8 Program MDU (1945)

PEOPLE OF MALAYA:
A new body called the ‘Malayan Democratic Union’ has been formed. Never has the time been more appropriate for the formation of a united representative body which can truly express the real sentiments of the Malayan people.

For far too long, Malaya has been a political backwater divorced from the march of events in the world. A policy for hiding one’s head in the sand coupled with repressive measures against progressive elements in this country has resulted in appalling ignorance and poverty; and this in a country rich in natural resources and ability.

But under the stress and strain of the second world war and the terror of the Japanese occupation all races and classes of the Peninsula have awakened to the word ‘politics’. Malayan political consciousness, dormant before the war, has now developed and seeks expression and outlet. Everyone realises now that politics is part and parcel of our daily lives and must be understood and applied and not something to be dismissed with a sneer. Things which apparently do not concern us do concern us and materially affect our way of living. The was has taught people all over the world that they must not be ostriches in the world desert. Like people in Europe we Malayans realize that life and country cannot be left to chance, but should be intelligently directed to advantage.

There is a great need for a proper organ which can express the sentiments and the needs of the man-in-the-street, an organisation which can unite all races on a common programme of comprehensive political and social reform. The ‘Malayan Democratic Union’ therefore stands for the following programme and needs your support to carry out this programme:

1. Self-government for Malaya within the British Commonwealth of Nations.

2. Legislative Assembly for Malaya composed of freely elected representatives of the people.

3. Votes for all Malayan citizens above the age of 21 years irrespective of race, sex, religion or property.

4. Complete freedom of person, speech, Press and meeting.

5. Educational reform including free elementary, secondary and technical education for all.

6. A social security scheme including free medical services throughout Malaya.

7. Improved standard of life for all.

8. Complete equality in the employment of Malayans and removal of colour restrictions.


Sumber: 'The Malayan Democratic Union Manifesto', 8 Dis 1945.

8 Dasar PKMM (1946)

DASAR2 PARTY KEBANGSAAN MELAYU

1. Mempersatu-padukan bangsa Melayu, menanamkan semangat kebangsaan dalam sanubari orang2 Melayu dan bertujuan untok menyatukan Malaya di dalam keluarga yang besar yaitu Republic Indonesia Raya.

2. Bertujuan hendak menchapai iktisad hak kemerdekaan berpedato, bergerak, bersidang, berfikir dan menuntot pelajaran.

3. Membangkitkan kedudukan iktisad bangsa Melayu dengan jalan memajukan perusahaan perniagaan dan pertanian serta menaikkan taraf penghidupan bangsa Melayu.

4. Menchapai kebebasan berchuchok tanam. Orang yang hendak berchuchok tanam itu bebas dari membayar sewa tanah bila2 masa ada di mana juga dan dibebaskan pula menjual hasil usahanya itu di pasar perniagaan.

5. Menghendaki diberi kebebasan penoh kepada orang Melayu mendirikan sekolah2 kebangsaan mereka, yaitu tempat mereka mendapat pelajar2 dengan bahasanya dengan perchuma.

6. Menghendaki kebebasan menchetak buku2 nya sendiri, menggalakkan pelajaran sechara demokrasi, supaya meninggikan kedudokan bangsa Melayu dalam siasat (politik) untok mendi’ayahkan rasa kebangsaan kepada orang2 Melayu.

7. Party Kebangsaan Melayu hendak bekerjasama dengan lain2 dan bekerja untok mendirikan perpaduan pendudok2 Malaya (Malayan United Front) bagi menjadikan Malaya Merdeka makmor dan bahagia sebagai satu anggota Republic Indonesia Raya.

8. Menyokong gerakan ummat Indonesia dalam perjuangan mereka merebot kemerdekaan.

Telah disetujui dan disahkan oleh Kongres Pertama Party Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya di Ipoh pada 30 Nov 1945 hingga 3 Dis 1945.


Sumber: 'Rang Undang-undang 1946, Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya'.

Artikel dari akhbar The Comrade, 1 Sept 1946

Men That Matter
Leaders of Young Malaya
By 'Noon'

A young man of an unassuming nature, humble and modest but capable of rising to fiery eloquence when he talks to his compatriots is Dr. Burhanuddin, the President of the Malay Nationalist Party which has about one hundred thousand followers in Malaya.

This party though not a year old is more than what it appears to be. It is a Party which shows young Malaya arisen, awakened and united to assert itself, to find its due place in the history of the world.

