Angkatan Wanita Sedar

Last updated
Angkatan Wanita Sedar
Formation1946
Dissolved1948

Angkatan Wanita Sedar (AWAS; Conscious Women's Front) was the first nationalist women's organisation in Malaysia. It was established in 1946 as women's wing of the Malay Nationalist Party (Malay : Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya, PKMM). Aishah Ghani was the first president of AWAS. [1] The organisation was also led by Shamsiah Fakeh. At its peak, AWAS had a membership of 2000 women. The group organised, held discussions and hosted Indonesian women visitors. AWAS members, led by Sakinah Junid, [2] participated in a six-mile protest march against the British prohibition disallowing the use of motorised vehicles in processions. [3]

Anthropologist Wazir Jahan Karim attributes the impetus for the creation of AWAS to the core leaders of the organisation: Aishah Ghani, Sakinah Junid and Shamsiah Fakeh. [4]

On 22 February 1947, AWAS joined the People's Action Centre (PUTERA), a coalition of six left-wing political parties led by Ishak Haji Muhammad (Pak Sako). Following the defeat of Japan, the British Military Administration resumed control of Malaya and banned AWAS in 1948 together with several other political parties like PKMM and Hizbul Muslimin, accusing for having connection with Malayan Communist Party. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federation of Malaya</span> Federation of British territories from 1948–57; independent country from 1957–63

The Federation of Malaya was a federation of what previously had been British Malaya, comprising eleven states that existed from 1 February 1948 until 16 September 1963. The Federation became independent on 31 August 1957, and in 1963, Malaysia was formed when Malaya united with Singapore, North Borneo, and Sarawak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parti Rakyat Malaysia</span> A political party in Malaysia

The Malaysian People's Party is a political party in Malaysia. Founded on 11 November 1955 as Partai Ra'ayat, it is one of the older political parties in Malaysia and traces its pedigree to the anti-colonial movements from the pre World War II period like the Kesatuan Melayu Muda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malayan Communist Party</span> Far-left political party in Malaya

The Malayan Communist Party (MCP), officially the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), was a Marxist–Leninist and anti-imperialist communist party which was active in British Malaya and later, the modern states of Malaysia and Singapore from 1930 to 1989. It was responsible for the creation of both the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army and the Malayan National Liberation Army.

This article lists important figures and events in Malayan public affairs during the year 1948, together with births and deaths of significant Malayans. Malaya left the British colonial Malayan Union; the Federation of Malaya took place on 1 February.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All-Malaya Council of Joint Action</span> Political party in Malaysia

The All-Malaya Council of Joint Action (AMCJA) was a coalition of political and civic organisations in Malaya formed to participate in the development of a constitution for post-war Malaya in preparation for independence and to oppose the Constitutional Proposals for Malaya which eventually formed the basis of the Federation of Malaya Agreement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kesatuan Melayu Muda</span> 1938–1945 Malayan left-wing nationalist organisation

Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) was the first leftist and national political establishment in British Malaya. Founded by Ibrahim Yaacob and Ishak Haji Muhammad, KMM grew into a prominent pre-war nationalist movement, notable for its leftist political stance and willingness to use violence, a sharp break with their contemporaries in the Malay nationalist movement.

Ahmad Boestamam, or Abdullah Thani bin Raja Kechil, was a Malaysian freedom fighter, politician and was the founding president of Parti Rakyat Malaysia and Parti Marhaen Malaysia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shamsiah Fakeh</span> Malaysian politician

Shamsiah Fakeh was a Malaysian nationalist and feminist. She was the leader of Angkatan Wanita Sedar (AWAS), Malaysia's first nationalist women organisation and a prominent Malay leader of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM). She was the grandmother of Jamaliah Jamaluddin, Member of the Selangor State Executive Council (EXCO) and Member of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Bandar Utama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdullah CD</span> Malaysian politician (1923–2024)

Cik Dat bin Anjang Abdullah, commonly known as Abdullah CD, was a Malaysian politician who served as chairman and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM).

