The ‘Know Your Region’ series is designed to support unit and individual professional military education on the South East Asian region. It’s important for all serving members of our military to have a foundational knowledge of the countries and issues in the Indo-Pacific.

MALAYSIA – SPECIAL ISSUES

On this page:

  • The Malayan Emergency
  • Australia's Commitment to the Malayan Emergency
  • Malaysian Australians

 

The Malayan Emergency

The Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) which was the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP). The conflict was called the Anti-British National Liberation War by the MNLA, but an 'Emergency' by the British at the insistence of plantation owners, as London-based insurers would not have paid out in instances of civil war. The first phase lasted from 1948 to 1960 in Malaya and featured a British terror campaign before switching to strategic ambushes based on intelligence.

The term 'Emergency' is used to describe the conflict because on 18 June 1948 the British declared a State of Emergency in Malaya after guerrillas assassinated three European plantation managers in the northern state of Perak. The perpetrators were members of the Malayan Races' Liberation Army (MRLA), a guerrilla army seeking to overthrow British colonial administration and establish an independent Malaysia. Under the leadership of Chin Peng, the MRLA had its origins in the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army which had existed in the latter stages of World War II and drew the majority of its support from landless, mostly Communist, Chinese 'squatters' living on the fringes of the jungle.

The majority of support for the communist rebels came from the ethnic lower-class Straits Chinese population, most of whom lived in dire poverty, were subject to racial persecution, and were barred from voting in elections. The Communists' belief in class consciousness, in addition to ethnic and gender equality, allowed many indigenous Orang Asli and Malaysian women to join the MNLA and their civilian support network, the Min Yuen.

Chin's strategy was to drive representatives of the administration and other Europeans from plantations, mines, and the countryside in order to create 'liberated areas' that would expand and join together. Larger villages and towns would then be taken by force. Finally, a 'general offensive' against the British would lead to the capture of the main cities and the setting up of a communist republic. However, the MRLA's strategy was not successful. Extensive guerrilla operations not only failed to lead to the establishment of any 'liberated areas,' but also resulted in the MRLA being forced onto the defensive. This was summed up in Chin's 'October Manifesto' released in 1951.

Through establishing camps in the jungle, the MRLA aimed to attack government and military installations, damage Malaya’s rubber industry, and create areas of Communist control. With the overarching aim to overthrow the British colonial administration in Malaya.

The British introduced a raft of countermeasures to combat these activities, most notably the implementation of the Briggs Plan, which established a framework for rapid responses to terrorist incidents, increased security to protect vulnerable sites and the organisation of volunteer auxiliary forces. With the co-operation of the civil administration, a programme of land reform was introduced, and several fortified 'new' villages were constructed. To learn more about the broader dynamics leading up to the Malayan Emergency, watch the following video.

The MRLA's terrorist activity reached a peak in 1951 with the ambush and killing of the British high commissioner to Malaya Sir Henry Gurney. The assassination has been described as a major factor in causing the Malayan population to roundly reject the MNLA campaign, and also leading to widespread fear and uncertainty. However, under his successor General Sir Gerald Templer, close co-operation between the civil and military powers began to undermine the terrorist threat. Additional measures were introduced under the direction of the British Government, such as immediate measures to give Chinese ethnic residents the right to vote.

By 1955 many insurgents had been killed or captured and large areas of the country were free of any terrorist activity. In September that same year, the Government of the Federation of Malaya and the Government of Singapore issued declarations of amnesty to communists. Following the declaration, the Government launched an intensive publicity campaign on an unprecedented scale. Alliance Ministers in the Federal Government travelled extensively up and down the country exhorting the people to call upon the communists to lay down their arms and take advantage of the amnesty. Yet, few communists surrendered to the authorities.

Another turning point was the Baling Talks between the head of the MRLA, Chin Peng, and Federation leader Tunku Abdul Rahman on 28 December 1955. The meeting was intended to design an end to the conflict, but the Malayan Government representatives dismissed all of Chin Peng's demands. As a result, the conflict heightened but membership of MNLA, the MCP, and Min Yuen were declining by the end of the 1950s. Those who remained faced going into exile or death in the jungle. With the independence of Malaya under Prime Minister Rahman on 31 August 1957, the insurrection lost its rationale as a war of colonial liberation.

The remaining MRLA forces had been driven to take refuge over the border in Thailand and further east. On 31 July 1960, the Malaysian Government declared the State of Emergency was over. Chin Peng left south Thailand for Beijing, where he was accommodated by the Chinese authorities in the International Liaison Bureau. By 1967, the communist leader renewed the insurgency against the Malaysian Government. The second phase of the insurgency lasted until 1989, when a Peace Agreement was signed in Hat Yai, Thailand.

For more information on the latter phase of the Malayan Conflict, watch the video below.

