By Poh Soo Kai
A Historical Perspective
We all know that when a glass of tea is three quarters full, it is also one quarter empty. I would like to dismiss the empty part of this dialectic first, the history that pertains to the self, to me, and then to talk a bit more of the history concerning the problems we face today — the history that concerns our society, the substantive portion, the tea.
I grew up in a colonial society. I was one of the privileged few who were able to study at the local higher educational institutions, set up essentially to train locals so that the exploitative colonial system could be facilitated and perpetuated. Knowledge however has its unforeseen effects. I studied medicine and as a medical student saw patients with beri-beri. We were taught the cure was to administer vitamins. The question that arose was: is vitamin a drug, a medicine, like antibiotics, the administration of which cures the disease, or should it be regarded and classified as food, the lack of which causes the disease? I regarded vitamins as food, and when one took this view, other questions arose, like why was there a shortage of food, why should there be such poverty? Thus I began a step forwards on the socialist road.
A Bit More on the Substantive Part of the Dialectic
I came of age at the end of the Second World War, a time of political ferment. Oppressed peoples the world over were struggling and fighting for independence, struggling to get rid of foreign masters and for a better life. I joined the anti-colonial struggle. In any fight you would like to know your opponent, what it is you are facing and fighting against. You would also want to be clear what it is you are fighting for and sacrificing for. For some it was just Malayanisation — the replacement of the foreigner with the native. But for others, the basic undemocratic exploitative system has to be changed, changed to a system that works for the interests of the people as a whole, and not just for the interests of the few. Colonial exploitation is just a manifestation of capitalism.
Anti-colonial days presented one advantage. In industrial disputes it was easier to relate the exploitative colonial system with the struggle for better wages and conditions of work. The state machinery, the police that broke up the strikes, the riot police that clubbed your children, the judiciary that sent protesters to prison were rightly and easily identified with the colonial regime and thus with capitalism. Today, it is easier to separate the political and economic aspects in a dispute. Thus instillation of political consciousness among your supporters would be more difficult for you.
The Legacy of Colonialism
Fifty years of merdeka [independence] is a good time to talk of the legacy of colonialism. Apart from the perpetuation of the capitalist system, there are three key political areas which need attention and solution. They are communalism (or ethnic problems); the Internal Security Act (ISA); and the unity of Malaya (or Malaysia) and Singapore.
Communalism
After the war, the political scene was dominated by radical nationalists, people who demanded independence and also the uplift of society as a whole. There was consensus that economic growth for the people can only come about with the termination of colonialism. They had a vision of a nation, a nation united in this effort, and not split up into ethnic groups struggling against each other. Compromise was necessary.
The political expression of this strong movement was the AMCJA-PUTERA [All-Malaya Council of Joint Action-Pusat Tenaga Raayat] coalition. The trade union movement, the Federation of Trade Unions, representing estate workers, railway workers, and urban workers, was a major force in this coalition. It was demanding better wages, better working conditions, and freedom to organize.
Nationalizing foreign investments so that the country’s wealth could be directed to local development was in the air. Ethnic problems, problems left by history, were played down for the common good. Compromises were reached, and the People’s Constitution drafted by lawyers in the Malayan Democratic Union (MDU) — part of the coalition — setting out the guidelines for a future Malayan State was proposed. It had widespread support as evidenced by the success of the ‘hartal’ [general strike].
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