Minangkabau Intellectuals and Radical Nationalism in British Malaya

This study focuses on three intellectuals and political activists of Indonesian, specifically Minangkabau, origin as seen within the context of Malay nationalist politics. The first figure is Dr. Burhanuddin al-Helmy, an Islamic thinker and the leader of various Malay political organizations. Among his positions, the most important was as President of Partai Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya/PKMM (Malay National Party of Malaya/MNP), the strongest and the largest Malay leftist political party. The second figure is Ahmad Boestamam, an acclaimed journalist, literary writer, and political activist, who is most closely associated with Angkatan Pemuda Insaf/API (Generation of Aware Youth), a militant and radical Malay youth organization and originally the youth wing of the PKMM. The third is Khatijah Sidek, a woman activist who led women’s organizations both in Indonesia and Malaya. In West Sumatra, she led a school, and developed and led a militia of 1000 women soldiers. Her most important position in Malaya was as the leader of Kaum Ibu, the women’s wing of the United Malay National Organization (UMNO). This dissertation argues that these three Minangkabau intellectuals were consequential and influential in Malay politics. In Malaya, the three activists were influenced by their Indonesian/Minangkabau political tradition, and in their careers, they followed a common pattern. Despite their efforts to adopt the Indonesian strategies of struggle, the three nationalists were unable to achieve the same results as their contemporaries in Indonesia. I also argue that their limitations, and the lack of success of the radical movement in Malaya, was due to differences in the historical, colonial contexts and economic policies in the region, as well as in the socio-cultural milieu between Malaya and Indonesia