Malayan Union
The
Malayan Union was a confederation of the
Malay states and the
Straits Settlements excluding
Singapore, which was placed as a
crown colony under direct British rule. It was the successor to
British Malaya and was conceived to simplify the administration of British colonies in the
Malay Peninsula. It was formed on
April 1 1946 by the
British.
Few of the key details of the Union were:
*Malayan citizenship that would give equal rights to all would be citizens regardless of race
*citizenship based on the
jus soli principle
*the transformation of the title
Sultan to
President.
In a way, the Sultans, the traditional rulers of the Malay states, would concede all their powers to the
British Crown except in the matters of culture and religion. The Union would be ultimately placed under the rule of a British Governor.
The idea of the Union was first expressed by the British on October
1945 in the aftermath of the
Second World War. Sir
Harold MacMichael was assigned the task of gathering the Malay state rulers' approval for the Malayan Union in the same month. In a short period of time, he managed to obtain all the Rulers' signatures through intimidation.
On
April 1, 1946, the Malayan Union officially came into existence with Sir
Edward Gent as its first
governor. The capital of the Union was
Kuala Lumpur.
The
Malays opposed the creation of the Union. The opposition was mainly due to the way Sir Harold MacMichael acquired the Sultans' signatures, the erosion of the Sultans' powers and the offering of citizenship to recent immigrants mainly the ethnic Chinese because their economic dominance was seen as a threat to the economic development of the Malays. The
United Malays National Organization, or
UMNO, a Malay political association formed by Dato'
Onn Jaafar on
March 1, 1946, led the opposition against the Malayan Union.
In the end, due to tremendous internal pressure inside the Malayan Union, the British finally conceded to the local opposition. The Malayan Union ceased to exist on
January 31,
1948. It was replaced by the
Federation of Malaya (
Persekutuan Tanah Melayu in
Malay) which recognised the position of the Malays as the definitive people of Malaya as well as outlining stricter conditions on the granting of citizenship.
The Federation of Malaya would later become part of the Federation of
Malaysia in
1963.
*
Bumiputra