During the conflict, security forces killed 6,710 MRLA guerrillas and captured 1,287, while 2,702 guerrillas surrendered during the conflict, and approximately 500 more did so at its conclusion. 1,345 Malayan troops and police were killed during the fighting, as well as 519 Commonwealth personnel. 2,478 civilians were killed, with another 810 recorded as missing. Over the course of the war some 30,000 mostly ethnic Chinese were deported by the British authorities to mainland China.

There were instances during operations to find insurgents where British troops detained and tortured villagers who were suspected of aiding the insurgents. These tactics strained relations between civilians and British forces in Malaya and were thus counterproductive in generating the one resource critical in a counterinsurgency: good intelligence.

The Malayan Emergency heavily influenced many future anti-insurgency wars, most famously the Vietnam War, as United States forces and their allies attempted to replicate Commonwealth strategies. Similar tactics used throughout both conflicts included the use of herbicides and defoliants (such as Agent Orange, aerial bombardments with widespread saturation, resettlement programmes as a form of collective punishment on villages, and search and destroy missions with troops sometimes setting fire to villages.

Yet, the Malayan Emergency remains one of the few successful counter-insurgency operations undertaken by the Western powers during the Cold War. To learn more about the differences between the Malayan Emergency and Vietnam War, see the next video.

To learn more about this all but forgotten conflict, access the resources below.

 

Australia's Commitment to the Malayan Emergency

In April 1950, the British Government asked whether some Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) units could be sent to assist in the Malayan Emergency. Then Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies hesitated. He was profoundly pro-British and anti-communist, and he replied that he was deeply conscious of the tension in Malaya. Nevertheless, Menzies feared that the Australian public would not approve of committing Australia to a militaristic policy. He was also unsure whether the British would win.

Menzies announced a compromise on 19 May 1950: a RAAF unit would be sent to Malaya, but it would be a transport squadron rather than a fighter or a bomber unit. Thus, the advance party of No. 38 Squadron RAAF arrived in Singapore in the following month in a low-key beginning to what was Australia's longest continuous involvement in an overseas conflict until Afghanistan. Australia's military commitment to the emergency lasted 13 years, between 1950 and 1963, with army, air force and naval units serving. Thirty-nine Australians were killed and 27 wounded.

The Australian Government sent Royal Australian Air Force Dakota transport aircraft of No. 38 Squadron and Lincoln bombers of No. 1 Squadron to Malaya in June 1950. Political and military developments in the mid-1950s led to increased Australian involvement in the Malayan Emergency. In late 1954, Canberra signed a greater commitment to the region by joining the newly formed South-East Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO), and by agreeing to the establishment of the British Commonwealth Far East Strategic Reserve (BCFESR) in Malaya. Watch the Australian War Memorial’s video on the Malayan Emergency below.

In April 1955 Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced that Australian forces would be part of the newly formed British Commonwealth Far East Strategic Reserve (BCFESR). Made up of an infantry brigade, bomber and fighter squadrons, and naval vessels. The army component of the BCFESR was the 28th Commonwealth Brigade, which had served in Korea, and then re-formed at Penang in Malaya in 1955. Australian infantry battalions and artillery batteries served two-year tours of duty in Malaya from 1955 as part of the 28th Commonwealth Brigade. The RAAF bomber and fighter squadrons based at Butterworth from 1958, and the RAN ships involved in the Malayan Emergency, were also part of the BCFESR.

The Australian Army was involved in the Malayan Emergency from 1955, and Australian soldiers remained in the region until 1963, three years after the conflict's official end. The 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (2 RAR) arrived in October that first year. The battalion was later replaced by 3 RAR, which in turn was replaced by 1 RAR. Stationed initially on Penang Island, the battalion crossed to the mainland on 1 January 1956 to begin operations as part of the 28th Commonwealth Brigade. The battalion mainly operated in the northern areas of Kedah and Perak, which had been centres of guerrilla activity. Although there were few contacts with the guerrillas when the battalion patrolled these areas, heavy fighting took place in June 1956 during the Pipeline Ambush, in which three Australians were killed.

The 3rd Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR) replaced 2 RAR in October 1957. After training at Johore in southern Malaya, 3 RAR began patrolling operations in Perak and Kedah. These operations were primarily intended to cut the guerrillas off from their food supplies. The battalion's patrolling resulted in two notable successes: in July 1958, acting on information received from a surrendered communist, members of the battalion destroyed several local guerrilla camps; and on 20 November 1958 another camp was attacked. One of the guerrillas killed in the latter operation was found to have taken part in the infamous assassination of the British High Commissioner in 1951. The clearest indication of the battalion's success came in April 1959 when the British announced that the state of Perak was secure. For technicolour footage of Australian troops patrolling Malaya, access the next video.

