MCA helped Chinese community establish a place in Malaya

KUALA LUMPUR: MCA played an important role in the fight for Malaysia’s independence while securing a place for the Chinese community in the country, say researchers.

Assoc Prof Dr Chin Yee Mun (pic), who leads the Tun Tan Cheng Lock Centre for Social and Policy Studies of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), said according to the 1947 census, there were 1.84 million Chinese in Malaya.

Although the number of local-born Chinese had been rising, they were not granted automatic citizenship, he said.

“Most Chinese living in Malaya were considered ‘aliens’ under the immigration restrictions of the Aliens Ordinance.”

The status denied these people political rights and posed a risk of them being deported to China, he said.

Dr Chin said after World War II, the “equal citizenship policy” was introduced for the Chinese immigrants, but they were not keen, and it also received objections from the Malay community.

He said the fate of the Chinese turned catastrophic after the British became suspicious of their link to the Malayan Communist Party in 1948, forcing them into settlements, the early formation of new villages, and detention camps.

Dr Chin said their circumstances were made worse by a lack of acceptance from China, noting that those who successfully returned were assigned to the inadequately managed Overseas Chinese Farms.

This was the moment when MCA, established in 1949, intervened with mutually beneficial strategies to recognise the position of the Chinese community while engaging in negotiations with the government to secure the best possible outcomes, he pointed out.

“MCA, led by its first president, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, focused on the fundamental matters affecting the Chinese livelihood, including citizenship, vernacular education, as well as freedom of religion and language.

“For the government, the political party, which served as a platform to represent the Chinese views, went on to engage and unite other Chinese organisations,” he said at the Malaysian Chinese Symposium 2024 at Wisma MCA here yesterday.

Dr Chin said these points were clearly illustrated in former British High Commissioner to Malaya Henry Gurney’s letter to Sir Thomas Llyod, colonial office permanent under-secretary from 1947 to 1956.

The letter was among documents retrieved from the United Kingdom’s National Archives by a group of researchers from the Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research, UTAR, and Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT) in July.

Assoc Prof Dr Yap Hon Lun said the active role played by the Chinese community, the challenges they undertook, and the compromises made during the negotiations with the British government led to the birth of a new country.The head of TAR UMT’s Institute of Social Economic Research was speaking on the long-standing debate regarding MCA, alleging that the political party had “sold out” the Chinese community.

Controversy had arisen that the late Tan Sri Mohammed Tahir Tan Tong Hye (better known as T.H. Tan), then MCA secretary and secretary-general of the Alliance Party (now Barisan Nasional), did not submit a memorandum highlighting the Chinese’s demands to the British government during the Umno-MCA Alliance delegation to London in 1954.

Dr Yap, who embarked on the fact-finding mission to the UK with Dr Chin and other researchers, said there was no evidence that Tan was tasked with submitting the document to Oliver Lyttelton, secretary of state for the colonies.

He said the three-man trip, comprising Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra al-Haj, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein and Tan, was to press for federal council elections to pave the way for independence.

Dr Yap said there was one memorandum addressing citizenship, language and equality, but it was submitted by the Pan-Malayan Federation of Chinese Associations in 1956 when the Reid Commission, responsible for drafting the Federal Constitution, visited Kuala Lumpur.

“The inter-communal cooperation between Umno and MCA was an important part of this nation’s formative period.

“(It had) influenced the social, political and economic contours of the country that modern Malaysia has inherited,” he added.