Rationalization and resistance in South-East Asia

Just as British rule in India was weakened over the long term by the confronta­tion with nationalism, so this phenomenon also existed elsewhere in the British, French and Dutch empires.

The first major problem came with the formation in 1912 of the Sarekat Islam movement, which, as its name suggests, was an organization that sought greater political rights for Muslims. It was in part inspired by the Islamic resurgence that occurred throughout the Muslim world, but it also represented local concerns, and, in particular, the fear that the overseas Chinese population in Java was benefiting disproportionately from the improving economy. Within a short space of time Sarekat Islam developed into a mass movement that the Dutch could not ignore, although, like the British in India, they did try to disarm its effectiveness by pushing it into local politics rather than dealing with its claims at the national level. Economic reforms complicated the problem further by stimulating the growth of a trade union movement and interest in socialism. The result was that in the period following the First World War, the combina­tion of an economic recession, the Khalifat Movement and increased activities by socialists culminating in the appearance of the Communist Party of Indonesia, the PKI, led to fifteen years of unrest.

The revolutionary activities of the PKI were but one manifestation of a phenomenon that more broadly affected South-East Asia in the inter-war period and within which lay the roots of many future conflicts, namely the influence on the region of political events in China. From the first, the rise of Chinese nationalism in the early twentieth century struck a resonant chord with the overseas Chinese population in South-East Asia, who became major financial backers of Sun Yatsen's Guomindang (GMD) party and began to organize their own political associations, particularly in Malaya. However, the influence of the GMD's strident nationalism and modernization policies went beyond Chinese circles, providing, for example, a model for one of the major nationalist parties in Indochina in the 1920s, the VNQDD (Vietnamese National Party). Also important was that the strong Comintern presence in China helped to foster communist activity in the region. Mirroring the actions of the PKI, in 1931 the Indochinese Communist Party launched a short-lived insurrection in Vietnam, which was suppressed with great ferocity by the French authorities. Meanwhile, in Malaya the local communist party inspired a series of labour disputes, culminating in a general strike in 1940.

Thus, by end of the 1930s, on the surface South-East Asia was no nearer independence than it had been twenty years earlier, for colonial rule remained intact and had in some areas become more authoritarian than ever. However, this apparent stability was merely a veneer. In reality, sophisticated nationalist move­ments that drew on a variety of political affiliations, including communism, were waiting in the wings for the opportunity to deliver a deathblow to European colonialism. They would not have to wait long.

overseas Chinese

The descendants of the Chinese who immigrated to South-East Asia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They have tended to act as a merchant class and as such have stirred up a good deal of resentment among the indigenous people who envy their wealth and doubt their loyalty to their adopted countries.

Guomindang (GMD)

The Chinese Nationalist party founded in 1913 by Sun Yatsen. Under the control of Jiang Jieshi, it came to power in China in 1928 and initiated a modernization programme before leading the country into war against Japan in 1937. It lost control over mainland China in 1949 as a result of the communist victory in the civil war. From 1949 it controlled Taiwan, overseeing the island's ‘economic miracle’, until its electoral defeat in 2000.

Comintern

The Communist or Third International founded in Moscow in 1919 as an organization to direct and support the activities of communist parties outside Russia. It was abolished in 1943 in a short-lived effort by Stalin to reassure Britain and the United States that the Soviet Union no longer sought to export Marxism-Leninism.