Malaysia: Her National Unity and the Pan-indonesian Movement

THERE ARE, OF COURSE, MANY DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF THE problem of national unity in Malaysia. Every country, especially in "developing areas," has its own particular difficulties in becoming and remaining a nation. In Malaysia, there are perhaps more disuniting factors than in any other Asian country. Because the Federation of Malaysia is a highly artificial country, divided by its heterogeneous components, criticism is not so much directed at the form of government but at the actual existence of the state. There is no need to restate the immense problems of Malaysia's plural society which threaten to divide the country and retard (if not prevent) Malaysia from becoming a unified nation. A great deal of work has already been done on these problems. Every scholar, engaged on socio-political research in Malaysia, is confronted with an explosive situation and cannot disregard it. Over and above the racial composition of the country-the prime source of national disunity-there are other mainsprings of diversity and heterogeneity --cultural, economic, historical and ideological. There is one precondition which is vital to the achievement of Malaysia's national unity: the joining together of the Malays themselves to form a solid bloc of action and ideology; without it, there will be no national feeling in Malaysia. This is an aspect that has been overlooked or dismissed by most British scholars. The Malays are generally known to be peaceful, easy-going people who were (and still are) very much attached to Britain. This is true of the majority of the Malays. On the other hand, there is a minority to whom this description does not apply: to the anti-British pan-Indonesian movement. The movement came into being between the two world wars. Two phenomena caused its emergence. On the one hand, an ideological (racial and historical) element; on the other, the contributing factors of Islamic modernism, Indonesian nationalism, and Malaya's nascent plural society. The history of the pan-Indonesian movement in Malaya can be divided into four stages: · 1. The transformation of a latent and potential idea into organized action based on party structure. 2. The period of Malaya's occupation by the Japanese and the role played by the pan-Indonesian movement during that time. 3. The attempts of the movement, over a period of less than three years, to build a progressive Malayan state in close relation to Indonesia. It also sees the beginning of the movements, rapid decline because of the Emergency Regulations. 4. The fourth and last stage is marked by a revival of the movement in the Malaysian territories as a reaction to the creation of Malaysia.