Dangerous Politics and the Malay Nationalist Movement,1945–47

Abstract

This essay explores the relationship between nationalism and politics in Malay society in the aftermath of the Second World War. A new popular politics, ushered in by the Japanese occupation and legitimized by the collapse of the pre-war colonial government, quickly became linked to an egalitarian, anti-colonial nationalism. While this widespread politicization made possible the defeat of Britain's highly unpopular post-war constitutional plan for Malaya, it also threatened the entrenched social order in which access to political power was the prerogative of the royal families and aristocracies of the Malay states. The essay details how aristocratic politicians deflected the social critique of the radical nationalists, branded politics as dangerously divisive, and constructed a narrative of nationalist struggle that reinforced the existing social hierarchy. The result was the definition of a nationalist mainstream which was purged of the influence of egalitarian politics.