FEDERATION OF MALAYA PROCLAIMS INDEPENDENCE

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28370, 31 August 1957, Page 10

FEDERATION OF MALAYA PROCLAIMS INDEPENDENCE

Western-Style Democracy Again On Trial In Asia

[By a Swcwi CorrespO'nd.ent} r J 'HE Federation of Malaya will pmdaim its independent e today. and when the celebrations are over Western-style democracy again titill go on trial in Asin. Aew Zealand is taking snare than a Passing interest in this small equatdrialcountry, fcetrt tn Australia it will he our closest Commonwealth neighbour according to our military planners, it forms part of New Zealand’s front line of deience. Malaya's Proximity to New Zealand, however, is 9till best expressed in terms oi time and distance. Kuala Lumpur, the Federal capital, is a comfortable one and "'•half days by air from Christ church nr Auckland. The cultural and personal affinities are somewhat more remote.

The Federation of Malaya 'Which fines not include the bust-! tag Crown Colony of Singapore. 1 is a finger of land pointing southj from Siam. It is within easy] reach of India. China, and Indon-j •sia and has strong historic and I racial links with all three. t It is nf about 51.000 square] miles, half the size of New Zea-] land, and four-fifths is covered by, dense tropical jungle. Of the] 5.000.000-odd people. 49 per cent, are Malays and Malaysians. 38 per cent. Chinese. 12 per cent. Indian and the rest a mixture of Eurasians. Europeans and others. Commercial power lies with the British and Chinese and the Malays are still largely an agrarian people. The revenue-earn-ing industries are rubber and tin. Malaya, as the world's largest tin producer and. next to Indonesia, the largest rubber producer, is among the sterling area's most accomplished dollar earners. That is a brief and bleak account of one of Asia's most charming countries. It neglects the ; rich folk ways of the people and' the diverse natural blessings ofi the land. But in looking at] Malaya, observers generally dis-’ regard the blessings and concen-l trate on the problems. That is be- f cause the main problems are elec-] trie and sometimes give off sparks.'

Malays. Chinese Indians Malaya is a copybook example of .a plural society. Almost equal numbers of Malays and Chinese, plus an important minority of Indians, live side by side. Whatever else the British protectorate has accomplished in Malaya it has failed to create a nation. Even if Government by officials were a good environment for developing healthy national feeling, time and circumstances have been against-this in Malaya. The British entered Malaya under agreements with the Malay states in the last century and, under their treaty obligations, have developed, unified and administered the country in trust io the Malays. The plantation and industries brought large numbers of Indians and Chinese to Malaya in a wave of migration that extended well into the present century. The result is a modern mixture of i-aces of widely- different attitudes. Colonial government has helped to insulate the country against racial tensions. Only in small measure has it brought , the races together. Of the Asian communities in Malaya, the Chinese are commercially supreme. Their capita], enterprise and labour have played a large part in the development of the country, and in rubber and tin holdings they are second only to the British. According to the last census in 1947, only 11 per cent, of Malays live in urban areas, compared with 43 per cent, of Chinese. The main occupation of Malays is rice cultivation, and they are not commercially active.

Religion And Racial Outlook Apart from the economic differences. there are differences in religion and racial outlook in no way lessened by the warm breezes of nationalism that blow in from the South China Sea and across the Indian Ocean. Many, including the present Government, believe that one way to make Malayans out of Malays. Chinese and Indians is through education. But the existing schools system is designed for anything but education for unity. The British have not tried through education to anglicise the people and there are four distant school systems: Malay. Chinese. English and Indian. Government, education, policy has not extended far beyond the provision of « elementary schools

for Malays and enough English schools to keep the Government supplied with clerks. Chinese schools are largely the I product of private initiative and communal pride. They cultivate a racial outlook and for that reason are considered disruptive. The Government is expected to rake years to build a unified schools system. Not only must it combat racial stubbornness but it must also find the money. The school-age population is growing at an unprecedented rate, but the schools can provide for little more than half the children of primary school age and one in 14 of those of secondary school age. If education is a great leveller, so too are constitutions. Under] the new constitution all born in the Federation after independence day will be citizens. This is a major concession by Malays, to non-Malays and is expected to give them a more Malayan outlook. Delicate Racial Arch The key stone al present holding this delicate racial arch together is the chief minister, Tengku Abdul Rahman, the mildmannered lawyer prince who

