ABSTRACT
The end of the war saw a different Malaya, much affected by the political, social and economic upheavals brought by the war. It was a Malaya that saw its significant actors re-evaluating the political arrangement of the pre-war years. The post-war years saw the radicalisation of ideas and laid bare the potency of autonomous communities with exclusive institutions and interests that would continually test on Malaya’s terms of reference. The years leading to independence would see Malaya’s autonomous communities making competing political and economic demands and intensely negotiating the country’s terms of reference. Japanese rule recalibrated Anglo-Malay relations. While previous relations pivoted on British-Malay elite nexus, Malay political expression became more eclectic. The Malay lefts – with strong republican and egalitarian ideas – failed to take root in Malaya’s politics, despite the impressive array of organisations.
