TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE

MERDEKA CHALLENGES
 The PTM was established to prepare the people for
self-govt. (MERDEKA)
 Being a plural society of different racial
communities, the communist problems and other
problems tied to racial unity convinced the British
that RACIAL UNITY was necessary before the
country could be given independence.
PROBLEM OF UNITY
 Unity was one of the main problems in the struggle
for independence.
 Due to diversity of origin, culture and religion.
 Every community wanted its mother tongue to be
made the national language and felt worried when
the Malays wanted Islam to be made the official
religion.
Problem of Unity..
 The non-Malays who were born here demanded
they be granted citizenship.
 The Malays, challenged the claim.
 The cause of the problems was not just the
behaviour of the communities.
Problem of Unity..
 It was also the result of the British DIVIDE and
RULE policy that isolated them according to place
of residence and occupation.- no opportunity for
interaction and a gap was created..
Problem of Unity..
 The British govt. tried to overcome the
problems thru the educational system.
 The Barnes Report suggested that the same
medium of instruction be used in the
schools, English at the secondary and Malay
at the primary.
Problem of Unity..
 The Chinese objected thru the Fenn-Wu
Report and wanted the Chinese schools to be
continued.
 The Malays wanted Malay to be the medium
of instruction at all levels.
Problem of Unity..
 In 1949, The British Govt. set up an Inter-Ethnic
Relations Committee (IRC) for open discussions of
racial problems.
Member System (MS)
 In April 1951 the British introduced the Member
System in the Federal Legislative Council to
provide local people the opportunity to be involved
in the admin. system.
 The purpose of MS – to appoint local reps. to the
post of head of dept. in the central govt.
The MS..
 Some members were appointed ministers
responsible to the High Commissioner.
 The MS experience brought many benefits.
 Local leaders received training in admin. matters. –
acquired the skills to rule after independence.
 Created the spirit of cooperation among races thru
joint administration – made them realize that unity
could be achieve thru cooperation and
compromise.
EVENTS TO INDEPENDENCE
 Several events happened that paved the way for
independence.
 They were the elections, the negotiations for
independence and the forming of the constitution.
The Elections
 The British used elections as a test of unity with
the promise that independence would only be
granted if the citizens were united.
 The elections led to the fostering of unity and
prepared the people for self-rule.
 The first election held in the country was the
Georgetown City Council in Dec 1951.
The Elections
 In term of communal relationship, the most
important was the Kuala Lumpur City Council
election held in Feb 1952.
 UMNO, teamed up with MCA and won 9 out of 12
seats contested.
 MCA was first formed as a welfare organization
fought for the rights and interest of the Chinese but
later changed as a political party.
The Elections
 City council elections were also held in Johore
Bahru, Seremban, Ipoh and Melaka.
 The result was wide support for the Alliance.
(UMNO, MCA and MIC)
 This signified the open-hearted of the people to
sacrifice and willing to share their power and
compromise for unity.
Demands to the British
 By 1953, two main groups, the first led by Dato’
Onn and the Alliance made various demands on the
British, including the demand for elections and
subsequently, Malaya was granted independence.
 A national conference attended by various political
parties, organised by Dato’ Onn requested for a
general election in 1956 and people
representatives as new members of Federal
Legislative Council.
 Demands to the British
 The Alliance (UMNO & MCA) requested for a
general election in 1954.
 People representatives elected thru general
election (GE) to have three-fifth of the voice in the
Federal Legislative Council.(FLC)
 The British govt. was more favorable to the
demand of the Alliance which had the support of
the people.
Demands to the British
 The Council of Malay Rulers (CMR) proposed that
the GE held in 1955 and the people’s
representatives form half the members of the FLC.
 Alliance opposed the CMR’s propositions but the
British turned down.
 In retaliation, thousands of UMNO and MCA
members resigned from the govt.
 This led British to agree to have election in 1955.
Efforts by UMNO
 UMNO was the only important party for the Malays
as radical parties were banned.
 UMNO tried to unite the Malays and opened the
door to radical Malays.
 Their entry into UMNO caused the slogan of UMNO
to change from “Long Live the Malays” to
“Merdeka” in 1951.
The General Elections (GE)
 The first GE was held on 27 July 1955 thru out
Malaya.
 Parties contested were:-
- Alliance (UMNO, MCA and MIC)
- PAS
- Parti Negara
- Parti Buruh
- Parti Progresif Rakyat.
The General Elections (GE)
 Of all the registered voters, 84.2% were Malays,
11.2% Chinese and 4.6% Indians.
 A total of 52 seats were contested.
 The Alliance won 51 and attracted almost 80% of
the total votes.
 Following the GE, the System of Members was
changed to the System of Ministers and Tunku was
appointed the first Chief Minister of Malaya.