Communism in Malaysia

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Headquarters of the Communist Party of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, 1948. CPM's office before the Malayan Emergency.jpg
Headquarters of the Communist Party of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, 1948.

Communism in Malaysia has existed since the 20th century. Communism was a major force during the Malayan Emergency that began in 1948. Between 1968 and 1989 during the Cold War, a communist insurgency took place and was suppressed by the government, and the ideology ultimately failed to take root in the country. [1] After the end of the Cold War, the communist movement has left an enduring legacy on modern Malaysian politics. [2] In the modern era, communists have often been portrayed as villains in media and education, with racial elements typically associated with ethnically Chinese Malaysians. Malaysian censorship of perceived communist media has taken place. [3]

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The Malayan Emergency(1948–1960) was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces of the Federation of Malaya, British Empire and Commonwealth. 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" 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Batang Kali massacre</span> 1948 massacre by British soldiers of defenceless men during the Malayan Emergency

The Batang Kali massacre was the killing of 24 unarmed male civilians in Batang Kali by the British Army's Scots Guards on 12 December 1948. The massacre took place in Batang Kali, Malaya during the Malayan Emergency, a communist insurgency involving the British Commonwealth and communist guerrillas belonging to the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA). British author Christopher Hale described the massacre as "Britain's My Lai" in his book titled Massacre in Malaya: Exposing Britain's My Lai.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Kalimantan Communist Party</span> Political party in Malaysia

The North Kalimantan Communist Party was a Maoist communist party based in the Malaysian state of Sarawak in northern Borneo. It was formally founded on 19 September 1971. Before that, the group had been operating under the name Sarawak People's Guerrillas. The chairman of the NKCP was Wen Ming Chyuan and the party enjoyed close links with the People's Republic of China. The NKCP's membership was predominantly ethnically Chinese. The two military formations of the NKCP were the Sarawak People's Guerilla Force (SPGF) or Pasukan Gerilya Rakyat Sarawak (PGRS), and the North Kalimantan People's Army (NKPA) or the Pasukan Rakyat Kalimantan Utara (PARAKU). The NKCP participated in the Sarawak Communist Insurgency (1962–1990). On 17 October 1990, the North Kalimantan Communist Party signed a peace agreement with the Sarawak state government, formally ending the Sarawak Communist Insurgency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chin Peng</span> Leader of the Malayan Communist Party (1924–2013)

Chin Peng, born Ong Boon Hua, was a Malayan communist politician, guerrilla leader, and revolutionary, who 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Monument (Malaysia)</span> War memorial in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malayan Communist Party</span> Far-left political party in Malaya

The Malayan Communist Party (MCP), officially the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), was a Marxist–Leninist and anti-imperialist communist party which was active in British Malaya and later, the modern states of Malaysia and Singapore from 1930 to 1989. It was responsible for the creation of both the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army and the Malayan National Liberation Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Coldstore</span> Covert security operation in Singapore

Operation Coldstore was the code name for a covert anti-communist security operation that took place in Singapore on 2 February 1963, which was then an internally self-governing state within the British Empire. It led to the arrest of 113 people, who were detained without trial pursuant to the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance (PPSO).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Briggs Plan</span> 1950 British forced resettlement plan during the Malayan Emergency

The Briggs Plan was a military plan devised by British General Sir Harold Briggs shortly after his appointment in 1950 as Director of Operations during the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960). The plan aimed to defeat the Malayan National Liberation Army by cutting them off from their sources of support amongst the rural population. To achieve this a large programme of forced resettlement of Malayan peasantry was undertaken, under which about 500,000 people were forcibly transferred from their land and moved to concentration camps euphemistically referred to as "new villages".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malayan National Liberation Army</span> 1949–1989 communist guerrilla army in Malaysia (formerly Malaya)

The Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) was a Communist guerrilla army that fought for Malayan independence from the British Empire during the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) and later fought against the Malaysian government in the Communist insurgency in Malaysia (1968–1989). Many MNLA fighters were former members of the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), including its leader Chin Peng.

