The Malaysian Social Contract
Before there was Malaya and Malaysia, the peninsula was known as Tanah Melayu and when translated into English it means ‘Malay Land’ and the people originated from Tanah Melayu are known as Melayu or in English ‘Malay’. This explains why Malays are known as ‘Bumiputera’ along with aborigines. The term ‘Bumiputera’ means ‘son of soil’ and this shows how the Malays is the owner of the land we currently live on. Through treaties signed by the Rulers of the Malay States of the Peninsular the British acquired the right to rule the Malay States. These treaties obviously recognized and legitimized the States as Malay States. No one disputed this. Even the aborigines accepted this as shown by their submission to the rule of the Malay Sultans. Initially the peoples living in the States were divided into Malays and aborigines who were subjects of the Malay rulers and foreign guests who were not subjects of the rulers. There was no citizenship or documents about citizenship status as in most countries. Foreign guests live a trouble free and allowed to do anything in Malay States. The Malay subjects of the Rulers and the Rulers themselves did not feel threatened by the numbers of these non-Malays even with the difference in wealth between non-Malays and Malays. They did not think that the foreigners who had settled in the country would ever demand citizenship rights.
When Japan conquered the Malay States and the colonies of the Straits Settlements, the Chinese felt insecure as the Japanese were their historical enemies. They began joining guerillas and moved in jungles and disappeared. After Japan lost in the World War 2, the guerillas came out from their hiding place and claim the land as theirs. They seized many people, Chinese and Malays and executed a number of them. These guerillas are known as the ‘Communist’. Unfortunately, as a sign of retaliation the Malays began killing the Chinese in the rural areas. The sino-malay war are deemed to start but was narrowly averted because of the arrival of British forces. The ill feeling however never faded.
It was in this tensed situation that the British proposed the Malayan Union which would give the "guests" the right of citizenship as indistinguishable from that of the Malays. The Malays rejected the Malayan Union and its citizenship proposal. They forced the British to return to the status quo in a new Federation of Malaya. After much persuasion by the Chinese leaders to the British, the then president of UMNO Dato’ Onn Jaafar proposed for UMNO to be open to all races. After his proposal was rejected he left UMNO and started a new political party to realize his ambitions. The British kept on pressurizing the Malays to be more open and liberal on the issue.
Tunku Abdul Rahman, the President of UMNO decided on a coalition with MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) and the MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress). In the 1955 elections to the Federal Legislative Assembly, since there were very few constituencies with Chinese or Indian majorities, the MCA and MIC partners had to put up candidates in Malay majority constituencies after UMNO undertook not to contest in these constituencies but to support MCA Chinese and MIC Indian candidates instead. Such the support of the Malays toward the Chinese and Indian that both MIC and MCA won all of their contested seats. UMNO however lost one.
To overcome British resistance to independence and to gain the support of the Chinese and Indians, the Tunku decided to give one million citizenship to the two communities based purely on residence. One notable new citizen was (Tun) Leong Yew Koh, a former general in the Chinese National Army who was later appointed Governor of Malacca. It was at this stage that the leaders of the three communal parties, who had formed the Government of self-governing British Federation of Malaya, discussed and reached agreement on the relationship between the three communities in an independent Federation of Malaya.
In exchange for the one million citizenships the non-Malays must recognize the special position of the Malays as the indigenous people. Certain laws such as the pre-eminence of Islam as the state religion, the preservation of Malay reserve land, the position of the Malay Rulers and Malay customs and the distribution of Government jobs were included in the understanding. It was also agreed that;
i. The national language will be Malay, the second will be English but both the Chinese and Indians are allowed to use their language freely except for official communication
ii. Chinese and Tamil primary schools can use their languages as teaching media. They can also be used in secondary schools but these have to be private schools
iii. Both the Chinese and Indians are granted citizenship that can’t be annulled. They should retain their language, religion and culture, that as citizens they should have political rights as accorded to all citizens as been requested by them.
Other than what have been stated above, one can refer to the Malaysian Constitution and this reflects how the goodwill of the Malays towards the non-Malays. For everything that is accorded the Malays, there is always a provision for non-Malays. Few ever mention this fact. The only thing that attracts everyone's attention and made a subject of dispute is what is accorded the Malays and other indigenous people. Thus, although the Malay language is the National Language, the Chinese and Indians are free to use their language and they are even allowed to have Chinese and Tamil schools. In no other country has there been a similar provision. Even the most liberal countries do not have this constitutional guarantee.
Writer’s Opinion
In my opinion the social contract is a very powerful concept in order to maintain and manage societies within a state. Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan said “Everyone was a threat to others for natural resources. People therefore give up their natural law, right, and liberty for a social contract that provides the safety of civil law, right, and liberty”. Therefore in the recent issues in Malaysia where recently there have been certain groups of people who voiced out on how they think that the social contract in Malaysia is bias and some even went as far as saying that there is no such thing as a social contract in Malaysia must realize that the social contract is not something to toy with as it may result in a catastrophic manner. The social contract demands every ethnic group to sacrifice their rights in some degree in order to have a peaceful and just society. Tun Mahathir Muhammad in his recent writing wrote “To say it (social contract) does not exist is to deny the contents of the Constitution which was based upon the acceptance by the leaders of the three communities of the original social contract”.
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