Malaya as a Protectorate of the British Empire Based on Colonial Sources
(Kedudukan Tanah Melayu sebagai Negeri Naungan dalam Empayar British Berdasarkan Sumber Kolonial)
Abstract
This article aims to determines the protectorate position as dependency of the British empire. The protectorate issues being debated among scholars for certifying the Malay States position during the British colonial period. By literally interpretation of protectorate term "protectorate" some parties claimed that the Malay States was never been colonised. However, what is the concept or real system of the protectorate from the British colonial perspective? The study used history methodology by collecting primary sources from the National Archives of Malaysia, the National Archives of United Kingdom and the National University of Malaysia's Library. The Colonial Office's documents in series CO 717, CO 273, CO 576 and FCO 141, which between 1920s and 1930s were the main sources used to answer the stated research question. By using the sources, this article formulates the exact position of the protectorate and the Malay States in the British empire. The study finds that, as protectorates, the Malay States were the dependencies in the British empire. Nevertheless, the British jurisdiction limited as stipulated in the agreement with the Malay Rulers'. The British only recognised the Malay Rulers sovereignty of immune from jurisdiction of the courts, while the administrative and legislative sovereign under the British government jurisdiction through the Colonial Office. Although the imperial laws do not apply directly in the Malay States, the British used the legislative council to endorsed its implementation.
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Abdullah Zakaria Ghazali. (1997). Pasir Salak: Pusat gerakan menentang British di Perak. Yayasan Perak.
Ahmad Kamal Ariffin Mohd Rus & Nur Hannah Ahmad Zainy. (2015). Status Negeri-Negeri Melayu Pada Era Pentadbiran British. Dlm. Ahmad Kamal Ariffin Mohd Rus & Noor Ain Mat Noor (Eds.), Dasar dan tadbir dalam sejarah (39-68). Penerbit Universiti Malaya.
Ahmad Kamal Ariffin Mohd Rus & Suffian Mansor. (2014). Pengukuhan Penguasaan British di Negeri-Negeri Melayu Bersekutu: Analisis Dua Perjanjian Majlis Mesyuarat Persekutuan, 1909 dan 1927. Dlm. Suffian Mansor, Sivachandralingam Sundara Raja, Arba'iyah Mohd. Noor & (Eds.). Dasar dan tadbir dalam sejarah. Penerbit Universiti Malaya.
Ahmad Kamal Ariffin Mohd. Rus (pnyt.). Sejarah dan kesarjanaan (1-22). Jabatan Sejarah Universiti Malaya.
Andaya, B.W. & Andaya, L.Y. (2017.) A history of Malaysia (3rd Ed.) Palgrave.
Braddell, Ronald. (1931). The legal status of the Malay States. The Malaya Publishing House Limited.
Chew, Ernest. (1966). The First State Council in the Protected Malay States.
Constantine, Stephen. (1984). The making of British Colonial Development Policy, 1914- 1940. Frank Cass.
CAB 24/239/CP/81. (1932). Report of Brigadier-General Samuel Wilson, Permanent Under- Secretary of State for the Colonies on his Visit to Malaya 1932.
CO 273/539. (1927). British Imperialism in Malaya. 15
CO 576/42. (1931). Federated Malay States. Proceedings of Durbar held at Sri Menanti on Tuesday, 18th August, 1931, at 10. a.m.
CO 717/103. (1934). Federated Malay States. Proceedings of the Durbars held in 1897, 1903 and 1927.
CO 717/25. (1922). Financial Position.
CO 717/55. (1927). The "S.S. and F.M.S." Fallacy by Sir George Maxwell.
CO 717/55/7. (1927). Imperial Preference.
CO 717/81. (1931a). Proposed Constitutional Changes in Malaya.
CO 717/81. (1931b). Devolution in the FMS.
CO 717/83. (1931). Proposed Tariff Changes in F.M.S.
CO 717/85. (1931). High Commissioner as President of the Federal Council.
CO 717/88. (1931). Decentralization and wider Federation.
CO 717/88. (1932). Devolution in the FMS.
CO 717/91. (1932). Legal Status of the Malay States.
CO 885/29/8. (1927). Colonial Office Conference, 1927. Appendices to the Summary of Proceedings.
Crowley, John E. (1990). Neo-Mercantilism and the wealth of nations: British comercial, policy after the American Revolution. The Historical Journal, 33(2).
Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. (2021). Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu. Diakses dari https:// prpm.dbp.gov.my
Dmitriew, Sviatoslav. (2009). The Rise and Quick Fall of the Theory of Ancient Economic Imperialism. The Economic History Review, 62(4).
Emerson, Rupert. (1964). Malaysia: A study in direct and indirect rule. University of Malay Press.
FCO 141/15783. (1893). Singapore: Future administration of the Protected Native States; Treaty of Federation, 1895.
FCO 141/16196. (1914). Singapore: Placing Federated Malay States of War.
FCO 141/16337. (1935). Singapore: Federated Malay States. Proceedings of Durbar held from 1930 -1935.
FCO 141/16583. (1926). Observation Upon the Constitution of the Federated Malay States with General Reference to the Policy of Decentralisation, and the Appointment of the Chief Secretary to Government, and with Particular Reference to His Excellency the High Commissioner Memorandum, Federal Council Paper No. 39 of 1925.
Federated Malay States (FMS). (1914) Shorthand report of the Proceedings of the Federal Council, 11 August.
FMS. (1923). Shorthand Report of the Proceedings of the Federal Council, 11 July.
FMS. (1933). Shorthand Report of the Proceedings of the Federal Council, 31 June.