Aishah binti Ghani was a Malaysian politician who served as Minister of Social Welfare from 1973 to 1984 and Head of Wanita UMNO women's Malaysia from 1972 to 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sang Saka Malaya</span>

The Sang Saka Malaya, sometimes shortened from Sang Pusaka Malaya, is known as the flag of the Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya. It is also known as Bendera Rakyat. The flag features twelve stars arranged in three rows of four columns. It was introduced in 1947 by the combination of two political parties, Pusat Tenaga Ra'ayat (PUTERA) and the All-Malaya Council of Joint Action (AMCJA), as a proposal to the flag of an independent Federation of Malaya. According to a report by The Straits Times in 1947, The twelve stars represent the 12 states of the Malay Peninsula. It follows the concept of the American flag with 50 stars representing the 50 states that make up the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminism in Malaysia</span> Social movement in Malaysia

The feminist movement in Malaysia is a multicultural coalition of women's organisations committed to the end of gender-based discrimination, harassment and violence against women. Having first emerged as women's shelters in the mid 1980s, feminist women's organisations in Malaysia later developed alliances with other social justice movements. Today, the feminist movement in Malaysia is one of the most active actors in the country's civil society.

Khatijah Sidek (1918–1982) or Che Khadijah Mohd Sidik was a Malay nationalist and politician during colonial Malaya and the elected leader of the Kaum Ibu in 1954. She was a key figure in the early history of the United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) and a vocal campaigner of women's rights and the education of girls.

Puan Sri Datin Seri Panglima Sakinah Junid was the long-serving Dewan Muslimat's Chief of Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) for twenty years ranging from 1963–1983. She is the wife of Asri Muda, PAS leader.

Wahi Annuar was a Malayan communist. He took to the forests at the beginning of the Malayan emergency. He was a leader in the MRLA 10th Malay Regiment. He was the fourth husband of fellow Communist leader Shamsiah Fakeh. However, he surrendered to the British in February 1950 and Shamsiah believed him dead. He eventually died many years later in 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malaysians of Indonesian descent</span> Malaysian citizen of Indonesian descent

The Indonesian Malaysians are Malaysian citizens of Indonesian ancestry. Today, there are many Malaysian Malays who have lineage from the Indonesian archipelago and have played an important role in the history and contributed to the development of Malaysia, they have been assimilated with other Malay communities and are grouped as part of the foreign Malays or anak dagang in terms of race. The Malaysian census does not categorize ethnic groups from the Indonesian archipelago as a separate ethnic group, but rather as Malay or Bumiputera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya</span> Malay Nationalist Party

Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM), also known as the Malay Nationalist Party, was founded on 17 October 1945 in Ipoh, Perak. The party was the first Malay political party formed after the Japanese occupation of Malaya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hizbul Muslimin</span> Malaya political party

Muslim People's Party of Malaya is a defunct political party formed in British Malaya on 17 March 1948. Hizbul Muslimin was also the first Islamist political party of Malaya set-up to fight for the Federation of Malaya independence from the British colonisation.

Jamaliah Jamaluddin is a Malaysian politician who has served as Member of the Selangor State Executive Council (EXCO) in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) state administration under Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari since August 2023 and Member of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Bandar Utama since May 2018. She is a member of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a component party of the PH coalition and one of the only two female Selangor EXCO Members alongside Anfaal Saari.

Anarchism in Malaysia arose from the revolutionary activities of Chinese immigrants in British Malaya, who were the first to construct an organized anarchist movement in the country - reaching its peak during the 1920s. After a campaign of repression by the British authorities, anarchism was supplanted by Bolshevism as the leading revolutionary current, until the resurgence of the anarchist movement during the 1980s, as part of the Malaysian punk scene.

References

  1. Heng, Geraldine (1997). "A Great Way to Fly". Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures. New York: Routledge. pp. 36–37. ISBN   978-0-415-91212-9.
  2. 1 2 Mohamad, Maznah; Ng, Cecilia; Hui, tan beng (2013). Feminism and the Women's Movement in Malaysia: An Unsung (R)evolution. Routledge. pp. 17–18. ISBN   978-1-134-18883-3.
  3. Lai Suat Yan (2012). "The women's movement in peninsular Malaysia". Social Movement Malaysia. Routledge. p. 50. ISBN   978-1-136-00326-4.
  4. Wazir Jahan Karim. "Malay Women's Movements, Leadership and Processes of Change". Int. Soc. Science Journal. 35 (4): 719–731.