Pilihan Raya Umum Pramerdeka

Kegagalan British melindungi Tanah Melayu semasa Perang Dunia Kedua telah membuka mata rakyat tempatan untuk menuntut kemerdekaan. Lebih-lebih lagi setelah British kembali dan mencuba nasib dengan penubuhan Malayan Union.

Penentangan terhadap Malayan Union oleh kesatuan-kesatuan Melayu di bawah pimpinan Dato' Onn Jaafar menghasilkan Perjanjian Persekutuan Tanah Melayu 1948. Secara amnya, British tidak beberapa khuatir tentang kehilangan kuasa kerana hampir keseluruhan pengeluaran hasil bumi Tanah Melayu masih dipegang syarikat-syarikat British dan proksinya. Apa yang penting adalah penubuhan sebuah pentadbiran "British friendly" supaya hak perdagangan mereka tidak terjejas.

Perjanjian Persekutuan Tanah Melayu 1948 dan fasa yang dirangka dibawahnya adalah penting kerana ia memansuhkan pelaksanaan Malayan Union yang hanya sempat bertapak selama 22 bulan. Perjanjian 1948 tersebut juga menyatukan negeri-negeri Melayu dalam sebuah Persekutuan untuk pertama kali di mana kedudukan Raja-Raja Melayu telah dikembalikan.

Dengan itu, melalui Perjanjian 1948 ini, Majlis Penasihat digantikan dengan Majlis Perundangan Persekutuan (Federal Legislative Council) iaitu merupakan langkah permulaan ke arah pentadbiran sendiri.

Pada tahun 1955, Majlis Perundangan Persekutuan tersebut telah dibubarkan bagi membolehkan pilihan raya umum diadakan buat julung kalinya. Pilihan raya umum Persekutuan Tanah Melayu ini diadakan pada 27.7.1955 iaitu dua tahun sebelum Tanah Melayu diisytiharkan merdeka. Hari ini genap 65 tahun peristiwa tersebut yang juga dirakam dalam klip filem pertama simpanan Imperial War Museums ini.

Klip filem pertama

Kilp filem tersebut merakamkan proses berkempen, pengiraan undi, sambutan kemenangan dan pasca pilihan raya. Ianya juga menunjukkan barisan kabinet yang bergambar di hadapan King's House dan mesyuarat pertama yang dipengerusikan oleh YTM Tunku Abdul Rahman selaku Ketua Menteri Persekutuan Tanah Melayu.  Juga diulas tentang tugas beberapa orang Menteri dari kalangan rakyat tempatan iaitu Abdul Aziz Ishak (Menteri Pertanian), Sardon Haji Zubir (Menteri Kerja Raya), Ong Yoke Lin (Menteri Pos & Telekom), dan Dato' Abdul Razak (Menteri Pelajaran).

Klip filem kedua pula adalah klip kempen mengundi yang dikeluarkan sempena pilihan raya umum 1955 tersebut.

Klip filem kedua

Terdapat 52 kerusi dipertandingkan di mana parti Perikatan yang terdiri dari parti UMNO, MCA, dan MIC memenangi 51 kerusi dan berjaya membentuk kerajaan. Sebuah lagi kerusi dimenangi oleh parti PAS.

Setelah menerima barisan wakil kabinet parti Perikatan yang diumumkan pada 1.8.1955, Pesuruhjaya Tinggi British, Sir Donald Mac Gillivray mengumumkan kesemua 15 jemaah menteri pada 4.8.1955 di King's House, Kuala Lumpur. Pengumuman ini dibuat setelah Majlis Raja-Raja Melayu mengesahkan barisan kabinet tersebut.

Ahli Majlis Perundangan Persekutuan dengan itu bertambah kepada 98 orang iaitu 52 orang yang dipilih melalui pilihan raya umum (menggantikan 50 orang ahli tidak rasmi), 35 orang ahli yang dilantik mewakili kepentingan-kepentingan tertentu, dan 11 orang lagi terdiri daripada Menteri Besar dan wakil-wakil negeri. 

15 jemaah menteri ini mengangkat sumpah taat setia menjalankan tugas dan akuan rahsia pada 9.8.1955 di hadapan Ketua Hakim iaitu Mr. Prethaser. Kabinet Persekutuan Tanah Melayu ini dibentuk semasa British masih lagi menjajah Tanah Melayu dan dengan itu masih lagi mengandungi pegawai tinggi British yang dilantik bagi portfolio-portfolio penting seperti kewangan, hal-ehwal ekonomi dan pertahanan bagi menjamin hak dan kesinambungan perdagangan British tidak terjejas. Ini mungkin sebab utama rakyat tempatan tidak mengiktirafnya sebagai PRU pertama dan juga persidangan Parlimen pertama. Lihat klip filem ketiga yang dirakam semasa persidangan parlimen selepas pilihan raya umum pramerdeka tersebut.

Klip filem ketiga

Walaubagaimanapun, apa yang tidak dapat disangkal adalah semangat kerjasama dan muhibbah di kalangan anggota parti Perikatan yang telah menjadi pemangkin kepada kejayaan yang diperoleh dalam proses awal pentadbiran sendiri. Seterusnya, kemuafakatan yang sama telah membawa kepada kejayaan dalam memperoleh kemerdekaan negara dua tahun kemudian iaitu pada 31.8.1957.

1. Imperial War Museums, London.

2. British Pathe.

3. https://www.parlimen.gov.my/maklumat-umum.html?uweb=dn&&_print=true

4. https://ms.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilihan_raya_umum_Malaysia

5. https://pekhabar.com/h-i-d-s-persekutuan-tanah-melayu-ditubuhkan/

Chung Thye Phin (1879-1935)

Picture 1. Chung Thye Phin's residence in Penang (c. 1907).

