Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 249: Malay Division and the General Election

Two hundred million US dollars is not easy for the Southern Alliance to raise nowadays. After much deliberation, Zheng Yi embezzled the Jewish deposits in the Penang Bank and moved them first to balance the accounts for Xu Sheng.

It was not just Xu Shengli. Many older generation entrepreneurs on the Southern Alliance side, led by him, felt that Zheng Yi had adopted a tough approach and was clearly trying to centralize power and weaken the voice of major chambers of commerce. In their opinion, Zheng Yi was beginning to learn from the evil Ronaldinho to promote Keynesianism and even to learn from the Soviet Union to start the Five-Year Plan.

Everyone thinks that Zheng Yi has changed, started to act like a dictator, and that the spirit of freedom of the Southern Association for Regional Cooperation is gone.

Whether they felt that Zheng Yi threatened them and damaged their interests, or they really felt that Zheng Yi was reversing history and believed that he himself began to become Nazi-like after defeating the Nazis.

In short, many people, like Xu Shengli, chose this time to withdraw from the Southern Alliance and return to their home country to develop.

I thought withdrawing shares would threaten Zheng Yi, but in fact, in Zheng Yi's view, Xu Sheng's withdrawal of shares was really a good thing, even a blessing after a long drought, or a great opportunity like a widow encountering a gangster.

Because this is the most basic and fundamental asset of the entire SAARC.

Politics, after all, is the technique of dividing the cake. Zheng Yi himself is not too worried about making the cake. After World War II, all industries were in recession. There was no need to make the cake too big at this time. Instead, it was more important to take the opportunity to do a good job of dividing the cake and lay a foundation.

Objectively speaking, Xu Shengli and the Penang generation who started the business with him are actually out-and-out rentiers, which has seriously affected Zheng Yi's share of the cake.

You can live comfortably by doing nothing every day, just relying on stock market gains, investment returns, rising real estate prices, and rent.

And they are indeed too rich. Zheng Yi plans to learn from the historical economic development model of Japan. To put it bluntly, if he implements industrial economic policies, as long as it is the industrial direction he points out, these first-generation people will invest money in it, and the latecomers will most likely not even get a share of the profits.

Objectively speaking, all the gains in this world based on asset income are essentially the gains of those who worked hard first and then those who worked hard later.

In any country, the smaller the rentier class, the faster it develops, but the larger the rentier class, the richer it becomes. In most cases, prosperity and wealth cannot coexist.

The current trend of these wealthy people from Southeast Asia returning to China, with some even taking all their assets with them, is something Zheng Yi wishes for.

Only after they leave can Zheng Yi divide their share of the cake. If they don't leave, Zheng Yi will feel embarrassed and it will be impossible for him to take action against those who started the business with him.

Xu Shengli took away the 200 million US dollars. Zheng Yi spread the word on the same day that he planned to sell this part of the shares to Malays, Indians, and Javanese, and let them be responsible for bidding, and refused to let Europeans, Americans, and Chinese take over.

These indigenous people certainly have no money. Zheng Yi even proposed allowing the Malays to exchange their mineral resources. Those who are interested can come to the stock exchange in Penang to check the stock prices at any time.

All mineral resources can be securitized.

For a while, there was chaos in Penang.

Zheng Yi himself finally put aside his activities in Penang and went to Alor Setar.

Long before he went to Japan, something had already happened on the Malay Peninsula. The conflict between the Malays and the Chinese had completely broken out under the instigation of the British. Even after people died, there were already signs of a national war.

This was actually a very serious matter that could even threaten the foundation of the SAARC's rule. However, when the incident happened, Zheng Yi himself did not deal with it immediately. Instead, he simply hid in Japan and stayed there for more than half a year.

The incident was originally instigated by the British. In essence, it was a warning to him by the British. They did not want Zheng Yi to interfere in India's affairs, especially now that India's independence was imminent. The British, at least those officials in the Colonial Office, were overwhelmed and naturally did not want Zheng Yi to interfere.

