LA CRISIS DE LA CULTURA POLÍTICA EN LA PROBLEMÁTICA INTERNACIONAL
I.- 2 SUJETOS Y ACTORES POLÍTICOS: PARTIDOS Y MOVIMIENTOS POLÍTICOS
The creation of Federation of Malaya based on the Revised Constitutional Proposal of Anglo-Malay Working Committee marked the beginning of an armed rebellion in Malaya. The key factor that ignited the revolt was the ethnic issue, specifically Malay special privileges. The communists and radicals, among them the leaders of the PUTERA-AMCJA, launched an armed attack and exploited the grievances and communal fears in order to lure rural Malays away from UMNO (Stockwell, 1977, p. 500). The Malay elites of UMNO became increasingly fearful of the growing non- Malay influence. This in turn drove the Malay elites of UMNO to take necessary measures to preserve their privilege. In achieving this, the Malay elites of UMNO defended and championed Malay and Islam by making early independence an UMNO primary and steadfast goal.
18 Based on this political framework, the sovereignty of the Malay rulers (Sultans) were restored and
the citizenship rules tightened in which one can only qualify for Malayan citizenship if one has resided in Malaya for 15 years, able to speak English or Malay, declare Malaya as their permanent settlement, and confirmed as having good character.
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The UMNO reorganized itself following the resignation of Dato Onn Jafar as the president in 1951 as a result of opposition among the Malay elites within UMNO against his proposal to collaborate with other ethnic based political parties. Baginda (2016) and Ong (1998) in explaining this stressed that by early 1950 Dato Onn Jafar had become increasingly disgusted with what he considered UMNO communal politics and became more focused on ending the growing uneasy relationship between Malays and non-Malays. He called for party membership to be opened to all Malayans irrespective of their race. He also suggested that UMNO be renamed the United Malayans National Organization. However, his suggestion was rejected by majority of the Malay elites within UMNO. As a result, Dato Onn resigned from UMNO on August 26th, 1951 to form the Independence of Malayan Party (IMP)
which failed to receive sufficient backing from the people of Malaya.
He was succeeded by Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj (hereafter referred to as Tunku), a Malay aristocrat. As soon as he was elected as UMNO’s president, Tunku announced his determination to achieve early merdeka (independence) by initiating a series of negotiations with the British administration. Nevertheless, as discussed earlier the British made self-government conditional on the various ethnic parties forming a political coalition to manage the country. On January 1952, Tunku as the new leader of UMNO held a meeting with Tan Cheng Lock as the leader of newly formed Chinese party called Malayan Chinese Association (MCA, renamed Malaysian Chinese Association). The ad-hoc meeting was aimed at forming a political alliance between UMNO and MCA to contest the Kuala Lumpur Municipal Council election (Hing & Ong, 1987; Gomez, 2010) on January 9th, and to prevent inter-ethnic crisis from worsening (Oong, 2000). The UMNO-MCA alliance demonstrated the possibility of a sustained inter-ethnic political cooperation in
Malay. This political collaboration differed from that of earlier PUTERA-AMCJA inter-ethnic cooperation that was based on political and economic equality among the citizens of Malaya. The UMNO-MCA alliance was based on political expediency and to facilitate the independence of Malaya. This political collaboration did not jeopardize the interests of Malays, rather it strengthened their political access as the alliance was UMNO led and dominated. In fact, MCA leaders “were willing to play junior partner to an UMNO that was prepared to accede to the Chinese citizenship demand” (Horowitz, 1985, p. 407).
Despite the unhappiness regarding Malay special privileges, political collaboration between the Malays and the Chinese, or to be more specific between UMNO and MCA, resulted in the success of the UMNO-MCA alliance; the alliance won 9 of the 12 contested municipal council seats in 1952 (Yaakop 2014, p. 29). The remaining three seats were won by the IMP (2 seats) and an independent (1 seat). Encouraged by the success of the Kuala Lumpur Municipal Council election, the political alliance between the Malay and the non-Malay was expanded in 1954 to include the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC, renamed Malaysian Indian Congress in 1963). UMNO, MCA, and MIC cooperation resulted in the formation of the Alliance Party (Parti Perikatan, AP). The AP contested the 1955 first Malaya legislative council election in which it won a landslide victory, 51 out of 52 seats19. This led to the formation of National Executive Committee (NEC), the primary decision-making body of AP, comprising six representatives each from UMNO and MCA, and three from MIC.
The victory of AP in this election and the formation of NEC convinced the British “that inter-communal coalition or organizationally distinct ethnic parties offering a
19The remaining seats went to Parti Islam Se-Malaya (Pan-Malayan Islamic Party, PAS).
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common slate of candidates, and fully endorsed by UMNO leadership, could be electorally successful through the mobilization of Malay ethnic loyalties and votes for non-Malay candidates” (Kabner, 2009, p. 58). Also, the success of AP in winning almost all available seats left the British no choice other than to give Malaya the chance for self-government. Thus, on February 9th, 1956 the British finally agreed to grant it independence through the London Independence Treaty signed by Tunku and the British Government. Even so, when the independence of Malaya became inevitable, Britain requested that a new constitution be drafted before Malaya be officially declared an independent country. The Reid Commission was established to draft the constitution which led to political compromises between AP leaders who formally endorsed the concept of Malay special rights as per Article 153 of the Malayan constitution; in return the non-Malay would be granted equal citizenship rights which allowed them to join the public services, military and own land. Therefore, despite granting of equal citizenship rights, the Malay special privileges remained. The other concession made by the non-Malays was to agree that Islam be the official religion of the Federation (Article 3), Malay as the national language (Article 152), and the Sultans as head of states (Loh, 1982, p. 7). It was with this agreement that the constitutional contract was signed in 1957.
The constitution was approved by the Federal Legislature, thus leading to the declaration of independence of Malaya by Tunku on August 31st, 1957. Post-colonial Malaya become a semi-democratic country based on ‘elite accommodation’, a governmental practice described by Means (1991) as a system that required mobilization of each ethnic group by its elite and in turn rank and file compliance for agreed policies. This democratic system became the very basis for Malayan and thereafter Malaysian consociationalism described by Vorys (1975) as a government
characterized by vertical mobilization of the Malays, Chinese, and Indian communities, and horizontal solidarity of the Malay, Chinese, and Indian political leaders. This became the driving force of ethnic politics in the newly independent state of Malaya.