Pada 7 Oktober 1947, PUTERA-AMCJA telah mengeluarkan Manifesto Hartal kepada pihak media, mengisytharkan tarikh 20 Oktober sebagai Hari Hartal Se-Malaya. Berikut merupakan teks dari Manifesto Hartal yang disiarkan menerusi akhbar The Straits Echo bertarikh 7 Oktober 1947.
HARTAL MANIFESTO
The Putera and the All-Malaya Council of Joint Action call upon all those who regard Malaya as their real home, to observe October 20, 1947 as a Day of Protest against the Revised Constitutional Proposals, by staging a Malaya-wide hartal on that day.
October 20 has been selected as the Day of Protest because it is on that day that the British Parliament is scheduled to begin its Autumn session, during which it is reported that a debate on the constitutional issue in Malaya will take place.
On October 20, therefore, between the hours of six a.m. and midnight, all those who regard Malaya as their real home and who support the People’s Constitutional Proposals issued by Putera and the All-Malaya Council of Joint Action, are asked not to carry out their usual occupations, but to remain indoors throughout the day and night.
You are asked for one day to cease work in order to demonstrate to government that you reject the undemocratic Revised Constitutional Proposals, and in order to carry our struggle for acceptance of the People’s Constitutional Proposals one step further.
But all workers in the essential public services, though we know that they are in full sympathy with us, are requested not to join us in hartal, though we do ask them to issue statements declaring that they are in full sympathy with the hartal.
The carrying out of the Malaya-wide hartal, or general stoppage of work for one day, has been forced upon us by the obstinate and undemocratic attitude of Government, which seems fixed on imposing on Malaya its Revised Constitutional Proposals, although every effort has been made to show that these Proposals are not accepted by the people.
One year ago, on October 14, 1946, at a reception in Malacca to Governor-General, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, the Chairman of the All-Malaya Council of Joint Action, Mr. Tan Cheng Lock warned the Governor-General that if government tried to present the people of Malaya with a fait accompli on the constitutional issue, then the people would have no alternative but to undertake passive resistance and non-cooperation with Government.
The history of the past year shows that Mr. Tan Cheng Lock’s fears were fully justified. All our attempts, in the shape of memoranda, mass meetings throughout the length and breadth of Malaya, and drawing up the People’s Constitutional Proposals, have been ignored by the Government.
We have, therefore, to carry our struggle one step further and make this Malaya-wide hartal on October 20, an unqualified success.
We ask our sympathisers throughout the country to remember that hartal is essentially a voluntary, peaceful and non-violent in nature. We ask them to keep strict watch in every town, kampong and village, for irresponsible elements who may be instructed by sources hostile to us, and the cause we represent, to make trouble. These elements should be exposed as soon as they try to sabotage the voluntary and peaceful nature of the hartal.
We advice the people to do their marketing for October 20 on the previous day, so that they will not be inconvenienced.
We advice our supporters and sympathisers as far as possible to spend October 20 indoors, and preferably in the premises of their various associations, parties and trade unions, studying the People’s Constitutional Proposals.
Finally, we call upon all those who regard Malaya as their real home to remain calm, peaceful and tolerant on October 20 – our Day of Protest – confident in the justice and final success or their cause.
Sumber: Akhbar The Straits Echo, 7 Oktober 1947
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