Rifle Company Butterworth is an Australian Army infantry company based at RMAF Base Butterworth in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia. Rifle Company Butterworth was established in 1970 to provide a protective and quick-reaction force for RAAF Base Butterworth during a resurgence of the Communist insurgency in Malaysia. While RAAF Base Butterworth was handed to the Royal Malaysian Air Force in 1988 and the insurgency officially ended in 1989, Rifle Company Butterworth has been maintained as a means of providing Australian soldiers with training in jungle warfare and cross-training with the Malaysian Army. The company is staffed on a rotational basis, with both Regular and Reserve personnel being deployed quarterly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Too Chee Chew</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communist insurgency in Malaysia (1968–1989)</span> Insurgency in Malaysia waged by the Malayan Communist Party from 1968 to 1989

The Communist insurgency in Malaysia, also known as the Second Malayan Emergency, was an armed conflict which occurred in Malaysia from 1968 to 1989, between the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) and Malaysian federal security forces.

The Special Operations Volunteer Force was a special program developed by the British and Malayan authorities during the Malayan Emergency. The unit existed from 1952 until the end of the Emergency in 1960.

Australian involvement in the Malayan Emergency lasted 13 years, between 1950 and 1963, with army, air force and naval units serving. The Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA), the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party, from 1948 to 1960 in Malaya. The Malayan Emergency was the longest continuous military commitment in Australia's history. Thirty-nine Australians were killed and 27 wounded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuching Heroes' Cemetery</span> Cemetery in Sarawak, Malaysia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communist insurgency in Sarawak</span> Communist insurgency in Malaysia

The communist insurgency in Sarawak was an insurgency in Malaysia from 1962 to 1990, and involved the North Kalimantan Communist Party and the Malaysian Government. It was one of the two Communist insurgencies to challenge the former British colony of Malaysia during the Cold War. As with the earlier Malayan Emergency (1948–1960), the Sarawak Communist insurgents were predominantly ethnic Chinese, who opposed British rule over Sarawak and later opposed the merger of the state into the newly created Federation of Malaysia. The insurgency was triggered by the 1962 Brunei Revolt, which had been instigated by the left-wing Brunei People's Party in opposition to the proposed formation of Malaysia.

Communist insurgency is an umbrella term which may refer to one of several guerrilla conflicts involving communist parties, including:

The Malaysian Communist Party (MCP) was a merger of the Communist Party of Malaya/Marxist-Leninist (CPM-ML) and the Communist Party of Malaya/Revolutionary Faction (CPM-RF). Both factions split out from the Malayan Communist Party in the 1970s. MCP traced its roots to splinter groups amongst communist guerrillas in southern Thailand in the 1970s. The party conducted armed struggle in the Malaysian-Thai border areas between 1983 and 1987. The former CPM-RF members lay down their arms on 13 March 1987 and the former CPM-ML members lay down theirs on 28 April 1987. It eventually accepted a deal for cessation of hostilities with the Thai military and its cadres were resettled in 5 'friendship villages'.

Anarchism in Malaysia arose from the revolutionary activities of Chinese immigrants in British Malaya, who were the first to construct an organized anarchist movement in the country, reaching its peak during the 1920s. After a campaign of repression by the British authorities, anarchism was supplanted by Bolshevism as the leading revolutionary current, until the resurgence of the anarchist movement during the 1980s, as part of the Malaysian punk scene.

<i>Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History</i>

Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History (2003) is the auto-biography of Malaysian communist leader Chin Peng, the former leader of the Malayan Communist Party who led the Malayan resistance against Japan during World War II, the resistance against the British occupation of Malaya during the Malayan Emergency, and later led communist forces during the Communist insurgency in Malaysia (1968–1989).

References

  1. "Chin Peng: Malaysia communist guerrilla dies in Thailand". BBC News. 2013-09-16. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
  2. Weiss, Meredith L. (2020-08-07). "Legacies of the Cold War in Malaysia: Anything but Communism". Journal of Contemporary Asia. 50 (4): 511–529. doi:10.1080/00472336.2019.1709128. ISSN   0047-2336.
  3. Brzeski, Patrick (2013-07-29). "Malaysian Government Freezes Film Release Over Communism Claims". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2023-03-28.