A Doctor in The House: A Memoir of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (11 page)

The Kedah state government wanted more local personnel appointed to head the administration. Accordingly, Malay students who did well were sent to England to study engineering, law and veterinary science. Students were also sent to Singapore and Hong Kong to study medicine. Police officers were trained in Kedah’s own Police Depot. That is why when Malaya became independent, most of the professional departments were headed by Kedah Malays. After my father stepped down as the founding headmaster of the Government English School in Alor Star, two other Malays who were also from Penang—Abdul Manaf and Ismail Merican—succeeded him. But after them all the headmasters of the Government English School in Alor Star were European. The Government’s technical and professional departments were also headed by British officers. My father never said anything to me about what he thought of colonial rule, but like everyone else I think he accepted that it was the way things were.

Malay, written in the Jawi script, was the official language in the Unfederated Malay States’ administration. In Malay schools, we learnt both the Jawi and the Rumi (or Romanised) script. Gradually, the British pushed for the latter, and in Malay schools, students learnt Jawi only to be able to read the Quran. In English schools, the study of the Quran was not among the subjects, although in the Government English School where I studied, there were afternoon religious classes. I continued my study of the Quran at home, initially under my mother and then under a senior student from the Mahmood Arabic School.

Although the Rulers of the Federated States were paid higher political pensions and had a more affluent lifestyle, all the Rulers were aware of and mildly resented the fact that British control was more direct and extensive in the Federated States. The language of administration in those states was largely English. Since there were few Malays with an English education, English-educated Indian and Ceylon Tamils were brought in to man senior posts. Where they controlled recruitment, these officers would fill new posts with their relatives from India and Ceylon. By the early twentieth century an ethnic social stratification had emerged in the Straits Settlements and the Federated States, with the white officers at the top, followed in turn by the Eurasians, the Ceylon Tamils, the Indians and the Chinese. At the bottom of this ladder were the Malays. That was the price of not getting a good education, and it is something I have never forgotten.

When the British entered into treaties with the Malay Rulers, it was not clear over which areas these Rulers would exercise their authority. So the British were able to move boundaries at will. Province Wellesley
[7]
 was enlarged when its southern boundary was moved to include Perak
territory. Down south, when Singapore was ceded to the British, they set its boundaries to include islands in the Johor Straits. In the north, much of Kedah territory was ceded and became Siamese territory under the Anglo-Siamese Bangkok Treaty of 1909. Colonial administrative convenience and economic advantage seemed to supercede all other considerations, everywhere. Meanwhile, Japan and Siam were adopting European systems of government. Kedah and Johor also attempted to do likewise before accepting British protection. Penang was the model for Kedah, and Singapore for Johor. But the re-organisation was not conducted well, as too many people with vested interests interfered.
 

Under British colonial rule large areas of forest land were given out to British companies for rubber plantations and tin mining. They paid just a few Straits dollars per acre. Where Malay reserve land was involved, the Government obligingly made available forest land to replace the Malay reserve land which was excised. These companies made huge profits from both the plantations and the big tin mines where dredges were used. They were listed on the London Stock Exchange and their shareholders were almost exclusively British. Chinese miners operated the open-cast mines and sand pumps. There were also American-owned plantations, but needless to say, the bulk of the money accrued to Britain. Malaya collected no tax on the profits, as income tax was introduced only after World War II. Improving public amenities and infrastructure for local society was not an objective of colonial “protection”. Revenue was to be collected for other purposes and more distant beneficiaries.

Initially, Malay states had their own money in the form of brass, silver and gold coins. When trade with the Europeans flourished, the Spanish silver dollar was accepted for payment. When Penang was ceded to the British, the agreement provided for a yearly payment of 6,000 Spanish silver dollars. Then a slice of the mainland opposite Penang was ceded for 4,000 Spanish silver dollars. Since politics in those days was the prerogative of the Sultan, no one questioned the deal. British plans benefited from the deep feudal loyalty of the Malay 
rakyat
 to their Rulers. And 10,000 Spanish silver dollars was a lot of money then.

After silver dollars were replaced by currency notes issued by the Government of the Straits Settlements, the payment to Kedah was made in Straits dollars. The note guaranteed the value in gold of the Straits dollar, but in practice no redemption in gold ever took place. The Straits dollar was never the same in value to the Spanish silver dollar and, over time, it depreciated. But in the absence of any paper money issued by the Malay states, the currency notes issued by the Government of the Straits Settlements (and later by the Currency Board of the Straits Settlements and the Federated States) became legal tender in all the states of Malaya. Prior to this, the major British banks had made huge sums of money issuing banknotes. And when the governments of the Straits Settlements took over, they too made money printing currency notes. No one knew in those days whether there were any gold reserves to back the Straits dollar, but so long as nobody wondered or, more to the point, sought to redeem notes for gold, it did not matter.

When Malaya became independent in 1957 the value of the Straits dollar was fixed at 8.30 to one pound sterling and three to one US dollar. Malaya belonged to the Sterling bloc and all its reserves were kept in pounds. The British Government assumed that the Straits dollar, which became the Malayan dollar after Independence, would depreciate in value. And so in the Independence agreement, the British insisted that their pensioners be paid in pounds. However, it was the pound which devalued and the payment of pensions to British retirees cost the Malayan Government less in terms of the Malayan dollar than at the time of Independence. But in 1967, Malaysia lost quite a lot of money following the sudden devaluation of the sterling because its reserves were held in British pounds.

