After reading the letter Nilai monument nothing to do with communism , I wish to express my support for his/her point of view, while adding an important historical detail that most of us are ignorant of.
Chinese who were born in the Malay States before World War II were recognised legally as 'subjects of the Ruler' of their respective states. It is by virtue of this recognition that they were also regarded as 'British-protected persons' as the Malay States were 'Protected states' of the British empire. They were entitled to be issued passports as British-protected persons.
A landmark court case which confirmed this legal status of local-born Chinese residents was the case of Ho Chik Kwan vs The British Resident, Selangor in 1931 which concerned the banishment from Malaya of Ho who was born in Negri Sembilan but was a resident of Selangor.
Subsequently, the Federated Malay States Supreme Court ruled that a Chinese who was born and resident of a Malay State became a subject of the Ruler of that state according to the general principle of international law. Upon appeal, the same judgment was upheld again by the Federated Malay States Court of Appeal.
However, Umno leaders of the anti-Malayan Union movement refused to use this criteria of jus soli to recognise local-born Chinese as subjects of a Ruler as the condition for their objection of Federal citizenship.
In effect, they made a special and very restrictive definition of 'subjects of the Ruler' for such purpose. Yet, notwithstanding the fact that these local-born Chinese were not eligible to become federal citizens in the Federation of Malaya inaugurated in 1948, they remained legally subjects of the Ruler and were British-protected persons.
This situation did not apply to the Indians and Ceylonese who were already in the country as they were considered British subjects and after 1949, citizens of the United Kingdom and its colonies.
It was the citizenship amendments made in 1952 which effectively set new criteria for becoming 'subjects of the Ruler' and these discontinued the de facto practice of designating local-born Chinese as 'subjects of the Ruler'. For those interested to know more about this subject, you can refer to:
1. Carnell, F.G. (1952), Malayan Citizenship Legislation, The International & Comparative Law Quarterly , 1: 4, p. 504-518.
2. Lau, Albert (1991), 'The Malayan Union Controversy 1942-1948', Singapore: Oxford University Press.
3. Sinnadurai, Visu (1978), 'The Citizenship Laws in Malaysia' in Mohamed Suffian, Lee, HP & Trinade, F.A. (eds), 'The Constitution of Malaysia Its Development: 1957-1977', Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, p 69-100.
