1945
"The Black Market Administration"
THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION had wreaked havoc on the human
and physical landscape of Kinta Valley. Many homes, town properties,
mines and plantations had been destroyed during the war.
The British Military Administration (BMA) which took control
of the country for six months from September 1945 to April 1946 failed
to restore the faith of the population in the British Empire. It was
high-handed yet incapable of securing law and order. Theft, murder and
rape were widespread. Like the Japanese occupiers, the BMA officers
requisitioned the best private homes and school buildings. Rife corruption
earned the BMA the nickname 'Black Market Administration'.
Rice shortages and high inflation triggered the breakout of
spontaneous riots throughout the country. On 30 September 1945, less
than a month after the return of the British, an estimated 3,000 people
took to the streets of Ipoh clamouring for more food. When the crowd
refused to disperse, troops opened fire killing three people.
For about a week beginning from 21 October 1945, demonstrations
against the BMA were staged by Communist-led 'people's committees'
in eight towns throughout Perak, including Ipoh, Batu Gajah and Sungei
Siput, in protest against the BMA's decision to cut free food rations.
The protestors also demanded more jobs, higher wages, cash payments for
the destitute and unemployed, and continued exemption from electricity
and water rates.
On the first day, about 3,000 people, mostly women, demonstrated
at the Ipoh Padang and then dispersed without incident. But a similar
demonstration by 5,000 in Sungei Siput ended less peacefully when British
troops fired on the crowd.
The next day, a successful general strike and closing of shops
was held throughout Perak. In Ipoh, about 1,000 people, some armed with
staves, staged a sit-down strike outside the civil affairs office. When
strike leaders urged demonstrators to defy orders to disperse, troops again
fired into the crowd. Three people were killed.
On the third day, Brigadier Willan addressed a crowd of 3,000
assembled at the Ipoh Padang, acceding partially to demands for increased
rice rations put forward by the Ipoh people's committee. At Batu Gajah,
a crowd of 5,000 gathered outside the court house and surrounded the
senior civil affairs officer. The latter was being stoned by the demonstrators,
and had to be rescued by troops
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The disturbances died down by early
November. The main cause as the BMA itself concluded, was rice shortages.
However, whenever instigated by the Communists, the protests took on a militant
character, leading to clashes with the British military.
Allowed to operate legally at the time, the Communist Party
of Malaya (CPM) controlled several newspapers and infiltrated the
trade unions. In response to the riots, a number of left-wing publications
were closed down, among them the Chinese newspapers, the Shin Tai Jit
Pao in Ipoh and the Pai Ma Tao Pao in Taiping, and two English newspapers
The North Malay News and The Age in Ipoh.
Due to the high unemployment, many people became involved in
the informal economy as hawkers and trishaw riders. With the resumption
of sanitary regulations, over 1,000 hawkers in Ipoh were affected, including
a substantial number of Chinese women
During the Japanese Occupation, when many mines had failed
due to lack of equipment, a large number of dulang passes were given
out to keep tin production high. Just after the war, between 1946
and 1949, dulang washing was the most important mining method after dredging
and gravel-pumping.
It was a source of subsistence living for many Hakka and Cantonese
women, many of whom were widowed or separated from their husbands. Due
to acute unemployment, the authorities initially tolerated illegal panning,
but then tried to check on it. At Batu Karang in Kampar, a group of dulang
washers attacked a policeman and as a result of the tussle, a dulang washer
was shot dead.
Many dulang washers came from the food-sufficient communities
of agricultural settlers. Under the food-growing policy of the
Japanese, many Chinese were pushed out to the rural areas. Squatter communities
mushroomed all over the Kinta Valley, occupying state land, forest reserve,
disused mines, plantations abandoned by the Europeans, and even
Malay reserves. They now held on to their farms as their food crops
gave them food security and a good income. Before the Japanese Occupation,
most Chinese were industrial labourers first and agricultural settlers
second; now the situation had been reversed.#
From Kinta Valley, by Khoo Salma Nasution & Abdur-Razzaq
Lubis (a publication of the Perak Academy) by permission
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We regret to announce the death of Lim Teong Beng who has helped
us with the editing of Baba/Nyonya sayings. Teong Beng, who studied at
the Penang Free School, died a peaceful
death on 14 September 2005, aged 90.
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The Return to Perak