119-633: Ferret Force was a counter-insurgency unit formed by the British and Malayan authorities as part of their response to the communist insurgency during the Malayan Emergency . The unit only existed for six months, but was to help establish doctrine for British operations in the jungle. During World War II, the Special Operations Executive (or SOE) formed teams composed of British operatives and Malayan guerillas to combat
238-607: A second guerrilla campaign between 1968 and 1989 against the now independent Malaysian government . This campaign did not succeed, and ended with a final peace agreement in 1989 , which dissolved the CPM permanently. He was however not permitted to return, and Chin died in exile in Bangkok , Thailand in 2013; he was 88. Chin is considered one of the most controversial political figures in Malayan history. His detractors condemned him and
357-574: A Chinese language school in Sitiawan. In 1937 he joined the Chinese Anti Enemy Backing Up Society (AEBUS), formed that year to send aid to China in response to Japan's aggression. According to Chin and Hack, he was not a communist then. He was in charge of anti-Japanese activities at his school, and was reportedly a supporter of Sun Yat-sen . By early 1939, Chin had embraced communism. He planned to go to Yan'an ,
476-470: A Sinologist who as early as 1954 claimed that Templer merely continued policies begun by his predecessors. At all levels of the Malayan government (national, state, and district levels), the military and civil authority was assumed by a committee of military, police and civilian administration officials. This allowed intelligence from all sources to be rapidly evaluated and disseminated and also allowed all anti-guerrilla measures to be co-ordinated. Each of
595-480: A broadcast on 2 April. By late 1958, the MNLA had lost almost 88% of its men, declining from an approximately 3,000-strong army when they first rebelled in mid-1948 to no more than 350 men, as a result of casualties and surrenders. In 1959, the central committees of CPM decided to demobilise their activities and to have the guerrillas reintegrate into society while continuing to promote their communist ideals until such
714-402: A dual threat: the MNLA guerrillas and the silent network in villages who supported them. British troops often described the terror of jungle patrols. In addition to watching out for MNLA guerrillas, they had to navigate difficult terrain and avoid dangerous animals and insects. Many patrols would stay in the jungle for days, even weeks, without encountering the MNLA guerrillas. That strategy led to
833-656: A government which would be subservient to Britain and allow British businesses to keep control of Malaya's natural resources. The first shots of the Malayan Emergency were fired during the Sungai Siput incident , on June 17, 1948, in the office of the Elphil Estate near the town of Sungai Siput . Three European plantation managers were killed by three young Chinese men suspected to have been communists. The deaths of these European plantation managers
952-463: A large operation which were the type preferred by the British Army officers in theatre at the time. The Ferret Force teams were attached to British regular units, including 1 Devons , 1 Seaforths , 1 Inniskillings , 1/2 Gurkhas , and 1/10 Gurkhas . In the course of the large scale sweep, 12 camps were destroyed, 27 guerrillas were killed, and large amounts of matériel were seized. In contrast,
1071-640: A little more than a year later, British forces were to attempt a similar operation, but without the benefit of Ferret Force teams. The result was 1 kill, no caches discovered, and no surrenders of any MCP guerrillas. Although the Ferret Force groups were successful against the MCP guerrillas, their greatest enemy was the British high command. There was much debate among the commanders favouring large unit actions to sweep and clear areas and those who preferred small unit tactics focusing on specific targets or persuading
1190-999: A member of the Perak State Committee. Chin Peng rose to prominence during World War II when many Chinese Malayans took to the jungle to fight a guerrilla war against the Japanese. These fighters, inspired by the example of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), became known as the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA). Chin Peng became the liaison officer between the MPAJA and the British military in Southeast Asia . The Japanese invasion of Malaya began in December 1941. In 1942 Chin
1309-622: A reformation of Malaya's political system, expanding democratic rights, support for world peace, and attention to other matters including education, health, welfare, and industrial production. On 28 and 29 December 1955, the negotiations reached their peak at the small northern town of Baling in Kedah. Representatives from the Government were Tunku Abdul Rahman , David Marshall , the Chief Minister of Singapore , and Sir Tan Cheng Lock ,
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#17327901686261428-589: A rivalry among three factions in the CPM over party purges and strategies, with each faction trying to outdo the other in militancy and violence. However, in 1980, Deng Xiaoping refocused his priorities back on the Chinese bureaucracy after his return to power in 1978. He welcomed Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew and its leading political figure since independence from Malaysia, in a visit to Beijing. Chin recalled that Deng had not bothered to meet him since then. Finally, in December 1980, Deng summoned Chin. In
1547-502: A secret as the CCP did not wish to let it be known that they had been actively supporting Southeast Asia's communist movements. Chin reluctantly accepted Deng's suggestion. This was also the first time that the CPM had accepted foreign assistance in its struggle and it was with this financial backing that the second armed struggle in Malaya would be launched in 1968. Meanwhile, back in Malaya,
1666-515: A series of strategies were introduced by the Director of Operations for the anti-communist war in Malaya, Lieutenant General Sir Harold Briggs , that later became known as the Briggs Plan . The plan, which aimed to defeat the guerrillas by cutting off their sources of civilian support, was a success. The creation of ' new villages ' under this plan restricted intelligence and food supplies for
1785-462: A standing committee member for Perak. In December he attained full party membership. In early 1941 AEBUS was dissolved. Chin Peng became Ipoh District committee member of the party. "He led student underground cells of three Chinese secondary schools and the Party's organisations of the shop assistants, domestic servants of European families, workers at brick kilns and barbers." In June 1941 he became
