Much has been made in history about being the right person at the right place at the right time. However, most of us are pretty much flawed and much of history is really about flawed people at critical junctures of history. That’s why we indulge in so much what ifs. One such person was Onn bin Jaafar and our story could have been different if his character was just a little different. Or maybe it was really that the country was just not ready for him yet.
Formative years
Onn was born to the first Menteri Besar of Johor, Dato Jaafar Mohammad. His father was also the longest serving MB in Johor history, serving a total of 33 years and holding office until his death at 81, when Onn was 24. Three of his sons, including Onn, became Menteri Besar after him. Onn became the Menteri Besar himself in 1947 but he was a turning point, being the first to hold office as a member of a political party.
Family
Prior to Onn, the position of Menteri Besar was appointed from the ranks of the ruling elite families loyal to the Sultan. In fact, prior to his father, the office, then called the Temenggong, was largely hereditary. After Onn, the position was filled based on political affiliation to Umno and after democratic elections, based on legislative majority. Onn’s family never held the position again with the transition away from courtly relationships into broader party political competition. Until 2022, that is, when Onn’s great grandson, Onn Hafiz Ghani, born some 17 years after Onn’s death but bearing his name, became the 19th Menteri Besar, as an Umno assemblyman.
Onn himself grew up in the palace of his father, which is now occupied by the Dato Jaafar Secondary School. Dato Jaafar himself was an interesting character, who together with the sultan he served, Sultan Abu Bakar, built the foundations of the modern Johor. Both the sultan and his menteri besar were Anglophiles. Sultan Abu Bakar was the first of the Malay rulers to have travelled to Europe and became good friends with Queen Victoria. This friendship helped Johor retain considerable autonomy even as a British protectorate – which is why Johor still retain a military force to this day. Together with Dato Jaafar, he reorganised the state administration along British lines and is generally known as the father of modern Johor.
The youth
Growing up Anglophile like his father, Onn studied in an English boarding school for six years after being sent to Malay College in Kuala Kangsar to improve his Malay language. MCKK was then that British institution set up in 1905 to make Englishman out of aristocratic Malay boys. On graduation from MCKK, Onn served in various departments in the Johor civil service, including two years as a lieutenant in the Johor Military Force.
For reasons I have not been able to uncover, he left the Johor civil service to become a journalist. It is conjecture on my part but there is reason to think that the character traits that defined him later in life could have been a contributory cause. In 1920, his civil service contract was terminated when he voiced out his unhappiness over the sale of the palace in which he was born. In Malay culture, particularly the one prevailing in the courtly atmosphere Onn was expected to
move in, required the raising of one’s objections in a polite manner. Onn, whose youth was very much spent in British education probably did not absorb that ethos and raised his objections the way an Englishman would. Eventually, the matter was settled and Onn was taken back into the Johor civil service. But the truce wasn’t to last long.
The close nexus between Onn’s family and the royal palace was such that Sultan Ibrahim, the son of Sultan Abu Bakar, treated Onn as an informal foster son from when Onn was little. Sultan Ibrahim appointed one of Onn’s elder brothers as Menteri Besar in 1923 and also married one of Onn’s younger sisters. None of these, however, protected Onn and his keenness to speak his mind.
Growing awareness
The 1920s was a time of emerging Malay national consciousness, with young educated Malays seeing themselves as pan-Malays rising above state identities and loyalties to individual sultans. Young Onn would have been aware of the work of Eunos Abdullah, who furthered Malay nationalism by improving the lot of Malays in Singapore through welfare programs. Eunos focussed on the plight of ordinary Malays led to the establishment of a Kampung Melayu in Singapore (No, it is not Kampong Glam: that was less a Malay area and rather more an Arab-dominated Muslim enclave – now, just a touristy cultural park). Kampung Melayu was set up to strengthen the Malay identity and is today the Jalan Eunos neighbourhood. While Eunos battled to open up Malay mindsets, in particular freeing them from the Arab-dominated Islamic organisations in Singapore (Arabs were the largest landowners in Singapore and were the original Crazy Rich Asians), he was always careful to work within the British polity. This was very much in line with Onn’s thinking and Eunos’ Kesatuan Melayu Singapura (‘KMS’ Singapore Malay Union), as contrasted with the left-wing Kesatuan Melayu Muda (‘KMM’ Young Malay Union), who agitated for independence from the British.
Onn’s short stint in 1920 outside the civil service brought him into writing for Singapore newspapers, which he continued after returning to the civil service. Writing for Singapore newspapers became the platform that first provided an outlet for his outspoken nature. His desire for the progress of the Malays led him to criticise British policies that he felt were holding back Malays. And in Johor, that included the Sultan’s highly autonomous administration, which also became targets. The Sultan’s patience finally ran out and Onn was exiled from the state in 1927. Onn crossed the newly-opened causeway and reverted to his work as a journalist that he took on during his short earlier stint outside the civil service but this time in Singapore.
Writing full-time in Singapore endeared him to progressive Malays as he wrote largely on grievances of the Malay community. He rose to become editor of several Malay newspapers in Singapore. Eventually, the Sultan welcomed his prodigal foster son back home and he resumed his career in the Johor civil service.