On the other hand, it was also to compete with Zheng Yi for influence in the Nanyang region. Even if Britain finally agreed to the independence of the entire Southeast Asian colonies, the British would certainly still hope to retain their influence as much as possible and protect the interests of British multinational corporations.

There is a question of whether SAARC and the UK will have greater dominance in Southeast Asia, or the composition and proportion of British multinational corporations in the SAARC alliance of multinational corporations.

Of course, if we follow the theory that the world is a makeshift team, it is more likely that the British are not that far-sighted. It is simply that tens of thousands of Colonial Office civil servants are facing the crisis of layoffs and have begun to make trouble to gain a sense of existence.

Zheng Yi did not respond directly at all and went directly to Japan, which really made the people who planned all this behind the scenes feel like they were punching cotton.

It wasn't just Zheng Yi who went to Japan. For the entire SAARC, the key task for the past six months was the relocation of Japan's population and industry. Anyone who was well-known and had a say in SAARC had indeed been busy with nothing else in the past six months.

It seems that compared to accepting Japan's post-war legacy, the little trouble caused by the Malays is insignificant.

Add to that the construction of Singapore, and everyone is really busy.

In the whole thing, SAARC did take some action except for one incident in Borneo, but it did not happen in the city and compared to the independence movement that is in full swing in Indonesia today, it is really not a big deal.

No one reported the news, not even the Dutch themselves.

As for the Malay Peninsula, after Zheng Yi left, the situation was completely handled by Anand. In the first two months, he was very ruthless.

He was really a bit of a tiger. He led his troops directly into Kuala Lumpur and did not give any face to the British. Whether it was the Colonial Bureau or the police force, even if the officers on the opposite side were white, he insisted that they were all Japanese puppet troops and traitors.

It just so happened that these police forces in Kuala Lumpur actually served as puppet troops during the Anti-Japanese War. Settling new and old grudges together has instead triggered a wave of reckoning.

You pick your own conflicts with the Chinese.

I caught the remnants of my horse rapist.

Everyone does their own thing and doesn't interfere with each other.

Several new political parties were established in Kuala Lumpur, all of which used ethnic and religious issues to incite populism. Anand confronted them, saying, "If you say I am a Chinese running dog, I will arrest you and interrogate you to find out whether I have done anything to let down the nation during the Japanese occupation."

You have to know that Kuala Lumpur was occupied after all. Even among the Malays, those who could really engage in politics must be from the upper class. During the Japanese occupation, how many people in the upper class had no connection with the Japanese?

The Wu people are not like the Chinese. They have no country or ethnicity, so how can they have any sense of national pride? So it is natural for Anand to catch them all.

It is hard to say whether he can incite the opposition with populism, but the gun is in his hands anyway. If anyone is dissatisfied and wants to organize a resistance, it will play right into Anand's hands.

Not holding guns or not organizing is called political struggle, an internal conflict among the Malays.

But if you pick up a gun, you still dare to organize.

Aren’t these just the remnants of the Japanese army?
Political struggles must follow rules. No matter how fierce Anand was, he would not dare to arrest and shoot those opposition leaders directly, nor would he dare to use a submachine gun to shoot at the marching college students, even though he knew that these people were backed by the British.

But if facing the remnants of the Japanese army, there would be no need to even arrest and try them. They could just use a powered delta wing to fly into the sky and drop bombs.

In the past, everyone thought that the British were heavenly soldiers, but when they saw the police from the Kuala Lumpur Colonial Office, they were so scared that they nodded and kowtowed.

Now, during his stay in Kuala Lumpur, Anand directly set up his headquarters at the British Police Station in Kuala Lumpur.

In total, almost a thousand people died, and no one really wanted to stir up trouble between the Wu and Hua people anymore.

All of these became internal conflicts within their witch clan.

You have to know that even modern Malaysia is largely fragmented. It is a true federal country.

Although it is not big, it is indeed a federation, but in fact it cannot even achieve the same writing system and the same railway system.

Since Anand brought up the old issue again, the conflict soon became a conflict between the Malays in Kedah, the Indians in Perak, and the Malays in other states.

