This paper was delivered at the Eighth Conference, International Association of Historians of Asia, Kuala Lumpur, 25th–29th August 1980.

¹ These organisations provide the following functions to members: (a) to settle disputes among fellow members and between members and non-members, (b) to protect the interests of members from demands made by other established groups and local officials, (c) to control or monopolise specific crafts, skills, products, or enterprise, (d) to provide mutual relief and find jobs for members, (e) to worship patron deities, preserve regional customs and traditions, (f) to provide for the suitable burial of members. There exists a large body of literature on the role and function of the secret society and the voluntary association in China and Malaya. The main works include the following: Morse, H.B., The Gilds of China (New York, Bombay, and Calcutta: Longmans, Green and Co., 1909).Google ScholarChesneaux, J., Secret Societies in China in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1971).Google ScholarElvin, M. and Skinner, G.W. (eds.), The Chinese City Between Two Worlds (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974).Google ScholarFallers, I. A. (ed.), Immigrants and the Associations (The Hague: Moutonand Co., 1967).Google ScholarFreedman, M., “Kinship, Local Grouping and Immigration: A Study in Social Realignment among Chinese Overseas”(unpublished Ph.D. thesis. University of London, 1956).Google ScholarBlythe, W., The Impact of Chinese Secret Societies in Malaya (London and Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1969).Google ScholarSuyama, Taku and Ichikawa, Nobuchika, “Pang Societies and the Economy of Chinese Immigrants” (unpublished monograph, The Institute of South East Asian Studies, University of Nagasaki, 1976).Google ScholarSing, Wan Ming, “The History of the Organisation of the Chinese Community in Selangor with Particular Reference to the Problems of Leadership” (MA thesis, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 1967).Google ScholarSeng, Chee Liew, “The Hakka Community in Malaya with Special Reference to Their Associations” (MA thesis, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 1971).Google ScholarKoon, Heng Pek, “Chinese Social Organisation in Malaya and Singapore: A Study of Chinese Associations with Special Reference to the Teochew Community” (MA diss. University of Auckland, 1973)Google Scholar.

² See CPM: The Communist Party of Malaya, Selected Documents, published by the South East Asia Documentation Group, 1979. The book has been compiled by the “Editorial Board” of the partyGoogle Scholar.

³ For studies on the history of the KMTM, CPM, and the SCBA, see: Kim, Khoo Kay, “The Beginning of Political Extremism in Malaya 1915–1935” (Ph.D. thesis, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 1973)Google Scholar; Leong, Stephen M.Y., “Sources, Agencies and Manifestations of Overseas Chinese Nationalism in Malaya 1937–1941” (Ph.D. thesis, University of California, 1976)Google Scholar;Seng, Png Poh, “The Kuomintang in Malaya”, Journal of South East Asian History 2, 1 (03. 1961)Google Scholar;Tan, Diana, “Some Activities of the Straits Chinese British Association Penang 1920–1939”, Peninjau Sejarah 2, 2 (1967)Google Scholar;Hock, Lee Yong, “A Study of the Straits Chinese British Association 1900–1959” (BA thesis, University of Singapore, 1960). I have omitted trade unions in my discussion on the modern mode of community organisation since I subsume the Chinese labour movement under the organisational umbrella of the CPM. From the mid 1930s, the CPM began to organise Chinese (and to a lesser extent non-Chinese, mainly Indian) labour. With the proclamation of the Emergency in June 1948, the Communist-inspired labour movement was disbanded by the colonial administrationGoogle Scholar.

⁴ CPM: The Communist Parly of Malaya, Selected Documents, see document 6A: “A Short History of the Communist Party of Malaya”, pp. 42–58Google Scholar.

⁵ Up to 1949, it was common for wives of Chinese men resident in Malaya who could afford to maintain households in China to return to their homes in China in order that their children would be born in their ancestral motherland. I estimate the percentage of Sinkeh and Laukeh Chinese in Malaya to around 90 per cent of the total population after an examination of the breakdown of the number of Straits-born, local-born, and China-born Chinese in Malaya contained in Vlieland, C. A., British Malaya: A Report on the 1931 Census, p. 69. 70 per cent of the total Chinese population in that year was China-born, and out of the 30 per cent who were born locally, 11.7 per cent were born in the Straits Settlements. Baba Chinese come from the 11.7 per cent Straits-born group. Thus, one can estimate the Sinkeh and Laukeh population to be around 90 per cent of the total Chinese population in MalayaGoogle Scholar.

⁶ , Leong, “Sources, Agencies and Manifestations”Google Scholar.

