| Communist Insurgency War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Cold War | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Federation of Malaysia Thailand |
Malayan Communist Party | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Tunku Abdul Rahman Tun Abdul Razak |
Chin Peng Abdullah CD |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 155 killed 854 wounded |
212 killed 150 captured 117 surrendered |
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The Communist Insurgency War, or Second Malaysian Emergency was an insurgency and guerrilla war, conducted by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) against Malaysian armed forces from 1968 to 1989.
Contents |
With the declared end of the Emergency throughout the 1960 to 1968 period the MCP took the opportunity to undergo a period of streamlining, retraining, and re-indoctrination. The Malayan Races Liberation Army (MRLA) had established a series of safe bases, or what it called liberated areas. Despite their defeat during the first emergency, the MCP was still very much a force to be reckoned with. The MCP had a nucleus of between five and six hundred well-trained guerrillas and a reserve of about one thousand young men were available for full time service if required. The MCP had reorganized its units and reconstituted itself by training a number of new guerrillas. They also developed new techniques of guerrilla warfare and learned much from the Vietnam War on the techniques of fighting guerrilla warfare.
In July 1961, Chin Peng met Deng Xiaoping in China. Deng had proposed to the MCP that it conduct a second an armed struggle. Deng insisted that Malaya should revolt and used the success of the Vietnam Communist Party in the Vietnam War as MCP propaganda to launch a second revolt in Malaya. Deng later promised Chin Peng that China would assist the MCP and promised to give the MCP US $100,000 for the second insurgency in Malaya.
On 1 June 1968, the Central Command of the MCP issued a directive entitled “Hold High the Great Red Banner of Armed Struggle and Valiantly March Forward.” The MCP was ready to start a new insurgency in Malaysia. On 17 June 1968, to mark the 20th anniversary of their armed struggle against the Malaysian Government, the MCP launched an ambush against security forces in the area of Kroh–Betong in the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia. They achieved a major success, killing 17 members of the security forces. This event marked the start of the second armed revolt of the MCP.
At the initial stage of their second insurgency, the MCP achieved a significant amount of success. Their actions at this stage were more bold and aggressive and caused considerable losses to the security forces. These successes were due to their preparation and the training that they received during the “lull periods” or the reconsolidation period after the end of the first insurgency. By this time, they also had significant numbers of new members, who were young and aggressive. They had learned from the past that they could no longer rely on sympathizers from the poor or village people for their food and logistics.
In early 1970, the MCP experienced a major crisis within the party. Internal disputes due to the counterintelligence problems posed by the Special Branch had caused severe conflicts among the MCP members. During this period, it was reported that the government agents and spies had succeeded in infiltrating the MCP organization. It was reported that the ‘spies’ were plotting a coup within the MCP Headquarters. The counterintelligence investigators appointed by the MCP Central Committee reported that they believed that 90 percent of the Thai Chinese recruits who joined the party from 1960 onward were government spies.
Members in the militant wing started to accuse each other as government spies. Betrayal in guerrilla ranks was regarded as the most serious crime against the party and the punishment was normally death by execution. During the jungle trial held by the MCP leadership, a large number of guerrillas from Headquarters and Betong East Camp were found guilty of being enemy agents. However, the Sadao and the West Betong Group refused to conduct such trials. Instead, they refused to adhere to the MCP Central Committee orders. They in fact made an accusation that the MCP Central Committee was under the control of government agents.
By October 1974, the MCP leadership had split into two different factions, between the Maoist and the Marxist-Leninist. The MRLA in the northern part of Malaysia near the Thailand border were located in three places. The MCP Central Committee was with the East Betong Group, and the other two groups were located at West Betong and Sadao. When the crisis was getting worse, the Sadao groups broke away from the main MCP groups and proclaimed themselves as the MCP Revolutionary Faction (RF). Subsequently the Betong West group, who also broke from the main MCP groups, identified their party as the MCP “Marxist-Lenin” (M-L) and later renamed their guerrilla arm as the Malayan People’s Liberation Army (MPLA) instead of the Malayan Races Liberation Army.
Some observers believed that a new revolutionary struggle was initiated with the influence of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. They believed that the Vietnam Communist Party, backed by the Soviet Union, had agreed to provide logistical and propaganda support to the ‘new fraction’ groups, such as Betong West and Sadao Group. Later it was found out that the Betong West and the Sadao Group ceased to exist not long after they broke away from the main groups. These groups realized that their armed struggles could not achieve any success. The West Betong and the Sadao groups then decided to surrender themselves to the Thai Government in early 1987. After that time, the MCP arms struggles and militant activities became weak and disintegrated with no clear political or military objective.