Originally, there was still some sentiment and dissatisfaction against the Chinese in Kedah. After all, the incident itself happened within Kedah.

However, after the waters were stirred up, the matter became somewhat unified within Kedah.

Even Zheng Yi couldn't tell whether Anand was really a rogue or just pretending to be foolish. As a result, when Zheng Yi came back, it would be difficult for him to attack the Malays in Kedah, whether openly or secretly.

He may even have done it on purpose, deliberately dividing the Malays into two parts: Kedah Malays and non-Kedah Malays.

I thought things would get worse and worse, and Datuk was mentally prepared for a civil war, but unexpectedly, after just two months, the Malay Peninsula became relatively calm and there was not much trouble.

Because Singapore was built.

The whole of Singapore has become a big construction site.

Are the Chinese also capitalists? As capitalists, they have the motivation to maximize profits. There are also many illegal workers. The scale of infrastructure construction in Singapore as a whole is even much larger than the previous large-scale construction in Penang.

Most Chinese people do some jobs that require a little technical skill, especially some hard manual labor. Not only are there few Chinese people willing to do these jobs, but they also have to abide by labor laws, and the working period is tight.

The Japanese are willing to do it, but Zheng Yi has not yet agreed to Osaka joining the SAARC, and the Japanese coolies cannot come over. As for the workers brought over from Japan by the SAARC, most of them are engineers and senior technicians, most of whom have a high school education or above, and it is impossible to let them go to the construction site as laborers.

Naturally, there is a huge demand for outsourcing in Singapore, even more than in Penang.

Moreover, the construction site is full of men, some of whom are single, while others are married but their wives and children are in Penang. Once again, there is a huge imbalance in the ratio of men to women in Singapore as a whole.

Although there are many Japanese women in Singapore who provide services, there are large construction sites everywhere and there is really no place to have fun.

Moreover, prostitution and gambling are illegal in Singapore, at least in name. The women coming from Japan are all working as female workers or joining employment agencies to be matched with the Chinese in Southeast Asia as wives.

To put it bluntly, Singapore, like Penang once was, lacks a place for leisure, entertainment, and relaxation. This combination of factors naturally gave the Malays, especially those in Johor, the state closest to Singapore, an opportunity, and various supporting facilities were built.

To put it bluntly, although some people claim to hate the Chinese and incite national sentiment by saying that the Chinese have taken away their jobs, resources, and wealth, the Malays in Kedah are all running dogs of the Chinese.

But now that there is a new opportunity to be a running dog for the Chinese, who wouldn’t want to do it?
Singapore is not that close to Kedah. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that if Singapore can develop as well as Penang, Johor will undoubtedly be the next Kedah, and the new town will be the next Alor Setar.

The Johor Strait is much shorter than the Aral Strait. People who can't swim can float across it with a swimming ring.

Du Yuesheng and other marginal bosses also came with people and money.

These marginal bosses are very clear about their own positioning. Singapore is a really good place, but every piece of it has been planned out, and it is mainly an industrial and port service city.

To be honest, the idle land and service industries are not something they can get their hands on, so they naturally have to settle for the second best and invest their money in areas around Singapore.

Hotels, casinos, brothels, restaurants, entertainment centers, even cockfighting, dog racing, wrestling arenas, theaters, brothels, movie theaters, dance halls, cabarets, nightclubs, and even children's amusement parks and zoos.

These things are definitely the same as in Penang. Not many can be built in Singapore. By then, Singaporeans will definitely have to go out of the city to play.

Outside the city, there are not as many messy and complicated laws as in the Southern Alliance, so guests can have more fun, and it will definitely be much cheaper than in the city.

This is an investment of tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of South Asian currencies. There will be more and more subsequent investments. Who wouldn’t want it?
However, Du Yuesheng and others did not directly invest in land in Xincheng, or in other words, they did not only invest in Xincheng.

As a world hub and the Far East center during the British colonial era, Singapore is not limited to Johor and New Town to work as laborers, provide supporting facilities for Singapore, and become the future entertainment center for Singaporeans.

