In this series we publish the People's
Constitutional Proposals of the AMCJA-PUTERA in
1947. The Introduction (in Issue 42) is a valuable historical
document which tells of how the UMNO came to be formed and
its subsequent break-up, leaving a rump organisation which
the British chose to talk to. This instalment reprints the proposals
on duties and on the federal government and the legislative assembly.
THE
PEOPLE'S CONSTITUTIONAL PROPOSALS FOR MALAYA, 1947
Drafted
by Representatives of the PUSAT TENAGA RA'AYAT or
PUTERA, and the ALL-MALAYA COUNCIL OF JOINT ACTION
between the months of May and August,1947, and approved
by two Conferences of Delegates from the PUTERA and the
ALL-MALAYA COUNCIL OF JOINT ACTI0N on July 4–7, and on August
10,1947, together with a full exposition, and an analysis
of the Government's Constitutional proposals.
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B. - DUTIES.
SECTION 19: -
It is the duty of every citizen of Malaya to defend the country.
Treason to the country shall be punishable with all the severity of the
law.
SECTION 20: -
It is the duty of every citizen to abide by the constitution and
observe the laws.
SECTION 21: -
It shall be regarded as a fundamental duty of citizens,
through their elected institutions,
to direct
special attention to the advancement of any section: of the people
who are, or who may be found to be, in a condition; needing such
advancement, be it economc, social, educational
or cultural.
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The
Under-Secretary of State's principle
states: "Political rights ..... should be extended
to those who regard Malaya as their real home and the object of their loyalty."
Having taken adequate steps to ensure that those who become citizens under
our Proposals do so regard Malaya, we have accordingly extended to them
those political rights which arc today generally accepted as necessary.
Since, however, political rights cannot
exist without civic duties, we have laid down those civic duties which
are vital for a democratic society.
ALIENS.
SECTION 22: -
Aliens are guaranteed just and humane treatment, safety of person
and property, and freedom of action, within the limits of the law.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
SECTION 23: -
:
There shall be a strong central Federal Government to which the
States and Singapore, Penang and Malacca will delegate legislative authority
on the subjects enumerated in Schedule A.
The Schedule referred to is identical
with that drawn up by the Working Committee, with the exception of certain
amendments made with a view to strengthening the central government. These
amendments are listed hi Schedule B.
FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY.
SECTION 24: -
(1) There shall be a. Federal Legislative Assembly (hereinafter
called the Assembly), composed of representatives of the people directly
elected by citizens of the age of 18 and above and not subject
to legal incapacity, by secret vote.
(2) Each State and Singapore, Penang
and Malacca shall be a constituency for the purposes
of elections to the Assembly.
(3) There shall be one representative in
the Assembly for every 45,000 citizens.
(4) Each State and Singapore, Penang
and Malacca shall be entitled to return such number of representatives
to the Assembly as shall be equal, to the nearest integer, to the total
number of citizens within such State, or Singapore, Penang or Malacca, divided
by forty-five thousand.
(5) Candidates for seats in the Assembly shall be citizens of the
age of 23 or over.
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(6) The life
of the Assembly shall be three years.
(7) There shall be no communal electorates,
candidatures, representatives or allocation of seats whatever.
Provided that for the first three Assemblies only, not less than
55 per cent of the seats in the Assembly shall be held by citizens of Malay
race, to be effected by the following procedure:
(a) if, after the holding of the elections to the Assembly,
it is found that less than 55 per cent of the representatives are of Malay
race, then such number of seats shall be added to the number of seats
in the Assembly as would, if filled by representatives of the Malay race,
bring the number of representatives of Malay race up to 55 per cent of
the total number of representatives;
(b) such seats shall thereupon be filled by those candidates
of Malay race who polled the largest number of votes among those candidates
of Malay race not returned at the elections;
(c) This proviso shall not, under any circumstances
whatever, be subject to any amendment.
(8) Amendments to the Constitution
shall effected by a two-thirds majority of all members of the Assembly.
(9) Representatives shall receive, during the life of the
Assembly, an emolument of $600 per month, exclusive
of travelling expenses, such sums to be chargeable on the funds of the
Federal Government
(10) The sessions of the Assembly shall be opened by the High Commissioner.
We have provided for a fully elected
Federal Legislative Assembly.
The Report of the Working Committee states,
on page 17, paragraph 59, “The Committee were unanimous
that the introduction of
any form of elections on a wide franchise would
be premature, and could not be regarded as feasible in the early
stages of the new Federation.''
