appeal to their patriotism and ethnic roots were often successful in garner-
ing the support of the commercial elite of George Town, Ipoh, Malacca,
Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Similarly, across the South China Sea in Sar-
awak, in particular, and to a lesser extent, in North Borneo, leftist elements
pursued the support of the huaqiao community, notably of Kuching, Sibu
and Miri, also of Jesselton and Sandakan.

Following the footsteps of Dr Sun, the KMT too sought support from the
diaspora in Malaya and northern Borneo. There was intense competition
for support between the nationalist (KMT) and the communist, the latter
in Malaya represented by the MCP, and in Sarawak, the SCO. Both parties
sought financial support from the towkay circles, of funds that necessitated
sustenance and continuous activities, for the procurement of equipment in-
cluding weaponry.

Besides courting the towkay, KMT-CCP rivalry extended to vying for re-
cruits among the youth. The ideal nursery was the Chinese Middle schools
among 13- to 15-year-olds in their prime formative years who were wide
open to ideological persuasions. And who better than their middle school
teachers who were engaged from the mainland, like the curriculum and
textbooks. The plural school system fostered the mushrooming of Chinese
vernacular schools that were funded and managed by local Chinese commu-
nities whereby each school had a board of management that was responsible
for the recruitment of teaching personnel (head teacher and teachers), and
non-academic clerical staff. Due to apathy of the British colonial author-
ities and the Brooke administration in Malaya and Sarawak respectively,
Chinese middle schools enjoyed full autonomy in all aspects from manage-
ment, finance to teaching content. Hence, left-leaning head teachers and/
or teachers could utilize their appointments to their advantage in propa-
gating and influencing the student body to their ‘ism’ gaining recruits who