Republished from Tricontinental Bulletin No. 62, May 1971, page 9-13
At the end of the Second World War, after the defeat of the Japanese fascists in Malaya by the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), Malaya was reoccupied by the British. Army–in September 1945, to reestablish colonial rule and the exploitation of Malaya by the British ruling class. The fascist arid dictatorial British military administration was set up to implement this policy. To achieve their objective amidst strong resistance by the Malayan people, the British started the “Emergency” in June 1948, to suppress and kill all the patriotic and progressive forces of Malaya. More than 186 trade union leaders were killed or imprisoned; more than 50,000 other patriots were killed, imprisoned, or deported; 13,000 political prisoners were arrested, and over 600,000 people placed in concentration camps.
It was in this political vacuum created by the “Emergency” that the reactionary regimes of the Rahman-Kuan Yew clique were groomed to take power. Rahman and Kuan Yew, the so-called leaders of “Malaysia” and Singapore, were hand-picked by the British colonialists and were imposed on the people as the so-called leaders of the British-engineered “independence movement.” The Alliance Party, for example, is a marriage of convenience between three racialist parties (the United Malay Nationalist Organization [UMNO], the Malayan Indian Congress, and the Malayan Chinese Association) and represents feudalist and comprador capitalist elements acceptable to the British colonialists. The Alliance Party has been able to maintain its power since then through the timely use of the various forms of “emergency powers” which enable it to make widespread and arbitrary arrests, thus effectively suppressing all opposition.
In the last election (May 1969), which remains to be completed, the Alliance Party won only 49% of the vote in West “Malaysia,” and was expected to suffer heavy losses in East “Malaysia” and thus lose its two-third majority which is crucial if the Alliance is to be able to continue its policy of amending the constitution when it feels like it, and other autocratic policies. Using the excuse of the racial riots in May, the National Operations Council (NOC), a fascist military dictatorship, was imposed on the people of “Malaysia” and the election in East “Malaysia” suspended indefinitely. Hundreds of opposition members were arrested, and “emergency” laws reinstated.
Formation of Fascist Organizations
On December 21, 1967, Tunku Abdul Rahman, the Prime Minister of “Malaysia,” announced· the formation of a “strong organization.” It is now known that this organization is the Pemuda Tahan Lasak, a fascist organization of unemployed youth of one particular community. Its purpose is best revealed by quotes from its working paper entitled War of Nerves: “to kill the strength of opposition parties”; to deal “death blows against the opposition parties”; “intelligence work is not confined to observation and collecting data, but also to physical damage or injury to opposition parties.” This fascist paramilitary youth organization was trained all over the country and some sections were also trained by British troops at the Jungle Warfare School at Kota Tinggi.
By May 1969, there were at least 50,000 such youth organized by UMNO, a constituent member of the Alliance Party, under the leadership of Senu Abdul Rahman, ex-Minister of Information and current. Secretary-General of UMNO.
The defense expenditures of “Malaysia”, mainly for the training of paramilitary youth organizations and the enlargement of the armed forces, have been increased to 25% of the national budget.
The various Youth Brigades of the “rugged society” of Singapore are also examples of fascist youth organizations that are being formed in Singapore to be used against the workers at the bidding of their master, the fascist Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
Recently the Singapore Government purchased 50 light tanks, presumably to be used against the people of Singapore for so-called internal security.
Suppression of Political Parties
The history of politics in Malaya has always been a story of the suppression of political parties and progressive forces. For example, over 300 organizations and political parties, including the Malayan Communist Party, were banned at the beginning of the “Emergency” in June 1948. To this day the Malayan Communist Party and many other organizations are still banned.
During the few months prior to the general election more than 300 political leaders were arrested. Practically all the full-time cadres of the Labour Party of Malaya were arrested in those few months, more than 200 in all. Since the race riots the number of political detainees has increased manifold.
Political leaders who are outspoken and determined to oppose without compromise the neocolonial policies of the fascist government of “Malaysia” have been harrassed in various ways.
