Summary of the Malayan Emergency book

“The Malayan Emergency Revisited 1948-1960s,
A Pictorial History”


FRONT COVER



BACK COVER

SUMMARY

This book tells in pictorial form the story of the Malayan Emergency (1948-60). It opens up in 1930 with the formation of Malayan Communist Party (MCP), which saw itself as part of the global struggle against the twin evils of capitalism and colonialism. The spread of communist ideology, however, was disrupted by the Second World War, during which the Japanese Imperial Army invaded British Malaya.

The MCP joined forces with the British Army to fight the Japanese occupiers by forming the Malayan People’s Anti Japanese Army (MPAJA), while the British provided weapons and equipment and trained MPAJA members.

When the war ended, the communist guerillas turned against their erstwhile British allies, now calling themselves the Malayan People’s Anti British Army (MPABA).

The communists were certainly the enemies of British Imperialism but anyone who did not subscribe to their ideology was treated as the enemy. The guerillas sabotaged the livelihood of the people. They took their revenge on local Malayans working directly or indirectly with the British. They called it ‘the war of the running dogs’.

The MCP, led by Chin Peng, used terror as weapon. Their objective was to turn the country into a communist state.

As the atrocities committed by the communists escalated, a State Emergency was declared in June 1948. Initially, the Chin Peng gained tactical advantage over a war-weary and unprepared foe, but the British government persevered and staged a vigorous comeback with a new and dynamic double-edged strategy and energetic leadership from the likes of Briggs and Templer, who had served with distinctions against the Japanese in the Second World War, and Tunku Abdul Rahman, who in time became Malaya’s first ever Prime Minister.

The first strategy was to implement civil countermeasures to protect the civilian population. The second was the concerted conduct of the military offensive action. At the heart of the civil countermeasures, was Templer’s ‘hearts and mind campaign. Military actions were carried out by Malayan military, police and para-military forces and the indigenous Orang Asli. Commonwealth forces from the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the African countries of Kenya, Nyasaland, Uganda and Rhodesia also participated in military operations.
The British Government granted independence to Malaya in 1957. Malayan’s independence had been made possible by those who died in the country’s struggle against communist terrorism. That history has relevance to all of us today. This book portrays the trials and tribulations that paved the way to independence, and the dark period in our early history when fear and terror tried to rule, but finally succumbed to democracy and peace.