RACE RELATIONS IN MALAYA DURING THE ECONOMIC CRISIS OF THE 1930S

Abstract

The large-sale immigration of Chinese and Indians to Malaya in the 19th and early 20th centuries created a host of socioeconomic and political problems for the country. One such problem was in race relations, the first signs of which began to emerge in the early 1930s coinciding with the World Economic Crisis. Malay anxiety and frustration over the overwhelming presence of immigrant workers in the country that had been simmering since the 1920s culminated into strained race-relations. This article examnies race relations in Malaya, more specifically in the Federated Malay States (FMS), during the economic depression of the 1930s. It tries to explain how the unimpeded influx of immigrant workers resulted in the native Malays being reduced to the status of minority race in some of the states and their oppsoition to these immigrants; the demand by the immigrant races for equal rights as the Malays; the pro-Malay and the decentralization policies of the British colonial government, which all contributed to the strained race-relations during the economic downturn.