Column - An eye on prosperity

ON the morning of Aug 31, 1957, I was an 11-year-old schoolboy standing with thousands of other schoolchildren on the Town Padang in Kluang, Johor, delighted to have a day off from school. When the proceedings in Kuala Lumpur were broadcast over the loudspeakers, I joined in lustily with the millions gathered that morning all over Malaya in shouting, "Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!"
I knew it was seven times because I counted each reverberation, but little did I understand the significance of the word or its implications, beyond the fact that the day was a holiday and we would get free ice-cream and a free film show at the Brilliant Cinema nearby.
That voice of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaya's first prime minister, shouting Merdeka!" became part of Malaysia's history and was the culmination of the political awakening of a new nation, which had begun more than 11 years before.
Just after the Second World War, the returning British imperial powers made a fatal mistake in the attempt to reconsolidate their colonial possessions. Their emissary, Sir Harold MacMichael, called on the rulers of the four Federated Malay States, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Perak and Pahang and of the five Unfederated Malay States of Johor, Terengganu, Kelantan, Kedah and Perlis, to get them to sign new treaties, which, among other things, ceded their sovereignty to King George VI.
On April 1, 1946, the British Colonial Protectorate called the "Malayan Union" was formed, comprising the nine Malay states and the Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca, leaving the Straits Settlement of Singapore out alone as the Crown Colony of Singapore.
From this apparent affront to Malay sovereignty, a movement was born in May 1946 in the state of Johor, led by a Malay state civil servant, Onn bin Ja'afar. The United Malays National Organisation (Umno) was born with the avowed mission of restoring Malay sovereignty, encapsulated in a simple and effective slogan: Hidup Melayu.
Umno spearheaded the movement to annul the so-called MacMichael treaties and restore sovereignty to the Malay rulers. The British revoked the Malayan Union and in its place, set up on Feb 1, 1948 the British Protectorate called the Federation of Malaya, with sovereignty and power re-vested in the Malay rulers, insofar as it concerned the Malay states.
But the Malays had been awakened, and began to question why a people from thousands of miles away should have the right to lord it over them. Events in the countries of origin, principally China and India, also got the immigrants to question whether Malaya was just a place to earn some money before returning triumphantly to their homeland as rich compadres; or a place to drop roots and build a stake. The Chinese organised under the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) and the Indians gravitated finally to the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC). Politics, from those early days, was largely confined to safeguarding the rights and interests of the various communal groups.
In the meantime, the heavy expenditure in arms, material and manpower, especially during the world war, had taken its toll on the once-mighty British Lion. It had become effete, poor and weary, and could not sustain the proud boast that the sun never sets on the Empire. The concept of a British Commonwealth of Nations was mooted in its place, and it became British foreign policy to assist all previous possessions to become self-ruling and eventually politically independent within the Commonwealth.
In accordance with this objective, in July 1955, nationwide elections were introduced for 52 out of 84 seats in the Malayan Federal Legislative Assembly. Umno, MCA and MIC contested under the common platform of the Alliance, (which incidentally was not registered as a political party until October 1957) but without its sailboat emblem, and won all but one of the seats. In Krian, Perak, Haji Ahmad Tuan Hussein won for the Pan-Malayan Islamic Party (PMIP, now PAS).
The first meeting of the Federal Legislative Assembly was held on Aug 31, 1955. At the following Umno general assembly held in December 1955, a resolution was passed calling for Umno representatives to the Merdeka Mission in January 1956 to demand political independence from the British within two years of limited self-rule or "by the end of August 1957".
One delegate was reported to have said that the resolution was arrogant and uncharacteristic of the gentle nature of the Malays, and he proposed the addition of "if possible". To the delight of the members, this amendment was unanimously accepted. (It was later ventured that the unknown delegate had used the Islamic term insya-Allah, or God willing, which the Straits Times translated as "if possible".)
The Tunku's mission in January 1956 thus did not have a restrictive deadline. However, during his sea voyage on the Asia, together with representatives of the Malay rulers and the leaders of his Alliance, the date Aug 31 became a subject of conversation. The Chinese leaders of the MCA must have pointed out to the Tunku that in Cantonese, 31-8 could be homophonic with sung-yet fatt ... literally, "birthday prosper" or "prosper from birth") or sung yet-fatt ... literally, "born straightaway prosper".
The Tunku must have been delighted with this propitious homophone, and strived in his talks with the British officials to obtain independence on Aug 31.
The struggle for Malayan independence was relatively easy. Upon arrival in London in January 1956, a senior British Colonial Office official was reported to have told the Malayan delegation, "We shall give you all you are seeking on a gold plate." The question of independence was never in doubt, given the united stand taken by both the political section represented by the Tunku, and the Malay rulers, represented by the mentri besar of Perak, Panglima Bukit Gantang, Abdul Wahab Toh Muda Abdul Aziz.
The Tunku flew back in triumph in February 1956 to Singapore and drove up to Malacca, where he proclaimed that "on 31st August 1957, there would be an end to more than 400 years of shameful subjection," alluding to the 1511 conquest of Malacca by the Portuguese which resulted in the first foreign domination, followed by the Dutch, the British, the Japanese and finally the British again.
Tunku's fascination with 31-8 did not end there. When Malaysia, comprising the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo (later renamed Sabah)and Sarawak was formed in 1963, the date chosen for the merger was 31 August. However, due to Tunku's desire to appease President Sukarno of Indonesia, the date was postponed to Sept 16 to allow the United Nations task force enough time to complete their studies and report back to secretary-general U Thant that the people of North Borneo and Sarawak were happy to merge into Malaysia.
In the event, the appeasement was futile, as Sukarno had been using the issue of confrontation against Malaysia, which he claimed was neo-colonialism, for his personal agenda of diverting attention from his own political and economic problems. Notwithstanding that the Federation of Malaysia was legally and ceremonially constituted on Sept 16, 1963, subsequent anniversaries have always been celebrated on Aug 31.
Many years later, I went back to the scene of that momentous ceremony in Kluang. In its place stands an ugly concrete jungle of shopping malls. In the name of progress and maximising the utility of valuable real estate, the padang had been handed over to developers for crass commerce. Brilliant Cinema is no more, and I still cannot remember what film played that day.
Epilogue:
Many years later, Tunku confessed that he had not meant to shout Merdeka so many times. The reverberation of Merdeka around the stadium was so exhilarating that he got carried away. Subsequent replays by television channels of the famous shouts shortened the shouts to three, leading many to the mistaken notion that Tunku had shouted Merdeka three times. Believe me, he shouted seven times.
This article is excerpted from the book Grandfather Stories by retired accountant Yap Yok Foo a. k. a. Uncle Yap. The book takes readers down memory lane recounting a golden yet forgotten era. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com