1904-580: A strong militant line to be taken by Asian communist parties. While in Beijing, Chin Peng was also advised by Deng Xiaoping , to continue the armed struggle in Malaya as Deng felt the time was ripe for revolutions to take place in Southeast Asia. Deng insisted that the military struggle should not only be maintained but stepped up. Deng even promised financial support to the CPM if they should take up arms once again. Deng offered for this to remain
2023-642: A time when they could once again rise up in revolt. Chin then moved to south Thailand with the remnants of his forces during the latter part of the Emergency due to pressure from the Malayan security forces, which by 1952 totalled over 32,000 regular troops in Malaya, about three-fifths of whom were Europeans from the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. In 1961, members of the CPM central committee such as Chin Peng, Chen Tien , and Lee An Tung moved to Beijing to seek political advice and guidance from
2142-465: A top CPM leader who had been sent to Beijing in late 1952 to deepen his Marxist–Leninist education while also serving as liaison to the CCP, announced a new direction for the party, which was to abandon the establishment of the People's Democratic Republic of Malaya and join with other Malayan political parties in a legal fight for Malayan independence. Chin described Siao as the CPM's 'insurance policy' in
2261-452: A war against the British colonialists, was now transformed into a war against 'federalists, compressors capitalists and lackeys of British imperialism'. The Malayan government maintained a high-security alert by devoting one-third of its national budget to defence and internal security needs and requested British, Australian and New Zealand troops to remain in the country until its internal security and national armed forces could be built up and
2380-641: Is illustrated in the following extract from a War Office memo regarding Lieut. Q.M. Charles Gill of the Green Howards . He was "appointed as QM Force Ferret immediately following his arrival in Malaya from the United Kingdom. It was essential that this mixed force of civilian and military personnel, comprising five different nationalities, should be equipped and in the field in the shortest possible time. Although Lt Gill took over his duties on 12 July 1948 over 200 men, fully equipped and armed for jungle operations, had been deployed in their theatre of operations by
2499-515: Is the Batang Kali massacre , which the press has referred to as "Britain's My Lai ". The Briggs Plan forcibly relocated between 400,000 and 1,000,000 civilians into concentration camps called " new villages ". Many Orang Asli indigenous communities were also targeted for internment because the British believed that they were supporting the communists. The widespread use of decapitations on people suspected to have been guerrillas, led to
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#17327901686262618-545: The Briggs Plan , was appointed to Malaya. The central tenet of the Briggs Plan was to segregate MNLA guerrillas from their supporters among the population. A major component of the Briggs Plan involved targeting the MNLA's food supplies, which were supplied from three main sources: food grown by the MNLA in the jungle, food supplied by the Orang Asli aboriginal people living in the deep jungle, and MNLA supporters within
2737-607: The Federation of Malaya plan replaced the Malayan Union plan, frustrating the CPM as they felt the plan was undemocratic and biased towards the Malay elites. They accused the British of forcing idea of federation on people by portraying it as a constitutional solution to Malaya's crisis. According to Chin, the central committee still adhered to Lai Teck's peace struggle strategy in facing the federation, as they thought that
2856-527: The Kuala Langat swamp is described in The Guerrilla – and how to Fight Him ): On 7 July, two additional companies were assigned to the area; patrolling and harassing fires were intensified. Three terrorists surrendered and one of them led a platoon patrol to the terrorist leader's camp. The patrol attacked the camp, killing four, including the leader. Other patrols accounted for four more; by
2975-401: The Malayan Peoples' Liberation Army and the MCP. Between 1945 and 1948, tensions between the British and the MCP rose. As the British tried to repair the Malayan economy, the MCP, organized protests against labor conditions in the country. The protests became more effective, so the British responded with harsher measures. This in turn caused the protesters to become more militant, culminating in
3094-552: The Methodist -run Anglo-Chinese Continuation School , which operated in English, because it provided a good cover for his underground activities. He did not want to have to move to Singapore to continue with his education in Chinese. He left the school "for fear of British harassment" after just 6 months. He was now focused fully on his political activities and became, from that point on, a full-time revolutionary. In January 1940 he
3213-722: The National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2004, using purposes of academic research as his reason to gain visitation permission from the Singaporean government. At the beginning of 2000, he applied for permission to return to Malaysia . His application was rejected by the high court on 25 July 2005. In June 2008, Chin again lost his bid to return to Malaysia when the Court of Appeal upheld an earlier ruling that compelled him to show identification papers to prove his citizenship. Chin maintained that his birth certificate
3332-687: The Second World War , Chin fought as an anti-colonialist guerrilla in the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) against the Japanese occupation of Malaya , allying with Force 136 , a British-funded covert resistance movement in Asia. He was subsequently awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE). As the most senior surviving member of the CPM to emerge from the war, he founded
3451-416: The 'squatter' communities on the jungle fringes. The Briggs Plan also included the forced relocation of some 500,000 rural Malayans, including 400,000 Chinese civilians, into internment camps called " new villages ". These internment camps were surrounded by barbed wire, police posts, and floodlit areas, all designed to stop the inmates from contacting and supplying MNLA guerrillas in the jungles, segregating
3570-586: The 1952 British Malayan headhunting scandal . Similar scandals relating to atrocities committed by British forces included the public display of corpses. Although the emergency was declared over in 1960, communist leader Chin Peng renewed the insurgency against the Malaysian government in 1968. This second phase of the insurgency lasted until 1989. The economic disruption of World War II (WWII) on British Malaya led to widespread unemployment, low wages, and high levels of food price inflation. The weak economy