Since the formation of the National Operations Council, and the declaration of an “emergency,” all opposition parties are banned from carrying out political activities. There is a blanket ban on all political publications. Only the pronouncements of the Alliance Party are permitted.
Political Prisoners
Following the tradition of the British colonialists, the present neocolonial puppet regimes of “Malaysia” and Singapore have detained without trial political leaders and progressive elements who are opposed to their slavish and exploitative policies.
There are at least 300 known political prisoners and detainees being held in Changi and Queenstown prisons in Singapore. Some of these prisoners have been held since 1957.
Before the May riot, in “Malaysia,” there were at least 2,000 political prisoners in the concentration camps scattered all over the country. During the May riots many thousands were arrested including politicians who had won seats in the election. With the number of people missing since the riots running into thousands, and the power given by the NOC to the police and military to dispose of bodies without prior identification, it is not possible to determine exactly how many were killed or how many are still languishing in concentration camps.
To cope with the tremendous increase in the number of political prisoners since May 1969, concentration camps (known discretely as “rehabilitation centers”) have mushroomed all over the country.
Repression of Students
With the blanket suppression of all political activities, students are now the only remaining voice that can articulate the protests and aspirations of the people. Even this last remaining voice has been throttled. Intimidations and false allegations and detention without trial have been meted out to student leaders who have braved the police state to articulate the just demands of the people of Malaya (including Singapore).
In July 1969, the Prime Minister of “Malaysia” accused without a shred of evidence, Syed Hamid Ali, the then President of the University of Malaya Student Union (UMSU), of being responsible for the Labour Party demonstration which took place before the elections allegedly responsible for the racial riots. This is sheer fabrication! First of all the racial riots had nothing to do with the Labour Party demonstration. (In fact, there is mounting evidence to indicate that the Pemuda Tahan Lasak of the “rough and ready youth” was responsible for the racial riots.) Secondly, the President of UMSU had nothing to do with the Labour Party demonstration. Such fabrications are similar to the tactics used by Goebbels!
At the end of August 1969, police brutally beat up students who were demonstrating peacefully on the university campus against the Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, and his politico-military dictatorial machine – the National Operations Council. This was followed a few days later by the arbitrary arrest of four student leaders. International support rallied by students overseas forced the government to release the student leaders. That incident showed the role international opinion can play in curbing the fascist methods of the Alliance government.
Similar practices are taking place in Singapore. The Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, has warned all students that they are liable to two years military service or can have their scholarships withdrawn if they do not comply with his instructions to stop all political activities.
All these examples are indications of the rise of fascism ‘in “Malaysia” and Singapore. They are sufficient for freedom-loving people all over the world to add their voice of protest against the fascist Rahman and Kuan Yew regimes. The facts should also be used to expose whenever and wherever possible the truth of the situation in Malaya.
Down with fascism all over the world!
Partai Rakyat Malaya (People’s Party of Malaya)
Original Article: https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC51_scans/51.Cuba.Tricontinental.62.Bulletin.English.pdf
Tricontinental Archive: https://search.freedomarchives.org/search.php?s=tricontinental&page=1
Commentary on The Rise of Fascism in Malaya by Partai Rakyat Malaya: Violence, Colonialism and Possible Histories
Who wrote this piece and why?
The People’s Party of Malaya (Partai Rakyat Malaya, PRM) is attributed to be the author of this article at the end of the document but there is no indication of who exactly wrote it. Likely candidates are Kassim Ahmad, the then leader of the party, or Ahmad Boestamam, the party’s prominent founder. The PRM has had a long history on the Malayan Left, tracing its linage to the foundational Kesatuan Melayu Muda, and having worked with the Labour Party of Malaya.
