Tun Tan Cheng Lock played a pivotal role in getting the British to agree to hold Malaya’s first federal elections in 1955, the prelude to the granting of independence in 1957.
MORE than any other Chinese leader in the formative period of nation-building, Tun Tan Cheng Lock was responsible for securing basic rights and privileges – citizenship based on jus soli (the principle that a person's nationality at birth is determined by the place of birth), protection of Chinese education and culture, and participation in the Alliance governing coalition.
An eighth-generation Malayan Chinese with a cosmopolitan outlook and proud of his heritage, Cheng Lock can be considered one of the country's first visionary leaders. He had imagined a Malaya that would be both multiracial and self-governing.
In 1926, when as a member of the Straits Settlements Legislative Council, he articulated a powerful vision of a “Malayan community with a Malayan consciousness”. Twenty years later, he continued to exhort Chinese and Indians to identify themselves as Malayans.
In 1932, speaking out against British discriminatory measures against Chinese education and land ownership issues, he called for colonial policies that would instead establish a “Malaya for Malayans”. He also argued for a common language of instruction to “Malayanise” students enrolled in the country's Malay, Mandarin and Tamil schools.
An advocate of English as the common medium of instruction, he called for the inclusion of mother-tongue education in the schooling system to preserve the country's rich multicultural heritage.
Aware that the Chinese had to show loyalty to Malaya before Malay leaders would agree to their playing a role in a self-governing Malaya, Cheng Lock argued that the best way of inculcating a sense of patriotism among the Chinese was to give them “a fair deal in Malaya”.
They would then, like the Straits-born Chinese, “regard themselves in the course of time as Malayans first and Chinese second”. To Cheng Lock, a fair deal meant equal citizenship rights, constitutional safeguards for Chinese education and language, religious freedom, and unimpeded opportunities for economic betterment.
Although Cheng Lock believed deeply that “equality is the very root and foundation of democracy”, he recognised that the Chinese needed to make major compromises to accommodate Malay interests, particularly their economic needs. Because of their weaker economic standing compared to the immigrant Chinese population, he felt that Malays had a justifiable claim to special rights treatment.
He also recognised that the slightly smaller Malay population then – in 1940, Chinese made up 43% of the total population compared to 41% for Malays and 14% for Indians – made them apprehensive about their future political and economic prospects.
Cheng Lock thus supported a special rights policy for Malays in order to protect them from “unfair competition and exploitation”. Writing in 1940, he stated that Malays “should be assisted by the Government in every way to accelerate their economic and educational advancement and progress.”
At the same time, he emphasised that “the interests and rights of the other races should not thereby be affected to their detriment and in such a way as to hamper their development and justice”.
In April 1946, after World War II, the British government inaugurated the Malayan Union, a scheme that created a common citizenship with equal rights for Malays and non-Malays. Due to this “affront” and another measure that sharply infringed upon Malay political sovereignty, the Malays formed the United Malays National Organisation to oppose the Malayan Union.
While Cheng Lock understood that Umno had opposed the scheme because it “failed adequately to consider the special position of Malays” among other reasons, he was bitterly disappointed when Umno, in cooperation with the British and sultans and without any Chinese input, produced the Federation of Malaya Agreement in 1948. The new citizenship clauses were so stringent that in 1951, Chinese formed only 12% of those who had become citizens.
Between 1947 and 1955, Cheng Lock worked single-mindedly to obtain citizenship based on jus soli for Chinese in a Malaya where no “single community (would) be placed in a position to dominate the others”.
He first embarked on his uphill struggle by cooperating with the leftwing Malayan Democratic Union and Malay Nationalist Party in the All-Malaya Council of Joint Action-Putera movement. For a short period, he even succeeded in getting the conservative Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce of Malaya to cooperate with the leftwing AMCJA in opposing the Federation of Malaya Agreement. With the movement's collapse, Cheng Lock turned his full attention to the MCA that was set up in 1949.
Pragmatic approach
Cheng Lock demonstrated a remarkable willingness to work with different political allies, to temper idealism with pragmatism, and to modify his strategies when faced with exigent realities. These qualities were fully displayed between 1946 and 1955, the period when nationalist activities were at their peak.
After failing to overturn the Federation of Malaya Agreement, Cheng Lock changed tactics, abandoning the political left to instead work with Umno. His return to the political mainstream was facilitated by Commissioner-General for South-East Asia Malcolm McDonald, who set up the Communities Liaison Committee (CLC) in 1949 to provide a platform for Malay, Chinese and Indian leaders to sort out their differences.
Citizenship based on jus soli for non-Malays and special rights for Malays were the most pressing issues that engaged the attention of the CLC, particularly Umno president Datuk Onn Jafaar and Cheng Lock.
Onn agreed to liberalise the terms of citizenship for non-Malays. In return, Cheng Lock pledged support for Malay special rights. Both leaders also appeared to have concurred that a multiracial system of governance would make for more harmonious race relations than the exclusivist Umno and MCA structures.
Both men, however, failed in their efforts to transform their respective parties into multiracial bodies. Onn was replaced by Tunku Abdul Rahman as Umno president in August 1951 after failing to persuade the party rank and file to accept non-Malays into their fold. By contrast, Cheng Lock held on to his party position even though the MCA voted in April 1951 against his proposal to admit non-Chinese with full rights.
When Onn formed the multiracial Independent Malayan Party in 1951, Cheng Lock gave it his support. Thus, when Selangor MCA leaders H.S. Lee and Ong Yoke Lin forged an ad hoc coalition with Umno to contest the Kuala Lumpur municipal elections in 1952, Cheng Lock was initially lukewarm toward the project. It was not until the election results conclusively demonstrated that Malays and Chinese voters greatly preferred the Umno-MCA alliance that he abandoned the IMP.
Refocusing his attention on the MCA, Cheng Lock worked to strengthen the Alliance. Gaining the trust and respect of Tunku Abdul Rahman, he played a prominent role in Alliance nationalist politics, guiding developments in the Alliance Roundtable – set up in February 1953 to institutionalise the coalition on a nationwide basis – and in the Alliance National Convention, which succeeded in putting pressure on the British to hold federal elections in 1955 and to grant independence in 1957.
In May 1955, Cheng Lock suffered a stroke that incapacitated him. As a result, he was unable to participate in the constitutional negotiations that marked the final phase of the transfer of British power to the Alliance government.
It was Tun Tan Siew Sin – his son, closest confidante and political collaborator – who put the finishing touches to his life's work. After playing a pivotal role in the Alliance independence negotiations, Siew Sin became a major Malaysian figure, serving as MCA president from 1961 to 1974, and holding the powerful posts of Minister of Commerce and Industry, and Minister of Finance from 1957 to 1974.
When Cheng Lock died in 1960, he was honoured with a state funeral by the country he so loved and to which he had dedicated his life's work.
- Heng Pek Koon -
Heng Pek Koon is Assistant Professor at American University, Washington DC. Her publications include 'Chinese Politics in Malaysia', Singapore: OUP 1988. The Founding Fathers series is coordinated by Dr Joseph Fernando of Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, and Research Editor Dr Lee Kam Hing