This article traces the early form of public information services during the colonial period to provide new insights into the historical development of Malaysia’s public relations. The first formal information agency created in 1910 was based in London to promote the early practices of public relations for British Malaya and its interests in Britain. British consolidation during the years of economic boom and depression, until the achievement of Malaysian Independence, was aided by the early information services. The article makes an alternative argument about the beginnings of Malaysian public relations based on colonial economic and political interest as against other previously held views

Introduction and literature review

A discussion about the beginning of public relations in any given country draws keen interest and debate. Tracing the origins and development of public relations can produce varying results and interpretations based on the premises of scholars. It can be equally challenging because of scarce sources and difficulty accessing materials (L’Etang, 2009). With regard to the beginnings of public relations in Malaysia, one interpretation claims that public relations in the country existed during the time of the old Sultanates as part of the administrative bureaucracy. Adnan (1985) narrated the presence of public relations-related activities under the controlled administration of the Melaka Sultanate in the 15th century, referring to the works of court officials. Another view was that public relations was an outcome of modern history, drawing its strength from the social and political national consciousness movement against the British colonialist (Nordin, 1986). Ahmad Nordin, one of the early public relations practitioners, approached the development of public relations in Malaysia as an organized agitation in 1945 at the end of World War II (Nordin, 1986). He claimed that the field embodied propaganda-related activities that were undertaken by the British administration and the Malaysian movement for nationhood. For Nordin, this movement for independence constituted the early forms of public relations. Idid (1980, 1995, 2004) associated the development of public relations in Malaysia with the growth of government bureaucracy, mass media and communication technologies claiming that organized public relations activities in Malaysia began with the establishment of the Department of Information of 1939 during the British administration as a World War II propaganda machinery. Many scholarly views of public relations development in Malaysia point to British influence (Idid, 1995; Nordin, 1986). The Institute of Public Relations Malaysia (IPRM), set up in 1962, was itself influenced by the practice and ideology of the British Institute of Public Relations established in 1948 (Idid, 2005). IPRM adopted the definition of public relations from the British group. The British Ministry of Information, formed for the Second World War, nurtured the Department of Information in Malaysia, first, through the creation of the Department of Information in 1939, and then later, through the Department of Information and Publicity in 1941 (Idid, 1995). British scholars (Anthony, 2012; L’Etang, 2009, 2013; Moloney, 2000) credited the Empire Marketing Board (EMB) to the beginnings of public relations in the British Commonwealth of Nations.