3689-469: The Baling Talks was a great blow for the CPM, since they now lost hope both of ending the war and of propagating their ideology. Due to the mounting combat casualties and the insecurity of food supplies, the members began surrendering to the government in exchange for monetary rewards and pardons. In 1956, Chin wrote to Tunku Abdul Rahman offering to resume negotiations. This was rejected by Rahman in
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3808-583: The Baling Talks, if the British, Tunku Abdul Rahman and David Marshall had not demanded that the communist fighters capitulate and surrender but, rather, had allowed them to hand over or destroy their weapons in a mutually agreed way and then resume normal life with full political freedom, which was the broad outcome of the 1989 accords. Chin was not permitted to return to Malaysia after the 1989 Hat Yai Peace Accords and continued his exile in Thailand. He did visit neighbouring Singapore , where he gave lectures at
3927-602: The British Empire by targeting the colonial resource extraction industries, namely the tin mines and rubber plantations which were the main sources of income for the British occupation of Malaya. The MNLA attacked these industries in the hopes of bankrupting the British and winning independence by making the colonial administration too expensive to maintain. The Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) employed guerrilla tactics, attacking military and police outposts, sabotaging rubber plantations and tin mines, while also destroying transport and communication infrastructure. Support for
4046-610: The British colonial occupation banned the PMFTU, Malaya's largest trade union. Malaya's rubber and tin resources were used by the British to pay war debts to the United States and to recover from the damage of WWII. Malaysian rubber exports to the United States were of greater value than all domestic exports from Britain to America, causing Malaya to be viewed by the British as a vital asset. Britain had prepared for Malaya to become an independent state, but only by handing power to
4165-516: The British government to grant it authority over internal security and defence. Tunku Abdul Rahman accepted it as a challenge and promised that he would push for it on his upcoming trip to London. Great publicity was given in the media to this dramatic challenge from Chin Peng. The challenge, indeed, served to strengthen the Alliance government's bargaining position at the London talks. Anxious to end
4284-532: The British government), a mention in despatches and two campaign medals by Britain. He was elected the Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Malaya after the previous leader Lai Tek , had turned out to be an agent for both the British and the Japanese and had denounced the leadership of the party to the Japanese secret police . Chin Peng was the most senior surviving member. In 1948,
4403-457: The British military's widespread destruction of farmland and burning of homes belonging to villagers rumoured to be helping communists, led to a sharp increase in civilians joining the MNLA and communist movement. However, these tactics also prevented the communists from establishing liberated areas (the MCPs first, and foremost objective), successfully broke up larger guerrilla formations, and shifted
4522-421: The British stay-behind troops but had no illusions about their failure to protect Malaya against the Japanese. In the course of this activity, he came into contact with Freddie Spencer Chapman , who called him a 'true friend' in his Malayan jungle memoir, The Jungle Is Neutral . In recognition of his service during the war, Chin was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) (though it was later withdrawn by
4641-507: The British that the communists were escalating the conflict in retaliation for outlawing the trade unions, while in the CPM's eyes these murders were just purely acts of intimidation. Chin again claimed that he was not aware of the murders at the time, although he approved of the later killing of the plantation managers who he claimed were harsh and cruel towards farmworkers. On 16 June 1948, three European plantation managers were murdered in Sungai Siput , which has generally been identified as
4760-600: The CPM as defensive, while right-wing opponents tend to portray it as aggressive and unethical. Some have claimed a large number of civilian casualties was in contrast to the stance adopted by Mao Zedong and his policy of the Eight Points of Attention. On 2 December 1989, at the town of Hat Yai in Southern Thailand, Chin, Rashid Maidin , and Abdullah CD met with representatives of the Malaysian and Thai governments. Separate peace agreements were signed between
4879-401: The CPM fully surrender as the only way to peace, but promised that those who surrendered would undergo a period of rehabilitation before being allowed to become free citizens again. Chin again argued freedom of thought and choice must be recognised by the Malayan government if the new nation was to survive past its independence, as the people should have the right to decide which political path
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4998-630: The CPM had clandestine support from either the CCP or the Soviet Union had, over time, hardened into certainty. Records disclosed after the Cold War ended disproved the claim, revealing that the CPM had not sought external support and that no agents from either China or the Soviet Union had even made contact with them. The only ‘support’ Chin recalled obtaining was the encouraging news that Mao's guerrillas had defeated Chiang Kai-shek's well-equipped and numerically superior KMT army in 1949. In 1950,
5117-419: The CPM, and thus had a devastating effect on the guerrillas. Chin was aware of this as he nearly starved several times during those twelve years. After several reviews and amendments, the CPM ordered the guerrillas to cease sabotage and terror operations and to develop closer ties with the middle-class to preserve their organizational strength. Chin would later admit in an interview in 1999 that this directive
5236-406: The CPM. The fourth prime minister Mahathir Mohamad further succeeded in persuading China to downgrade its ties with the CPM. This was an important factor that contributed to the CPM's decision to end its armed struggle. The CPM finally laid down its arms in 1989. The death toll during the armed conflict totalled thousands. Those sympathetic to Chin Peng tend to portray the violence perpetrated by
5355-515: The Chinese community. The communists' belief in class consciousness , and both ethnic and gender equality, inspired many women and indigenous people to join both the MNLA and its undercover supply network the Min Yuen . Additionally, hundreds of former Japanese soldiers joined the MNLA. After establishing a series of jungle bases the MNLA began raiding British colonial police and military installations. Mines, plantations, and trains were attacked by
