One Country, One People: The Life and Legacy of Tun Tan Cheng Lock examines the personal and political life of the founding president of the Malaysian Chinese Association and co-founder of independent Malaya. Championing Chinese political, economic, educational, and cultural rights, Cheng Lock successfully drew upon his business and social networks in Malaya to pursue his political objectives. He worked with diverse political allies, ranging from British colonial officials, establishment leaders like Dato’ Onn bin Jaafar and Tunku Abdul Rahman as well as left-leaning Malay nationalists Ahmad Boestaman and Burhanuddin al-Helmy. His historic quest included inculcating a Malayan consciousness and attainment of jus soli citizenship for non-Malays to forge an independent Malayan nation-state. This biography investigates how Cheng Lock navigated the complex politics of colonialism and negotiated the inter-ethnic dynamics of Malayan nationalism from the 1920s until 1957 when Malaya gained its independence.
About the Editor
Heng Pek Koon is Assistant Professor Emerita at American University’s School of International Service, Washington, DC, USA. She has previously taught at Auckland University in New Zealand, Hull University in England, the National University of Malaysia, and Temple University Japan. She was also a Visiting Professor at Peking University, and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, and the Institute of Security and International Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.
A grand-daughter of Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Datin Paduka Tan Siok Choo is a lawyer by training, a newspaper columnist by inclination and successively, a head hunter, an investment analyst in stockbroking, a corporate finance manager, an analyst at a think tank, Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia. Currently, she is chairperson of United Malacca Berhad, a plantation company founded by Tun Tan Cheng Lock on 27 April 1910.
