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Showing posts with label British Empire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label British Empire. Show all posts

Saturday 30 June 2012

Myanmar warns Suu Kyi to stop calling nation Burma, a British colonialism legacy

 YANGON: Myanmar’s authorities have ordered opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to stop calling the country “Burma”, its colonial-era name widely used to defy the former junta.

Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi visits the Louvre Museum on Friday, June 29, 2012 in Paris. Myanmar authorities sternly urged Suu Kyi to stop calling the country 'Burma' and start using the name 'Myanmar.' (AFP Photo/Fred Dufour)

The old regime changed the country’s official name two decades ago to  Myanmar, saying the term Burma was a legacy of British colonialism and implied  the ethnically diverse land belonged only to the Burman majority.

Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party vigorously  opposed the change, decrying it as a symbolic step by the generals towards  creating a new country.

Berating her for using the name “Burma” during landmark recent visits to  Thailand and Europe, the Election Commission accused Suu Kyi and party members  of flouting a constitution they have vowed to uphold.

“As it is prescribed in the constitution that ’The state shall be known as  The Republic of the Union of Myanmar’, no one has the right to call (the  country) Burma,” it said in a statement, published in state mouthpiece The New  Light of Myanmar.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi called Myanmar ’Burma’ in her speech to the World  Economic Forum in Thailand on 1 June, 2012,” it noted.

“Again, Daw Aung San Suu  Kyi called Myanmar ’Burma’ in her speeches during her Europe tour.”

“Daw” is a term of respect in Myanmar.

Global leaders also face a dilemma of what to call the country, which is  emerging from decades of army rule under the guidance of reform-minded Prime  Minister Thein Sein.

Britain’s David Cameron calls it “Burma” while recent speeches by US  President Barack Obama also referred to its colonial name.

But his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chose a more diplomatic path on  a trip to the nation in December, employing the term Burma but saying it  sparingly, generally preferring to dodge controversy by saying “this country.” -- AFP NST

Wednesday 14 September 2011

Malaysia's history, sovereignty violated, semantics need truly national!





Of history and semantics

ALONG THE WATCHTOWER By M.VEERA PANDIYAN
veera@thestar.com.my

According to the country’s history buffs, we were not legally a colony of Britain, but only in effect.
Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj announced the ...Image via Wikipedia
IT was meant to be good break in Thailand, especially after weeks of scouring stories from dusty, bound copies of The Star for the paper’s 40th anniversary.

The mood in the kingdom, however, has been somewhat sombre, no thanks to the exceptionally bad weather this rainy season.

Floods and landslides have swept across 16 provinces in the country, killing more than 80 people and the death toll is set to rise further.

Even the resort town of Pattaya, which is usually spared from heavy torrents, was flooded over the weekend, along with Krabi, another tourist destination.

The rising waters have also set free potentially man-eating salt water crocodiles from a popular reptile farm, adding to the fears of locals and tourists.

So, there was little choice but to bum it out in Bangkok and keep abreast of the news, especially from back home.

And like always, the wonders never cease.

There was no escape from history and bizarre opinions from people who really should know better.

It was certainly news to read that Malaysia, or to be more precise, Malaya, was never a British colony but only a “protectorate”, as declared by Prof Dr Zainal Kling, a member of the 1,500-strong National Professors’ Council.



He argued that Britain held administrative powers, controlled the money and exploited the country’s natural resources but did not infringe Malay sovereignty in the states – except in the Straits Settlements of Malacca, Penang and Singapore.

Since then, there has been a deluge of comments against his views, along with the usual gnawing doubts about the state of our education system and more so the people who are supposed to be leading it.

But even the country’s most notable historian, Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Dr Khoo Kay Khim supported Dr Zainal, stressing that from a legal point of view, Malaya was never colonised.

The British, he said, took part in the administration of the Malay states as a result of treaties with the Rulers.
Dr Khoo said only those born in the Straits Settlements – yours truly from Malacca included – were considered British subjects, while those born in the Malay states were not. (Take note, Hindraf).

So, according to our presumably sage professors, it seems that in the legal sense we were not colonised but, sadly, in effect we were.

As former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohmad said sarcastically:
“The British did not advise, they gave orders.

“The English language is such that the advisers rule and rulers advise.”

Ahmad Fuad Rahmat, a research fellow at the Islamic Renaissance Front explained it vividly in his article in Harakah last week.

“Colonialism involves the exploitation of wealth of a nation – where one country becomes subjugated by the power and authority of another.

“If a country is browbeaten in such a manner, its sovereignty is already violated in effect, no matter what the legal documents say.

“So, Malay sovereignty was not protected under the Pangkor Treaty of 1874 because it gave the British a legal mandate to advise and interfere in local matters.”

As Ahmad Fuad rightly pointed out, sovereignty basically means power; and before independence, it was the British who held absolute power and control of the country.