5474-555: The Commander-in-Chief, British forces in the Far East, General Sir Neil Ritchie ; Ferret Force was disbanded in December 1948. Although Ferret Force existed for little more than six months, it had a large effect on British operations in Malaya. Despite General Ritchie being uncomfortable with the concept, he did grasp that the unit's ability to operate in the jungle was important, and the knowledge needed to be shared with
5593-534: The Emergency and the mass arrests of its members, the CPM issued a call to its members to revive its disbanded wartime resistance army, the MPAJA, to take up arms again and escape to the jungles. Since late May and early June the communists had been secretly setting up platoons in several states in preparation for an expected British crackdown in September. The sudden declaration of the Emergency in June, however, forced
5712-503: The Emergency, the British government agreed to concede those powers of internal security and defence and to accede to the demand for independence for Malaya by 31 August 1957, if possible. Chin claimed it was his challenge to Tunku Abdul Rahman that hastened the independence of Malaya. Tunku Abdul Rahman had acknowledged the importance of the Baling talks, writing in 1974 that "Baling had led straight to Merdeka (Independence)." Regardless,
5831-564: The Japanese. Initially, SOE operations in the Far East were under the control of a unit known as GS I(k). This designation was changed in 1944 to Force 136 . Initially, resistance to the Japanese forces which conquered Malaya were organized by the Communist-formed Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army or MPAJA. The MPAJA, and the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) in general, drew its support from
5950-563: The MCP and both governments. One of the terms of the agreement was that MCP members of Malayan origin be allowed to return to live in Malaysia. When all hostilities ceased, the total number of CPM members was 1,188; 694 were Thai-born and 494 claimed origins in Peninsular Malaysia. They were given a temporary grant and promised integration into Malaysia. In Chin's opinion, peace could have been achieved as early as 1955 during
6069-582: The MCP to hasten its plan, and they appealed to comrades and volunteers to join them in the struggle. The new guerrilla army, now known as the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA), spent the first year of the Emergency reconsolidating and rearming. At that time, the CPM was in chaos. Its members were dispersed in the jungle and operated without any command structure or central leadership. According to Chin, attacks were being carried out without his approval or knowledge and there
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#17327901686266188-582: The MNLA and engaged in a guerrilla war known as the Malayan Emergency against the British Empire and Commonwealth forces between 1948 and 1960, in a failed attempt to establish an independent Marxist–Leninist state in Malaya. His actions led to the revocation of his OBE. After the British–led independence of Malaya and the defeat of the CPM, Chin went into exile in China , then Thailand , and waged
6307-460: The MNLA for committing numerous atrocities during the Emergency, and characterised him as an ideological fanatic and terrorist . However, he was also credited for contributing towards the Malayan independence process, and was seen as a prominent rebel leader and anti-imperialist against colonialism in Malaya. He was the last surviving postwar revolutionary leader to have successfully fought for independence from colonialism in Asia. Chin Peng
6426-560: The MNLA mainly came from the 3.12 million ethnic Chinese living in Malaya, many of whom were farmers living on the edges of the Malayan jungles and had been politically influenced by both the Chinese Communist Revolution and the resistance against Japan during WWII. Their support allowed the MNLA to supply themselves with food, medicine, information, and provided a source of new recruits. The ethnic Malay population supported them in smaller numbers. The MNLA gained
6545-475: The MNLA with the goal of gaining independence for Malaya by bankrupting the British occupation. The British attempted to starve the MNLA using scorched earth policies through food rationing, killing livestock, and aerial spraying of the herbicide Agent Orange . The British engaged in extrajudicial killings of unarmed villagers, in violation of the Geneva Conventions . The most infamous example
6664-553: The MNLA's plan of securing territory, to one of widespread sabotage. Commonwealth forces struggled to fight guerrillas who moved freely in the jungle and enjoyed support from rural Chinese populations. British planters and miners, who bore the brunt of the communist attacks, began to talk about government incompetence and being betrayed by Whitehall. The initial government strategy was primarily to guard important economic targets, such as mines and plantation estates. In April 1950, General Sir Harold Briggs , most famous for implementing
6783-627: The Malay states had a State War Executive Committee which included the State Chief Minister as chairman, the Chief Police Officer, the senior military commander, state home guard officer, state financial officer, state information officer, executive secretary, and up to six selected community leaders. The Police, Military, and Home Guard representatives and the Secretary formed the operations sub-committee responsible for
6902-468: The Malayan government had declared the Emergency over on 31 July 1960 once they became confident the MNLA had ceased to be a credible threat, with the surviving guerrillas retreating to their sanctuary in southern Thailand. However, the insurgency continued with the insurgents increasing their attacks, ambushing military convoys, bombing national monuments, and assassinations of marked police officers and political 'enemy targets'. The insurgency, which began as
7021-533: The Pacific fought on the side of the British backed Federation of Malaya during the Malayan Emergency. These forces included troops from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Kenya, Nyasaland , Northern and Southern Rhodesia . Chin Peng Chin Peng (21 October 1924 – 16 September 2013), born Ong Boon Hua , OBE was a Malayan communist politician, guerrilla leader, and revolutionary, who
7140-595: The Royal Malayan Regiment or some other British or Gurkha regiment, a detachment from the Royal Signals , Dyak or Iban trackers and a Chinese liaison officer. At its height, Ferret Force would grow to 16 operational sections. Ferret Force became operational in July 1948. Operating in the jungle, the teams would typically rely on Dayak trackers to find communist camps. Once the camps were located,