Japanese occupation during the Pacific War of 1941-45 saw Onn as the District Officer in Batu Pahat, He built up quite a following in the town, particularly after defusing inter-racial tensions during the Chinese-Malay reprisals during the Interregnum following the Japanese surrender. The town repaid his hard work by being the only place in Malaya to defy the hartal strike of 20 October 1947 which Onn and Umno opposed.
Political career
I will not be going through the details of Onn’s political career as that is being covered in the preceding and various succeeding articles. In this one, I will only touch on several episodes that illustrate his character traits. These expressed themselves at salient moments of our story, leaving us to wonder how this country could have turned out if the man had been a bit different.
Departing Umno
Onn was the man at the right place when the Malayan Union protests started in Johor Bahru in February 1946. The sultan was away in London and did not know of the protests for some three weeks, leading to a leadership vacuum in the crisis. Onn’s standing in the Malay community from his journalistic career and his work in Batu Pahat, together with his aristocratic root made him the natural leader when the organisers asked him to lead the protest. His journalistic writings made him seen as being in touch with the aspirations of the community while his relationship with the royals made him the perfect bridge between the rulers and the people. Ultimately, it was Onn’s links with the royalty that meant only he could have emerged from the ranks of protesting Malays, who were taught veneration for authority, to ascend the steps of Majestic Hotel to persuade the rulers to meet their subjects on that pivotal day eve of the inauguration of Malayan Union (see Episode 011 for the full story).
Onn’s strongly-held conviction that he is right, which had led him to the many strong newspaper articles that endeared him to the Malay community had, on the other hand, made him inflexible. This inflexibility has both its good & bad and this contrast is evident in the two times that he resigned as head of Umno. In the first instance in 1950, his resignation when Umno refused to go along with his proposal to give citizenship to non-Malays made the members reconsider their stance for whatever reasons. Three thousand of them gathered at his front gate that evening to persuade him to reconsider his resignation. And he did reconsidered, as long as his proposal was accepted and it was.
A year later in July 1951, he made another proposal that similarly challenged the mindset of the Malay community: to open up Umno to non-Malays. This time, there was no three thousand strong crowd at his front gate. The resignation was accepted. Much has been written about how Onn felt that he had to resign (some said he was forced to). I don’t think he was. Onn resigned before the Umno executive committee made its fateful decision to reject his proposal. While the first level leaders in Umno was prepared to accept his proposal, it was a bridge too far for the second echelon leaders.
Onn was not forced out because the high respect Malays accorded to those in leadership. At that time even more so than today. It seemed to me that Onn left because he could not accept disagreement to his ideas. He would rather leave than to work with people to persuade them of his views which he deemed to be self-evident. He was succeeded by the Tunku, whose character couldn’t be more different than Onn. It was the Tunku who took Umno on the trajectory that Onn started on: but that’s another article.
Formation of the Alliance
It wasn’t that Onn was not able to read the human situation. Indeed, I find him rather sensitive to the political situation. He was the first Malay nationalist leader (moderate maybe, willing to compromise with non-Malays maybe, but he did oppose Malayan Union as a Malay nationalist nevertheless) to recognise that the British will never give independence to the Malays only. Independence will be granted to all the peoples of Malaya as a whole, and so, Onn realised that the three races have to work together to convince the British that Malaya was ready for independence. Hence, the proposal to bring non-Malays under the aegis of Umno.
I do not think that Onn was a post-communal Malayan. Far from it: he saw Malayan politics as a means for the preservation of the Malay world. His upbringing in the palaces of his father and his foster-father has incorporated a deep Malayness in him, which he carried with him everywhere: it became something that he aimed to ensure could survive in a changing world. His stint as a journalist in Singapore made him realise that Malays in general were not yet ready to compete with the Chinese. Thus, Onn saw independence as a longer term goal, perhaps in 10-20 years. In the meantime, Malays will use the time to prepare themselves to be able to lead the nation in competition with and in partnership with the Chinese. And this they do by working alongside the Chinese & the Indians to absorb the positive qualities of these two races without losing the essential character of the Malay identity.
Hence, the other pillar to complement the opening of Umno to non-Malays was a change in the slogan. Umno’s rallying cry in the fight against Malayan Union was ‘Hidup Melayu’ (Long Live Malays), which is pretty much the aim of Umno. But, Onn recognised that this rallying cry will not attract non-Malays and wanted to change it to the more palatable ‘Merdeka’ (Independence). This he wasn’t able to do as he resigned and Umno only made the change under the Tunku. Tunku was credited with the change but really, it was born of Onn.
Onn underlined this change in slogan by setting up a new political party within months after leaving Umno and naming it Independence of Malaya Party (‘IMP’). It was opened to non-Malays as he wanted Umno to be, but led by him as the undisputed leader, unlike in Umno where he was a central leader of what was then a very decentralised confederation of Malay association, unlike the centralised entity that it is now.
