The United Malays National Organization, the Malayan Chinese Association, and the Early Years of the Malayan Emergency, 1948–1955

Abstract

In the decade following the Second World War, two aspects of Malaya's political life were predominant. First, there was an increased political awareness among Malayans which led to the formation of political organizations, the political mobilization of a significant proportion of the population, and eventually, in 1955, to the holding of Malaya's first federal elections. Second, there was the “Emergency”, the name commonly given to the guerrilla war waged by the Malayan Communist Party (M.C.P.) and its supporters from June 1948 to August 1960. Both of these aspects have been chronicled and examined in some detail by students of Malayan history. And yet, interestingly enough, rarely have the effects of one upon the other been fully considered. Indeed, the usual pattern of analysis in the, often otherwise excellent, general studies that examine this period is for each aspect to be treated in a separate section or chapter. Moreover, accounts which focus solely on the Emergency are even less encouraging in this respect. Mr. Anthony Short's impressive history of the Colonial Government's activities in countering the Communist guerrillas is typical in the scant attention which is given to the political parties' role in undermining the Communists' cause. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to explore some of the links between the development of the political parties, especially the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and the Malayan Chinese Association (M.C.A.), prior to 1955, and the course of the Emergency.

A “Memoryscape” Malayan Union 1946: The Beginning and Rise of Modern Malay Political Culture

“…With the British announcement of their intention to grant independence to Malaya, the MCP program lost its momentum and communist hopes for control quickly faded. The alliance was increasingly viewed as the only hope for a viable independent Malayan government (Stubbs, 1979). The incorporation of the MIC (Malayan Indian Congress) into the Alliance as a full-fledged partner in 1954 was viewed by the British government as a positive step towards the creation of a united Malayan nation.…”

A small, distant war? Historiographical reflections on the Malayan Emergency

“…For the Malaysian state, it represents one pillar of the foundational myth of the making of the independent nation‐state, the struggle against a communist plot for domination (Cheah, ; Harper, ; Hill & Lian, ). For political scientists and analysts, the Emergency serves as the genesis for many of the structures and norms still found in the contemporary Malaysian state (Fernando, ; Slater, ; Stubbs, ). For soldiers and scholars of military strategy, the conflict continues to offer grounds for debate on what lessons can be drawn from the British experience and applied to modern counterinsurgency campaigns (Bennett, ; Boyini, ; Coates, ; R. Cohen, ; Nagl, ; Smith, ).…”