Decisive Indian catalyst to anti-colonial revolution

The assertion that Malaysian Indians are orang pendatang (read ‘birds of passage’) should also be viewed especially in relation to the fierce struggle they waged against colonialism along with the MCP and the Malay 10th Regiment, that ultimately brought political independence and peace which we enjoy in Malaysia today

But while it is well known that the militant uprising was met with the promulgation of the Emergency Regulations, it is less known that the primary catalyst for the latter was, in fact, the widespread industrial action that resulted in the abolishment of those trades unions associated with rubber production that were led mainly by the Indians. The leaders, therefore, became legitimate targets as those of the MCP.

The book The Finest Hour: The Malaysian-MCP Peace Accord in Perspective is perhaps the only work which explains in some detail that the Indian workers, their wives and often their children, suffered extreme physical punishment and suffering by the British because of their union power to disrupt rubber production through strikes and related industrial action.

Because Malaya was the ‘jewel in the crown’ for its financial contribution to the sterling block and the dollar arsenal (at one point exceeding that of all other colonies put together), the colonial regime was determined to suppress industrial strike action through hangings, banishment and flogging of union leaders.

Indeed, at least in one particular instance the book has published the entire report of the independent Commission of Inquiry into the ‘Kedah Incidents’ (1947). Its main conclusion was the indictment that there was premeditated collusion between the estate agencies, the government, police, and even the army in the violence that erupted resulting in some loss of life among the workers.

‘The Finest Hour…’ has now been acclaimed as the only social history on the basis of which the inclusion of the Chapter ‘Revolt and Revolution in Malaya’ was made possible in the Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (1999)

It is therefore respectfully submitted that what seems to be woefully lacking in this question of pendatang is a total understanding of the issues involved, and it is sincerely hoped that those really concerned about seeking reliable explanations in race relations from theoretical and pragmatic perspectives would do well to start by reading ‘The Finest Hour….’

http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/145460