A Short History of British Presence and the Emergency in Malaya

Malaya spread over a territory that was slightly larger than England without Wales and was dominated by the jungle. British control over the region started in 1805 when the East India Company took over a trading post in Penang and continued with the acquisition of Singapore two decades later. By 1874 the whole area was under British control and, by the end of World War II, there were about 12,000 British in Malaya. British rule was based on treaties of friendship with the sultans of the nine Malay states,⁴⁹⁵ whereby each sultan remained a ruler in name only, being subtly directed by a British advisor. Administrative centralization followed and, thus, more direct British rule was instituted at the end of the 19th century, as the British administration slowly took over state functions that were not directed by treaties.

The British colonial administration suffered a blow when Singapore and subsequently the area of the Malay states fell to Japan in 1942. Resistance and preparation for the return of British rule was started by British officers remaining behind in the jungle. While additional officers were parachuted in the region later on, Britain desperately needed assistance and found that only the Malayan Chinese, who hated the Japanese, were ready to give it. The British accepted their offer even though they had no illusions that with training the Malay People’s Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) they were essentially teaching guerilla warfare to the cadres of the Malay Communist Party (MCP).

After Japanese capitulation the British returned to Malaya in September 1945 and started setting the country on the road toward independence. First, to create a more united and firmer administrative unit, while preserving the member ‘states’ as separate entities, colonial

495 Jahore, Kedah, Kelantan, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Selangor, Trenganu.

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administration was centralized. As a result, the nine Malay States and the directly ruled settlements of Penang and the Provinces Wellesley and Malacca were united in the Federation of Malaya in 1948 – only a few months before troubles began. The Federation of Malaya agreement included provisions for constitutional developments that while respecting the individuality of its constituting states/settlements, centralized the administration under the control of the high commissioner who was directly responsible to the Colonial Secretary in London and had reserved powers over internal security, defense, and foreign relations. In addition, a Federal Executive Council and a Federal Legislative Council were created whose membership was appointed by the colonial administration but with the intention that in the long run the Legislative Council would be made up of elected members.

As of 1948, Malaya was one of the most prosperous possessions of Britain. It was a dollar-earning colony with thriving tin and natural rubber industries. The country was made up of three races: the Malays, who constituted a slight majority of the 5,734,000 inhabitants.

There were about half a million Indians (or Tamils) most of whom came to Malaya to earn money so as to be able to buy their own land upon returning to India. Finally, there were 2.5 million Chinese. It was approximately 600,000 of the Chinese who saw very little of the economic prosperity. These squatters, who lived in huts on the frontier of the jungle on lands to which they had no title, formed a natural support base for the Communist cause, because of their economic plight, close location to the jungle and because the Communists, who were overwhelmingly of Chinese decent, could control them by inciting fear.

The Malayan Communist Party – a legal organization after 1945 – was initially too tame and without a policy to try and take over the country in the hiatus between the end of Japanese occupation and the return of the British administration. Moreover, in spite of sky-rocketing inflation, Communist control over the majority of welfare organizations and trade unions all legal attempts – i.e. strikes – to discredit the British and subvert Malaya so as to win

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independence on Communist rather than British terms failed both in 1946 and 1947.

Expecting the banning of the MCP by Britain, its leaders went into hiding before the party was banned and accepted a policy of terror in late May-early June of 1948. Consequently Malaya was to see Communist-inspired atrocities and a coordinated armed campaign against rubber estate managers in the first two weeks of June 1948. This forced the High Commissioner, Edward Gent, to first declare a state of emergency in parts of Perak and Jahore and extend it to the rest of Malaya two days later on June 18. On July 23, 1948 the British government banned the MCP and in August 1948 first decided to send additional Gurkha and British troops to Malaya.

The declaration of the emergency meant the beginning of a 12-year long military struggle in the jungle against the Communists and a political struggle for the hearts and minds of the people of Malaya that cost the British government £ 520 million.⁴⁹⁶ In the first three and a half years the war went badly for Britain. Troubles culminated in the assassination of British High Commissioner Sir Henry Gurney on October 6, 1951. This and a change of government in London at the end of October⁴⁹⁷ made Malaya more of a priority in Whitehall.

The speed of the war and the spending on it visibly increased despite the fact that the British economy was on the verge of bankruptcy. More attention to Malaya, the recognition of counter-insurgency tactics, a better execution of already existing political plans to win the Chinese squatters over, and the iron hand of General Templer – Gurney’s successor – led to a drop in terrorist incidents and casualties by the end of 1952. The situation steadily improved afterwards.

Although the British had promised independence to Malaya on the condition that first the war against the Communists had to be successfully finished, the date of independence was

496 PRO WO 106/5990 “Review of the emergency in Malaya from June 1948 to August 1957.”

497 Even though general elections in Britain took place on October 25, three weeks after the assassination of Gurney, it would be too farfetched to suggest that the latter had much – if any – effect on the outcome of the former.

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moved forward. Malaya had its first free and general elections on July 31, 1955 and independence was achieved on August 31, 1957. With independence the Malayan government took greater responsibility for the war – thus, British troops were gradually withdrawn. It took three more years to clean the country of Communists entirely. The state emergency was finally lifted on July 31, 1960.⁴⁹⁸