Risk Professional: Malaysia's balancing act

Malaysia is often presented in a bad light, particularly in foreign media which delights in presenting the actions of a radical minority as the will of the majority.

This is the reality of life on the ground in Malaysia.

Malaysia was never a British colony. Three districts of the Malay Peninsular were formally under direct British rule: Penang, Melacca and Singapore. The remainder of the country was under the direct rule of Sultans. However, the Sultans requested (it was not imposed) that Britain helped to administer and unify the country. That plan was successful.

Some people talk about "the Malays" booting out the British. That is not what happened.

During WWII, Britain was as taken aback by the rapid movement of the Japanese into the Malay Peninsular as was the USA by the attack on Pearl Harbour. The Japanese swamped the small British force based in the country. Their target was the rubber production: as the world's primary source of rubber, Malaysia was a strategic objective - no rubber meant no tyres, no tank tracks, no washers on fuel pumps on aeroplanes, no damping on vibrating equipment and many other essential uses. The disruption of rubber supplies - and tin and silver - had another economic impact: a source of considerable revenue for Britain was abruptly stopped. It wasn't that the British forsake its dominions in the Far East: it was simply that resources were already deployed in Europe, that those resources were already at risk of being overwhelmed, and that the war in the Pacific was being viewed largely as a local conflict between Japan and China and the risk of it spilling over to cover the AsiaPac region was, simply, under-estimated.

During the Japanese occupation, Malaya suffered enormously. Although now eradicated from Japanese history books, there is firm evidence, including from Japanese soldiers, of the atrocities they committed, particularly against the Chinese. Today, elderly Chinese weep as they speak of fleeing their homes. Mrs T told us how her mother stuffed her toy doll with as much money and jewellery as she could and sewed it up, gave it to her and told her never to let go of it. She still has the doll and the memories of the Japanese cutting down her family as they ran.

At the annual celebrations of the end of the occupation held in a Chinese temple in central Kuala Lumpur, every year there are less people. The suggestion that the Chinese are pragmatic, inscrutable people is given the lie on this night every year.

Recently, in an interview on a national TV channel, former Prime Minster Mahathir, ethnically part-Indian but a Muslim and promoter of Malay rights and benefits, said that the Japanese did not bother with the Malays. "For us," he said," it made no difference. It was just another occupying power." He went on to say that they did not bother about what was happening to the Chinese.

What was happening to the Chinese was that some of them were being radicalised. After the War, a communist party was formed and began what amounted to civil war. With Maoist ideology and terrorist techniques (many, it has to be said, taught by the British during the war as an underground resistance to the Japanese), they began a campaign of violence with the purpose of revolution. They killed British administrators. At the same time, a murmuring campaign spread throughout the Malays, saying that the British had abandoned Malaya and that a return to take the profits from rubber, silver and tin should not be permitted.

Perhaps surprisingly, Britain - which was seeing a number of former colonies seeking independence, turned its policy of empire upside down, and decided on a Commonwealth of independent nations, with Britain offering a guiding hand when asked. And to facilitate this, Britain selected - from a list given to it - those that it felt would best benefit from spending time in Britain learning to run a country. A training centre for future leaders was created and paid for by Britain.

Malaya, Pakistan, Ghana all had peaceful transitions to nationhood, under the benevolent eye of Britain which, even today, provides education and training for government officers in various disciplines. And, most importantly, in each of those countries that gained independence, Britain left the apparatus of government: an independent democratic government, an independent judiciary and a common-law legal system, an independent executive. And, particularly pertinent to this paper, a secular state where religion was important but the rule of law, as defined by parliament, was the superior authority.

While some Chinese were radicalising in favour of Communism, some Malays were radicalising in favour of a form of Islam.

In the 1960 and early 1970s, Malaysia was a very progressive country: much of its modern road system, much of its modern building development happened in that time. Foreign-built cars and foreign-built products were everywhere. In the cities, urbanites were becoming very westernised. Films from the era show the exact opposite of the repressive regime that is so often reported in the international media.There are, for example, few restrictions on dress in particular the wearing by women of loose and all covering clothing and a headscarf; the drinking of alcohol by Muslims whilst not promoted is not harshly condemned; it was a society having fun. But having fun without excessive decadence or extravagance.

In the background, however, an Islamic political party, PAS, was building support for a much more restrictive society and arguing that the trappings of westernisation were undermining Islam. Mahatihr beat the PAS candidate to take a seat in Parliament in 1964. But he lost it in 1969. PAS campaigned on a platform of race saying that UMNO had surrendered Malay rights to the Chinese; and Chinese parties responded by saying that the MCA, part of the UMNO led coalition, had surrendered Chinese rights to UMNO.

On 13 May 1969, as campaigning for the election heated up, race riots started....

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