Chapter Three

Summary

The Malaya I returned to after five years in Australia was totally different from the Malaya I left behind. Before the war, politics was discussed among the select few. Immediately after the war, political feeling engulfed Malaya like a fire engulfs a forest on a hot, dry day.

When I returned on 4 July 1945, the first person I met was my eldest brother. He attracted not only my attention, but also that of others on board the ship by the way he dressed. Other people on the wharf were dressed in shabby shirts and crumpled trousers while he was immaculately dressed in white sharkskin complete with shirt and tie to match. His name was Suleiman. He was later to distinguish himself as the man who dared to challenge and defeat Dato Onn bin Ja'afar at the first national elections in 1955. After his victory, Suleiman held the attention of Tunku Abdul Rahman who treated him with great affection until he died. The Tunku made him a minister in successive alliance governments and when Suleiman's health was failing, he requested the Tunku to send him to Australia as High Commissioner. He died in harness, in Australia, while delivering an important speech on Malaysia. It was Suleiman who briefed me on the controversy over the Malayan Union.

The spearhead of attack against the Malayan Union was the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). In fact, UMNO owes its birth to the Malayan Union. As the Malays saw it, the Malayan Union was designed to deprive the Malays of their rights in the country, first by the abolition of the Malay Sultanate and second by the abolition of the special status accorded to the Malays. Dato Onn united most of the Malays under him in UMNO and fought against the Malayan Union by political means. Other Malays, especially those from Johor, thought that the opposition should be based on legal grounds. Their reasoning was based on the constitution of the Malay states which existed prior to the war.