7259-679: The Southeast Asian Youth Conference held in Calcutta on 19 February 1948 which eventually caused the CPM's insurrection. Chin denied it, stating that the conference argued against such a move. Lance Sharkey , party secretary of the Australian Communist Party , informed Chin and the central committee of the conference's decision while stopping over in Singapore on his way home. In March 1948,
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#17327901686267378-406: The aforementioned herbicides, were sprayed along a number of key roads. From June to October 1952, 510 hectares (1,250 acres) of roadside vegetation at possible ambush points were sprayed with defoliant, described as a policy of "national importance". The experts advised that the use of herbicides and defoliants for clearing the roadside could be effectively replaced by removing vegetation by hand and
7497-402: The armed struggle in Malaya as untenable. On 24 September 1955, Chin wrote to Tunku Abdul Rahman offering to negotiate peace. On 17 October, talks between two government representatives and Chin Peng and another central committee of the CPM were held at Klian Intan. A new 'Eight Point Program' was introduced by the CPM which called for an end to the Emergency and a cessation of hostilities,
7616-589: The beginning of organized violence with the assassination of three European plantation managers at Sungai Siput, Perak. When the Emergency was declared in June 1948, the British were short of units with which to take on the Communists, especially units which were trained to fight in the jungle sanctuaries which the MCP and MNLA had established. As part of the solution, small counter-insurgency units to deal with jungle-based communist insurgency were formed. One of
7735-612: The camps, the soldiers attended lectures on Marxism–Leninism , and produced political newsletters to be distributed to civilians. In the early stages of the conflict, the guerrillas envisaged establishing control in "liberated areas" from which the government forces had been driven, but did not succeed in this. During the first two years of the Emergency, British forces conducted a 'counter-terror,' characterised by high levels of state coercion against civilian populations; including sweeps, cordons, large-scale deportation, and capital charges against suspected guerrillas. Police corruption and
7854-408: The central committees were discussing new policies as the labour strikes were not bringing the results that they hoped for. Chin Peng estimated it would be a year or two before the British took actions against the CPM, leaving them ample time to prepare for a guerrilla war. On 12 June 1948, the colonial government outlawed the burgeoning trade union federations amid rising tensions. Since then, there
7973-528: The communists from their civilian supporters. In 1948 the British had 13 infantry battalions in Malaya, including seven partly formed Gurkha battalions, three British battalions, two battalions of the Royal Malay Regiment and a Royal Artillery Regiment being used as infantry. The Permanent Secretary of Defence for Malaya , Sir Robert Grainger Ker Thompson , had served in the Chindits in Burma during World War II. Thompson's in-depth experience of jungle warfare proved invaluable during this period as he
8092-419: The communists to come over to the British side. Additionally, there was concern about the allegiance of some members of Ferret Force by the regular establishment of the British Army. Some of the Ferret Force members, because of their World War II work with Force 136, had ties with the MPAJA, the forerunner of their current enemy, and specifically with Chin Peng . In the end, Ferret Force was too unconventional for
8211-520: The conflict suffered from serious exposure to dioxin and Trioxone. An estimated 10,000 civilians and guerrilla in Malaya also suffered from the effects of the defoliant, but many historians think that the number is much larger since Trioxone was used on a large scale in the Malayan conflict and, unlike the US, the British government limited information about its use to avoid negative global public opinion. The prolonged absence of vegetation caused by defoliation also resulted in major soil erosion . Following
8330-458: The conflict when de Havilland Vampires replaced Spitfires of No. 60 Squadron RAF in 1950 and were used for ground attack. Jet bombers came with the English Electric Canberra in 1955 The Casualty Evacuation Flight was formed in early 1953 to bring the wounded out of the jungles; it used early helicopters such as the Westland Dragonfly , landing in small clearings The RAF progressed to using Westland Whirlwind helicopters to deploy troops in
8449-414: The day-to-day direction of emergency operations. The operations subcommittees as a whole made joint decisions. During the Malayan Emergency, Britain became the first nation in history to make use of herbicides and defoliants as a military weapon. It was used to destroy bushes, food crops, and trees to deprive the guerrillas of both food and cover, playing a role in Britain's food denial campaign during
8568-452: The early 1950s. A variety of herbicides were used to clear lines of communication and destroy food crops as part of this strategy. One of the herbicides, was a 50:50 mixture of butyl esters of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D with the brand name brand name Trioxone. This mixture was virtually identical to the later Agent Orange, though Trioxone likely had a heavier contamination of the health-damaging dioxin impurity. In 1952, Trioxone and mixtures of
8687-413: The emergency was one step nearer. MNLA guerrillas had numerous advantages over Commonwealth forces since they lived in closer proximity to villagers, they sometimes had relatives or close friends in the village, and they were not afraid to threaten violence or torture and murder village leaders as an example to the others, which forced them to assist them with food and information. British forces thus faced
8806-399: The end of July, twenty-three terrorists remained in the swamp with no food or communications with the outside world. This was the nature of operations: 60,000 artillery shells, 30,000 rounds of mortar ammunition, and 2,000 aircraft bombs for 35 terrorists killed or captured. Each one represented 1,500 man-days of patrolling or waiting in ambushes. "Nassau" was considered a success for the end of
8925-466: The end of that month. Later the force increased to over 600 all ranks. Lt QM C. Gill was awarded the MBE . Other members of Ferret Force would form the nucleus of A Squadron, Malayan Scouts in 1950 under Lieutenant Colonel Michael Calvert . The unit was part of the British realization that it needed a long range patrol unit to fight the guerrillas on its own terms, as part of the larger Briggs plan of protecting
