In 1982, it was reported that “Since its first congress, the OCAL has moderated its strong support for China in the Sino-Soviet conflict; at present it rejects loyalty either to Moscow or Beijing.”[800]
Malaysian Maoism
Malaysia was formed from three—and for a while four—former British colonies. The three are the Federation of Malaya, Sarawak, and Sabah, the last two located in Indonesia. The fourth former colony is Singapore, which, after a short association with Malaysia, separated to establish an independent city-state in 1965. Below, we shall discuss separately the Maoist Communist movements in the former Malaya and Sarawak. The case of Singapore is dealt with in a separate entry in this book. Apparently, the Communists never developed any significant presence in Sabah.
The Communist movement in Malaysia has always been predominantly made up of ethnic Chinese. That is certainly the principal reason why the Communists there have been pro-Chinese since the Sino-Soviet split.
Also, like the Communist movements in neighboring Burma and Thailand, the Communists in Malaysia, since shortly after World War II, have been engaged in guerrilla war, first against the British, whose colonies Malaysia was until the early 1960s, then against the independent state of Malaysia. In this activity, they were inspired by the Chinese example, and to a greater or less degree received encouragement from the Chinese party and government.
Another characteristic of the Maoist Communists in Malaysia was that until 1970 they did not show the tendency to splinter and divide into rival groups that was so characteristic of Maoists in many countries. However, in the 1970s two dissident groups did appear, and continued to exist throughout the decade and beyond.
Origins and Early History of Malayan Communism
The Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) was established on April 30, 1930. Justus van der Kroef has noted that its founding was “the culmination of nearly a decade of underground dispersed Communist activity among Chinese labor organizations, private school associations, and cultural and other interest groups in a number of major Malayan towns.”[801]
Until World War II, the Malayan Communists remained a small and not particularly influential group. The world conflict gave them their first chance to expand in numbers and influence.
Even before the Japanese had completely conquered Malaya in early 1942, the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army began to be organized. The Associated Press wrote in September 1945, “The organization was developed largely from a merger of the Chinese Anti-Japanese Union and the Communists. Three yellow stars on the Army’s red banner symbolized the people of Malaya, the Malays, Chinese and Indians.”
The AP writer continued, “Non-communist members say that the Communist element used the Army to propagandize farmers, rubber plantation workers and villagers. Allied liaison agents as well as a number of downed American fliers sheltered by the guerrillas said they found some units more political than military.”[802]
Once the Japanese were defeated, the British reoccupied Malaya, including Singapore, and the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army was demobilized in December 1945. However, as a writer in the Manchester Guardian Weekly wrote, “It was kept alive by its old comrades’ association, which became increasingly Communist in outlook.”
In this period, the Communist Party functioned openly in Malaya. The Manchester Guardian Weekly writer said, “The Communist party began open activities after the liberation and was given representation in the Advisory Council then formed.”[803]
However, the British colonial administration was obviously worried by the strength of the Communists in postwar Malaya. In April 1947, the New York Times reported, “British colonial officials in Malaya have ordered the registration of secret societies. This regulation is aimed at the Chinese Communist organization, which is alleged to have caused labor disturbances in Malaya.”[804]
In June 1948 the Communists launched a guerrilla war that, in one degree or another, was to continue for four decades or more. In 1975, William D. Hartley wrote, “Malaya… had its first taste of Communist terrorism on a June morning in 1948 when three rebels burst into the office of a rubber-estate manager and shot him dead.”[805]
About two months after the first guerrilla outbreak, Malcolm MacDonald, the British Commissioner in Malaya, gave his version of what the Communists hoped to achieve at that time: “Mr. MacDonald said that the leaders expected fairly quickly to establish regions which they could proclaim as Communist territory and in each of which they would form a provisional Communist administration. The personnel and organization for these petty Governments had already been prepared.”[806]
The British retaliated by outlawing the Malaya Communist Party and three organizations it controlled. These included the union of veterans of the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army.[807]
Although the Communists failed to seize any substantial part of Malaya at the outbreak of their rebellion, their guerrilla efforts were sufficiently serious for an officially declared “emergency” to be maintained for a dozen years. In 1950, F. Tillman Durdin reported in the New York Times, “A big boost to Malayan Communist hopes came with the completion of the Communist conquest of the China mainland… the Malayan insurgents foresaw the possibility of eventual direct support to their cause.”[808]
Trajectory of Malayan Communists’ Guerrilla War
Justus van der Kroef sketched the evolution of the Malayan Communists’ guerrilla effort. He wrote, “Between 1948 and 1960 there existed what came to be known as the ‘Emergency’ in Malaya, as CPM guerrillas launched a fluid ‘people’s war’ and terrorist campaign in the jungles as well as the towns. But already by the mid-fifties the insurgencies were a demonstrable failure and by the early sixties the guerrillas—numbering no more than a hundred or so, compared with 3,000 in a ‘ Malayan People’s Liberation Army’ (MPLA) in 1949—sought refuge in the jungles along the border between Thailand and Malaya.”[809]
William Hartley noted, “What the British came to call ‘the emergency’ ultimately involved as many as 65,000 troops from British Commonwealth countries. They fought a Communist army of about 10,000 at its peak, led by Chin Peng, who had been an anti-Japanese guerrilla leader during World War II. … After a conflict that often was uncommonly brutal and vicious, a defeated Chin Peng fled into Thailand with about 600 troops.”[810]
However, their flight to the border areas did not end the guerrilla efforts of the Malayan Communists. Patrice de Beer, writing in 1971, noted, “Many serious encounters have taken place since 1968 between the Communists and the forces of order. The guerrillas, for long relegated to the Thailand frontier, renewed their activities in four states.”[811]
William D. Hartley, writing in 1975, commented that “in recent years the Communists have regrouped… Officials believe there are now about 2,000 active armed and uniformed guerrillas, although only a few hundred are permanently in the country. The rest operate with impunity out of southern Thailand.”[812]
800
Norman F. Howard, in
801
Justus van der Kroef, in
805
William D. Hartley, “Malaysia Guerrillas, Inspired by Vietnam, Emerge to Fight Again,”
808
F. Tillman Durdin, “Red Gains in Asia Aid Malay Revolt,”
811
Patrice de Beer, “Kuala Lumpur Reconnait l’Extension des Activités Communistes,”