Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, November, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. Univ. Konstanz, 2007.

Diss. Univ. Konstanz, 2007.

This thesis proposes a new perspective on Malaysian Chinese studies by exploring issues of identity formation refracted through the lens of contestations of war memory, communal history and state-sponsored national history. In multiethnic Malaysia, despite persistent nation-building programs towards inculcating a shared Malaysian national identity, the question as to whether the Chinese are foremost Chinese or Malaysian remains at the heart of Malaysian socio-political debates. Existing scholarship on the Malaysian Chinese is often framed within post-independent development discourses, inevitably juxtaposing the Chinese minority condition against Malay political and cultural supremacy. Similarly, explorations of war memory and history echo familiar Malay-Chinese, dominant-marginalised or national-communal binary tropes. This thesis reveals that prevailing contestations of memory and history are, at their core, struggles for cultural inclusion and belonging. It further maps the overlapping intersections between individual (personal/familial), communal and official histories in the shaping of Malaysian Chinese identities. In tracing the historical trajectory of this community from migrants to its current status as ‘not-quite-citizens,’ the thesis references a longue durée perspective to expose the motif of Otherness embedded within Chinese experience. The distinctiveness of the Japanese occupation of British Malaya between 1941-1945 is prioritised as a historical watershed which compounded the Chinese as a distinct and separate Other. This historical period has also perpetuated simplifying myths of Malay collaboration and Chinese victimhood; these continue to cast their shadows over interethnic relations and influence Chinese representations of self within Malaysian society. In the interstices between Malay-centric national history and marginalised Chinese war memory lie war memory silences. These silences reveal that obfuscation of Malaysia’s wartime past is not only the purview of the state; Chinese complicity is evident in memory-work which selectively (mis)remembers, rejects and rehabilitates war memory. In excavating these silences, the hitherto unexplored issue of intergenerational memory transmission is addressed to discern how reverberations of the wartime past may colour Chinese self-image in the present. The thesis further demonstrates that the marginalisation of Chinese war memory from official historiography complicates the ongoing project of reconciling the Malaysian Chinese to a Malay-dominated nationalist dogma.

This thesis examines the communist insurgencies in Malaya (1948-1960) and Vietnam(1961-1963). A British Colonial Service Officer, Robert Thompson, helped develop the successful counterinsurgency doctrine during the Malayan Emergency. Later he carried this knowledge to Vietnam to help in the anti-Viet Cong struggle. U.S. leaders welcomed lessons of the Malayan Emergency and their application in parts to the Vietnamese situation in the form of the Strategic Hamlet Program. Thompson’s transfer of knowledge from Malaya to Vietnam shows a historical analogy taken out of context by U.S. leadership. I begin my study by looking at British evolution of counterinsurgency doctrine and practices, specifically the New Villages in Malaya, and Robert Thompson’s role in the process. The second chapter examines Thompson’s transferal of Malayan knowledge to Vietnam and the U.S. acceptance of and support for his efforts. I also compare these insurgencies in chapter two to show the differences between them and prove my thesis. Finally, the third chapter shows some reasons why the Strategic Hamlet Program failed and whether Thompson’s program was doomed to fail or not. By examining the Strategic Hamlet Program, an understanding of how the U.S. evolved policy in the Vietnam War becomes possible. / Master of Arts

This thesis analyses the nation-building work that the Indian Army undertook during the military administration of Malaya, 1945-6. This was a two-part process, taking in military-led relief work and a political reform scheme. Historians have conducted little work on the Indian Army’s role in the British return to empire in Malaya, thus the army’s crucial and nuanced role has been overlooked. This limits the understanding of the army’s institutional development and role in Malayan nation-building between 1945-6. This thesis redresses this. It argues that the military administration of Malaya encapsulated the culmination of wartime changes to the role of the Indian Army fighting soldier. Whereas before the war the Indian Army found it expedient to keep its soldiers isolated from current affairs, British experience during the Second World War instead suggested that soldiers educated in current affairs could be very effective. Concurrently, British military leaders began to think on the role of the Indian Army and its men after the war. They concluded that the Indian Army’s soldiers could become catalysts of national political and social development, and initially identified this as a role for the army in post-war India. Furthermore, it was felt that the Indian Army could contribute both to the Commonwealth and United Nations ideals. The return to Malaya encapsulated these changes to the conception of the Indian Army soldier and was a practical expression and measure of these. The soldiers became agents of political change, imperial re-entrenchment and administration – which this thesis terms ‘soldier-administrators’. The Indian Army, it is argued, was deployed consciously as a nation-building force, using the new thinking on the role of Indian Army soldiers. In so doing, the Indian Army partook in targeted schemes for military relief, political reform and nation-building to try to build the new Malayan nation.