A little further south is the island of Sumatra!

The Sumatran people, Malays, Minangkabau people and even the very few remaining Chinese on the island of Sumatra also want to live a life like the people of Alor Setar.

What's more, Sumatra is now engaged in an anti-colonial struggle against the British and the Dutch. Labor is very cheap and there are refugees everywhere.

Isn't this competition?

In theory, the Malays in Johor have lived together with the Chinese for many years. Malacca and New Town were Chinese cities before Zheng Yi arrived. The Nanyang headquarters of the Tiandihui was located in Johor. Zheng Yi sometimes had to do some ceremonial things. For example, when the Chinese Chamber of Commerce was established, he also came to the Nanyang headquarters of the Tiandihui in Johor to burn incense.

To put it bluntly, this place is the ancestor of the Chinese in Southeast Asia. As early as the Ming Dynasty, there were Chinese doing business here. After hundreds of years of contact, everyone is very familiar with each other. Even on the cultural level, the Chinese in Southeast Asia are closer to the Malays in Johor than the Malays in Kedah.

Cultural customs are here. There is still a layer of separation between the Sumatran people and the Chinese compared to the Malays. And to be honest, the level of civilization of the Sumatran people is not as high as that of the Malays.

In theory, it would be difficult for the Malays and Sumatran people on the island of Sumatra to compete with the Johor Malays for becoming a satellite city of Singapore.

But who can blame the current tensions between Malays and Chinese? This has given opportunities to people on the island of Sumatra, especially the Riau Province on Sumatra, which is closest to Singapore and is also across the sea from Singapore. Most of the population here are Malays and believe in the same religion.

We are all of the same race, we are all Malays, so if you don’t want to have a good relationship with the Chinese.

We think so!

Therefore, most of these Nanyang people have more or less established some industries in Riau Province on the Sumatra side.

Compete with each other?

Naturally, many of those working illegally on construction sites in Singapore are Malays from Sumatra.

This immediately made the Malays in Johor and Malacca unhappy.

The Malays in these two places have lived in relative harmony with the Chinese for hundreds of years, and many of them have intermarried, so the relationship between them is pretty good.

It’s all your fault, you British running dogs, you idiots from Kuala Lumpur. What right do you have to represent the Malays and the Malays to destroy the national friendship between us and our Chinese brothers?

It was almost spontaneous, and those opposition parties that came to Johor to cause trouble were driven out.

In order to show their attitude, the Malays in Malacca and Johor even specially prepared a lot of red silk and decorated the place with lights and lanterns, ready to celebrate the New Year with the Chinese.

There are originally a large number of Nyonya people in these two places. Although most of the Chinese who originally lived with them have gone to Penang, there are not many left, and the remaining ones basically do not speak Chinese.

But when it comes to the Spring Festival, they really know how to celebrate it.

In addition, Kuala Lumpur, the opposition’s stronghold, had been forcibly taken over by Anand.

The opposition can only stir up trouble in places where there are basically no Chinese people.

Then just do it, march however you want, and if you can’t see it, just pretend it didn’t happen.

The British used various media means to accuse the Malays and use them to stir up trouble. Anand then nonchalantly accepted interviews with European and American media and said: It was all my fault. It is our Malays’ internal affairs. Get out of Malaya, British. Long live the Malays!

With the help of the American and SAARC media, many foreigners actually believed that he was an anti-colonial hero.

The situation was much better than the worst outcome Zheng Yi had imagined in Japan. The pro-China and anti-China Malays on the Malay Peninsula seemed to be in opposition to each other, and it had basically no impact on the Chinese.

"Who is the Sultan of Johor? What kind of person is he?"

"It's Abu Bakar, who is a good friend of mine. He has always been more pro-Chinese."

In the office building in Alor Setar, Zheng Yi met Datuk Ong. After a brief greeting, the two quickly got down to business.

Zheng Yi suddenly realized, "Oh, I forgot, you are also from Johor."

