KRATOSKA P - South East Asia Colonl Hist V5

DOI: 10.4324/9781003101703-1

DOI: 10.4324/9781003101703-2

For American and British territories in South East Asia, the end of colonial rule arrived peacefully. The Philippines became a fully independent Republic in 1946. Burma gained independence at the start of 1948 and Malaya in 1957, while colonial status ended for the territories of northern Borneo in 1963. In each case, the change was handled through negotiations.

After the constitution for the new Philippine Commonwealth received approval in May 1935, Manuel Quezon won a presidential election held in September, and the Commonwealth was inaugurated on 15 November. Under the constitution, the President held most of the powers formerly exercised by the Governor General. A ten-year period of transition gave the government time to arrange an orderly adjustment to the loss of special privileges associated with colonial status. The Japanese Occupation disrupted this process, but the transfer of power nevertheless took place as scheduled on 4 July 1946.

Burma had become a self-governing territory within the British Empire in 1937, but the country was the scene of heavy fighting during the war, and emerged with its infrastructure badly damaged and its economy in ruins. The war years also left a legacy of communal tensions, and in British eyes the political elite was deeply compromised by collaboration with Japan. British plans for the country called for rolling back some of the reforms of the 1930s and setting in motion a fresh transition to some sort of dominion status. Burmese leaders rejected this scheme and demanded immediate independence outside the British Commonwealth, a prospect that generated much concern among minorities who had found British rule relatively benign and feared what might happen under a government dominated by ethnic Burmans. The Burmese leader Aung San tried to allay their fears, and the British government put in place some modest safeguards while making it clear that minority proposals calling for the break-up of the territory would not receive support. Burma became independent on 4 January 1948, but the assassination of Aung San six months earlier, on 19 July 1947, had left the country bereft of its most important political leader. Communal relations deteriorated, and the government also faced challenges from a communist movement, and from rival factions within the ruling group. Within two years, Burma was in the middle of aa civil war.

For British Malaya the process leading to independence was far more protracted. Unlike the Burmans, the Malays were not a dominant majority within the country, and the large Chinese population was seeking political rights that seemed to threaten the Malay position. Immediately after the Occupation, the British government introduced a Malayan Union scheme designed to lead towards independence. The Malays seized the occasion to establish a stronger political presence, and forced Britain to replace the Malayan Union with a Federation of Malaya that was more favourable to Malay interests. In 1948 the outbreak of a communist rebellion, known to history as the Emergency, further delayed moves towards independence, although a process of Malayanization of government services and substantial political reform continued throughout this period. When independence came in 1957, constitutional safeguards protected the Malays, and the different races living in the country had worked out a