Though hampered by the peninsula's division into the States and the Straits Settlements, relatively conservative Muslim intellectuals and community leaders came together at the Pan-Malayan Malay Congress in Kuala Lumpur in 1939.
Educated Muslims and community leaders were among those at the Pan-Malayan Malay Congress, despite the division of the peninsula into States and Straits Settlements.
The division of the peninsula led to the general population refusing to attend the Congress in Kuala Lumpur.