Dato' Onn: "Relatively speaking, Johor and Malacca have been living with the Chinese for a longer time, are located on the coast, and are close to Singapore. Naturally, they are more civilized and have greater cultural tolerance."

"Historically, when the British first colonized Southeast Asia, Malacca was the center of the Far East throughout the 18th century. It was only after the 19th century that the center gradually shifted to Singapore."

"Moreover, Johor itself has a good port, which is indeed very suitable for providing supporting facilities for the future Singapore. Mr. Zheng, among all the Malays in Malaya, the Johor Malays are definitely the most friendly to the Chinese. This... If possible, I think we can really incorporate the new city into the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. This will definitely be of great benefit to the development of Malaya and even the ethnic integration of the Chinese and Malays."

Zheng Yi smiled upon hearing this, but did not comment. This Datuk Ong was obviously selfish on this point. Objectively speaking, the new city was indeed quite suitable for the Chinese to manage themselves. Apart from anything else, even for the existence of the Tiandihui Hongmen headquarters, it actually had some political significance for these Chinese in Southeast Asia.

It’s just that their Southern Alliance has been expanding too fast recently. Zheng Yi really doesn’t want any new regions to join the Southern Alliance in the short term. And to be honest, it really doesn’t make much use of it.

The entire Malaya was originally the core force of the SAARC. Although this place did not belong to the SAARC in name, it was actually intended to be built into the SAARC's back garden.

There is already an Alor Setar, and adding a new town would easily lead to the Malays in other areas splitting away from them.

Just like it is now.

Although Zheng Yi was pleased with Anand's self-proclaimed clever solution, he personally disagreed with it.

He also does not want the Malays to be divided and confront each other. He even feels that the Malays in the Malay Peninsula can be regarded as the base.

“How many opposition parties are there in Malaya right now?”

"There are five larger ones. Besides us, there's the Progressive Party, which is primarily Indian and has its base in Perak. The other three... are all... populist parties that aren't particularly friendly to China. But don't worry, even if all three of them were put together, they wouldn't be as powerful as my People's Party."

Zheng Yi took it easy and said, "This is perfectly normal. It's easier to stir up conflict in a popular election. Winning over a small number of people is always easier than winning over the majority. The situation in Alor Setar is clear, and you have always enjoyed prestige among the Malays. If they don't engage in populist behavior and incite ethnic conflict, how can they compete with you?"

"Ultimately, a society is always bound to have contradictions, and there's a certain class conflict between the Chinese and Malays. Contradictions are inherent. If I were a Malay and wanted to get into politics, I'd definitely have to use this aspect to convince voters. Otherwise, what else could I do? Do I say I'll lead them in economic development? Who can develop the economy better than you?"

"I'm not afraid of someone joining the opposition. Politics is all about arguments and compromises. I can tell you something: I don't mind sharing some of SAARC's profits with you so that we can all prosper and become wealthy together. Just don't go too far."

"Whatever the demands are, I'm very easy to talk to. We can discuss anything. As long as they don't engage in violence or use guns, I can coexist peacefully with these opponents."

"In Penang, a group of veterans have sold their shares. You know Penang Petrochemical, take the lead and organize it. I plan to leave these shares to you Malays. Of course, there will be some Indians competing with you."

"Also, tell Anand to withdraw all the troops in Kuala Lumpur. I need to give him a lecture. His handling of this matter... is still a bit inappropriate. Let's release all the people we've arrested recently. From now on, don't arrest people unless it's absolutely necessary. Political prisoners are not a good thing, and they will only increase."

"Finally, please help me talk to the opposition parties. Let's all hold a meeting. Since the British want to talk about democracy, then let's talk about it. I will tell the British that it is time to hold the first Malay general election."

Dato’ Onn: “General election? Do I participate too? Alor Setar…”

Zheng Yi: "Of course we have to participate. SAARC is not a state-owned entity. Isn't Alor Setar also part of Malaya? As for the venue... let's hold the meeting in Kuala Lumpur, not Alor Setar. If you don't mind, I also have something to say at the meeting."

"A general election in Kuala Lumpur? I understand. I'll organise it."

(End of this chapter)