Editing Politics of Malaysia (section)

===Early political organisations===

====Malay Union====
{{main|Malay Union}}
The [[Malay Union]] ({{langx|ms|Kesatuan Melayu}}; '''KM''') was established in 1926<ref>W. Roff 'Origins of Malay Nationalism' p. 190</ref> by [[Mohamad Eunos Abdullah]], [[Tengku Kadir Ali]] and [[Ambo Sooloh]] with the aim of increasing the role of Malays in public life, upholding Malay interests with the colonial authorities, and promote higher and technical education for Malays.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761580116 |title=Muhammad Eunos Bin Abdullah |access-date=25 June 2008 |work=MSN Encarta |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240524182029/https://www.webcitation.org/5kx5sOqgV?url=http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx%3Frefid=761580116 |archive-date=24 May 2024 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Eunos himself was a [[Justice of Peace]], a member of the '''Muslim Advisory Board''' set up by the colonial administration during [[World War I]] and a member of the [[Singapore Municipal Council]]. In his capacity as the chairman of the KM, he became the first Malay member of the [[Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements]]. One of the first issues championed by the KM was the appeal for land to be set aside for a Malay settlement. The appeal was granted and a sum of [[Straits dollar|$]] 700,000 was set aside for the KM to purchase and develop the land. This settlement has evolved and is now part of the [[Eunos, Singapore|Eunos]] neighbourhood in Singapore.<ref>{{cite book |title=Pioneers of Singapore: Builders of Our Land |last=Lim |first=Lee Chin |author2=Chan Soon Onn  |year=2004 |publisher=Asiapac Books |location=Singapore |isbn=981-229-387-6 |pages=139 }}</ref>

The KM also became the catalyst for the establishment of similar organisations in the other states of the British Malaya such as the [[Penang Malay Association]] (founded in 1927) and the [[Perak Malay Association]] (founded in 1937).<ref name="WilliamRoff" /> People associated with the KM included the first [[President of Singapore]], [[Yusof Ishak]]. The KM survived [[World War II]] and entered into a political coalition with the [[United Malays National Organisation]] and the [[Malayan Chinese Association]] to form the [[Singapore Alliance Party]]. It however eventually faded away with the electoral defeats of the Alliance in the 1955 [[1955 Singaporean general election|legislative elections]] in Singapore.<ref name="WilliamRoff" /><ref>{{cite book |title=Indian Communities in Southeast Asia |last=Kernial Singh Sandhu |author2=A. Mani  |year=2006 |publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies |location=Singapore |isbn=981-230-418-5 |pages=1006 }}</ref>

====Communist Party of Malaya====
{{main|Malayan Communist Party}}

The first political party to be organised with a pan-Malayan outlook was the [[Communist Party of Malaya]] (CPM) established in 1930. The CPM was originally set up as a branch of the [[Comintern]] supervised by the Far Eastern Bureau of the [[Chinese Communist Party]] in 1926, then known as the '''[[South Seas Communist Party]]'''. The fraternal [[Communist Party of Indonesia]] (established in 1924) was forced underground and in exile due to their abortive [[Communist Party of Indonesia#1926 revolt|revolt]] in 1926, which resulted in the CPM becoming exclusively dominated by people of Chinese descent {{cn|date=April 2025}}. Efforts to establish a broader based representation were made especially in the 1935 representative conferences between the CPM and the [[General Labour Union (Malaya)|General Labour Union]] as well as the establishment of contact with Communist cells in [[Communist Party of Thailand|Siam]] and the [[Dutch East Indies]] in 1936. Nonetheless, the CPM remained an organisation that was predominantly Chinese in composition until the [[Japanese occupation of Malaya]] which saw a larger participation of people from other ethnicities.<ref>{{cite book |title=From PKI to the Comintern, 1924–1941: The Apprenticeship of the Malayan Communist Party |last=Cheah |first=Boon Kheng |year=1992 |publisher=SEAP Publications |location=Ithaca |isbn=0-87727-125-9 |pages=143 }}</ref>

====Young Malay Union====
{{main|Kesatuan Melayu Muda}}

The [[Young Malay Union]] ({{langx|ms|Kesatuan Melayu Muda}}; '''KMM''') was established in [[Kuala Lumpur]] in 1938 under the leadership of [[Ibrahim Yaacob]]. While registered as a social organisation working to improve Malay youths in sports, education, agriculture, health and other recreational pursuits, the primary aim of the KMM was to struggle for the political independence of all the Malayan states from Britain and oppose British [[imperialism]].

While gaining significant support from the larger Malay community, the KMM failed to gain support from the Malay aristocrats and bureaucracy and on the eve of the [[Japanese Invasion of Malaya|Japanese invasion of Malaya]], more than 100 KMM members were arrested by the authorities for collaboration.

All were released after the [[fall of Singapore]] in February 1942. On 14 January 1942, a KMM delegation led by vice-president, [[Mustapha Hussain (Malaysian politician)|Mustapha Hussain]], met with the Japanese authorities to negotiate for the independence of Malaya. The Japanese authorities instead disbanded KMM and established the [[Pembela Tanah Ayer]] (also known as the ''Malai Giyu Gun'' or by its [[Malay language|Malay]] acronym '''PETA''') militia in its stead.

Most who joined PETA were also part of the underground KMM Youth League who continued to struggle for an independent Malaya and some cooperated with the CPM sponsored [[Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army]] and other anti-Japanese guerilla units like [[Force 136]] and [[Rejimen Askar Wataniah|Wataniah]].

With the [[surrender of Japan]] in August 1945, former KMM cadres formed the nucleus of the emerging political movements like the [[Malay Nationalist Party]], [[Angkatan Pemuda Insaf]], and [[Angkatan Wanita Sedar]].<ref>{{cite book |title=From PKI to the Comintern, 1924–1941: The Apprenticeship of the Malayan Communist Party |last=Ooi |first=Keat Gin |year=2004 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Oxford |isbn=1-57607-770-5 |pages=1791 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Malaya: The Making of a Neo-colony |last=Mohamed Amin |author2=Malcolm Caldwell |author3=Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation  |year=1977 |publisher=Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation |location=Nottingham |isbn=0-85124-190-5 |pages=265 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Politics in a plural society: a study of non-communal political parties in West Malaysia |last=Vasil |first=R. K. |year=1971 |publisher=Oxford University Press for the Australian Institute of International Affairs |location=Kuala Lumpur |isbn=0-19-638127-4 |pages=338 }}</ref>