Constitutional Reform and Elections in Malaya

A FTER SIX years of Communist terrorism and emergency government, two important constitutional reports have recently reopened the thorny problem of Malaya's political future. They are the Report of the Elections Committee in the Federation' and the Rendel Report on constitutional reform in Singapore', both published during February 1954. Taken together, they provide a vantage point from which to make a new general survey of the Malayan political scene. It will be convenient to take Singapore first because its political problems are far less complicated than those of the Federation. The findings of the recent constitutional commission, as a consequence, are much less open to dispute than those of the Federal Elections Committee. The political background to the Rendel Report may be sketched briefly. Since there was no communal issue between its Chinese, Indian and Malay communities to complicate the drawing up of a common roll (as there is in the Federation), a start with a partly elected legislature was made over six years ago. The first elections for six seats on the Singapore Legislative Council were held in March i948, the franchise being granted to all British subjects resident in the Colony. Out of a population of nearly a million, and predominantly Chinese, only 22,395 people registered, nearly half of whom were Indians. Of the registered electorate, sixty-three percent went to the polls.' The six successful candidates, all of whom were lawyers, comprised three Indians, one Chinese, one European and one Malay. The new Legislative Council, which met in April i948, consisted of six elected members, three members chosen by the Chambers of Commerce (European, Chinese and Indian), four European ex-officio, members, five nominated European officials and four nominated Asian unofficials. There was thus a majority

Democracy · Electoral reform · Political science · Politics · Asian Studies and History · Law · Maritime Security and History · Public Administration · Socioeconomic Development in Asia

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