The systematisation of the administration and the introduction of proper currency and financial systems improved the administration of the Malay states and Malaya as a whole. Even the foreign-owned rubber plantations and tin mines helped enrich Malaya so that at the time of Independence, Malaya’s administration and finances were on a much better footing than many other colonies which gained independence after World War II. But the annual per capita income of the five million people living in the Peninsula was below USD350. Unemployment was high and poverty rampant.

The British lauded the concept of constitutional monarchy of the kind that they practised as the ideal form of government. But they never mentioned that democracy or elections were not practised or held in British Malaya. British colonial rule was autocratic and discriminatory against the locals, especially the Malays. Today the British, like other ethnic European imperialists, demand that their former colonies be democratic. They really do not have any right to do so but they show not the slightest embarrassment over their own past.

Yet many Malays must have admired British parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy. When UMNO finally got around to seeking self-government and independence, there was no talk about republicanism. Instead, the discussion focused on how to merge nine Malay states with their Sultans into a single nation to be called the Federation of Malaya, which would replace the Malayan Union. On what basis might the Rulers agree to this merging, even submerging, of their separate identities and state sovereignty into a new central structure? It was a stroke of genius on the part of the Malay leaders to suggest a rotation of Kings, who would be elected for five-year terms from among the Malay Rulers. The Rulers were happy to accept this new constitutional status. It was far better than the MacMichael Treaties, which provided the basis for the much disliked and quickly repudiated Malayan Union of 1946. Those proposed arrangements would have reduced them to mere heads of the Islamic religion and custodians of Malay customs and traditions, and ultimately perhaps to the status of princely anachronisms like those who were so easily cast aside in India.

To some extent the British can claim credit for solving the problem of retaining the system of Malay states and Sultans while uniting them into one entity and nation. The system has worked well even after the admission of Sabah and Sarawak into Malaysia. Malayan constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy reflect the good sense of our people as a whole, the Malays in particular. The Malays had learnt a lot from the British and the Colonial Government. There was no initial hostility towards the British. We Malays were used to being vassals of more powerful nations from before. The suzerainty of the British was not unusual. When the Chinese communists resorted to armed struggle against the British Colonial Government of the Federation of Malaya, few Malays joined them, whereas they readily joined the security forces to fight alongside the British.

It was the Chinese who created problems for the British administrators. Their secret societies actively extorted money from the rich and they operated brothels, opium dens and illegal gambling operations. They formed 
kongsi
 or clandestine organisations seeking to control monopolies and to dominate selected economic niches, and they warred among themselves.
[8]
 Influenced by events in China, they started to spread communism. They organised a
hartal
, or a general strike like those engineered by Gandhi, and boycotted Japanese goods. Despite these problems, the British Colonial Government seemed to think the contribution of the Chinese towards the colonial economy was worth the trouble. A Protector of the Chinese was appointed. During the Malayan Union dispute, Victor Purcell, who was the most prominent holder of that position, strongly defended Chinese rights.
 

The British kept the three races apart. While the Malays were immersed in peasant life in rural areas, the Chinese were concentrated in urban centres and the Indians in rubber estates. Malay peasants were reluctant to leave their 
kampung
 homes to take up wage labour under the unrewarding and difficult conditions that destitute imported Indian labour had to accept. Not unreasonably, they preferred to remain in the countryside, earning cash from rubber cultivation when they could, otherwise growing and subsisting on rice cultivation or fishing. This choice made immediate short-term sense for every individual Malay farmer and Malay family. But in the long run, it meant that Peninsular Malay society became ever more sidelined from development. Socially and culturally, not just economically, the Malay peasant world became a backwater. In time, Malays became outsiders not only to advancing modernity but to the desire to acquire its benefits and to master its new skills and knowledge.

Their British “protectors” were happy to let this happen. They liked the idea of a simple, changeless Malay world. Yet, damaging as it would prove, their divide-and-rule strategy must have been successful, for during the colonial days there were hardly any racial clashes. British Malaya may well have remained a trouble-free part of the great British Empire had the Japanese not decided to invade it.

Some people believe that my being critical of the British and other Europeans stems from the fact that I was not educated in the UK, as the three Prime Ministers before me were. In fact, my dislike for the British and British colonialism was retrospective, something that developed upon hindsight. Had it not been for the Malayan Union proposal, which would have deprived the Peninsular Malays of their land, I would likely have continued to be unquestioningly pro-British. But the struggle against the Malayan Union caused me to look back on the period of colonial rule and see much that I did not like. It resulted in a feeling of humiliation that led to my mental and emotional revolt against the British. It was then that the decolonisation of my own mind and soul began.

ENDNOTES

[
1
] The Royal Lake Club of Kuala Lumpur was founded on 16 August 1890. The decision to bar the Sultan of Selangor from joining the club was later rescinded, and the British officer responsible was banished from Selangor.
 

[
2
] Tunku Badlishah ibni Sultan Abdul Hamid became the 29th Sultan of Kedah in 1943.
 

[
3
] The Federated Malay States lasted until 1946, when it formed the Malayan Union with Singapore, Malacca, Penang and Province Wellesley, Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu and Johor.
 

[
4
] A state in the northwestern region of Peninsular Malaysia.
 

[
5
] A state on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
 

[
6
] Perlis is a state in the northwest region of the Peninsula.
 

[
7
] The part of Penang state that is located on the mainland, opposite Penang island.
 

[
8
]
Kongsis
were Chinese immigrant associations which were founded by various clans to provide economic and social contacts for their members who came in large numbers to work in tin mines and plantations.