To organise responses, give each actor one row: who they were, what they did and what shows it. A row with no evidence is a claim, and a row with no actor is a rumour.
This lesson follows comparing reasons for acceptance and opposition. The wider evidence method is in using evidence in KBAT responses.
What does the grid look like?
Use three columns: actor, action and evidence. Keep one actor per row.
| Actor | Action | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| The Malay rulers | Signed the MacMichael agreements in 1945 | The agreements, cancelled by the State Agreements of 1948 1 |
| Malay leaders under Dato’ Onn Jaafar | Formed an organisation to resist the Malayan Union | The founding of UMNO on 11 May 1946 and its opposition to the Malayan Union 2 |
| AMCJA-PUTERA | Proposed an alternative constitution and protested against the Federation | The hartal of late 1947 4 |
Fill your own grid with the cases in your textbook, and add the actors it names.
Worked example: a paragraph from the grid
“The Malay rulers signed the MacMichael agreements in 1945 1. Malay leaders under Dato’ Onn Jaafar then declared UMNO in May 1946 and united Malay opposition to the Malayan Union 2. Later, the AMCJA-PUTERA coalition proposed an alternative constitution and held a hartal in late 1947 4.”
Each sentence follows the same order: actor, action, then evidence. The repeated pattern makes the paragraph easy to mark.
Why evidence must match the action
An answer is weak when the evidence does not fit the claim. The formation of UMNO shows that Malay leaders organised, but it does not show what the AMCJA-PUTERA coalition did.
| Claim | Evidence that fits | Evidence that does not |
|---|---|---|
| AMCJA-PUTERA protested | The hartal of late 1947 | The founding of UMNO |
| Malay leaders organised resistance | The formation of UMNO | The 1945 treaties |
Choose evidence that belongs to the actor and the action.
The mistake that costs marks
The common slip is to group everyone as “the people” and write one sentence for all. The actors had different interests, and a single sentence hides that.
A second slip is to use evidence from another actor to support a point. Check the owner of each piece of evidence before you write.
Check yourself
A committee of representatives of the British government, the Malay Rulers and UMNO was formed to study a replacement for the Malayan Union 5. Fill a row for the Malay rulers’ side in that process.
Answer
Actor: the Malay rulers and their representatives. Action: took part in the committee that studied a replacement for the Malayan Union. Evidence: the agreement itself, signed on 21 January 1948 3.
The row names one actor, one action and evidence that belongs to that actor.
What to study next
Move on to answering comparison questions without anachronism. Then try the practice set.
The evidence-to-explanation planner uses the same three columns. For teacher support, see online one-to-one Sejarah tuition.