9044-645: The end of the Emergency, US Secretary of State Dean Rusk advised US President John F. Kennedy that the precedent of using herbicide in warfare had been established by the British through their use of aircraft to spray herbicide and thus destroy enemy crops and thin the thick jungle of northern Malaya. The British Army soon realised that clumsy sweeps by large formations were unproductive. Instead, platoons or sections carried out patrols and laid ambushes, based on intelligence from various sources, including informers, surrendered MNLA personnel, aerial reconnaissance and so on. An operation named "Nassau", carried out in
9163-520: The ethnic Chinese population living in Malaya. With British support for guerrilla operations in the Far East beginning in earnest, they were eventually able to support Lim Bo Seng 's partisans in resisting the Japanese. At the end of the war Force 136, like SOE in general, was disbanded. However, the MPAJA and the MCP did not disband. Instead, after a series of purges, they reemerged as the Malayan Peoples' Anti-British Army (MPABA), later renamed
9282-433: The event the central committee was eliminated. Although this was not their decision, Chin and the other central committees decided to join the other Malayan parties, reasoning that the Malay politicians had achieved more for the independence movement within the last few years than the MNLA had since 1948. The Beijing announcement also revealed to the CPM that both the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China had viewed
9401-498: The foreign troops gradually phased out. In 1970, the CPM's guerrilla bases in Thailand were hard hit by the trials and executions of suspected spies. Two breakaway factions were formed which condemned the purge. Chin, who was then based in China, denied involvement and later rehabilitated his accused comrades. During the 1970s and 1980s, the CPM intensified its activities and clashes with the security forces. These activities were due to
9520-698: The guerrillas, who were often forced to retreat deeper into the jungles and disperse into smaller units due to difficulties in resupplying and the risk of larger units being detected and annihilated by British patrols. Furthermore, the CPM was losing civilian support, and lacking material assistance and intelligence, the party suffered. Chin admitted they had wrongly assumed that the people would be willing support his men, as they had done during World War II. When that failed to happen, they resorted to force to satisfy their needs. The CPM and MNLA also suffered under British propaganda, which labelled them "bandits" and "communist terrorists". Old suspicions and assumptions that
9639-432: The inaccessible tropical jungle and had limited infrastructure. Almost 90% of MNLA guerrillas were ethnic Chinese, though there were some Malays, Indonesians and Indians among its members. The MNLA was organised into regiments, although these had no fixed establishments and each included all communist forces operating in a particular region. The regiments had political sections, commissars , instructors and secret service. In
9758-419: The incident rate fell from 500 to less than 100 per month and the civilian and security force casualties from 200 to less than 40." Orthodox historiography suggests that Templer changed the situation in the Emergency and his actions and policies were a major part of British success during his period in command. Revisionist historians have challenged this view and frequently support the ideas of Victor Purcell ,
9877-432: The incident which caused the Malayan colonial administration to declare a state of emergency. Rather, Sze-Chieh Ng argued these murders were merely the final catalyst for a long-brewing crisis that had been going on since the trade unions began agitating in 1945. Historian Anthony Short feels that this was more of a panic reaction than a carefully considered move. According to him, the government had been powerless to deal with
9996-401: The infamous Batang Kali massacre in which 24 unarmed villagers were executed by British troops. Royal Air Force activities, grouped under "Operation Firedog" included ground attacks in support of troops and the transport of supplies. The RAF used a wide mixture of aircraft to attack MNLA positions: from the new Avro Lincoln heavy bomber to Short Sunderland flying boats. Jets were used in
10115-589: The jungle. The MNLA was vastly outnumbered by the British forces and their Commonwealth and colonial allies in terms of regular full-time soldiers. Siding with the British occupation were a maximum of 40,000 British and other Commonwealth troops, 250,000 Home Guard members, and 66,000 police agents. Supporting the communists were 7,000+ communist guerrillas (1951 peak), an estimated 1,000,000 sympathisers, and an unknown number of civilian Min Yuen supporters and Orang Asli sympathisers. Commonwealth forces from Africa and
10234-506: The killing of left-wing activists. Leader of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) Chin Peng and his allies fled into the jungles and formed the MNLA to wage a war for national liberation against British colonial rule. Many MNLA fighters were veterans of the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), a communist guerrilla army previously trained, armed and funded by the British to fight against Japan during World War II . The communists gained support from many civilians, mainly those from
10353-587: The leader of the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA). The CPM was represented by Chin Peng, Chen Tian, and Abdul Rashid bin Maidin. The first day of the talks did not go well, as Chin wanted the CPM to be recognised as a legal party again, or for the leaders and members of the MNLA to at least be allowed to regain their freedom of movement and not face any legal persecution or imprisonment. Tunku Abdul Rahman rejected this request and demanded that
10472-522: The meeting, Deng demanded Chin to immediately close down all the CPM's radio stations which were broadcasting from China to Malaysia. When Chin asked Deng when he would like him to cease the broadcasting, Deng replied, "The sooner the better ... Lee (Lee Kuan Yew) asked me to stop the broadcasts immediately." Moreover, during his official visit to China, the second prime minister of Malaysia Abdul Razak Hussein held talks with Chinese communist leader Chairman Mao Zedong and urged him to stop giving aid to
10591-417: The mobilisation of a large number of troops to hound the guerrillas. In 1953, the CPM relocated their headquarters to Betong , in southern Thailand. They reestablished its networks to connect the scattered units and review its strategy. In late 1953 and early 1954, the war was at a semi-stalemate due to both the MNLA and the British being unable to decisively defeat one another. In early 1954, Siao Chang,
10710-547: The more experienced Chinese Communist Party. Chin would, however, remain in Beijing for the next 29 years and the party would not lay down its arms until 1989. The reasons for this reversal of the party's decision to disband, according to Chin, was the advice given to him by the Vietnamese communist leaders in Hanoi, the opening of the second 'Vietnam War', which was followed by China's Cultural Revolution , all of which stressed
