The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a Small Distant War by

Souchou Yao (review)

Nazirah Lee

Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 89,
Part 2, No. 311, December 2016, pp. 165-168 (Review)

Published by Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ras.2016.0038

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/640460

Access provided at 5 Jan 2020 02:30 GMT from University Libraries of the University of Memphis
 JMBRAS, DECEMBER 2016 VOL 89 PART 2 | 165

the Malayan emergency:

essays on a Small Distant War

Souchou Yao

+
Copenhagen: NIAS-Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2016. 178 pp.
ISBN: 978 87 7694 190 (hbk)

According to author Souchou Yao, The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a Small Distant
War is an attempt to present the Malayan Emergency (1948–60) in a wide context.
The book contains nine chapters. It begins with a chapter on the British Empire,
followed by a chapter on communism entitled ‘On Communism; New Person in
a New Era’. The two subsequent chapters discuss imperial policing and British
counterinsurgency and the Revolutionary War. In the fifth and sixth chapters the
author concentrates on British propaganda, strategies and approaches during the
Malayan Emergency. Discussion of the leftists, the most crucial group involved
in the insurgency, is delivered in the seventh chapter. In line with the author’s
intention to present the Malayan Emergency from a new perspective, Chapter 8
presents stories of the British who were protected by the communists during the
Japanese occupation. A desire for a reassessment of the communists is hinted at in
the final chapter, ‘On Writing People’s History: Home Grown Revolution’.
Throughout the book, the author underlines the need for a closer scrutiny of
aspects of the Malayan Emergency in addition to the Malayan Communist Party
(MCP) uprising, the success of British High Commissioner Sir Gerald Templer
and the government’s victory in 1960. This approach allows the author to offer a
fascinating argument on the Malayan Emergency and reveals to readers another
side of the story, especially on the British Empire and MCP during that period. The
book undoubtedly contributes to the substantial existing works on the Malayan
Emergency by presenting a fresh perspective.
The foci of the discussion are the British authorities and the communists in
Malaya. Yao begins his discussion on the rhetoric of British decolonization, arguing
that instead of divestment, Britain was eager to protect her interests and prestige. In
the case of Malaya, the Malayan Emergency was used as a platform to demonstrate
British commitment to the anti-communist war, which was seen as a good way
to mollify United States resentment against the British. Furthermore, Malaya had
its own economic significance for the British. The price of tin and rubber soared
following the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, resulting in Malayan exports
increasing from US$226 million to US$406 million (p. 16). Britain direly needed to
maintain its power in Malaya to secure that huge financial resource for its empire.
In summary, Yao convinces the reader that the British undertaking in Malaya
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during the Emergency was calculated and carried out with a strong political will
of self-interest (p. 18).
P. Deery (2003) suggests that the British authorities were in a conundrum about
the communist insurgency and grappled with the issue of political terminology
in 1948–51. Subsequently, the event was treated as acts of thugs and criminals.
Nevertheless, Yao affirms that the British employed a fierce approach against
the communists from the beginning of the Malayan Emergency, using brutal
force to punish and terrorize them. This approach was combined with the policy
of control of the masses, such as by requiring identity cards and implementing
emergency laws and regulations. Yao has a similar view to Low Choo Chin
(2016) that the British practised physical control over contested segments of the
population. Yao mentions the relocation of residents of Batu Arang in 1948 and
the deportation of 26,000 people. Emergency regulations provided the British with
a judicial framework that made their various counterinsurgency measures legal
(p. 55). These included the execution of ‘draconian measures’ such as curfews,
food control and restriction and collective punishment, which were seen as unfair
and unjust. Collective punishment was used as a means to collect information
about communists. Yao presents two cases that took place in Tanjong Malim and
Permatang Tinggi (pp. 109–11). Residents of Permatang Tinggi suffered a huge loss
when their houses and shops were demolished because they refused to cooperate
with the British authorities. They only regained their freedom after a year. Prior to
Permatang Tinggi, Tanjong Malim residents experienced the same type of horror
although the period was shorter because some residents complied and provided
information to the government.
The Briggs Plan was a massive resettlement programme involving almost
a million people under ‘government protection’ and is regarded as one of the
measures that helped the government to win over the communists. Nonetheless,
Yao brands new villages as a form of torture, showing that those involved had no
choice but to obey the authorities and were brainwashed by harsh discipline and
restrictions. In summary, Yao delineates the harsh and vicious British treatment
of the MCP.
The author also illustrates how the British authorities carefully nurtured
ethnic cleavage and bolstered an ‘us against them’ sentiment among the pluralistic
society of Malaya to strengthen its control (p. 118). The British manipulated each
ethnic group through their soft spots, such as maintaining the Malay Sultans
for the Malays and offering citizenship rights to the Chinese and Indians (p. 92).
People were also treated differently based on their social stratum. ‘Underclass’
Chinese were ignored, and the British relied on wealthy merchants, clan leaders
and the heads of the secret societies for their connection with, and influence over,
the Chinese community. Meanwhile, Yao contends that the Malays enjoyed good
treatment because they assisted British brutality against the Chinese underclass
(p. 121).
Yao describes the background of people involved in communism in Malaya.
Previous studies suggested that the communists in Malaya were influenced by
political developments in China and in the Soviet Union (A. Belgrova, 2014; C.F.
Yong, 1996; K. Hack, 2009). Moreover, the global feminist movement, education and
poverty (Mahani Musa, 2013) had inspired people to join the communists. Based on
interviews with people who were actively involved in the insurgency, Yao suggests
 JMBRAS, DECEMBER 2016 VOL 89 PART 2 | 167

