CHINESE EDUCATION IN MALAYA ONE DIMENSION OF THE PROBLEMS OF MALAYAN NATIONHOOD by WILLIAM HSU CHANG NANG B.A., University of Western Australia, 1962 Dip.Ed., University of Sydney, 1963 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of History We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April, 1969 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and Study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada ABSTRACT In 195 7 Malaya achieved her Independence from the British. This was a triumph of racial cooperation. The new Malayan nation is above all an experiment in continuing racial cooperation. It involves the coming together of peoples of diverse languages, religions, customs, value systems — in a word, of diverse cultures — in an effort to master their future. The experiment is beset with problems which the interaction of diverse cultures beyond a superficial level is bound to create, and it consists in efforts to resolve or at least to minimise conflict and to form new relations. The basic problems in the experiment are how to resolve or minimize conflict and what new relations to form. This exercise studies one dimension of the problems of the experiment, namely, Chinese education. Because education is closely bound up with language and cultural values, it throws up the full complexity of the problems of the experiment and offers a rewarding study of the nature, that is, the-how-and- the-what, of the experiment. Chinese education is here taken to mean education in the Chinese language rather than education of the Chinese people in Malaya. The distinction is that while most Chinese in Malaya have been educated in the Chinese language, there have been many Chinese who have been predominantly or entirely English- educated. This delineation of the subject of the study does not necessarily imply that the problem of Malayan unity is limited to the Chinese whose education has been in the Chinese language, although between the Chinese-educated and the English-educated the problem may be different. However, education in the Chinese language has presented an acute problem in efforts to create a Malayan unity, and it well deserves a close study. The study covers the period mainly from 1946 to 1962 when Chinese education first became an acute problem for Malayan unity and when a Malayan national education system into which Chinese education was to be integrated could be said to have been established. However, the roots of the problem had been planted long before the Pacific War, and these have been recounted in some detail so as to explain the earlier structure of Chinese education in Malaya before it was called upon to adapt itself to change. For this purpose Malaya in this study covers the area formerly known as British Malaya, comprising the Malay States and the Straits Settlements, including Singapore, until the latter was made into a separate colony after World War II, after which the term refers to what was to become the Federation of Malaya. The colonial situation in which the Chinese in Malaya were segregated socially and politically from the greater society, and the Chinese nationalism with which Chinese schools in Malaya had been saturated and which strongly drew the Chinese in Malaya towards China, have been treated as twin roots of the problem of Chinese education for the purpose of this study. This was a cultural-political problem which, in the context of post-war Malaya in which the British were relinquishing their rule, severely tested the ability of the Malayans to cooperate in order to master their destiny. The British colonial iv authorities had failed to overcome it because they were obliged, by their commitment to the Malays, to approach Malayan unity through a division of the problem. The Pacific War, the passing of British colonialism, and the rise of Communist China have been factors encouraging the Chinese towards acquiring a local identity, while the advent of independence, the rough balance of forces within the Malayan polity, and the moderate and enlightened leadership of the first generation of Malayan national leaders, have made for racial cooperation on the basis of a compromise of the claims of the various communities. This cooperation has been dictated by necessity rather than by choice, and it has been reached only after hard bargaining between the Malays and the Chinese. The whole gamut of the process of this bargaining and the need for compromise are brought into play in the efforts to establish a national system of education which would resolve the problem of Chinese education. The solution of the problem of Chinese education within the national system of education so far has indicated that a complete assimilation of the Chinese into Malay ways can only be a distant goal. The short-term practical objectives of the Government's educational policy have been directed towards hastening the growth of Malay economic strength and delaying the dilution of their political power. This is done by elevating the status of education in the Malay language and by enforcing a limited but increasing degree of acculturation of Malay characteristics on the Chinese, while permitting a measure of cultural plurality. In this way education in Malay is weighted V with an economic value and a symbolic significance in the national system. The national system of education could be said to have been established by 1962. However, the Government's educational policy continues to divide the various communities, and the future of Malayan education promises to be full of controversy which only time can resolve. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENT This study has.involved the effort of many persons. In particular, I wish to thank Professor Brian Harrison for his encouragement and for many valuable suggestions for improvement, especially in correcting many of my glaring mistakes in English expression; the staff of the University Library, especially those in the Interlibrary Loan Office, the Humanities and the Social Sciences Divisions, for their tireless search all over the continent for the bulk of the research materials for this study; and my wife for her patience and understanding. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT vi CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: SCOPE AND IMPORTANCE OF STUDY. ... 1 II. HISTORICAL ROOTS OF THE PROBLEM OF CHINESE EDUCATION IN MALAYA 8 Official Attitude Towards Chinese Vernacular Education 12 Chinese Nationalism and the Character of Chinese Education in Malaya 31 Conclusion 55 III. THE PROBLEM OF CHINESE EDUCATION IN THE POST-WAR POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MALAYA. ... 60 The Chinese and the Malay 'Quest for Legitimacy1 of their Place in the Emerging Malayan Nation 61 Chinese Education in the Immediate Post-war Years 71 IV. A UNITED OR A UNIFIED NATION? PART I: THE POLICY OF 1MALAYANIZATION ' 93 'Malayanization' of Education and Chinese Language and Culture 94 The Crisis of Malayan Education: The Barnes Committee versus The Fenn-Wu Mission.. .... 101 The Barnes Report 10 8 viii Page V. A UNITED OR A UNIFIED NATION? PART II: THE DILEMMA OF THE BRITISH IN MALAYA 12 8 The Fenn-Wu Report 128 The Failure of the National School 145 Conclusion: British Embarrassment over their Illegitimate Child 164 VI. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION . 168 The Razak Report: A Blue-print and a Vision . 170 The Birth-pangs of the National System of Education 182 The Alliance Review of National Education: The Talib Report . 204 VII. CONCLUSION 221 BIBLIOGRAPHY 229 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION; SCOPE AND.IMPORTANCE OF STUDY In the following pages, Malaya refers to the area formerly known as British Malaya, comprising the Malay States and the Straits Settlements, including Singapore, until the latter was made into a separate colony after World War II, after which the term refers to what was to become the Federation of Malaya, The study covers the period mainly from 1946 to 1962, after which, with the formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, it becomes illogical to confine the study to the pre- Malaysian Federation of Malaya. On the other hand, to extend the study to include the whole of the Malaysian territories would make the subject matter of a study of this scope unwieldly. It has been thought'necessary, however, to recount the antecedents of the postwar story in some detail so as to explain the earlier structure of Chinese education in Malaya before it was called upon to adapt itself to change. In this study, Chinese education in Malaya is taken to mean education in the Chinese language rather than education of the Chinese people in'Malaya. The distinction is that while most Chinese in Malaya who received an education were educated in the Chinese language, there have been many Chinese who have been predominantly or entirely English-educated. This distinction delineates the subject of this study but does not necessarily isolate among .the Chinese the problem of Malayan unity. It does not imply that the problem is limited to the Chinese whose education has been in the Chinese language, although between - 2 - the Chinese-^educated and the English-educated the problem is different. Indeed the difference is so obvious as to confuse the issue.