Communist Party Of Malaya Research Articles

The Malayan Communist Insurgency

THE MALAYAN Communist insurgency had its origins in the Communist-dominated guerrilla group, led by Chin Peng and recruited largely from the Chinese community, which operated in Malaya during World War II.' In the late 1940s, Chin Peng reactivated and expanded this guerrilla force, which was known officially as the Malayan People's Liberation Army and operated under the political banner of the Malayan Liberation Front; the latter organization was intended to give the impression that the Malayan Communist insurgents (MCIs) were merely the military arm of a coalition of several groups, Communist and non-Communist, which had joined together for the common purpose of ousting the British from Malaya. In fact, however, neither the Front, nor its dominant political element, the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), nor its fighting arm ever attracted much support outside of certain segments of the Chinese community in Malaya. Hence the MCIs remained as essentially communal and Communist as they were during World War II.2 Nonetheless, Chin Peng and his followers were able to cause a great deal of trouble in Malaya from 1948 through the late 1950s, when they were finally forced by Commonwealth police and military forces to flee across the northern border and into Thailand.3

The Security “Gap” in Peninsular Malaysia

Events during the last twelve months since November 1974 have, if anything, convinced even most sceptics of the undeniable seriousness of the security situation in Peninsular Malaysia. Burgeoning, as it has, in the wake of the historic victories of the communist forces of Vietnam and Cambodia, the terrorist activities of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) and the rising toll of security forces personnel have indeed created a sense of concerned anticipation among outside observers. It is, of course, only too tempting to become somewhat alarmed about the developments in Malaysia in view of the disappointingly phlegmatic reaction of the other Southeast Asian states to the communist takeover of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and, for the prophets of doom, the equally disheartening way in which the much acclaimed domino theory appears to be fizzling out. Moreover, the grim forebodings of some Malaysia-watchers ever since the tragic days of May 1969 might understandably find a new lease of life with the revival of the undisguised racial connotations of the CPM's terrorist and propaganda campaign against the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front) Government of Tun Abdul Razak.

New Year's Day Message of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Malaya for 1976

New Year's Day Message of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Malaya for 1976

The Security Situation in Peninsular Malaysia

At no time in the history of the communist insurgency in Peninsular Malaysia, particularly since the end of the first Emergency way back in 1960, has there been any event as sensational and mystifying as the disclosure in October 1974 of a major schism within the ranks of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM). There was, indeed, a dramatic upsurge in terrorist and subversive activity extending over a fairly large area of the country in the twelve months preceding the disclosure, but the intrinsic significance of this development pales beside the revelation of an internal split within the CPM, the extent and seriousness of which are still not entirely clear. Notwithstanding the far-reaching implications of the CPM's internal problems, any assessment of the security situation in Peninsular Malaysia during the past twelve months must necessarily take into consideration the Communist Terrorist Organization's (CTO's) campaign to keep up the pace of the insurgency as well as the counter-measures taken by the Malaysian Government. This is aU the more appropriate in view of the somewhat sketchy nature of the official version of the split in the CPM; and it is still too early to indulge in excessive speculation about its actual consequences as the situation is in-a highly fluid state. Furthermore, the government's own successes against the CTO during the past year have received wide publicity and some understanding of their strategic value is imperative for an evaluation of the balance of forces in the internal security situation of Peninsular Malaysia.

New constitution of the Communist Party of Malaya

New constitution of the Communist Party of Malaya