that personal circumstances and influence from reading materials were the main
forces that stimulated people’s interest to join the MCP. Discussions in the book
also provide insight into their commitment and dedication towards communism, as
well as the bitterness the communists felt towards the imperialists. The translation
of a letter from Yu Min Kung, Liaison Committee of the MCP (Selangor Branch)
to Mr Luo (one of the informants), for example, offers a glimpse of communist
sentiments in Malaya (p. 25).
A. Belgrova (2014) suggests that the MCP was the first to discuss the
establishment of a multi-ethnic Malayan nation. Yao seems to share a similar view
on this matter. Hence, according to Yao, the MCP had clearly shown its openness
to all communities in Malaya. Discussion of the Malayan left (Chapter 7) highlights
important Malays and Indians in the MCP while stressing that Malay leaders were
promoted publicly as a strategy to influence Malays to join the MCP. The author
also stresses that the communists failed to realize the nation they visualized due
to the strong commitment towards feudalism among people in Malaya and their
failure to build a cross-ethnic communist movement. Yao contends that this failure
has resulted in Malaysia consisting of several ‘nations’ in a one nation state today
(p. 118).
According to Yao, the MCP also failed to maintain Chinese support. Yao
describes how the economic slumps in 1921 and 1931, as well as the establishment
of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), had a huge impact on the Chinese
commitment towards the revolutionaries against the British. Kumar Ramakrishna
(2002) suggests that, though in general the Chinese peasants distrusted the British,
many of them sided with the British. Yao contends that the Chinese did so because
the British were considered a more realistic power than the communists. These
developments made the failure of the communists in Malaya inevitable.
Overall, this book successfully offers another side of the Malayan Emergency
story. The author uses information derived from his informants and a large number
of secondary sources. Nevertheless, for those who are interested in the discussion
based on broad primary sources this book may cause some concern. The use of
unknown or un-authoritative sources and small mistakes such as the location of
places (Tanjong Malim is in Perak not Selangor p. 109) could have been avoided.

Nazirah Lee Sultan Idris Education University

References
Belgrova, A. (2014), ‘The Chinese International of Nationalities: The Chinese
Communist Party, the Comintern and the Foundation of the Malayan National
Communist Party, 1923–1939’, Journal of Global History, 9(3): 447–70.
Deery, P. (2003), ‘The Terminology of Terrorism: Malaya, 1948–52’, Journal of
Southeast Asian Studies, 34(2): 231–47.
Hack, K. (2009), ‘The Origins of the Asian Cold War: Malaya 1948’, Journal of
Southeast Asian Studies, 40(3): 471–96.
Kumar Ramakrishna (2002), ‘Bribing the Reds to Give up: Rewards Policy in the
Malayan Emergency’, War in History, 9(3): 332–53.
Lee Choo Chin (2016), ‘Immigration Control during the Malayan Emergency:
Borders, Belonging and Citizenship, 1948–1960’, JMBRAS, 89(1): 35–60.
168 | BOOK REVIEWS

Mahani Musa (2013), ‘Women in the Malayan Communist Party, 1942–89’, Journal
of Southeast Asian Studies, 44(2): 226–49.
Yong, C.F. (1996), ‘The Malayan Communist Struggle for Survival 1930–1935’,
JMBRAS, 69(2): 1–22.