10829-462: The nation should take rather than having that choice be decided by a select few in the government. Tunku Abdul Rahman rejected this as well and only promised freedom for the CPM members to join any existing political party after being cleared by the authorities. On the second day of the talks, Chin promised that the CPM would stop fighting and lay down its arms if the Alliance government persuaded
10948-462: The party for a couple of days. Chin became the most wanted man of the British government, with the government offering a reward of $ 250,000 for his capture. On 17 July 1948, CPM offices in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Singapore, and other major cities were raided, followed by mass arrests of suspected communists and anti-government individuals on 21 July. The CPM was banned in July 1948. In response to
11067-428: The people of Malaya were still recovering from the horrors of the Japanese occupation. To launch an armed rebellion so soon would not only cause them to lose support of the masses but would also drive the already wary Malays to openly resist them. Some scholars allege that the CPM received secret directives from Moscow agents on the methods and timing for a near-simultaneous uprising against colonial authorities during
11186-788: The populace from the communist insurgency. In 1952, the Malayan Scouts would become part of the reformed 22nd Regiment, Special Air Service . Malayan Emergency British Commonwealth victory British Commonwealth forces: [REDACTED] United Kingdom Communist forces: [REDACTED] Malayan Communist Party [REDACTED] United Kingdom [REDACTED] Malaya [REDACTED] Singapore [REDACTED] Australia [REDACTED] New Zealand [REDACTED] Malayan Communist Party [REDACTED] Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) Over 451,000 troops Over 7,000 troops 1950 1951 1954 1956 The Malayan Emergency (1948–1960)
11305-428: The remaining Malayan communists retreated to rural areas and formed the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) on 1 February 1949. The MNLA was partly a re-formation of the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), the communist guerrilla force which had been the principal resistance in Malaya against the Japanese occupation during WWII. The British had secretly helped form the MPAJA in 1942 and trained them in
11424-411: The renowned communist base in China but was persuaded to remain in Malaya and take on heavier responsibilities in the newly formed Malayan Communist Party . In late 1939, when Chin Peng was in the 4th year of his secondary school education (known as senior middle-level one), his school announced that the senior middle section was to be closed due to lack of funds. He decided to continue his education in
11543-540: The rest of the British Army in Malaya. Therefore, immediately after the disbandment of the Ferret Force sections, the personnel were used to establish the Far East Land Force Training Centre. Every unit deployed to the Malayan Emergency was required to send its NCOs and officers through the training at Force Training Centre, learning the procedures which Ferret Force had used during its six months of deep jungle patrolling. How things got done
11662-399: The rest of the team would be brought in to kill the guerillas. When guerrilla strongholds were not found, the Ferret Force teams would set up ambushes, waiting for guerrilla columns along suspected infiltration routes. The goal of the unit was not to defeat the MCP, but to spread fear by keeping the communists off balance. Towards the end of its operational existence, Ferret Force took part in
11781-620: The spraying was stopped. However, after that strategy failed, the use of herbicides and defoliants in effort to fight the guerrillas was restarted under the command of Gerald Templer in February 1953 as a means of destroying food crops grown by communist forces in jungle clearings. Helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft despatched sodium trichloroacetate and Trioxone, along with pellets of chlorophenyl N,N-dimethyl-1-naphthylamine onto crops such as sweet potatoes and maize . Many Commonwealth personnel who handled and/or used Trioxone during
11900-444: The support of the Chinese because the Chinese were denied the equal right to vote in elections, had no land rights to speak of, and were usually very poor. The MNLA's supply organisation was called the Min Yuen (People's Movement). It had a network of contacts within the general population. Besides supplying material, especially food, it was also important to the MNLA as a source of intelligence. The MNLA's camps and hideouts were in
12019-526: The talks themselves ended without a consensus between the two sides. Though the talks collapsed they were regarded as both a success and failure for Tunku Abdul Rahman, as the talks made the British regard him as a strong leader who was tough on communism. His performance also impressed the Colonial Office enough to grant Malaya independence. For the CPM, it was a very demoralising affair that nearly destroyed their already ailing struggle. The failure of
12138-613: The units formed was Ferret Force. Lieutenant Colonel Walter Walker , GSO1 of Malaya District Headquarters, in Kuala Lumpur, sought permission to form a counter-insurgency unit to combat the MCP guerrillas. A veteran of the Burma Campaign, he sought to utilize the experience available from the recently demobilized Force 136. This unit would be known as Ferret Force. Walker's new unit would operate in groups. Each group would typically be composed of four teams or sections. Each team would be composed of twelve soldiers, usually drawn from
12257-414: The unrest plaguing Malaya since 1945. According to Purcell's viewpoint, the Emergency was declared in response to increasing incidents of violence and lawlessness. Many Singaporean historians and anti-communists allege that Chin Peng ordered the killings. Chin claimed he had no prior knowledge of the plot. He added that he barely escaped arrest, losing his passport in the process, and he lost touch with
12376-634: The use of explosives, firearms and radios. Chin Peng was a veteran anti-fascist and trade unionist who had played an integral role in the MPAJA's resistance. Disbanded in December 1945, the MPAJA officially turned in its weapons to the British Military Administration , although many MPAJA soldiers secretly hid stockpiles of weapons in jungle hideouts. Members who agreed to disband were offered economic incentives. Around 4,000 members rejected these incentives and went underground. The MNLA began their war for Malayan independence from