Photographs and a short passage on Chung Thye Phin (1879-1935), the last Kapitan China of Perak, extracted from the book "Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya: Its History, People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources" (1908) (Pictures 1-7).

Picture 2. Chung Thye Phin's residence in Penang (c. 1907).

Picture 3. Passage from "Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya: Its History, People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources" (1908).

Picture 4. Perak State Council, (c. 1907).

Picture 5. Chung Thye Phin's mine near Tronoh.

Picture 6. Chung Thye Phin's mine in Taiping

Picture 7. Chung Thye Phin's offices in Ipoh & Penang

A tin miner, a revenue farmer, a member of the Perak State Council, and later a member of the Federal Council, he was one of the richest man in Malaya. The mansion which is also depicted in an old postcard (Picture 8) came with grand entertaining rooms and subterranean passageways that connects to underground chambers and an undersea wing. 

Picture 8. Chung Thye Phin' residence in Penang (c. 1900s).

Picture 9. Shanghai Hotel, Penang (c. 1950s).

This palatial structure was located at Kelawai Road, Gurney Drive, Penang. After Chung Thye Phin's death, it was sold and turned into a hotel (The Shanghai Hotel) in the late 1930s (Picture 9). It was later demolished in 1964 and on its footprint now stands 1 Persiaran Gurney Condominium.

References:

1.  "Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya: Its History, People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources" Arnold Wright, H. A. Cartwright, Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Co. Ltd., 1908.

2. "Penang: 500 Early Postcards". Cheah Jin Seng, 2012. Didier Millet.

3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung_Thye_Phin

Kayaroganam Thamboosamy Pillay (1850-1902)

Kayaroganam Thamboosamy Pillay (1850-1902) (Picture 1) worked as a clerk at the legal firm of Woods & Davidson, Singapore. He moved to Klang in the early 1870s with James Guthrie Davidson, when the latter was appointed Malaya’s first British Resident. He was later transferred to the Treasury where he eventually became chief clerk and acted as State Treasurer on a few occasions. He was also a Justice of Peace and member of the Kuala Lumpur Sanitary Board. 

Picture 1 : Kayaroganam Thamboosamy Pillay

He founded the famous Sri Mahamariamman Temple in 1873. The temple was first sited near the Railway Station and moved to its current location in Jalan Tun H.S. Lee in 1885. In the 1880s, he resigned from the government and went into partnership with Loke Yew in the Rawang Mining Concession in which they both did extraordinarily well. He promoted Batu Caves as a place of worship and decided to dedicate it to Lord Murugan around 1891 by establishing the Sri Subramaniar Swamy Temple. He also contributed a sizeable amount of money to the building fund of St Mary’s Cathedral, Kuala Lumpur in 1893. Thamboosamy, together with Sultan Abdul Samad, Yap Kwan Seng and Loke Yew, proposed to set up an English-medium school for boys in Kuala Lumpur. It led to the establishment of the Victoria Institution in 1894. 

Picture 2: The Padang with the old Selangor Club in the foreground (c. late 1880s)

Picture 3: K.T. Pillay's family residence at 1st mile Batu Road (c. 1906)

Picture 4: Luncheon party at K. Thamboosamy Pillay's residence at Batu Road (c. 1899).

Picture 5: Sekolah Kebangsaan Lelaki Jalan Batu

The earliest record of power generation can be traced back to a small mining town in Rawang, Selangor. Here, Thamboosamy Pillai and Loke Yew and installed an electric generator in 1894 to operate their mines; thereby making them the first to use electric pumps for mining in Malaya, and marked the beginning of electricity use in Malaysia. In the same year, private supply for street lighting purposes was extended from their mines to Rawang town.  Thamboosamy Pillay was also a committee member of the Kuala Lumpur Electricity Board and played a key role in supplying electricity to the city. One of the first organization to receive electricity supply was the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station around 1895.

Thamboosamy was the acknowledged leader of the Tamil Community and was consulted by the Government on all matters of importance. He was a Member of the Selangor Club (Picture 2) and a strong supporter of the Turf Club, owning many race horses and was a member of practically every public body in the State. He died in Singapore in 1902, where he had gone for a race meeting. Sir Frank Swettenham sent his body back in the Governor’s yacht to Port Swettenham, Klang, and it was then transported in a gun carriage from the Royal Selangor Club to his house. His eldest son, K.T. Parimanan Pillay, took over the family business. Upon Parimanan's death in 1918, his younger brother K.T. Ganapathy Pillay took charge. It is believed that their family house at 1st mile Batu Road (Picture 3 & 4) was demolished around 1920s to make way for a primary school managed by the trustees of Victoria Institution, known as Batu Road School (now Sekolah Kebangsaan (Lelaki) Jalan Batu).(Picture 5).

Source:

1. Bygone Selangor: A Souvenir (1922), Rimba.

2.  "Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya: Its History, People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources" Arnold Wright, H. A. Cartwright, Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Co. Ltd., 1908.

3. The Star 26.10.2013, retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/news/community/2013/10/26/a-reminder-of-a-philanthropic-man-sri-mahamariamman-temple-and-victoria-institution-part-of-thamboos

4. https://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.com/2015/09/thambusamy-pillai-in-malaya.html

5. https://www.bfm.my/podcast/the-bigger-picture/live-learn/santa-kumarie-k-thamboosamy-pillai-life-legacy