In 1948, the Communists and the British colonial government in Malaya entered a period of guerrilla fighting which has become known to history as the Malayan Emergency. The name derives from the state of emergency declared by the colonial administration in June 1948 to extend the powers of the police and military. The state of emergency was officially lifted in July 1960. In the broadest context, the events leading to the emergency include the following:
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| - Circumstances prior to the Malayan Emergency (en)
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| - In 1948, the Communists and the British colonial government in Malaya entered a period of guerrilla fighting which has become known to history as the Malayan Emergency. The name derives from the state of emergency declared by the colonial administration in June 1948 to extend the powers of the police and military. The state of emergency was officially lifted in July 1960. In the broadest context, the events leading to the emergency include the following: (en)
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| - 0001-06-14 (xsd:gMonthDay)
- Arrest all picketers. (en)
- That such agitation [i.e., striking] has been so often successful is due in very large measure to the fact that individual employers,
in order to realise quick profits, have frequently given way to it . . .
It is the opinion of Government that an effective union of employers has an important function to perform in resisting unreasonable demands. (en)
- If we arrest a few [dissidents] now we shall probably provoke retaliation
which will enable us to arrest many more,
but it will be a sort of running battle which will lay us open to misrepresentation
both in this country and in the world.
It will look like an aggressive act during a period of comparative peace. It seems to me that if we are content to wait a little longer another opportunity will come, not perhaps as good as the last one, but still good enough to enable us to take the most widespread and effective action without fear of adverse public opinion. (en)
- the reasons for this strike are purely political. There is no question at all of wages or conditions of labour.
The leaders of the General Labour Union and other Associations cannot, in my opinion be regarded as Trade Union leaders in any real sense. They are purely political leaders attempting to subvert the law and bring the British Military Administration into hatred and contempt. (en)
- On account of the political situation existing in neighbouring countries it was always possible that the strikes would take a 'political' turn and it is even surprising in retrospect,
that considerations of this kind played such a comparatively small part.
As to the economic grounds for the strike there was never any doubt.
The cost of living has risen out of all proportion to the level of wages so much so that the strikers' demands were first and foremost for an increased rice ration and only secondly for increased pay.
The causes of the unrest are thus primarily economic. (en)
- . . . the main cause of the recent disturbances is the lack of rice. (en)
- There have been a few major incidents in the country towns necessitating shooting on a very small scale and this had had a most salutary effect. . . .
50,000 tons of rice would go far towards a solution . (en)
- When our allotment of rice for December and January was substantially reduced, we found ourselves in a serious predicament. To have distributed the rice equitably throughout the whole country would have entailed a substantial reduction of the ration in Singapore as well as throughout the Mainland. From every point of view, however, we had to safeguard the position in Singapore.
The political repercussions of such an announcement would we knew be serious, and our problem was to redistribute rice on such a basis as would minimise the unrest and disorder which it was only reasonable to expect would follow the new announcement ...
Singapore mishandled could paralyse the whole country, and ... could seriously hamper our military operations in Java. (en)
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| - 0001-01-09 (xsd:gMonthDay)
- 0001-10-29 (xsd:gMonthDay)
- BMA report, December 1945. (en)
- Mountbatten, 9 Jan 1946 (en)
- Strikes and Disturbances in Malaya. (en)
- Statement to the Singapore Association by
P.A.B. McKerron, Acting Governor of Singapore. (en)
- British Military Administration report, December 1945. (en)
- BMA order, Oct 27, 1945, regarding Singapore dockworkers' strike. (en)
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| - In 1948, the Communists and the British colonial government in Malaya entered a period of guerrilla fighting which has become known to history as the Malayan Emergency. The name derives from the state of emergency declared by the colonial administration in June 1948 to extend the powers of the police and military. The state of emergency was officially lifted in July 1960. In the broadest context, the events leading to the emergency include the following:
* The establishment of British hegemony over Malaya in the 19th century.
* The importation of large numbers of Chinese and Indians as labourers for colonial industry, primarily tin mining and rubber planting.
* The formation of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) in the 1930s.
* The rout by the Japanese of the British in the early part of World War II. For many Malayans this dispelled a myth of British omnipotence.
* The rise of the MCP-led Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) as the main resistance against the Japanese during their period of occupation. This article focuses on the immediate antecedents to the Emergency, beginning shortly after the Japanese surrender and British reoccupation in August and September 1945. (en)
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