According to the firsthand account of James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, it appears that piracy in the state of British Malaya in the mid-1800s was community-driven and egalitarian, led by the interests of heroic figures like the Malayan pirate Si Rahman. These heroic figures share traits with Eric Hobsbawm’s social bandit, and in this case may be ascribed as social pirates. In contrast, late 20th-century and early 21st-century pirates in the region operate in loosely structured, hierarchical groups beholden to transnational criminal syndicates. Evidence suggests that contemporary pirates do not form the egalitarian communities of their colonial counterparts or play the role of ‘Robin Hood’ in their societies. Firsthand accounts of pirates from the modern-day pirate community on Batam Island suggest that the contemporary Southeast Asian pirate is an operative in the increasingly corporate interest of modern-day criminal organizations.

The Chinese education issues in Malaysia appear frequently in political discourse, often featuring contentious discussions of language learning and national education policies. Applying an historical approach to contextualize a political discourse, this thesis examines the politics and transformation of Malaysian Chinese education, in microcosm, at the level of a renowned Chinese school, Chung Ling High School in Penang. It explores and maps the question of "Chineseness" through the examination of the history and development of Chung Ling since its establishment in 1917. This thesis also aims to elucidate the complex negotiation between multiple stakeholders of the Chinese community which took place at different historical junctures in a postcolonial and multi-ethnic nation. I discuss memorial activities for two deceased educationists, David Chen and Lim Lian Geok, which have been readapted into contemporary discourse by different factions of educationists to express their dissatisfactions toward state hegemony on education policies. Lastly, I argue that the persistent pursuit of "Chineseness" is counterproductive to the aim of safeguarding interests of Chinese schools within and outside the national education system today.

Heart and Minds concept is one of the most overlooked approaches of the counterinsurgency. This is surprising especially because the classic coercive strategies are struggling with producing sufficient outcomes. In fact it is quite the opposite in practice and they fail to supress the insurgency ultimately. Hearts and Minds strategy is based on assumption that if the government is able to gain public support the insurgents will lose vital resource for their fight and they will collapse eventually. In this thesis I am going to explore the potential the Hearts and Minds strategy has and demonstrate its strengths and weaknesses. There are five cases of insurgency to be examined in which the Hearts and Minds has been used successfully or unsuccessfully. The first case is the Emergency in British Malaya. Gerard Templer is considered as an author of the Hearts and Minds phrase, therefore his administration of Malaya should be examined I believe. Second case is the FARC insurgency in Colombia. Third case is the Zapatistas movement in Mexico. Fourth case is the US invasion into Iraq in 2003. Last case is the 2012 Tuaregs uprising in Mali and subsequent development. It is clear from the findings that Hearts and minds has its place among the COIN approaches. Even though it is not best suited for all...