heads the Alliance Government. The Alliance is a coalition of the United Malays National Organisation. the Malayan Chinese Association' and the Malayan In r dian Congress, the country's three leading communal parties. These three post-war groups contest elections on a single platform and until now they have been held together by a- single issue—independence. Now that independence has been won. other issues will have more play. The Alliance won all but one of 52 seats in the Federation's first general election in 1955. A d although the electorate was 84 2 per cent. Malay, the 15 Chinese and two Indians among the Alliance candidates received overwhelming majorities. even where they stood against Malay opponents.

This indicates that the people of Malaya are prepared to vote on party rather than communal lines. In 1955, they were voting for independence. Rahman's Policy Tengku Abdul Rahman, who emerged from obscurity the war to lead U.M.N.0.. heads the dominant group of Malay moderates and Chinese merchants in the Alliance. He follows a policy of racial harmony. anti-com-munism and economic development along lines that, except, in scale, differ little from present British policy. v There are people in Malaya

I who consider rice a more potent ' dividing factor than race. Thete ■is much to be said for this if [one looks at the depressed con- , diti/yn of the peasantry and the ■ prosperity of the merchant class, i But political parties with strong social policies have been slow to develop. They have been inhibited by the emergency regulations, inferior leadership and inability to compete against a machine like the Alliance, using independence as its bird-caU* There is one vast group ol people in Malaya that no party can influence, unless it is the Communist Party. These are the 600,000 people, mainly Chinese, who live in the 550 new villages, set up under the emergency regulations since 1950. Most of them are rubber tappers and former squatter farmers. They live in - wire encircled villages to protect them; from terrorist intimidation and to] cut the terrorists off from supplies and information. Curfews, food 'restrictions ano other restraints have been lifted from many of these villages as the terrorist war has receded. But they have not been disbanded and it is yet to be decided wha*l is to become of them when th® emergency is over. Legacy Of Biuei-oess The emergency • has left a legacy of bitterness, in these oddly artificial settlements. The villagers tend to divide strangers, 1 into two types: The “government] man," who brings controls and] restrictions, and the “man from; the hills," who comes through! the wire in the night with a sack for food or a bullet for inform-) ers.

Communist terrorism places a heavy and continuing financial burden on the Federation Government. not to mention the immense persona] strain it puts on rural people who have already endured rhe Japanese occupation. There are some Malayans who contend that the continued use of Common wealth soldiers against the terrorists is gambling with sovereignty and that the trees can't be seen for the troops, including New Zealanders. But the] Government takes the view that j communism in Malaya is part of an international conspiracy, and] that all countries, have a stake »n its suppression. The emergency cannot be isolated from the other'issues 'that the new Malaya must face. For instance. Malaya still lacks a modern system of local government, and it is doubtful if the present mixture of customary and communal rule and the administra • tion of local services by central Government officials can meet the requirements of an independent State. Malay's Economy

The economy of Malaya is fairly ’ advanced by Asian standards The per capita level of national income was estimated in 1953 at £95, the highest in the Far East. 1 Economic advancement is tied tip closely with the future of the , mbber and tin industries, which 1 account for more than 85 per cent, of domestic exports and onefifth of the national income. Rubber, by far the more important, faces serious competition from synthetics, and tin is subject to marketing difficulties, now being met by the International Tin Agreement. Then there is the question of the future of Singapore, an island fortress and great entrepot trading port of more than 1,000,000 people. 86 per cent, of them Chinese of a particularly self-conscious type. Will it remain a Crown Cojony. or will it come under the administration of the independent Federation of Malaya? These are problems that will occasion no despair for the new Commonwealth country. They are recognised as the price for self-government.