The Early Years of Malaysia (Part 2)

While British intervention in Selangor went unchallenged, in Negeri Sembilan, Perak and Pahang it met with initial Malay resistance, led by chefs, but this was suppressed by British forces. The British Residents in Perak, J.W.W. Birch, was assassinated in November 1875 for introducing reforms designed to ban slavery and reorganise revenue collection. Under treaties signed with the Rulers of these four States, British Residents were to give advise on all matters except on Malay customs and Islam, but in actual fact ruled the states on behalf of the Malay Rulers. The first measurestaken by the Residents of each State were to establish law and order, to retain the services of the penghulu (village chiefs), to establish a treasury and organise the collection of revenue in the States and to establish a magistrates'court, a police force and prisons. States Councils were established in which Malay aristocrats sat with British officials and representatives of the business community to deliberate on economic development and matters of administartion such as finance, public works, customs mines and hospitals.

In 1896, the four States were federated and brought under the control of a British Resident-General, who was to be under the supervision of the Governor of the Straits Settlements. The Governer would also be known as High Commissioner for the Federated Malay States (FMS). Kuala Lumpur became the federal civil service with departmental heads. Railways, agriculture, education, forestry, labour, survey, public works and medical services all became Federal departments. All legislation was to passed, in similar terms, in each of the four State Councils. The principle was maintained that the powers of the four rulers within their own States, together with those of the individual State Councils, would not be curtailed. However, the State Councils began losing much of their importance and powers as separate units. Dissatisfaction over these matters was raised at the first Durbar (Conference of Rulers) at Kuala Kangsar in July 1897.

When Kuala Lumpur became the Federal capital, a building spree occurred, with new Government buildings constructed with an eclectic blend of Moorish and European styles. In the capital's ethnic quaters flourished a further variety of colourful architectural styles - in Malay houses and mosque. Chinese shophouses and Indian Temples. The Public Gardens, later named Lake Gardens, were officially opened in 1889 after the lake, named Sydney after the High Commissioner's wife, was crerated by damming the Bras Bras River.

Tennis, cricket, golf, football and horse-racing were introduce to the locals, and the Padang was the usual place for the colonial elite to play cricket. Football, in particular, was popular. At the second Durbar held in Kuala Lumpur in 1903, a team from the premier school, Vistoria Institution, played against a town team. Horse-racing attracted not only the colonial elite but also wealthy locals. Rase meetings were a great excuse socialising and wearing the latest fashion. The Malays, meanwhile, enjoyed football, wrestling andkite-flying, all of which were seasonal pursuits.

Sactorial fashions began to change as Western-styles dress started to influence Malayans, although most still wore traditional dress. Malay Governemnt officials, for instance, wore european shirts and trousers to work but those in the kampongs still wore their baju and sarong and their womenfolk either wore the baju kurung or baju kebaya. Most Chinese men had taken to wearing a tunic-like version of Western suits, while Chinese women dressed either in traditional growns (espacially for weddings) or in cheongsam or trouser suits. Straits Chinese and Indian women, espacially in Malacca, wore outfits similar to those of the Malays, with charateristic batik sarongs.

Development of the States under British protection forged ahead. Between 1875 and 1900, the total State revenues rose from well under half a million Straits dollars to $15 1/2 million. By the turn of the century, more than 300 miles of trunk railway and some 1,500 miles of road traversed the western side of the Peninsuka and there were 169 Malay vernacular schools in the FMS, attended by 6,494 boys and 234 girls. In 1898, a Malay teachers' training college was opened.

Fundamental changes began to occur in the social and economic life of the Malay States. The road and rail networks were expended greatly, as were ports and coastal steamship services. The tin-mining and tin-smelting industries grew tremendously in size, organisation and output, accompanied by large capital investment and modern mechanisation. Similarly, there was a vast increase of plantation agriculture, starting with coffee and sugar, which were replaced by rubber, all-like tin-destined to supply world markets. These developments in communications, industry and agriculture required vast number of workers and the Malay States in which they took place became lands of promise for many people.

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The Early Years Malaysia (Part 1)

The earliest Malay kingdom on the Malay Peninsula is said to have been Langkasuka. It is believed to be the forerunner of Kedah. Archaelogical remains in Kedah's Bujang Valley provide evidence of trade with India and Hindu-Buddhist influences, from the 4th-14th centuries CE.