由於海外華人分布區域廣闊，各地國情不同，各國華僑的適應情況亦相異，即使華人研究之成果已相當豐碩，對特定地區和議題的華人，例如海外領事館和華人的互動關係，仍然有待更多的耕耘和開墾。 從清末以降，中國人或為謀生或為政治，開始南移至南洋。在馬來亞地區的華人移民靠著礦業和商業的經營逐漸培植出經濟勢力，因而引起當地政府和馬來人之疑慮。日後經歷英國殖民政府的「分而治之」和日本軍政府的「種族分離」政策，在政治上受到扶持的馬來人漸漸地對具有經濟優勢之華人產生嫌隙，埋下華巫種族問題的伏筆。太平洋戰爭發生之前，大多數的馬來亞華人對政治並不熱衷。直至中國對日抗戰，民族主義的浪潮席捲新、馬的華人社會，傾中國的政治意識才在華人之間擴散。戰爭結束後，英國勢力重返馬來亞，實行開明的政策，當地各華人政黨、社團均因而得到自由發展的空間，中國國民黨馬來亞支部和馬來亞共產黨都趁機擴展了本身的勢力。隨著英國為馬來亞安排獨立自治的進程而制定新憲制，華人的政治認同與馬來人要求華人同╱歸化的訴求，成為英國殖民政府和華人、馬來人之間交涉的重要課題。馬來亞共產黨在戰後改走武裝鬥爭路線，其發動叛亂使馬來亞進入緊急狀態，政治情勢更為混亂。在當地嚴峻的政治考驗之下，馬來亞華人必須自行抉擇將何去何從，中國的國共內戰復讓華人意興闌珊，去留問題再無法逃避。正當政治動盪不安的年代，中國的國民黨政府要在馬來亞推行僑務並爭取華人的支持也就面臨更大的困難。 中華民國駐馬來亞領事館非正式的外交機構，其職能是維護當地中國僑民的權益與促進當地與本國的商業利益，而領事館在僑務上的作為乃是本文關注的焦點。新馬兩地的華人政治十分複雜，益以戰後華巫種族衝突日漸惡化，英國殖民政府又先後推行馬來聯邦和馬來亞聯合邦政策，駐馬來亞領事館欲推行保僑工作，經常須與當地政府進行交涉，而交涉過程中所透露的訊息，當有助於了解領事館與華僑之間的關係。由一九四五年至一九五○年閉館為止，乃中華民國駐馬來亞領事館的運作最積極的階段。雖然抗日運動將馬來亞華人與中國的關係重新密切相連，可是戰後的時局瞬息萬變，馬來亞的住民要爭取獨立，又面臨國內種族融合的問題，華僑的國籍認同和公民權問題頓成燃眉之急。當地華人分別集結爭取權益，由於不同的華僑╱華人團體看待中國政府之態度日益分歧，領事館的保僑工作亦面臨更大的挑戰。當華僑面對保留中國國籍或歸化當地國籍的重大抉擇之時，中國駐馬來亞領事館在維護華僑權益的前提之下如何應對時局變化，並維繫華僑與中國政府的關係，其中曲折頗有研究之價值。 本研究擬從中國駐馬來亞地區領事館出發，透過外交部檔案之爬梳，探討領事館在當地推動保僑工作的歷程，期望透過對領事館的研究，進一步觀察戰後馬來亞華僑與中國政府的關係。由於現今國史館館藏之外交檔案中，有關駐馬來亞各領事館的史料仍未得到充份利用，而各領事館卻是少數得與華僑直接接觸並推行僑務政策者，相關檔案可能是呈現當時當地華人社會之情況的一手資料，亦期能藉由研究基層的僑務運作，思考中國僑務政策之得失。是故使用此一批外交檔案進行研究，可從領事館的實際運作，了解中國僑務政策之實然面，或許也可以從新的角度一窺當地華人社會和政治之發展。 本論文從緒論到結論共分作五章，各章節內容分別概述如下： 第一章：緒論。說明本文之研究動機、研究方法及架構，並簡略地介紹與本論文密切相關的參考文獻。 第二章：戰前的馬來亞與華人概況。本章節先敘述馬來亞華人的社會概況，然後論述中國的僑務機構與海外華僑的關係，同時也敘述了華僑的國籍問題，以及駐馬來亞領事館的沿革。最後，英國在馬來亞地區的殖民統治，與日本軍國主義的短暫佔領，也是討論馬來亞華人歷史所不能忽略的歷史背景。 第三章：戰後的領事館與華僑。本章節除了簡單地敘述戰後駐馬來亞各領事館的工作概況，將針對中英新約在馬來亞實施，以及緊急狀態時期的保僑工作如華僑被遣返、墾民搬遷等問題，進行重點且深入的探討，希望了解立場分歧的華人社會，如何與領事館產生互動。 第四章：華僑國籍與認同問題。本章將針對馬來亞聯邦政策、馬來亞聯合邦政策對華人的國籍和身份認同的衝擊，探討各領事館甚至中國外交當局對華僑爭取當地公民權的事件究竟如何看待，又採取了哪些策略。章節中也將論及馬來亞華人公會在緊急狀態時期之崛起。 第五章：結論。綜合各章的研究分析，論述戰後的駐馬來亞領事館與馬來亞華人社會的關係，並嘗試評析其中的得失進退，以補充並豐富有關戰後馬來亞華人政治發展的研究。