⁷ For a description of Baba Chinese in Malaya, see: Seng, Png Poh, “The Straits Chinese in Singapore: a case of local identity and socio-cultural accommodation”, Journal of South East Asian History 10,1 (1969)Google Scholar; Clammer, J.R., Social Organisation of the Straits Chinese Community of Malaysia (Social Science Research Council Report, 03 1976)Google Scholar.

⁸ SCBA leaders whose wealth was derived from commercial activities found it necessary to maintain social and economic ties with Sinkeh towkays who controlled th e Chinese Chamber s of Commerce and, through them, the Chinese commercial network in Malaya.

⁹ For more information on the formation of the MCA and the role of those men behind its formation, see Tregonning, K.G., “Tan Cheng Lock: A Malayan Nationalist”, Journal of South East Asian Studies 10, 1 (Mar. 1979).Google ScholarChee, Chan Heng, “The Malayan Chinese Association”(MA thesis, University of Singapore, 1965).Google ScholarLim, Soh Eng, “Tan Cheng Lock: His Leadership of the Malayan Chinese” (BA thesis, University of Malaya, Singapore, 1957).Google ScholarRoff, M., “The MCA 1948–1965”, Journal of South East Asian History 6, 2 (09. 1965)Google Scholar.

¹⁰ , Tregonning, “Tan Cheng Lock”, p. 59Google Scholar.

¹¹ Letter from Tan Cheng Lock to Ong Seong Tek dated 24 May 1951, in the Tan Cheng Lock Papers kept at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, TCL/5/107a.

¹² For information on the Chinese squatter population resettled in New Villages, see Nyce, R., Chinese New Villages in Malaysia: A Community Study (Singapore:Malaysian Sociological Research Institute Ltd., 1973)Google Scholar.

¹³ I was given access to the files on party office-holders kept at the party headquarters.

¹⁴ For a discussion of these events, see Means, G.P., Malaysian Politics, 2nd ed. (London: Hodder an d Stoughton, 1976), Chapters 10–12.Google Scholar

¹⁵ For a discussion on the relationship between wealth and leadership, see Wu, Wang Gung, “Traditional Leadership in a New Nation: The Chinese in Malaya and Singapore”, in Leadership and Authority: A Symposium, ed. Wijeyawardene, G. (Singapore, 1968)Google Scholar.

¹⁶ See Ling, Yong Yuet, “Contributions of the Chinese to Education in the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States 1900–1941” (MA thesis, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 1967)Google Scholar.

¹⁷ There was subsequent widespread Chinese discontent concerning the Alliance independent terms on Chinese language and education. 1 deal with this issue in my doctoral thesis: “The Development of the Malayan Chinese Association” (School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, 1983)Google Scholar.

¹⁸ For an exposition and discussion of the concept of the “encapsulating” and “encapsulated” system applied to a Malaysian context, see Strauch, J., Chinese Village Politics in the Malaysian State (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981), Chapter 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁹ Fell, H., 1957 Population Census of the Federation of Malaya, Report no. 14, tables 5.3 and 9B(i), pp. 23, 94Google Scholar.

²⁰ These figures may be inflated as they were obtained from the membership files kept at the party headquarters.

²¹ 1962 was the first year in which a survey of the occupations of party members was conducted.

²² In September 1951, Tan Cheng Lock claimed that the MCA had helped financially towards the resettlement of some 300,000 Chinese squatters. Straits Times, 3 Sept. 1951.

²³ The bulk of the MCA party funds from late 1949 to mid 1953 came from a series of lucrative party sweepstakes held for party members. The British colonial administration placed a ban on the MCA Lottery in June 1953.

²⁴ Letter from Yap Mau Tatt to Tan Cheng Lock dated 29 Sept. 1951, TCL Papers, TCL/15/54, Singapore.

²⁵ Lock, Tan Cheng, “Memorandum on Manpower Conscription (A Chinese View)”, mimeo., 19 Dec. 1951, TCL Papers, SP 13, Item 146, Kuala Lumpur (Arkib Negara)Google Scholar.

²⁶ The MCA Manpower Recruitment Drive is discussed at length in my thesisGoogle Scholar.

²⁷ Letter from Leong Yew Koh to the Officer Administering the Government dated 15 Nov. 1950. TCL Papers, TCL/15/64c, Singapore. The proposal was rejected by the British Administration.

²⁸ Speech by Tan Cheng Lock at Port Dickson Road Resettlement Area, Seremban, on 18 Jan. 1951, TCL Papers, SP 13, Item 172, Kuala Lumpur.