FMS. (1937). Shorthand Report of the Proceedings of the Federal Council, 26 June. Malaya Tribune. (1933). The Wilson Report, 30 October.
Freund, Ernst. (1899). The control of dependencies through protectorates. Political Science Quarterly, 14(1).
Freund, Ernst. (1899). The control of dependencies through protectorates. Political Sciences Quarterly, 14(1).
Gallagher, John & Robinson, Ronald. (1953). The imperialism of free trade. The Economic History Review, VI(1).
Gullick, J.M. (1992). Rulers and residents influence and power in the Malay states 1870- 1920. Oxford University Press.
Harper, T.N. (1999). The end of empire and the making of Malaya. Cambridge University Press. 16
Hayman, Mark. (2018). Economic protectorate in Britain's informal empire: The trucial coast during the Second World War. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 46(2).
Heatley, D.P. (1894). British protectorates and jurisdiction. Scottish Geographical Magazine, 10(9).
Hyam, Ronald. (2002). Britain's imperial century, 1815-1914 (3rd Ed.). Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Innes, J.R. (1916). Some notes on the constitution and legislation of the Federated Malay States. Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation, 16(1).
Innes, J.R. (1916). Some Notes on the constitution and legislation of the Federated Malay States. Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation, 16(1).
Institut Terjemahan Negara. (2008). Perjanjian & dokumen lama Malaysia 1791-1965. ITNM.
James, Laurence. (1994). The rise and fall of the British Empire. St. Martin's Griffin.
Jelani Harun. (2019). Pengenalan. Dlm. Jelani Harun & Rogayah A. Hamid (Eds.). Kedaulatan dan kekuasaan Melayu dalam teks sastera (xiii-xxv). Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Johnson, Robert. (2003). British imperialism. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kratoska, Paul H. (2000). Imperial unity versus local autonomy: British Malaya and the depression of the 1930s. Dlm. Boomgaard, Peter & Brown, Ian (eds.). Weathering the strom (271-294). Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Lauterpacht, H. (1959). Chapter XVIII International Law and Colonial Question, 1870- 1914. Dlm. Benians, E.A., Butler, J.R.M., Mansergh, P.N.S. & Walker, E.A. (eds.). The Cambridge History of the British Empire: Vol. III The Empire-Commonwealth 1870-1919 (66-710). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lennard, Fiennes Barrett. (1933). Some aspects of colonial law. Transactions of the Grotius Society, 19.
Mallal, B.A. (1959). Law and law reporting in Malaya. University of Malaya Law Review 1(1).
McIntyre, W.D. (1967). The imperial frontier in the tropics 1865-75. Macmillan.
Mohamad Hafiz Yusoff Bakri. (2021). "Ini besar punya putar"- Rais Yatim. Utusan Malaysia, 8 Februari. Diakses di https://www.utusan.com.my/nasional/2021/02/ini-besar-punyaputar- rais-yatim/
Mohd Shazwan Mokhtar. (2019). Agenda imperialis dalam krisis pentadbiran kolonial di Negeri-Negeri Melayu Bersekutu. Jebat: Malaysian Journal of History, Politics & Strategic Studies, 46(2).
National Library Board Singapore. (2017). Enquiry as to Complicity of Chiefs in the Perak Outrages. Precis of Evidence, 1876. Singapore: Straits Settlements Government. Diakses dari https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/printheritage/detail/6894d568-6610-44c3- 95ad-087562172369.aspx
Sadka, Emily. (1968). The Protected Malay States 1874-1895. University Malaya Press.
Sel Sec 3739/1927. (1927). Article for British Malaya in the Special Inter-Imperial Trade number of the Chamber of Commerce Journal.
Smith, Simon C. (1995). British relations with the Malay Rulers from decentralization to Malayan Independence 1930-1957. Oxford University Press.
T 176/11. (1923). Empire Development: Imperial Economic Conference. 17 The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser. (1933a). Decentralisation in Malaya, 7 August.
Tanah Melayu Tidak Pernah Dijajah Sepenuhnya. (2012). mStar, 25 Februari. Diakses dari https://www.mstar.com.my/lokal/semasa/2012/02/25/tanah-melayu-tidak-pernahdijajah- sepenuhnya
The National Archives. (2021). Foreign Jurisdiction Act 1890. Diakses dari https://www. legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/53-54/37/contents
The National Archives. (2021). Glossary - P. Diakses dari https://www.nationalarchives. gov.uk/cabinetpapers/help/glossary-p.htm#Protectorate The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser. (1933b). New State Stamps, 8 November.
Yeo, Kim Wah. (1981). The Guillemard-Maxwell power struggle, 1921-1925. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 54(1).
Zainal Kling. (2019). Kedaulatan dan kekuasaan Melayu dalam teks sastera. Dlm. Jelani Harun & Rogayah A. Hamid (Eds.), Kedaulatan dan kekuasaan Melayu dalam teks sastera (1-37). Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Published
2022-01-06
How to Cite
MOKHTAR, Mohd Shazwan; SAMSUDIN, Mohd; MANSOR, Suffian.
Malaya as a Protectorate of the British Empire Based on Colonial Sources.
Melayu: Jurnal Antarabangsa Dunia Melayu, [S.l.], v. 15, n. 1, p. 25-48, jan. 2022.
ISSN 2682-8049.
Available at: <https://jurnal.dbp.my/index.php/Melayu/article/view/8124>. Date accessed: 30 apr. 2024.
doi: https://doi.org/10.37052/jm.15(1)no2.
Section
Articles
