The Structure of Government in the Colonial Federation of Malaya

Abstract

The colonial Federation of Malaya, which came into being in 1948 and gave way to self-government in 1957, constituted in historical perspective a major formative influence in state-building. From the standpoint of recent Malayan history, the colonial Federation marked the transition from a variegated imperial pattern to modern state forms. To be sure, the colonial Federation was not the first effort at governmental modernization in British Malaya, however it was the first that combined a joint, British-Malayan design for political development. Just two years prior, a British­ imposed Malayan Union, conceived on a secular model of administrative efficiency, floundered precisely because the scheme failed to cope with the suddenly expressive and rapidly changing tenor of Malaya's communal politicallifeY Its successor Federation of Malaya was conceived more in terms of the reconciliation of fundamental political interests, on one hand colonial and emergent nationalist, on the other the rival claims of the ethnic communities, and so offered a delicately blended governmental structure. The efficacy of this state-building venture may be evidence in its early transformation to independence, after only nine years. Doubtless, the structural dynamics of the colonial Federation merit study as the anvil of modern Malayan political development. 2 )