No reasons were given for this decision, but
we suggest that, if the Working Committee had put forward a reason, it
would have been that the right government through elected representatives
(or self-government), may only be claimed by a colonial people when they
have reached a certain educational standard.
Although this right is universally accepted
in principle, and is frequently invoked even by imperialist governments
when it is in their interest to do so, this reason is
advanced, even by professedly progressive elements in
imperialist countries, because it is said that the general right to self-government
should be qualified in the case of colonial peoples who, it is claimed,
are not ready to face the complexities and
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difficulties of modern government
It
is claimed that modern government can only be effectively administered
by experts with highly-specialised training and experience, and that a
colonial people should not be allowed, in their own interest, to govern
themselves until they can produce an adequate number of such experts,
and until the masses of colonial people have reached the requisite educational
standard.
For instance, in a pamphlet entitled
" Labour's Colonial Policy," published by the
Fabian Society, the present Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr.
Arthur Creech Jones, says, on page 11: "It is a truism,
which is particularly applicable to colonial societies, that good health
and education are pre-requisites to the practice of democratic government."
We are opposed to the whole of this line
of argument for the following :reasons
(1) Before we examine any reasons that may
be put forward in support of this qualification of the right to self-government,
it is necessary to enquire whether or not those who make this qualification
benefit from the colonial system which it seeks to justify.
If they do not, if they are totally disinterested
in the sense that their own interests are in no way involved, only then
is there the assurance that any reasons that may be put forward by them,
are put forward in good faith and can, therefore, be judged on their merits.
We never find, however, that this qualification is put forward by disinterested,
and therefore unprejudiced persons.
If, however, such a qualification is advocated
by those who benefit from thecolonial system, it will be necessary
to scrutinise any reasons which they may put forward with grave suspicion,
because it would be virtually certain that the "reasons" put forward by
them would be rationalisations, and not the real reasons.
We feel, therefore, that since this qualification
is always put forward either bv the spokesmen of imperial governments
in relation to the people. of their colonies, or by those who are dependent,
in one way or another, upon the preservation of the colonial system, their
reasons for making this qualification must be treated with great suspicion,
because such persons have a. vested interest in the continued control
of the colonies, and the application of the principle of self-government
would mean the cessation of that control.
The Working Committee consisted of six representatives
of the Malayan Union Government (which is responsible only to the Imperial
Government), most of whom were bureaucrats steeped in the reactionary
traditions of colonial administration, and of six representatives of the
Malay aristocracy and its political organisation (United Malays National
Organisation), the maintenance of whose privileged position depended on
the continued control of the Imperial Government over Malaya.
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The
real reason for the Working Committee's decision ("......
that the introduction of any form of elections on a wide franchise
would be, premature, and could not be regarded as feasible in the early stages
of the new Federation") was therefore (we feel), that government through
the elected representatives of the people would be inconsistent with the
autocratic structure which they wished to erect in order to preserve their
privileged position, mid the imperial control on which that position depended.
(2) This line of argument requires that a
certain educational .standard .should be reached by the people of a colony
before they can be allowed to exercise their right to self-government.
We have two criticisms to make of this standpoint:
(a) The Imperial Government reserves
to itself the right arbitrarily to decide when the requisite educational
standard has been reached, and by doing so, usurps the right which belongs
only to the people to decide for themselves if and when they are ready
to accept the responsibility of self-government.
Should it be felt, for instance, by the people
of a colony that they are not yet ready to accept any one or more of the
various responsibilities of government, it will be for them alone to
delegate their powers over such functions to any alien government of their
choice.
(b) The history of the movement
for independence in colonial territories proves that the question of whether
any particular educational standard has been reached, does not in
practice, arise. The recent political development; in India is a
case in point. The British Cabinet did not, we feel sure, base its
decision to grant Indian independence on India's standards of literacy
or education. If educational standards were really the touchstone for readiness
for self-government, then it may justifiably be contended that Malaya
is just us ready for self-government as India is, since the percentage
of literacy in India and Malaya today is approximately the
same.
If good health is also to be used as a criterion,
as the Rt. Hon. Mr. Arthur Creech Jones has maintained to be a truism,
then we feel that there can be little doubt that Malaya's health is vastly
superior to that of India.
This reveals that the argument - that the readiness
of a colonial people for self-government is to be judged by reference
to their educational standards - is only a cloak to hide the naked fact
that the imperialist! power will prolong its control for as long as it
considers that it is in its general interest to do so, such educational
levels being in fact totally irrelevant when it comes to the point.
It has been shown that unified political pressure
alone will win for a colonial people the freedom to exercise their right
to self-government.
