Overview
[MAP]
In
the nineteenth century Britain claimed
Malaya and parts of Borneo as colonies.
Many local Malays did not want their
country to be a colony of Britain but
they were not strong enough to remove
the colonial power. This continued
through to World War 2, when, in 1941,
the Japanese invaded and defeated the
British, and occupied the area,
‘liberating’ it from colonialism
(but in fact imposing their own often
brutal colonial rule).
During
this period the British trained and
equipped many local Malays and Malay
Chinese as guerrilla groups to fight the
Japanese. The Chinese in particular
hated the Japanese because of their
invasion of and brutal behaviour in
parts of China in the 1930s.
At
the end of the war, the British wanted
non-communist Malays to take control -
but the Malay Chinese, many of whom were
communists, wanted Malaya to be a
communist country, so they started to
fight the British.
1957
population figures for Malaya:
- Malays
- 3.12 million
- Chinese
- 2.33 million
- Indians
- 0.69 million
- Others
- 0.12 million
(Federation of
Malaya Year Book 1959)
The
Malay Communists had the potential
support of many local Malay Chinese -
who had been badly treated by the
government, denied land rights, and were
economically very poorly off after the
war. They sometimes helped, but rarely
hindered, the active Malay Communists.
On
16 June 1948 three British planters were
executed by communist terrorists (CTs)
and a State of Emergency was declared by
the British government.
One
early tactic was to move many Malays in
fringe areas to new villages, to keep
them away from the Malay Chinese
communist influence. This was
initially resented, although it improved
their living conditions eventually.
From
1951, the British started a campaign to
‘win the hearts and minds’ of the
Malays, as well as defeating the CT
guerrillas. The tactic was to isolate
the guerrillas from community support,
and drive them into the jungle where
existence was difficult. Patrolling
would keep them on the move, and break
up their concentration of strength, wear
them down, and destroy their hidden
supply and ammunition caches. Aerial
bombing would also be a part of this
continual harassment.
The
Malay and British governments asked
Australia for military support. The
Australian government was keen to help;
Communism seemed to be on the spread in
Asia; support would stabilise a friendly
government in the region; it would also
maintain a traditional commitment to
Britain; it would also show that
Australia was a good ally ready to help
its South East Asian Treaty Organisation
allies. It also suited Australia to meet
any potential enemy in other countries:
Prime Minister Menzies said in 1955,
‘...if there is to be war for our
existence it should be carried on as far
from our shores as possible’.
By
1955, when Australian troops arrived in
Malaya, the war against the CTs was
being won, but needed a long and
wearying ‘cleaning up’ process - in which the Australians
took part.
[AUSTRALIAN
INVOLVEMENT AND CASUALTIES]
[SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION AND ANECDOTES]
[MALAYAN
EMERGENCY MAIN PAGE]
|