The debate over the semantics of “colonisation” is of course, a spin-off from the controversy sparked by PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu, better known as Mat Sabu.

The Pokok Sena MP was reported to have said during a ceramah in Penang recently that a group of guerillas led by Mat Indera, who killed 25 policemen and their families in the Bukit Kepong tragedy in 1950, were the real heroes because they were fighting against the British.

He was also alleged to have said that Umno founder Datuk Onn Jaafar and the country’s first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman do not deserve to be called independence leaders because they were British officers.
In Thailand, colonisation, or rather the absence of it, is indeed a big deal.

Among the things that the Thais are very proud of is that they have never been a colony of any Western power.

I suppose one should ignore the fact that Thailand did not exist until 1939. Before that it was Siam, which in its long history, was sacked by the Burmese and Khmers.

But as for recent times past, its kings are credited as being smart – by being neutral instead of taking sides with any European colonial power.

King Chulalongkorn, for example, offered the country as a geographical buffer for the competing colonial interests and, through this, effectively protected the kingdom from foreign meddling.

Earlier this year, the Thai government planned to make English the country’s second language.

But the plan was stymied midway by former education minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat.

The committee reviewing the education system shot down the proposal for a peculiar reason: Making English a second official language might lead to misunderstanding that Thailand had been colonised in the past.

The minister justified his decision by saying that all countries in the region where English is the second language were viewed as former colonies.
While making comparisons between silly news makers in both countries, a Malaysian friend who is a long-time Bangkok resident summed it up with a common phrase:

“Same, same but different.”

Associate Editor M. Veera Pandiyan likes this Mark Twain quote: The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

Sovereignty of Malay Rulers a legal fiction

IN the midst of the controversy over Mat Sabu and Bukit Kepong certain views have been expressed about British rule which may have the unintended effect of confusing rather than enlightening.

It is true that the Malay states – unlike Penang, Malacca and Singapore – were not British colonies in the formal sense. Nonetheless, they were under British rule. The sovereignty of the Malay Rulers was a legal fiction.

The Ruler was required in both the Federated and Unfederated Malay States to seek, and act upon, the advice of the British Resident or Adviser “on all questions other than those touching Malay Religion and Custom”.

In other words, decision-making powers were effectively in the hands of the British.

Apart from laws and treaties which established the actual locus of authority with the British, every important dimension of the economy was under their control. Issues pertaining to land, resources, labour, capital and market in the Malay states were all determined by British policy and British interests.

This made the situation in the Malay states no different from the three British colonies in their vicinity. Indeed, it was British control over both the internal and external economy of the Malay states that rendered them de facto colonies.

Economic control led to the exploitation of Chinese and Indian workers in the tin mining and plantation sectors and the marginalisation of the Malay masses in the peasant sector.

The creation of a dual economy with the commodity based, exported oriented sector directed towards the colonial metropolis was a common characteristic of most colonial economies. In reality, the Malay states bore all the iniquities and injustices associated with colonial rule.

It is mainly because there was de facto colonialism that Umno in the 50s and Parti Kebangsaan Melayu in the 40s championed the cause of merdeka (independence) from the British.

They were focussed upon the substance – rather than the form – of British rule.

DR CHANDRA MUZAFFAR,Kuala Lumpur.

We need a truly national history

the Sun Says

WHAT was Malaysia when imperial Britain was lording it over us, a colony or a protectorate? This seems to be the title of the public debate that is raging in the media and elsewhere ever since someone declared that the country was not a colony of Britain before 1957 and 1963.

It may perhaps help the debaters to be reminded that before the Japanese occupation Malaya was made up of a colony known as Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca and Singapore, the Federated Malay States of Perak, Selangor, Pahang and Negri Sembilan and the Unfederated Malay States of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu and Johor.

In 1946, Sabah (then British North Borneo) and Sarawak became colonies. Whatever their legal status – colony or protectorate, Britain was the de facto ruling power over them. In 1957, the states of Malaya became independent of that power, free finally to decide their own destiny. Sabah and Sarawak followed six years later.

Because it is not an academic debate some are clearly being emotional about it while others try, with whatever facts they have at their command, to claim that they are being objective. There is no doubt some valid points are being made but in the heat of the debate few seem to notice them.

It all arose as a result of a claim that someone is a hero because he was fighting his countrymen who were part of the colonial police force.

While it may not be easy to come out with a clear-cut answer and explanation acceptable to all as to whether the person is a hero or a terrorist, the debate has generated a lot of interest in the history of the country especially at a time when the contents of secondary school history textbooks are being scrutinised for errors and inaccuracies.

The special committee that is going through the history books and the complaints of one-sidedness regarding them is expected to come up with a report by the end of the year.

Local historians have been known to complain that the history books written by western writers or those influenced by them tended to play up the role of the British while ignoring or down playing the roles of local personalities.