The use of air power was an important part of the Commonwealth strategy in Malaya. The rough terrain of the Malayan peninsula made land operations difficult, and in the first years of the conflict the Commonwealth forces were not yet ready to undertake extensive land operations. Moreover, as the Communist forces did not have any aircraft of their own, Commonwealth aircraft were able to dominate the environment and to explore the boundaries of air power itself. In 1955, the RAAF extended the Butterworth air base from which Canberra bombers of No. 2 Squadron (replacing No. 1 Squadron) and CAC Sabres of No. 78 Wing carried out ground attack missions against the guerrillas. The RAAF contributed transport, bomber, and fighter squadrons to the Commonwealth effort in Malaya, acting in offensive operations such as Operation Termite in July 1954 which was a high point of the squadron's service in Malaya. Five Australian Lincolns and six Lincolns from No. 148 Squadron RAF took part in this operation against guerrilla camps in Northern Malaya. The Lincolns carried out a series of bombing runs and ground attacks in conjunction with paratroop drops.

The Royal Australian Navy destroyers Warramunga and Arunta joined the force in June 1955. Between 1956 and 1960, the aircraft carriers Melbourne and Sydney and destroyers Anzac, Quadrant, Qeenborough, Quiberon, Quickmatch, Tobruk, Vampire, Vendetta, and Voyager were attached to the BCFESR forces for three to six months at a time. These Australian ships took part in patrols and exercises with other Commonwealth vessels throughout the Far East region. Australian warships were directly involved on two occasions. On 29 September 1956 Anzac bombarded a guerrilla camp site, and on 22 January 1957 Queenborough and Quickmatch opened fire against suspected guerrilla positions south of Johore. On both occasions an Auster spotter aircraft directed the Australian naval gunfire, which was reported as having been 'most effective.'

In 1973 an Australian Army infantry company, known as Rifle Company Butterworth, was deployed to RAAF Base Butterworth to provide a protective and quick-reaction force for the base during a resurgence of the Communist insurgency in Malaysia. While the base was handed to the Royal Malaysian Air Force in 1988 and the insurgency officially ended in 1989, Rifle Company Butterworth was maintained as a means of providing Australian soldiers with training in jungle warfare and cross-training with Malaysian Armed Forces.

 

Malaysian Australians

The 1871 colonial census records that 149 Malays were working in Australia as pearl divers in northern and western Australia, labourers in South Australia's mines, and on Queensland's sugar plantations. At Federation in 1901, there were 932 Malay pearl divers in Australia, increasing to 1,860 by 1921. Most of them returned home when their contracts expired, and the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 severely curtailed this community's growth. Thus, the Malaysia-born population in Australia was relatively small in the early 1900s due to the White Australia policy.

There was a small increase in arrivals (mostly of European descent) during World War II when people were evacuated from British Malaya. From the 1960s onwards Malaysians came to Australia to study under the Colombo Plan, with many choosing to stay in Australia after graduation. In the late 1960s, particular Government policies, race riots, and unfavourable socio-political conditions had negative impacts on the Chinese and other minorities in Malaysia. This factor, alongside the abolishment of the White Australia policy in 1973, led to Australia becoming a desirable destination for Malaysian immigrants, primarily ethnic Chinese. During this time, many students came to Australia and subsequently chose to stay once they completed their studies. Quite a number of these students married locally and later sponsored their parents or siblings. Malaysians have one of the highest rates of intermarriage with Australians. To learn about a Malay-Australian community living in Western Australia, watch the video below.

The largest wave of Malaysia-born immigrants was after 1981, under the Family Reunion Program or as skilled or business migrants. The Malaysia-born population in Australia almost doubled between 1986-1991. According to the 2016 census, 61.9% are employed in either a skilled managerial, professional or trade occupation. For an in-depth look at dynamic bilateral relations, check out 60 Years Australia and Malaysia, jointly produced by the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with the support of the Australia-Malaysia Institute.

The 2016 census also recorded that the major religious affiliation amongst Malaysian-born people in Australia is Buddhism at 24.1%. A further 12.7% identify as Catholic, 5.6% identify as Christian (not further defined), 5.2% identify as Muslim, 26.7% identify with some other religion and 21.1% identify with no religion. This religious composition reflects the ethnic migration of more Malaysian Chinese to Australia than Malays. Traditional Chinese worldviews are not always viewed as ‘religions.’ Therefore, some of those who stated ‘no religion’ may still have an association with Confucianism, Taoism and/or Buddhism.

As a highly active and organised group, Malaysian Australians have made and continue to make a significant contribution to Australia. Some notable Malaysian Australians include Dr Yvonne Ho AM, Kamahl, Nick Kyrgios, James Wan, Adam Liaw, Poh Ling Yeow, and Remy Hill.

It is the Malaysian media and Government’s position that those who leave and become expatriates in other countries are disloyal to Malaysia. It can be valuable to consider what this means for Malaysians living in Australia. If a Malaysian gives up their citizenship, the act is considered irrevocable.

To hear from Malaysian Australians and learn about their experiences, access the following resources.