Malaysia and Indonesia

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Radulescu, POL 221, Final essay

Malaysia and Indonesia: Political transition after independence

This essay aims to describe and compare the shift of power from colonialism and after

independence in Indonesias and Malaysias case. In depth, the essay will focus on the history

and the most important steps of the government after independence but also on the

characteristics of the colonial rule in each of the areas. As a concept, the process happening

after gaining independence from a rule and transferring to another is what is called the

formation of a political identity. Colonialism in these two cases stood as the main reason for

people to united rise against something. In both of the cases the fight against colonial rule was

what managed to ideologically bring together a multitude of ethnicities and perspectives

(Brown 2005).

Malaysia is well recognized in the world and in the Southeast Asia region as being the

state which comprises the most numerous ethnicities. From independence, Malaysia followed

steps that led to political stability and also political and economical developmental, but steps

that encountered constantly new difficult situations to overcome. As an important trading

centre and also as a favourable area to develop Islamism, Malaysia than called Malacca, was

formed during the fifteenth century of sultanates. The government system of that time was

complex and comprised as rules, the traditional law, Adat and the Islamic law. In the late

sixteenth century the area was undertaken by Portugal colonists, fact which intensified trades

with the neighbours. Such intense trading activity explains the multi ethnicity of Malaysia as

seen now with large Indian or Chinese communities (Azyurmandi 2004). However, the

British government as colonialists from the nineteenth century implemented that the rule ad

decision making positions within sultanates would be held by Malays. Moreover, the

influence of the British system was highly important due to the fact that it provided the basis

for an independent state, being able to train elites from the national people ad offering them

training for self-sustainability, therefore creating a start for independence by creating a

positive environment for modern economical development and effective infrastructure for a

functional state. However, the basis was not for a democratic system as such but for a

authoritarian, which by the Sedition Act implemented in the nineteenth century restricted

freedom of press and also implemented strict rules (Funston 2001). Towards the twentiethcentury, nationalism raised throughout Malaysia, leading to the formation of the United

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Malays Nationalist Organisations which will have as effect the forcing of Britain to retrieve

occupancy from the land. Therefore, nationalism, not only amongst Malayans but also

amongst other powerful ethic groups was what stopped the British government to create a

Malaysian Union that would offer equal rights to all citizens. The leadership of the Malaysian

nationalism was challenged in the 1940 by the Malayan Communist Party that was formed on

the ideology of nationalism but was not able to succeed due to its large number of Chinese

members, therefore creating an ideological struggle. The independence struggle was led by

the UMNO in alliance with Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) also including the

Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) which nowadays is called the National Front (BN) which

holds its power until today. After winning fifty one seats from fifty-two in the elections of

1955, the alliance led by UMNO managed to gain independence and also to implement a new

constitution in 1957. The fusion of the Malaya with the British colonies Surawak and Sabah

formed the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. After the independence, the newly formed state

kept on facing difficulties in governance for several reasons. One of these reasons is the

cultural and ethnical one, specifically the slow recognition of Malaysian as a national

language and particularly the thought that Malaysian traditional and cultural values were not

implemented correctly in the governance. Therefore the period of twentieth century was one

filled with rioting and disapproval. As a result, in the 1969 elections, discontent with the

UMNO alliance governance led to 200 deaths and also to the decrease of seats in Parliament

gained by the alliance as only 66 form 103. Therefore it was a time of political instability,

filled with ethnical tensions on the sides of Malaysian, Chinese and Indians within the state.

The constitution was based on the social contract that comprised a win-win situation for both

Malaysian nationalist and the other ethnic groups. The new state of Malaysia will offer full

citizenship rights to the non-Malaysian population with the price of business and economical

privileges. The economy of Malaysia became then dominated by the Chinese and the riots of

1969 that were the reason for declaring an 18 months state of emergency led to the destruction

of several Chinese businesses and to the killing of many people (Crouch 1996). A very

important personality of Malaysian politics and economics is Mahathir Mohamed who played

key role in Malaysias economical and political development especially in a fragile situation

as that. His strategy to confront this situation was to turn the economy of Malaysia as a first

step out from the Chinese dominations and back to Malaysians. Being a prime-minister from

1981 to 2003, Mahathir constantly criticised the policy making of the conservatory Muslim as

being against the formation of a modern economy. It is important to acknowledge that the

Muslim parties of Indonesia such as the Democratic Action Party (DAP), the Islamic Party of

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Malaysia (PAS), and the Peoples Justice Party (PKR ) form the opposition in the Parliament

but the power was also given to the BN (the former UMNO) since independence. The UMNO

holds the power front of the Malaysian politics since independence. The executive as the

Prime Minister was continuously elected from this party. It holds the majority in Parliament

and with ups and downs it managed to hold its position up to now. The former UMNO led

alliance now standing as the BN follows an ideology that concerns cultural and ethnic variety

within Malaysia and also the communal issues of the people. It also has a great role and

several policies that focus on economics and on building a state with a modern functional

economy. The important thing to underline is that Malaysias transition in power after

independence was not held by the BN as self-standing but with a conglomerate of other

parties that stand as a symbol of the multi-ethnic society, ideology which over time, since

independence, assured the success of the party in power (Freedom House 2010).