Malaya was no doubt a sleepy hollow in matters political before the war. The people had been lulled into sleep and were blissful in their sweet slumber and ignorance of world affairs. Then came the war and the after-math. And there was one glaring fact which made the Malays open their eyes. It was the rise of a New Indonesia determined to be free. The Indonesians were the same stock, speaking the same language and professing the same religion. And they had worse fetters that the Malays for the imperialism of the Dutch was of a more crushing and strangling type than British Imperialism. Their Brothers who were under the iron regime of the Dutch had become free and they who were under the Britishers who were more reasonable were in a stagnant condition. And so came the Awakening.

And the awakening came in time. When destiny moves to raise a people who have fallen too low, to awaken a people who have slept too long, everything that happens whether by well-wishers or ill-wishers contribute towards the awakening and onward march of the people. The British Government, for reasons best known to themselves, launched the Malayan Union scheme and contributed towards rousing the political consciousness of the people. And Malaya which was once backward became politically conscious. The Constitutional controversies are going on, the ruling powers could not yet decide what to do. But as the controversies are going on, there has come into the arena a powerful factor, Young Malays, with all the vigour that was latent in its blood.

And Dr. Burhanuddin stands today as the leader of this Young Malayan Movement.

Dr. Burhanuddin started his life studying Theology and aiming to become a religious teacher. Finishing his theological studies he studied Arabic, English a little, Dutch, French and a little Urdu, became a journalist and an author of books. He then became a Homeopathic doctor. After a short stay in India, he started the first political magazine to be published in Malaya. After the end of the war, he organized the Malay Nationalist Party which first joined the UMNO but finding that the revolutionary tendencies of youth and the reactionary tendencies of age cannot go together, the younger elements represented by the MNP seceded from the UMNO and have been since then occupied with strengthening their organization.

The writer had the pleasure of meeting and conversing at length with Dr. Burhanuddin and found him to be not only an enthusiastic patriot but a very reasonable man. The young Malays have in him a leader who will lead them onward, a leader who has in him the stuff of which real Muslim leaders are made. Asked about his organisation, Dr. Burhanuddin said, “The young men who have rallied to the call of the MNP are full of enthusiasm but that they are poor; in fact the Malays are all poor except for the few rich and well-to-do. We do not want to become the tools of any vested interest. We want to be ourselves and to stand on our own legs. The progress of our organisation may be slow, but it is steady. We stand for a complete revolutionising of the outlook of young Malaya, and we shall succeed before long in doing so.”

“But what is this theory of yours that Malaya should become part of Indonesia?” the writer asked.

The young leader said, “Our first object is no doubt that the Malays should progress and achieve political liberty and economic well-being. But we are living in days when there is no room for small pocket countries. Malaya with its population cannot stand by itself in the future. A free Malaya will need be allied to their neighbours and because of the similarity of language, race and religion there will be in the future a federation of free Malay-speaking states. As a political movement we have to keep before our people a distant goal as well as the immediate goal. The alliance with Indonesia is the distant goal. Our nearer goal is that Malaya should advanced on a democratic basis as against feudalism.”

“Then are you in favour of the Malayan Union?” the writer asked. He said, “We are in favour of a Malayan Union according to the will of the people of Malaya but not in favour of the Malayan Union which the White Paper wanted to impose upon us.”

“Will your Party be bound by any settlement that may be made by the British Government with the UMNO and the Sultans?” the writer asked. “Absolutely not. The British Government is making a blunder in not recognizing the voice of Young Malays. They are judging by appearances and not by real strength. But I hope saner councels will prevail later, if not now.”

The MNP has in it the potentiality of becoming the leading political party in Malaya not only because it has the right leader but because the leader has around him a band of enthusiastic, sincere and self-sacrificing workers.

The writer wishes Young Malays every success in its aspirations.

Sumber: Akhbar mingguan 'The Comrade',1 Sept 1946.

