Reviews & Press : : The Chinese in Penang: A Pictorial History

The Star, Sunday, 2 March 2008

Chinese concerns: not just business as usual

THE CHINESE IN PENANG:
A Pictorial History
By Tan Kim Hong
Publisher: Areca Books, 235 pages
ISBN: 978-9834283476

THE MALAYSIAN CHINESE AND NATION-BUILDING:
Before Merdeka and Fifty Years After (Vol 1)
Edited by Voon Phin Keong
Publisher: Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies, 460 pages
ISBN: 978-9833908028

THE Chinese role in the Malayan independence movement and nation-building is a theme running through two recently published books: Tan Kim Hong’s The Chinese in Penang and Voon Phin Keong’s The Malaysian Chinese and Nation-Building.

These two studies are important at a time of renewed discussion on the post-WWII political role the Chinese played in this country, and how this helped hasten independence for Malaya.

At the least, as some scholars contend, the Chinese joining with the Malays in the independence movement convinced British policy makers that this country’s different communities could actually work together, and this participation secured a share in the subsequent governing process for the Chinese .

The political journey to such a position has not been easy for the Chinese, particularly when, for a long time, they were seen as primarily preoccupied with business pursuits. But the Chinese in Malaya had, in fact, always taken an informed and involved interest in politics.

Indeed, by the beginning of the 20th century, sections within the community had become politically active, and some had already embraced an early vision of an independent Malaya.

However, WWII and the immediate post-war years created a situation of considerable uncertainty for the Chinese. Though the community was recovering from the difficult, dangerous years of the Japanese Occupation, it was still divided along dialect, ideological, and class lines.

Then in 1946 came the mass mobilising of the Malays under Umno in opposition to the Malayan Union. Soon afterwards, in June 1948, there was the outbreak of a communist-led insurrection against the British. The Malayan Chinese, caught between a colonial regime that seemed to be increasingly pro-Malay and an armed communist rebellion comprising mostly of Chinese, found themselves politically vulnerable. The loyalty of the Chinese came under scrutiny.

But just when it appeared that their future in this country would be decided entirely by others, a group of Chinese leaders stepped forward to initiate a timely dialogue with Malay leaders.

Sino-Malay cooperation is not recent or unexpected. Indeed, long before the coming of the British, Malay rulers had worked closely with the Chinese. As Khoo Kay Kim points out in Voon’s The Malaysian Chinese and Nation-Building, it was Malay rulers who invited the Chinese to help open up their states by establishing tin mines in Perak and Selangor and gambier plantations in Johor .

Voon, in his introductory chapter, further points out that there was a significant Chinese commercial presence in the Malay Archipelago some 400 years before Western colonialism in Asia. Recent writings by other scholars describe how early Chinese traders forged commercial and political alliances with Malay rulers. Over time, some Chinese even set up early settlements.

Following visits by the Chinese explorer Admiral Zheng He to Malacca in the early 1400s large numbers of Chinese merchants were drawn to the new entrepot. They were crucial to its subsequent growth.

This flourishing indigenous trade, however, was soon disrupted by the arrival of Western maritime powers in the early 16th century. Still, Malay commercial and political collaboration with the Chinese persisted.

Interesting chapters

The role of major Chinese guilds and associations, influential groups often neglected in most studies, is the focus of Khor Teik Huat’s chapter. Khor explains why the Pan-Malayan Federation of Associations, which had strongly objected to the way Chinese education and Malay special rights were framed, eventually accepted compromises negotiated within the Alliance Party.

Khoo’s chapter offers an overview of post-war political developments, but his account of how the 1952 Kuala Lumpur MCA-Umno alliance was forged can be disputed. It was actually Tun H.S. Lee who was chairman of Selangor MCA then (and not, as Khoo states, Tun Omar Ong Yoke Lin) and Lee had a more decisive role in building that alliance.

A broader treatment is provided by Danny Wong Tze Ken, who takes the narrative right through to the formation of Malaysia.

The section of the book dealing with the Malaysian economy is certainly the strongest, and offers a wealth of data and analysis.

These chapters trace the transformation of the Malaysian economy since independence and the part played by the Chinese.

They examine the impact of the New Economic Policy on Chinese business, and assess Malay corporate expansion and the resilience of Chinese business, particularly small and medium size manufacturing.

But some of the points raised by the writers could be explored further, especially Chin Yee Whah’s comment that there are now “genuine” Sino-Bumiputra joint ventures of equal partnership.

This is an important observation but, if useful lessons are to be gained from it, there is a need to identify some of the industries where such partnerships are developing, and how they were forged.

Perhaps Voon’s second volume will explore this – it is surely eagerly awaited.

Tale told in pictures

While The Malaysian Chinese and Nation-Building – published to mark the country’s 50th Merdeka celebrations – offers scholarly discussions by academicians, Tan’s The Chinese in Penang takes a different route.

Tan, whose earlier works include a history of the Labour Party of Malaya, offers a fascinating pictorial history of the Penang Chinese of the last 200 years.

He traces early Chinese political activism and shows that the community on the island had always, as elsewhere in Malaya, been politically attentive, whether to reformist or revolutionary movements in China or radical politics in Malaya.

The book relies on photographs, picture postcards, newspaper clippings and maps painstakingly compiled over the years to sketch what Tan, in his preface, describes as “a chequered contour of the social milieu, economic endeavours, political orientations, educational efforts, and religious life of the Penang Chinese”.

To deal with the different social and cultural groups within the community, Tan draws on Chinese and English sources. And to ensure that his work reaches a wider readership, the presentation is in English and Chinese.

The value of this book could have been enhanced if Tan had given some attention to the broad interaction the Chinese engaged in with other ethnic groups, especially in social and cultural areas.

The richness of Penang’s heritage, as reflected in local dramas, such as the Baba-type bangsawan (Malay opera), music and even dialects, comes from this open and receptive approach of the Chinese and other communities.

Nevertheless, this book offers interesting insight to the growth of the Chinese community in Penang.

Well-edited and researched, both these books are invaluable additions to the growing literature on Malaysian studies.