Indonesia is the worlds largest country in Muslim majority, with 85 of its population

adopting the Muslim beliefs system. However the political stage is highly dominated by the

secular nationalist parties that support Pancasila (Buehler 2009).Indonesia was colonised in

the sixteenth century by the Portueguese. However, in the seventieth century Indonesia was

taken from the Portuguese and was colonilised by the Dutch. The Dutch colonialism brought

major influences to Indonesias political system. In the beginning of that period, the Dutchstructured politically and geographically what it is today Indonesia. The dutch established in

the Java region and it was named during the Dutch colonialism the Dutch East Indies. The

colonialism in Indonesia functioned by removing the already established elites in the area and

replacing them with ones that will serve the interests of the colonialist. Economically, the

dutched closed all the trade routes with the Middle East and forced peasent in Indonesia to

crop two fifths of their land for the government (Kingsbury 2002). The Dutch goverance

system was simple and fairly beaureaucratic. The colonialists implemented in the nineteenth

century the Ethnical Policy which had the role to increase educational and health services.

With a formed legislative called the Volksraad, the Ethnical policy had the aim to maintain

Indonesian cultural counsiouncesness united and also formed the first nationalists. In the early

1900 the Indonesian people split between two, political trained individuals that will

cooperate with the Dutch rulers towards obtaining independence from inside the Dutch the

systems and the other types of nationalists that would refuse to operate in a Dutch led system.

In 1928, an Indonesian anthem was created on the basis on one land, one nation, one language

and nationalist embraced Malay as the language that will unite culturally all the ethnicities in

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Indonesia. Sukarno was the leader of non-cooperator nationalists and the Dutchs opposition

to the adaptation of language consolidated their support. In 1942 the Dutch were defeated by

the Japanese with the suport of the nationalists which led towards the gain of independence as

proclaimed by Sukarno. As the struggle to independece seemed almost over, the Dutch still

faught for their sovereignity but with the help of the Japanese army, in the absence of a

political leadership, the Dutch finally retrieved in 1949. What happened next was basically a

shift of power to Indonesian military leadership. After this attempt of indepence, there was a

certain instability and not only politically that was ruling the former colonised state that could

be noticed in the 1955 first elections (Funston 2001). There were sixteen parties that were

competing for only one seat, fact that made it difficult to form an allience like in Malaysia

that would gain the support and then the majority. But the final and one of the most importing

turning points to what will be the real shift of power after indepence is Sukarnos decision to

ban the election os 1959 and to proclaim itself as a ruler, ruling on the basis on guided

democracy. The concept of guided democracy had two main basis that would both stand as a

symbol of the cultural values, ethnic unity and social contract. One was consensus and the

other was mutual assistance. He suspended the 1950 contitution, readopting the 1945 one

which gave greater power to the president. He than limited the number pf politcal parties that

can participate on the politica stage at eleven and established a National Advisory Council.

Sukarnos politics and rule started to become more and more authoritarian, rejecting the

principles of modern economy, confronting the formation of a Malaysian state due to the fact

that he believed it was a British product, movement which held the name Konfrontasi, became

close to the Peoples Republic of Chine and also held its ideology between the military and

the Communist Party (PKI) (Rickfles 2001). On the 30th of September 1965 a military coup

is developed and ends with the death of five hundere thousands members of the Communist

Party (PKI) were killed. This perspective is contradicted by Kingsbury who argues in his

book The politics of Indonesia that the origin of the copu can be rationalised by determining

the results that is the Suharto establishment for governance.. The oficial New Order

Indonesian perspective on the coup of Spetember was that PKI organised a plot against the

current government. The change from Sukarno government to Suharto was sharp and it

replaced the Old Order government of Sukarno with Suhartos New Order government.

Suharto replaced Sukarnos economical and political policies and proclaims itself as the

father of development. Under this name and position he depoliticize Indonesia, minimising

the political stage to three major parties: Golkar lead by him, the United Development Party

which was an Islamic party and nationalist-secular party PDI ( Partai Demokrasi Indonesia).

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References:

Azyurmardi, A 2004, Origins of Islamic Reformism in Southeast Asia: Networks of Malay-

Indonesian and Middle Eastern ulama in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, University

of Hawaii Press, Honolulu

Brown, GK 2005, The Formation and Management of Political Identities: Indonesia and

Malaysia Compared, Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security nd Ethnicity,University of Oxford

Crouch, H 1996, Government and Society in Malaysia, Allen and Unwin, NSW

Funston, J (ed.) 2001, Government and politics in Southeast Asia, Institute of Southeast Asian

Studies

Freedom House 2010,Freedom in the World 2010: Erosion of freedom intensifies, viewed on

the 21st of May 2011

Kingsbury, D 2002, The politics of Indonesia, Oxford University Press, UK

Liow, JCY 2005, The politics of Indonesia-Malaysia relations: one kin, two nations,

Routledge, UK

Ricklefs, MC 2001,A history of modern Indonesia since c. 1200, Stanford University Press

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Malaysia and Indonesia