White Man’s Burden

aper 1 Topic 2

Evaluate some apparent successes and failures of the "white man's burden" in a location of your choice. The location must be a former British or European colony, or part of a former colony. Supply what information you are able to gather regarding any apparent goals/aims of Western intervention in this location, along with a limited number of specific results you identify (and can defend) as following from that intervention.

 

 

The Federation of Malaya found its independence from the British on August 31, 1957. It was a tropical country blessed with fertile soil and rich minerals, breath-taking beaches and lush rainforests and above all, a people of ethnic identities as diverse as their religions and political affiliations. The Federation would later include three more states to become Malaysia on September 16, 1963; and the final national map was drawn with the separation of the Republic of Singapore from Malaysia.

 

Malaysia traces its history back to the founding of the Malacca Sultanate by Parameswara in the early 15^th century. The next five centuries would see the inclusion of 12 other states to form the current Malaysia, as well as a significantly long period of occupation by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English. Of the three major occupation forces, the British administration had the most recent occupation period and, proportionately, the most significant influence in the region.

 

From the eyes of natives, and historians at a later stage, the British had ample reasons to set up colonies in this region. The French had control over Indochina, encompassing modern Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia; the Dutch had set foot in some states of Malaya and Indonesia; hence, the British could not be seen to lose out on the scramble for land, power and resources. However, back home in Europe, this period of high imperialism was viewed by some as a call to duty, a duty to spread the flames of civilization, even if it meant having to set out in exile and to be cursed by natives. This was a call to live up to a legacy of greatness, both in wealth and in power, and to spread the cause of humanity; this was the white man's burden.

 

There is an underlying argument that the British had opened the eyes of the native Malay, Chinese and Indian ethnic groups to the very concepts of mechanical time, machinery, industry specific labor and work efficiency. This had brought in a period of great economic growth and modern ways of harnessing nature's resources for man's good. In fact, the argument would go so far as to claim that the British had been preparing natives to face a modern world economy of similar patterns, and it was definitely to their benefit that the British had set foot in Malaya. However, the paradox of this argument lies in the very fact that the modern world economy was built exclusively by the West and, first and foremost, for the West. By introducing mining ships to mine more tin from the ground, the British were aiming to supply the ever-hungry automobile factories in Britain, not raise the export revenues of Malaya. By bringing in more Indian immigrant workers to tap rubber trees, they were looking to ship all rubber back to manufacture tires, not enhance the diversity of the Malayan society. By clearing the rainforests and planting oil palms in place, they were seeking a continuous supply of raw materials for machinery lubricants and power supply, not to put Malaya's name on the map for world top exporter of oil. The argument that foreign occupation had set out to "educate" natives about the "real world out there" was built upon the fact that this "education" was a side agenda to exploiting all known natural resources, if it could even be considered education; and also that the modern world economy was built by and geared towards serving people of the West, not benefit all under the humanity umbrella, and certainly not natives from whom all had been taken.

 

Post-colonization, Malaysia did not set out to reform the economic model that the British had left in place. The financially savvy Chinese went back to doing their business, literally, and some small businesses grew to become large companies which had significant influence in the local market. The Malays continued to dwell in politics, dominating at local and national level. The Indians lived on in the rubber or oil palm plantations, where their predecessors had first set foot in. Young Malaysia was contented to be soaked up in its chest-thumping antics and newly gained patriotism in its achievement of independence from the British without bloodbaths, until May 13, 1969. Racial tensions and unequal distribution of prosperity across the socio-economic map reared their ugly heads. The Chinese were accused of having too tight a grip on the economy, controlling most aspects of the economy with less than 30% of the nation's population. Hence, in the general elections of 1969, when the pro-Chinese political party Democratic Action Party (DAP) had a tied number of seats with the federal government's Alliance Party for the most industrialized state, Selangor, and also reduced the government's majority in Parliament, all hell broke loose. Rioting spread throughout the nation's capital, Kuala Lumpur, and in cities with a concentrated Chinese population, whereby killing and arson were rampant. A national emergency was declared and subsequently, the New Economic Plan (NEP) was rolled out by the National Operations Council (NOC), the governing body of the day. The NEP set out to narrow the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