Hari ini dalam tahun 1947: 31 Ogos

Buruh Kerajaan Akan Mogok Menuntut Gaji Setimpal

Pada hari ini dalam tahun 1947, mesyuarat buruh-buruh Kerajaan se-Malaya yang bersatu di bawah Pan-Malayan Government Workers' Council akan melancarkan mogok seluruh Malaya bermula 8 Sept 1947, jika tuntutan untuk pindaan gaji mereka tidak dilayan oleh Suruhanjaya Gaji yang dibentuk oleh Kerajaan Malayan Union. Mogok itu akan melibatkan sektor tenaga elektik, perkhidmatan kesihatan, kerja raya, keretapi dan majlis perbandaran. Dalam mesyuarat yang dipengerusikan oleh Mr. P. Rajagopal itu, dia berkata:

"During the past few years, the workers have begun to feel increasingly that their strength lay in their solidarity. The formation of the Pan-Malayan Government Workers' Council was a sign of this mature consciousness. It would be in the interest of the Government to recognise this awakening of the working people."

Yahya Nassim (PKMM)

"Perang Jepun tu banyak mengubah fikiran kita. Rupanya kalau tak ada orang putih ni pun boleh. Dulu kita terfikir kalau tak ada orang putih ni, mati kita. Bila dah Jepun memerintah tiga tahun lapan bulan, kita terfikir, tak ada orang putih pun boleh jugak."

-- Yahya Nassim dalam 'Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka'

Yahya Nassim, 88 tahun, berasal dari Ulu Langat, Selangor. Sebelum perang, beliau telah menganggotai Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM), parti politik Melayu pertama di Malaya, di bawah pimpinan Ibrahim Yaakob. Menyertai Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM) selepas perang, beliau merupakan Ketua PKMM negeri Selangor dan telah dilantik sebagai Timbalan Bendahari dalam Kongres PKMM yang kedua pada bulan Disember 1946 di Melaka. Semasa kongres inilah, Dr. Burhanuddin Helmy, Yang Dipertua PKMM melafazkan sajaknya yang terkenal:

Di atas robohan kota Melaka
Kita dirikan jiwa merdeka
Bersatu-padulah seluruh baka
Tuntut hak keadilan pusaka

Zainuddin Andika (API)

"Indonesia punya yang datang tu, semangat tu datang ke mari setengah. Pasal sana Sukarno dah beri semangat tu. Sukarno maklumlah, kata-kata yang dikeluarkannya. Beri saya sepuluh orang pemuda katanya, dia boleh menggoncangkan dunia. Itu dia semangat tu sampai ke mari."

-- Zainuddin Andika dalam 'Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka'

Zainuddin Andika, 84 tahun, berasal dari Sayong, Kuala Kangsar, Perak. Menyertai Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM) sejak penubuhannya pada 17 Oktober 1945 dan kemudian memasuki barisan Angkatan Pemuda Insaf (API) bahagian Padang Rengas, Perak. API telah diasaskan oleh Ahmad Boestamam, Abdul Rahman Rahim dan Bakar Thareek pada 17 Februari 1946 di Ipoh, Perak. Menurut Ahmad Boestamam dalam bukunya Testamen Politik API, tujuan-tujuan API ditubuhkan ialah:

1. Menyatukan pemuda2 yang insaf dalam satu BARISAN.
2. Mengokohkan barisan perjuangan untok bangsa dan tanahair.
3. Memberi latehan siasat, ROHANI dan JASMANI kepada pemuda2-nya supaya bersedia menjadi pemimpin bila di-kehendaki.
4. Membena sa-mula Malaya mengikut faham Democracy yang sejati yang berdasarkan kedaulatan ra'ayat.
5. Menuntut perwakilan dalam pemerintahan Malaya.

Pendek-nya API mahu berjuang untok menchapai kemerdekaan bangsa dan tanahair dengan segala jalan yang terbuka, dengan lembut jika boleh, dengan keras jika terpaksa.

Majid Salleh (JSFTU)

"Awak ni gila? Nak merdeka, tak tahu awak ni siapa? Orang Melayu ni siapa? Tak tahu orang putih kapal terbang ada, kapal laut ada, kapal selam ada, itu nak kita lawan?... Itulah suara yang biasa kita dengar."

-- Majid Salleh dalam 'Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka'

Majid Salleh, 84 tahun, berasal dari Ipoh, Perak. Selepas Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM) ditubuhkan di Ipoh pada 17 Oktober 1945, beliau telah menubuhkan cawangan pertama PKMM di Simpang Ampat, Kampar, Perak sebagai ahli jawatankuasa. Selepas menjadi ketua seksyen buruh PKMM negeri Johor, beliau telah dilantik menjadi ketua Johore State Federation of Trade Unions (JSFTU) yang bergabung di bawah Pan-Malayan Federation of Trade Unions (PMFTU). PMFTU mempunyai keahlian seramai 300,000 orang buruh seluruh Malaya.