While he was able to bring Ceylonese – Tamils from modern-day Sri Lanka – into IMP via his good friend, the similarly Anglophile Thuraisingham, the Chinese remained with fellow Anglophile Tan Cheng Lock and the Malaysian Chinese Association that he founded. As a result, the only way Onn could partner with the Chinese for the upcoming municipal elections planned for 1951-52 was to work together as two separate parties in a coalition.
This proved unworkable due to Onn’s abrasive nature. Onn had insisted that MCA members run in the elections under the IMP banner and this did not sit well with a party set up to defend Chinese identity in Malaya. Tan Cheng Lock, living in Melaka at that time, was at wits end, receiving a constant stream of complaints from MCA Selangor on their dealings with Onn. Eventually, MCA Selangor switched to partnering with Umno and IMP lost heavily in the pivotal Kuala Lumpur municipal elections of February 1952. That is another story though.
I was not able to find Onn’s reasoning for insisting MCA members run under IMP but I suspect Onn was a little bit of a control freak, trusting no one with his vision which he believed to be right. Onn was close to his friends and the only one he trusted with his political vision was his long-time friend Thuraisingham. There was no way in for Tan Cheng Lock was able to build his own relationship, Anglophile though they both were. And losing the liaison to Tan Cheng Lock meant he lost the liaison to MCA, and by extension the Chinese community.
The slow decline
After losing the 1952 Kuala Lumpur elections, I am sure Onn could see his political path slowly being closed off. His vision of developing the Malays was taken over by Umno and his vision of multi-racialism was supplanted by the Alliance between Umno and MCA and later, with MIC as well.
Still his network with the British remained strong and, with the British not trusting the Tunku, both Onn and Thuraisingham were appointed as ministers, then called members, in the Federation of Malaya government. This was the only time that Onn was in the same government as the Tunku and HS Lee. Onn was home minister and Thurasingham was the minister of education (our first, in fact) who implemented the Barnes & Benn reports, which form the basis of the Malaysian education system today.
With his British colonial friends ensuring his position in the corridors of power despite the growing political power of the Alliance, one can see why Onn was in no hurry for further devolution of power. So, when the Alliance started to agitate for nationwide elections following their landslide victory in the Kuala Lumpur elections, Onn rejected the call. To me, it was an illustration of the man that when the Tunku met with Onn to persuade him on the federal elections, the meeting was short because Onn basically told Tunku to run in the elections under his party’s banner. Onn was an abrasive man, not much doubts on that.
Onn was very much described as a politician who fought for a multi-racial Malaya. Yet. When IMP started to disintegrate following the 1952 election loss, he replaced it with a more Malay-centric Party Negara. The Malay name of the party (Ok, the word 'Party' was the English word, not the Malay word), unlike the English names of IMP, Umno, MCA and MIC, is no coincidence – Party Negara ran on a platform of Malaya for Malays. So, was Onn a non-racialist who felt he had to compromise with Malay ethnocentrism with the setting up of Party Negara? Or was he a Malay-first nationalist who set up the IMP to use non-Malays towards the ultimate goal of Malay primacy. I still wonder.
Onn finally won a coveted seat in elections in 1959, the first of independent Malaya. It was Party Negara's only federal electoral win but the 1959 elections saw a drop in popular vote from just under 8% in 1955 to just over 2% in 1959, not exactly an endorsement from the voters. And that was in Terengganu, far from his Johor homeland, much touted as the birthplace of Umno. He died in 1962, just a year before the establishment of Malaysia. By then, it was clear the country is being built in the mould of Tunku rather than Onn. His dream of leading the country was finally realised by his son, Hussein, in 1976 but that was under a polity set up by Tunku. It was the quest for power that was realised not the realisation of a non-communal political vision.
So, who was Onn Jaafar
History is more than just a series of events. History is about people doing things. And people are as varied as they come. Onn Jaafar and the Tunku couldn’t have had more different personalities even though they are both Anglophiles born into Malay aristocracy. One was a hard-nosed my-way-or-the-highway, clear-vision kind of guy and the other was a happy-go-lucky playboy prince who can charm the pants off anyone. OK, it’s probably a gross oversimplification but you get the idea.
If Onn retained his clear vision but had Tunku’s ability to work with the second echelon leaders of Umno as they are and steer the party by slow persuasion rather than by ultimatum, would the policies of Umno since then been different? If Onn had been willing to let go a little bit of control of his vision and agree to allowed Chinese candidates to run under the banner of MCA, would communal politics in Malaysia be different today?
History is about people. And if people’s personalities were different, history in general and Malaysian history in particular could have been different. It was not so much that Onn Jaafar was ahead of his time. He was just the guy with a vision at a critical point of our history but without the right skill-sets and the right character to be able to drive the country towards that vision. Maybe the right vision, but maybe the wrong personality.
One last imagery of Onn Jaafar that I would like to leave with you. It was a scene lovingly described of Onn in happier times in Thuraisingham’s house in modern day Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur (I always imagine a white colonial bungalow sitting alone in a plot of land instead of the towering hotels that are there now). Onn would be discussing his political plans with his friend, both dressed in sarong and Onn drinking his tea out of a saucer. It was a different time and our leaders then were much simpler people. It is hard to imagine an Umno leader dressed in sarong today sipping tea from a saucer in the house of a Ceylonese man.
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