 

The plan was by and large a course of action for redistribution of resources among the poor and the rich, with the lines clearly drawn along ethnic borders. This was not so much a racially-biased plan as it was a plan to set right what had been wronged from the beginning, knowingly. The British had brought in large numbers of Chinese and Indian immigrants to Malaysia back in their occupation. They quickly realized, albeit with hindsight, that these ethnic groups were neither culturally hegemonous nor religiously bonded. They spoke different languages, ate different food, worshipped different Gods and even observed different taboos. To integrate them socially would take a large amount of time, energy and money, all of which the British were not willing to contribute. Hence, the second best plan was to separate these groups of people, both geographically and professionally. The Chinese were to live among themselves in "New Villages" near tin mines; the Indians would be concentrated in huts in plantations and the Malays would also group within themselves in separate villages. To divide and conquer would work in favor of the British colonial powers, for productivity was of top priority, if not the only one. To put it bluntly, the British did what was easy, not what was right. As such, when the British administration left Malaysia to dwell on her own, lines were clearly drawn between racial groups and tensions were existent, waiting only for the right moment to explode.

 

After taking so much flack, one cannot but ask: Did the British do no good whatsoever? To concede a fact, democracy was the best piece of civilization brought forth by foreign powers. The drafting of the Federal Constitution by the Reid Committee to reflect public consensus, the enactment of the constitutional monarchy model of democracy in acknowledgement of the King of the nation and the liaison between the English High Commission and the Federal Government to provide counsel and training all served to establish a young but stable democracy. In contrast with neighboring Thailand and Indonesia who have gone through a handful of military coups, rewriting of the constitution and dictatorships, Malaysia stands out as a shining example. However, to be critical, more could have been done by the British in setting up the democratic system in this nation. Aspects that go hand in hand with democracy such as civil rights, social justice, separation of state and religious institution, individualism and freedom could have been emphasized upon more. For example, the Internal Security Act (ISA) was introduced when the British were fighting Communism. It allowed law enforcers to bring anyone into custody without trial or bail for up to two years. In modern Malaysia, the threat of Communism is long gone; but the same law is still being used, albeit to silence and threaten opposition party members and social activists. Such laws are still in power because a culture of social justice was neither introduced nor accentuated.

 

On another case, free Malaysians have yet to embrace the liberation that comes with democracy fully. The majority are still of the opinion that casting a vote is the only symbol of democracy. As such, issues such as holding the government accountable for its policies and actions, criticizing the government through a free media, the right to assemble peacefully and freedom of speech are viewed as privileges, not basic rights of every free citizen. This is the most profound example of the system being ahead of the people's mindset, with a lot of ground left to be covered by propagation of the concept of basic rights and embracing freedom. History stands as a witness that had the British failed to do any other good in Malaysia, democracy was the one good seed it planted, with a lot of room for cultivation and attending to.

 

Above all else, it was the drive of economic and power gains that drove the course of the British Eastwards, not the civilizing mission; for such an argument only existed after occupation, when a moral justification was needed. After all, Queen Elizabeth did not send forth Francis Light to establish colonies in order to teach natives to speak English and the intricacies of the English high society. For all we know, the United Kingdom had their fair share of the poor to feed without having to worry about the far off natives who neither had knowledge of machines nor table manners. In all fact, it was the gains of exploiting cheap labor and virtually free resources to power Britain that had pushed the course Eastward. Hence, the white man's burden should be to divide and conquer, to import immigrants without an social integration plan and export resources, to show the natives the wonders of machinery and leave a vacuum in knowledge of construction and maintenance and above all, to serve his people at the expense of the natives.