During the 13th century CE, the Siamese dominated much of the Malay Peninsula including Kedah, Kelantan, Pahang, Patani and even island of Temasek (Singapore), at the southernmost tip of the Peninsula, whose governer was their subject. These lands were forced to sendtributes to Siam. In the 14th century, Islam may have arrived in Kedah, possibly brought by a sheikh from Yemen, and its influence had also spread by that time to Terengganu, where a stoner pillar, found beside a river, revealed the oldest Malay text in the Arabic script, whereby Muslim laws were promulgated by a local ruler.

The beginning of the 15th century saw the rise of the new Malay kingdom of Malacca, which joined the large maritime trade system of Southeast Asia. Its regional entrepot trade with the Siamese kingdom of Ayuttha in the north and with Java in the south, and also with China and Japan, was so great that Protugese traders who arrived later described it as the 'Venice of the East'. Malacca was founded by a prince from Palembang, Parameswara, after he was forced to flee from Temasek. He feared the arrival of Siamese forces bent on avenging his assassination of the Siamese governer there. Malacca establish a reputation as a secure port for trade and shipping in its waters, as a cosmopolitan marketplace equipped with excellent facillities and as an important redistribution centre for the region's produce.

Owing to its economic prosperity, the kingdom of Malacca grew in strength and its empire extended to include Pahang, Perak, Johor, Singapore, the Riau-Lingga archipelago and much of the east coast of Sumatra. Malacca is also mentioned in Chinese imperial histories as having paid tributes to China in exchange for help in resisting the threat of attack by Java, and later by Siam, which were both vassal states of China.

In 1511, however Malacca fell to the Portugese, whose policy was to monopolise all trade in the region. The descendants of the Sultan of Malacca fled to Perak and Johor, where the Malays entrepot state was re-established. Johor's trade prospered and it was able to help the Dutch attack and defeat the Portuguese in Malacca in 1641. The Dutch were allowed to occupy Malacca, but decided to restrict its trade and role so as not to chalangge the Dutch trading and administrative centre Batavia in Java. In 1699, Johor was plunged into political turmoil when its ruler, who was the last descendant of that branch of the Malacca royal dynasty, was assassinated.

For some 20 years, rival factions fought for control. During this time the parties involved sought the intervention of other Malay States such as Siak and Minangkabau in Sumatra and others in Sulawesi. Bugis warriors from Sulawesi finally assisted Johor's former Bendahara (Prime Minister) to gain the throne and helped him establish a dynasty which lasted into the 19th century. They also set up a Bugis sultanate in Selangor. The Malay sultanate in Perak, which was directly descended from the Malacca royal lineage post, established at the mouth of teh Perak River, traded in tin and other products and at the same time provided military protection.

Intense Dutch-Bugis rivalry, however, led the Ducth to seize the Bugis-dominated Johor-Riau kingdom in 1784 and place the Malay Ruler under their control. English traders arrived in 18th century and eventually one of them, Francis Light, was established a trading post for East India Company (EIC) on the island of Penang. The Sultan of Kedah leased the island to the EIC and his aim in securring an English military presence there was to deter attacks by the Bugis in Selangor and from Siam and Burma. The Napoleonic wars in Europe led to the British attacking and capturing Ducth-occupied Java, Malacca and Riau, altghough they were returned to the Dutch when the wars ended in 1815.

In 1819, before the Dutch returned to the region, the EIC's Stamford Raffles established a port in Singapore and opened it to free trade. Anglo-Ducth revilary shattered the Malay entrepot trade system based in Johor-Riau. In 1826, the EIC united the administration of its three settlements, Penang, Singapore and Malacca which became known as the Straits Settlements and was a British crown colony. Gradually, the Malay entrepot States of Kedah, perak and Johor-Riau became less competitive as the ports of Penang and Singapore prospered and siphoned off their trade.

In 1874, troubles among the Malay chiefs over royal succession and over revenue from the rich tin mines in the western peninsular States of Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Perak affected tin exports and general trade. This and at least technically their being invited to do so by local Rulers, led the British to intervene in these States in order to establish political stability and western-type administration. They also intervened in Pahang on the east coast of the Peninsula.