From the Briggs Plan, the Malaysian Government understood the importance of security and development and how it could be used against the MCP insurgency. The Malaysian Government, then, introduced a new strategy of fighting the MCP. It was known as Security and Development, or KESBAN, the local acronym, and focused on civil military affairs. KESBAN constituted the sum total of all measures undertaken by the Malaysian Armed Forces and other (government) agencies to strengthen and protect society from subversion, lawlessness, and insurgency which effectively broke the resistance. Undoubtedly as Malaysia experienced, security and development were the most prudent approach to combating insurgencies and terrorism.
The KESBAN programs succeeded in developing Malaysia into a more stable and secure society. Malaysia basically had institutionalized the concept of KESBAN, with the setting up of coordinated bodies from the village, district, and state to the federal level. All the relevant agencies were represented and in this way, obstacles and problems were discussed and overcame jointly. The government made huge efforts to develop rural areas with the implementation of massive development programs such as road constructions, building new school, hospital, medical clinic and public utilities such as electric and water supply for the public.
The government also instituted other security measures in order to meet the MCP menace, including strict press censorship, increasing the size of the police force, resettling squatters and relocating villages in “insecure” rural areas. By mid 1975, when the MCP militant activities were at a peak, the government promulgated a set of Essential Regulations, without declaring a state of emergency. The Essential Regulations provided for the establishment of a scheme called a ‘Rukun Tetangga,’ ‘Rela’ (People’s Volunteer Group). The concept of “Rukun Tetangga” (Neighborhood Watch) had made the Malays, Chinese, and Indians become closer together, and more tolerant of each other.
The Malaysian Government made the right decision by not declaring a state of emergency during the second insurgency. The reason was a desire to avoid the fears of the populace (leading to increase in ethnic antipathy) and to avoid scaring away needed foreign investment. The economic prosperity achieved in the 1970s enabled the administration of Tun Abdul Razak and later Tun Hussein Onn who took over on the death of Tun Razak in 1976, to make considerable progress towards the Malaysian economy. When Dr. Mahathir Mohammad took over as the Malaysian Prime Minister from Dato Hussein Onn in 1980, he succeeded in making Malaysia one of the fastest developing nations in Asia. The annual growth of the Malaysian economy rose up to 8 percent.
Since 1972 Malaysia had established a bilateral relationship with China. The Malaysian Government urged the leaders of China to exert influence on the MCP leadership to convince them to lay down their arms. During Dr. Mahathir Mohammad’s premiership, he initiated an effort to bring MCP to negotiation table to end the insurgency. Dr. Mahathir believed that the MCP was fighting a losing battle and urged them to lay down their arms and join the other Malaysians in developing the country.
In 1988, the MCP leadership in the northern part of Malaysia agreed with the Malaysian Government offer to attend a negotiation to a peace initiative. The MCP, which by that time was in a desperate situation to continue their armed struggle agreed with the proposal. Furthermore, since early 1981, Deng Xiao Peng had encouraged them to seek an avenue for a peace accord.
When the Communist bloc in Europe collapsed in the late 1980s, the MCP had accepted the fact that they did not have any chance to form a communist government in Malaya. Malaysia by that time was one of the newly developed nations in Asia. Malaysia’s economy was strong and the majority of Malaysia’s citizens refused to accept communist ideology. After a series of negotiations between the Malaysian Government and the MCP, with the Thai Government as the mediator, the MCP finally agreed to sign a Peace Accord in Haadyai, Thailand on the 2 December 1989.
The peace accord did not require the MCP to surrender; it only required that the MCP cease their militant activities. With the signing of the Haadyai Peace Accord, the MCP agreed to disband their armed units and destroy all of their weapons. They also ‘pledged their loyalty’ to His Majesty the Yang di Pertuan Agong of Malaysia. This date marked the end of the MCP insurgency in Malaysia.
At the end of the peace accord, it was estimated that there were about 1,188 MCP members still on the active list. Some of them chose to return to their states in Malaysia and the rest selected to stay in a “Peace Village” at the Thai border. The Malaysian Government had paid them all some compensation money. First RM 3,000 was paid on their immediate return, and another RM 5,000 was paid three years after their return.