Notes

The Malayan Democratic Union (MDU) was conceived by a group of English-educated middle-class intellectuals, namely Gerald de Cruz, John Eber, Lim Hong Bee, Lim Kean Chye, Philip Hoalim and Wu Tian Wang, to further the cause of an independent Malaya that would also include Singapore.[1] Inaugurated on 21 December 1945, the MDU was the first local political party to emerge after the war in Singapore.[2]

The MDU was initiated in response to post-war constitutional developments, specifically the announcement in October 1945 of the Malayan Union scheme that proposed to merge the Malay states and the Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca into a single administrative unit.[3] The MDU agreed to accept the scheme on condition that Singapore was included as part of a future self-governing united Malaya within the British Commonwealth.[4] Believing that the combined efforts of all anti-colonial forces were necessary to achieve independence, the MDU sought to build a broad political front from the outset.[5]

The Malayan Union was officially formed on 1 April 1946.[6] However, intense Malay opposition prompted separate Anglo-Malay negotiations to replace the union with a federation.[7] Meanwhile, the MDU increasingly departed from its initial moderate stance after its proposals for constitutional reforms were met with official disregard or rejection from the government.[8] From December 1946, MDU became a leading member of the Pan-Malayan Council of Joint Action (PMCJA), which was a coalition of civic and political groups opposing the federation scheme.[9] The MDU proposed an alternative scheme, The People's Constitutional Proposals for Malaya, and organised a protest through hartal, or economic boycott, in October 1947 against the revised constitutional proposals by the government.[10] The MDU also boycotted the March 1948 Legislative Council election.[11]

Failure to block the implementation of the federation agreement in February 1948 led the MDU to re-evaluate its strategy.[12] However, the outbreak of communist insurrection, the declaration of the Emergency as well as a tightening of the political environment in Singapore resulted in the voluntary dissolution of the MDU on 24 June 1948.[13]