To "correct" the situation local historians in their books tended to down play the roles of Britain and British officials in the history of the country. Some other local historians also tended to highlight the role of one community while down playing the roles and contributions of the other communities.

A common complaint of Sabahans and Sarawakians is that the history of the formation of Malaysia gives more prominence to the roles of West Malaysians in the effort while the natives seem to be mere passive assenters to the fait accompli.

Thus the report is eagerly awaited and if universally accepted it may be a guide or template for the writing of a history that is truly national.

Thursday 18 August 2011

The true meaning of independence





PUTIK LADA By RAPHAEL KOK

We Malaysians may have freed ourselves of the colonial yoke but we are still lost, having taken more steps backward than forward, and are no closer to the Promised Land. There cannot be unity without equality

ONCE upon a time, we were a great maritime empire. We ruled over the Straits of Malacca. We travelled the seven seas and the world.

Then they came from the West. They were driven by gold, glory and gospel. They came not in peace.

Our empire fell under their superior firepower. First it was the Portuguese, then the Dutch and finally the British. And for more than 400 years, they stole from the rich, the poor, the not very rich and the very poor. But they never stole our hearts. Relentlessly, we fought on.

True, we might not have had epic victories on the military front. Capturing police stations and killing a British officer with his pants down by the riverbank are not quite in the same league of, say, the Vietnamese routing the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

Nevertheless, through democracy and diplomacy, our forefathers paved the way to independence.
Finally, on Aug 31, 1957, we won our independence.

That was then. Here and now, serious questions remain. How much independence did we win, really? How much good did independence bring to our lives? And when we say “we”, who are “we”?

Independence means freedom. Our Constitution bestows upon us many freedoms, such as personal liberty, freedom of assembly and freedom of expression. But our Constitution also takes away as much as it gives, by bestowing on our government wide powers to restrict such freedoms.

If you think that our liberty is safely protected by the court of law, think again. In Malaysia, a person can be arrested and detained without trial indefinitely. “National security” is the reason often used, but this is rather odd considering that the last remnants of communists hiding in the jungles have been wiped out, and the threat of terrorists hiding in the mountains and caves plotting to crash an aircraft into the Petronas Twin Towers is very low.

Instead, such draconian laws are frequently used on political dissidents, especially those involved in demonstrations. Oh, yes, in Malaysia we aren’t free to hold peaceful gatherings in public.

Neither are we free to express ourselves. There are certain forbidden subjects that thou shalt not question, such as the sovereignty of the monarchy or the special rights of a certain race.

Try saying “Who made you king of anything?” loudly, and you risk suffering the same tragic fate as Socrates who had questioned the existence of the
Olympian pantheon of Gods, or Galileo who spread heretical ideas about how the sun does not spin around the Earth.

Thus, what freedoms we have are actually hollow and illusory. Malaysia may have gained independence as a country, but as Malaysians we have gained little independence as individuals.



Until today, it can be said that corruption exists in officialdom. It even spills over to the commercial sector, where individuals with connections but without competence often get the first and largest piece of the cake.

During elections, many battles are won and lost purely through character assassination, rather than through debates on national issues.

Betrayals and counter-betrayals are another common feature. In Malaysia, party loyalties shift like the monsoon winds. Shakespeare would have enjoyed living here in these interesting times. Et tu, Ezam? Et tu, Nasarudin? Et tu, Zaid? The possible story lines are endless.

And what about racial equality? Oh wait, remember the Special Rights Club? You do not talk about it.

There cannot be unity without equality. There’s no “we” or “us” in Malaysia, but only “I” and “my”.

So how did it all go so wrong? It’s perhaps down to the post-independence syndrome faced by victorious revolutionaries everywhere bestowed with new-found power and wealth overnight.

What history teaches us is that Independence Day is simply the day on which a white knight disposes of a tyrant. Whether after that he becomes a benevolent king sworn to protect his people’s freedoms is a totally different story altogether.

A change of regime may be nothing more than a change of jailors. There may be an extra meal or longer visitation hours, but otherwise the people remain in shackles. They can check-out anytime they like, but they can never leave.

After independence, it’s another day, another dawn. The journey ahead is long and hard. We Malaysians may have escaped from colonialism, but even till today, we are still lost in the desert, taking more steps backwards than forward, and no closer to the Promised Land.

Here and now, what we need is not just one country, but to share one love, one blood and one life. What we need is faith and courage to leave this dream world where there is no spoon, and reach a place high in the desert plain where the streets have no name.

Once upon a time, we won our independence. Now it’s time we win our happy ending.

The writer is a young lawyer. Putik Lada, or pepper buds in Malay, captures the spirit and intention of this column – a platform for young lawyers to articulate their views and aspirations about the law, justice and a civil society. For more information about the young lawyers, visit www.malaysianbar.org.my.