12495-421: The wages of their workers. Colonial police responded to rising trade union activity through arrests, deportations, and beating striking workers to death. Responding to the attacks against trade unions, communist militants began assassinating strikebreakers , and attacking anti-union estates. These attacks were used by the colonial occupation as a pretext to conduct mass arrests of left-wing activists. On 12 June
12614-674: Was a guerrilla war fought in Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces of the Federation of Malaya and Commonwealth ( British Empire ). The communists fought to win independence for Malaya from the British Empire and to establish a communist state, while the Malayan Federation and Commonwealth forces fought to combat communism and protect British economic and colonial interests. The term "Emergency"
12733-548: Was a factor in the growth of trade union movements and caused a rise in communist party membership, with considerable labour unrest and a large number of strikes occurring between 1946 and 1948. Malayan communists organised a successful 24-hour general strike on 29 January 1946, before organising 300 strikes in 1947. To combat rising trade union activity the British used police and soldiers as strikebreakers, and employers enacted mass dismissals, forced evictions of striking workers from their homes, legal harassment, and began cutting
12852-477: Was a mistake as it allowed the British to press on with their attacks on the MNLA, whom they correctly assessed to be quite demoralised by then. After Sir Harold Briggs died, Lieutenant General Sir Gerald Templer was appointed as the new commander, introducing aggressive strategies which differed from the Briggs Plan. These included interrogations, food rationing, large monetary rewards for captured or killed communists coupled with intense military operations, and
12971-597: Was able to build effective civil-military relations and was one of the chief architects of the counter-insurgency plan in Malaya. In 1951, the British High Commissioner in Malaya, Sir Henry Gurney , was killed near Fraser's Hill during an MNLA ambush. General Gerald Templer was chosen to become the new High Commissioner in January 1952. During Templer's two-year command, "two-thirds of the guerrillas were wiped out and lost over half their strength,
13090-547: Was born Ong Boon Hua on 21 October 1924 into a middle-class family in the small seaside town of Sitiawan , Dindings , which at the time was a part of the Straits Settlements . His ancestral home was in Fuqing , Fujian , China. His father went to live in Sitiawan in 1920, and set up a bicycle, tire, and spare motor parts business with the help of a relative from Singapore, known as Ong Lock Cho. Chin Peng attended
13209-479: Was captured not long after while travelling to a meeting that was to be held in Singapore. Thus the job of establishing contact with the British commando Force 136 fell to Chin Peng. The first party of that force, consisting of Captain John Davis and five Chinese agents had landed in Malaya on 24 May 1943, by submarine. Chin Peng made contact with the group on 30 September 1943. He was active in his support for
13328-618: Was no coordination among units. The guerrillas endured heavy casualties and made few or no strategic gains in the early months. Chin was desperate to assert control over the MNLA, which had been operating independently since June. It was not until August that some form of central authority was finally set up in the Cameron Highlands , with Chin ordering the guerrillas to adopt Mao Zedong's strategy of establishing liberated zones whenever they drove British forces from an area. However, this strategy failed. British forces continued to hound
13447-455: Was no reduction in the level of violent activities, other than the neutralisation of trade unions. Political murders of informers, anyone found to be working against the labour movement or the CPM, non-Europeans considered enemies to the communist cause or strike-breakers who used thugs and gangsters to harass protesters rose. The murder of three Kuomintang leaders in Johor on 12 June had convinced
13566-480: Was put in charge of three anti-Japanese organisations that were targeting students, teachers, members of cultural activities, and general labourers. At the end of January 1940, he was admitted to the Malayan Communist Party as a member. Harassment by the authorities led him to leave his home town for Kuala Kangsar in July 1940. Later he spent a month in Taiping . In September 1940 the party posted him to Ipoh as
13685-654: Was seized by the police during a raid in 1948. His counsel Raja Aziz Addruse had submitted before the Court of Appeal that it was wrong for the Malaysian government to compel him to produce the documents because he was entitled to enter and live in Malaysia under the peace agreement. In April 2009, Chin's application to return to Malaysia was once again rejected by the High Court for the same reason as his previous attempt. The Malaysian government insisted that his possible return would cause people who lost their loved ones during
13804-683: Was the leader and commander of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) and the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA). A Maoist , he led the CPM as secretary general from 1947 until the party's dissolution in 1989. Chin was born into a middle-class family in Sitiawan , now a part of Perak. In 1939, at the age of 15, he became a revolutionary and fled to Kuala Lumpur in 1940. He joined the CPM in 1941, and quickly involved himself in local party committees and labour unions in Perak. Throughout
13923-700: Was the youngest of three members of the Secretariat of the Perak State Committee: Su Yew Meng was secretary and Chang Meng Ching was the other member. In early 1943 the two senior members were captured by the Japanese, which left Chin Peng in charge. Contact with the Party's Central Committee had been lost; he attempted to re-establish it, travelling to Kuala Lumpur and meeting Chai Ker Meng. Later, party leader Lai Tek sent another Central Committee member, Lee Siow Peng (Siao Ping), to replace Chin as State Secretary. However, Lee Siow Peng
14042-462: Was used by the British colonial occupation to either arrest or kill many of Malaya's communist and trade union leaders. These mass arrests and killings saw many left-wing activists going into hiding and fleeing into the Malayan jungles. Although the Malayan communists had begun preparations for a guerrilla war against the British, the emergency measures and mass arrest of communists and left-wing activists in 1948 took them by surprise. Led by Chin Peng
14161-508: Was used by the British to characterise the conflict in order to avoid referring to it as a war, because London-based insurers would not pay out in instances of civil wars. The MNLA referred to the conflict as the Anti-British National Liberation War . The war began on 17 June 1948, after Britain declared a state of emergency in Malaya following attacks on plantations , which had been revenge attacks for
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