²⁹ Speech by Tan Cheng Lock at the annual meeting of the Central General Committee of the MCA on 21 Apr. 1951, Straits Times Library, Box 1949–1966.

³⁰ For a discussion of the Malayan Union and Malayan Federation constitutional proposals, see Sopiee, M.N., From Malayan Union to Singapore Separation: Political Unification in the Malaysian Region 1945–65 (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Universiti Malaya, 1974)Google Scholar.

³¹ Details on the reorganisation campaign, which was implemented during 1952–1953, are contained in the following pamphlets: “Memorandum on the Organisation of the MCA”, mimeo., 28 Oct. 1951, and “Progress Report on Reorganisation, Centralisation of Funds, Headquarters Building, Labour Organisation and Investment” by Tan Cheng Lock, Paper No. 1 of 1953, MCA headquarters.

³² The formation of the UMNO-MCA Alliance in February 1952to contest the Kuala Lumpur municipal election is examined in some detail in my thesis. R. K. Vasil gives a brief account of the event: Vasil, R.K., Politics in a Plural Society: A Study of Non-Communal Political Parties in West Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1971), pp. 6, 10. Franchise for local, state, and Federal elections held between December 1951 and July 1955 was not based on Malayan citizenship; thus the Chinese proportion of the electorate was considerably higher than the proportion of Chinese who were Malayan citizens, which stood at 12 per cent of the total Chinese population in 1951. When Kuala Lumpur held its first municipal election, the electorate consisted of 37.7 per cent Chinese, 33.8 per cent Malays, and 28.5 per cent Indians, Pakistanis, Ceylonese, Eurasians, and others. The racial breakdown of the town was roughly 62 per cent Chinese, 23 per cent Indian, Pakistani, Ceylonese, Eurasian, and others, and 15 per cent Malays. Out of the total 12 seats to be contested, six seats had a predominantly Chinese electorate, five seats a predominantly Malay electorate, and one seat a predominantly Indian electorate. Sunday Mail, 17 Feb. 1952. The racial arithmetic of the Kuala Lumpur election was a major reason why the UMNO sought a political alliance with the MCA to contest the election. The MCA was to field seven candidates of its own choice in six predominantly Chinese wards and one predominantly Indian ward (where the party fielded an Associate member who was Indian). The UMNO was given six seats, which were predominantly MalayGoogle Scholar.

³³ Letter from Dr. Ismail bin Ishak to Tan Cheng Lock, which appeared in the Minutes of a Special Meeting of the MCA Central Working Committee held on 2 Dec. 1953. MCA headquarters.

³⁴ Malayan Mirror, 16 Dec. 1954, vol. 2, no. 23, and 1 Oct. 1955, vol. 3, no. 19.

³⁵ A report prepared by T.H.Tan who was secretary to the Alliance during the early and mid 1950_s stated that the MCA had borne the bulk of the administrative and election expenses of the Alliance up to the Federal Election of 1955. Tan, T.H., “Memo on Alliance Party National Council and Executive Committee, With Proposed Rules”, mimeo., 18 Nov. 1955, p. 2. MCA headquartersGoogle Scholar.

³⁶ For an account of the social background of the UMNO leadership and membership, see Funston, N.J., Malay Politics in Malaysia: A Study of the United Malays National Organisation and Party Islam (Kuala Lumpur: Heinemann Educational Books [Asia] Ltd.Google Scholar, 1980), Chapter 5, and “Malay Politics in Malaya 1945–1969: A Case Study of the United Malays National Organisation and the Pan-Malayan Islamic Party” (MA thesis, University of Malaya, 1973), Chapter 5Google Scholar.

³⁷ Letter from Tengku Abdul Rahman to the Hon. Secretary-General of the MCA dated 21 June 1957. MCA headquarters.

³⁸ In 1952, the citizenship clauses of the Federation of Malaya Agreement were amended and, under the liberalized terms, about 50 per cent (1,157,000 persons) of the Chinese population had become Malayan citizens by June 1953. For an account of the citizenship amendment in the 1948 Federation of Malaya Agreement, see Ratnam, K.J., Communalism and the Political Process in Malaya (Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1965), pp. 84–93. The MCA was unhappy about the 1952 amendment because it did not incorporate the principle of jus soliGoogle Scholar.

³⁹ For a discussion of the term “Special rights” and its application in Malaysia, see Means, G.P.,“‘Special Rights’ as a Strategy for Development, The Case of Malaysia”, Comparative Politics 1 (Oct. 1972)Google Scholar.