This article and its tone would not be surprising given the context in which it was written. The PRM was the target of attack by the UMNO-led state even before the riots of May 13, 1969. The first Malayan Emergency (1948-1960) gave the then British authorities cover to repress the radical left and militant labour elements. Ultimately, this repression would continue as the Federation of Malaya and later Malaysia gained its independence, all the way up till the near-complete destruction of the Malaysian Left in the 1980s.
Fascism in the Malaysian Context
This article by the PRM is, if nothing else, an interesting piece to reflect on given the current moment in Malaysian history. The collapse of Pakatan Harapan has seen the return to the hegemony of Malay nationalist parties within the state, marking a rise in police actions and harassment – think the #Lawan protestors and Fahmi Reza. While one might think that state repression was more severe in the past, it does not minimize the significance of the resurgence of the state’s political use of force to suppress dissent today and warrants some discussion about whether these actions constitute fascism.
The PRM author certainly had some cause to use fascism in his/her time. The extensive use of the police state to lock up opposition figures, left-wing activists and trade union leaders; the brutal repression of student activists; the mass mobilization of unemployed youth into the ‘Pemuda Tahan Lasak’; and of course, a rising ethnonationalism in the ranks of UMNO. Many of these actions have similar parallels to European fascism under Hitler in Germany and Mussolini in Italy where right-wing street violence was combined with that of the state apparatus. During the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and his later vacating of the presidency – when his supporters stormed the congress on January 6th, 2021 – there was a lot of discussion in the US academic sphere on whether Trump was a fascist, many depended on which definition one used. (1)
A definition that is not often used, one by Aimé Césaire, a Black intellectual from Martinique, could be of some relevance in Malaysia’s post-colonial context. Robin D. G. Kelley writes in the introduction to his famous work, Discourse on Colonialism:
Césaire provocatively points out that Europeans tolerated “Nazism before it was inflicted on them, that they absolved it, shut their eyes to it, legitimized it, because, until then, it had been applied only to non-European peoples; that they have cultivated that Nazism, that they are responsible for it, and that before engulfing the whole edifice of Western, Christian civilization in its reddened waters, it oozes, seeps, and trickles from every crack.” So the real crime of fascism was the application to white people of colonial procedures “which until then had been reserved exclusively for the Arabs of Algeria, the ‘coolies’ of India, and the ‘niggers’ of Africa.”
Césaire links the colonial methods of repression to those used by the Nazis on the Jews, Gypsies and communists of Western nations. Similarly, Malaysian fascism could be viewed through the lens of reproducing the violence of the British – on the anti-colonial radicals, trade union leaders and the ordinary people who were put under oppressive internment in the New Villages – now carried out by the independent Malaysian political elite.
Possible histories of Malaysia
Though there seems to be no evidence to prove this, the use of inverted commas (“ “ / ‘ ’) with the word Malaysia and Singapore in the article seems to be the author’s possible hinting at these nations being colonial constructions. The PRM was in favour of ‘Melayu Raya’ and notions of Pan-Malay nationalism so the use of the inverted commas could also signal their temporary or artificial nature. It appears that the author still might have held out hope for a different Malaysia, one that was constructed on more progressive terms.
Malaysians today have no reference for what fascism looks like, making the use of the terms politically useless in public discourse. British and Japanese violence during their occupations were whitewashed and erased from the popular imagination and the national curriculum. Invoking the term fascism against state violence backed by right-wing Malay nationalism does not generate the alarm and attention it might otherwise get in other countries who have experienced it. What this article offers then is a glimpse into a ‘possible’ world that was, a world where the Kesatuan Melayu Muda, PRM and other left parties held hegemony over the definition of Malay nationalism and Malaysian nationalism, while UMNO and its offspring are rightly seen as fascist of one kind or another.
Footnotes:
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism This Wikipedia page does a decent job of laying out some popular definitions of fascism. See the ones by Umberto Eco, Leon Trotsky and George Orwell.
(2) https://libcom.org/files/zz_aime_cesaire_robin_d.g._kelley_discourse_on_colbook4me.org_.pdf Page 19-20
Jentayu 