There is, however, the saying that "it is
never too late to mend." The people of Great Britain should realise that
the love of freedom is not confined to themselves alone, but is also held
by their subject peoples. They should therefore see to it that
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their democratically
elected governments understand the wisdom of securing the lasting friendship
of their colonial peoples by permitting them to exercise their basic right
to self-government, and the folly of waiting until mounting political hostility
has destroyed the foundations of this goodwill.
(3) This line of argument ignores the fact
that the co-operation of the people is essential to good government. No
matter how expert the personnel of the government may be, no matter how
highly skilled or profound in technical knowledge, if the government does
not elicit the co-operation of the people, it will never be able to promote
the welfare of the people. This welfare cannot be promoted effectively
except by the people themselves through their elected representatives, who
are responsible to them and to them alone. Only on such a basis of responsibility
can the people feel confident that it is their welfare, and not the alien
interest, that is being promoted.
A government of alien "experts" can never understand
the real needs of the people. It is characteristic of such "experts" to
have dogmatic opinions as to what the people ought to need, and to tend,
at the same time, to be indifferent to what the masses of the people do in
fact need. Such an attitude on their part is inevitable, because they
are not of the people and not responsible to the people.
This is vividly illustrated by conditions
in Malaya today: the two governments of Malaya, staffed by such alien
" experts," are continually complaining that they are not receiving the
co-operation of the people, and place the blame for all the deficiencies
and blunders of their administration on this lack of co-operation. They ignore
the fact, however, that the co-operation of the people is unobtainable by
a government that is separate from, and not responsible to, the people, If
the people of Britain, for example, were ruled by such an alien government,
we would be surprised if the people of Britain gave it their co-operation.
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It is therefore very clear that what is far
more important than that the government should be composed of "experts"
is that the government should be composed of the representatives of the
people, elected by the people, and responsible to the people - in other
words, experts in their knowledge of the needs of the people.
It is true that, under modern conditions,
governments do need, in certain departments, highly skilled executives.
Such executives can, however, always be recruited from Britain and other
parts of the world and employed as advisers until such time as the people
are able to provide their own technical experts. Such expert advisers
would then take their proper place as the servants of the people in place
of their present position as the masters of the people.
It will be noticed that we have not provided
for any reserve or veto powers to be placed in the hands of the High Commissioner.
This is because we have realised that there is no half-way house between
colonial and self-governing status. The experience of other colonial territories,
where the representative of His Majesty's Government retains reserve
or veto powers over such matters as finance, defence and foreign affairs
proves that control of such matters of vital significance by His Majesty's
Government renders the control of the local legislatures over other matters
valueless and empty.
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We also think that it is most necessary to emphasise that if elections
were introduced on the basis of the citizenship proposed by the Working
Committee, they would be a gross betrayal of the indigenous and domiciled
people of Malaya. We have already shown that the citizenship suggested
by the Working Committee, not being a nationality, does not demand loyalty
from the so-called citizen.
This "citizenship" will, as we have also shown,
bring in as Federal citizens many who will not owe loyalty to Malaya,
but who will retain their real allegiance to their countries of origin.
Yet, if elections are introduced on this basis, such "citizens" may become
members of the Federal Legislature and Executive.
In our discussion on citizenship, we referred
to the situation that could arise if, for example, there were a state
of war between the Federation and China. In the event of such a war, there
might very well be members both of the Legislature and Executive whose
real loyalty, as nationals of China, would be with China, and whose real
national duty it would therefore be (if they were not interned as enemy
nationals) to do everything in their power to sabotage the war effort of
the people of Malaya from within the government.
It may be felt that this is an extreme case,
but the point is not whether the example is an extreme case or not: it
is that the example reveals the rottenness of the Working Committee's form
of citizenship as a foundation on winch to build the political .future
of Malaya, and on which to plan its development in the interests of its
indigenous and domiciled people. Any superstructure built on such foundations
is doomed to speedy collapse, and those who would suffer most in such a collapse
would be the Malay people - the indigenous population - and also the domiciled
people of Malaya who regard Malaya as the object of .their loyalty.
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A form of citizenship which would make it necessary,
in certain circumstances, to intern as enemy aliens a substantial proportion
of the elected representatives of the people, or else allow them to continue
to take part in the administration when their real national duty would
be to work for the defeat. of Malaya, is, in our opinion, a disgrace to
those who framed it, an insult to those who owe loyalty to the country,
a lasting shame to the people of Great ]Britain, whose government permitted
it to be introduced, and a laughing-stock to the rest of the world.
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