Post-War Malaya

By G. O. Tease

ONE of the United Nations’ war aims is the preservation of the right of all nations to choose their own form of Government. The one limit insisted upon is that the chosen government shall not endanger the liberties of neighbouring peoples.

Malaya, with what wise counsel she needs from friendly Powers, must choose a form of government that will preserve the rights not of a minority or the majority of her people, but of .them all.

Malaya’s pre-war Federation Govern ment consisted of a Legislative Council and Federal Cabinet, and required the Governor-General of the Straits Settle ment to act as High Commissioner of the Federated States. It was not long before executive power was in the hands of an aristocratic bureaucracy whose merits and demerits are easily tabulated.

In a short space of time, it furnished Malaya with roads, electric power, hos pitals, law courts, telegraph, schools and water supplies. On the other hand, fol lowing bureaucracy’s fetish of rule by departmentalism, lack of co-operation and, worst of all, unconcealed contempt for the native population, bureaucracy produced the lack of native cohesion which the Japanese so successfully exploited. rR the sake of the future peace of the Pacific, there must be no post-war bureaucratic control in Malaya. As befitting the needs of the people and their future security as well as ours, a less autocratic and a more democratically co-operative system of government must be adopted.

The docile, law-abiding U million Chinese in Malaya, and the genial, friendly 5£ millions of Malayans, free from affectation and self-consciousness, present pliable material to be easily moulded into an indigenous democratic system of government. The remaining portion of the population, 50,000 Indians and 150,000 Europeans, ought not be an impediment to the experiment.

The wav is open for the Malayans to be guided to a new political destiny.

Former Japanese exploitation of the weaknesses of bureaucratic government, in creating dissatisfaction and division among the populace, should be sufficient guarantee that a repetition of such cir cumstances will not be permitted. We should not pay twice for bureaucracy’s folly.

It yet remains for the native civilisa tion of Malaya to be built up from exist ing rudiments. Malayans have a great love for the elementary arts of dancing and music. But like all such arts among primitive people, they still await the developmental stages dancing and music exoerience in civilised countries.

This is also true of the Malayan’s art in poetry and painting. Neither has pro gressed beyond the indigenous stage, because lacking creative contact with European art. Every nation which deve lops its art rises high above its primitive conception of life. mHE economics of the country will prove X a crucial factor in Malaya’s post-* war destiny. This war has given a new value to Malaya’s rubber production, so that it will take a larger place in Malaya’s future economics than it has done in the past. Something like the 1909-11 planting boom is likely to recur.

Vast tracts of rich jungle land await con version to rubber plantations.

Since the planting of 400 rubber tree seeds in Perak by Sir Frank Swettenham, in 1884, the rubber industry in Malaya

p^ ce s e u d p e p d iie?tk ev o e f peacetime requirements of one million tons annually.

In addition to rubber, the rich alluvial deposits and lode-bearing formations of tin oxide will continue to develop the wealth of Malaya. The tin-dredging industry which, within 20 years of its introduction into Malaya, produced most of the world’s reouirsments, is yet to make its greatest contribution to the economic life of the country.

Rubber and tin, with the huge untouched timber resources, the production of sugar cane and other agricultural products, are going to enhance the importance of the Malayan Peninsula, already strategically important as a western boundary of the Pacific.

AT first glance it is erroneously thought that the religious enthusiasm of the Malayans is superficial and confined to ceremonial display for its own sake It must be understood that their popular display of an adapted Mohammedanism rests lightly upon their shoulders. Their real religioii is a system of Animism which attributes a soul to all forms of vegetable life This notion gives a peculiar twist to the Malayan’s attitude towards agriculture. He gives the European reason to believe he is not a good agriculturist.

Why, he argues, should he produce more than his daily needs? Food production, though limited, is treated with a certain amount of veneration. His rice production. is accompanied. by religious cere-

no°t ma be honourably ‘the

improvement of his personal and national economic position' It is a factor that demands consideration in determining Malaya’s post-war destiny