National Liberation Struggle Of The Peoples Of Malaya
Reports Presented in 1949 to the Pacific Institute of the Academy of Sciences, U.S.S.R.
National Liberation Struggle Of The Peoples Of Malaya
U.S.A. In 1946, nearly 75 per
cent of the rubber needed by American industry was obtained through synthetic
methods, while till the war, 90 per cent of American requirements of rubber
were provided for by Britain by way of supplies from Malaya. In the war years,
the American Government financed the construction of a big tin-smelting plant
in the town of Longhorn. In 1947, this plant manufactured 30,000 tons of tin
ore of which a considerable part breaking the former British monopoly, came
directly from Siam, where in the post-war period the Americans had strengthened
considerably their economic positions and political influence.
British monopoly
in the sphere of rubber and tin was considerably undermined. True, not
completely because the synthetic rubber produced by the U.S. plants was more
expensive than natural rubber and the tin mines of Siam were not able to fully
provide for the requirements of American industry. Therefore, already in 1946
as a result of prolonged Anglo-American negotiations, the Americans once again
began to purchase Malayan rubber and tin. In 1947 alone, the U.S.A. imported
457,000 tons of rubber and more than 20,000 tons of tin from Malaya. The cost
of Malayan exports to U.S.A. amounted to 346 million dollars, which exceeded by
166 million dollars the cost of the entire British export to U.S.A. in 1947.
Therefore the British Press with full justification called Malaya the “dollar
arsenal” of Britain. One can understand the tremendous economic significance of
Malaya in the strained balance of payment of “Marshallised” Britain.
Taking into
account the general rise in the prices of raw materials, the British
monopolists looked forward to considerably greater profits in 1948 than they
had received in 1947. However, the British financiers had reckoned without the
master. Wall Street did not in the least intend to increase the dollar cash of
the British bank and lessen Britain’s dependence on the U.S.A. Therefore, the
American monopolists by threatening their British competitors to take to
artificial rubber, to increase the purchase of rubber Indonesia (the great
activity which Americans are displaying there is not without reason) and also
to extend the extraction of tin in Siam, not only did not allow a rise in
prices of tin and rubber but also as was pointed out by the Diplomatic Correspondent
of the Daily Worker of July 26, 1948,
it even secured a considerable lowering of prices of the two most important
types of raw materials.
The British
monopolists, who were compelled to subordinate themselves to American pressure
as a consequence of the causes that have been pointed out as well as, as a
result of the general intensification of Britain’s dependence upon the U.S.A.,
attempted to transfer the costs of the unsuccessful struggle against their
competitors across the ocean on the shoulders of the toiling masses of Malaya
by lowering their wages, which were already very low.
But serious
changes had taken place in Malaya during these past years. The organisation of
the toiling people of the country had grown considerably. Nearly half a million
members of the trade union had united in the all-Malaya federation of Trade
Unions. Under the leadership of a militant Communist Party and the All-Malaya
federation of Trade Unions, the working people of Malaya in alliance with the
intelligentsia and the petty-bourgeoisie commenced an active struggle for their
rights and their national independence. That is why the British rubber and tin
monopolies decided to decapitate, with the help of the police and the armed
forces, the national-liberation movement of Malaya before raising the question
of lowering wages. Relying upon the agreement that had been secured in 1946
with the feudal top stratum of Malaya (expressed in the replacement of the
so-called Malayan Union by the Malayan Federation and in the restoration of the
rights of the Sultans of nine feudal princedoms) in London, they relied upon
drowning the liberation movement in Malaya in blood, and on guaranteeing
millions of super-profits for the rubber and tin monopolies.
The plans of the
British imperialists found complete support and approval in Washington. In the
measure of the growth of the national-liberation movement in the countries of
S. E. Asia, the consolidation of the front of democracy and freedom in china
and the weakening of the positions of Kuomintang reaction, the anxiety of the
American politicians increased. It was particularly intensified in May 1948
when there appeared in Washington the alarming reports of American military
experts on the catastrophic situation of Chiang Kai-shek’s army and on the
possibility of an onrush of Chinese democratic forces to the South.
The situation in
S. E. Asia was discussed in detail in June 1948 at a regular gathering of the
joint Council of the Chiefs of Staff in Washington. The American
representatives declared for the quickest organisation of a cordon sanitaire in S. E. Asia, which
would have to prevent the growth of the influence of democratic forces in this
part of the world in the case of the final defeat of the Kuomintang regime and
the victory of democracy in China. According to the reports of the Telepress Agency dated 22nd June,
1948, at this gathering the American representatives demanded from the British
the defeat of the democratic forces of Malaya, the bringing about of “order”
there and the re-occupation of the country by a considerable number of British
forces. The American generals and diplomats considered that these measures
would not only finally resolve the question of providing American industry with
strategic raw materials of S. E. Asia, but would also prevent in case of
“extraordinary events”, the isolation of American military bases in the Far
East and in the pacific ocean by ensuring at any time an approach of them from
the side of S. E. Asia and would also guarantee control over Singapore.
Thus,
on the Malayan question the interests of British and American monopolist
coincided.
In realising the
decisions of the Washington meeting of the Joint Council of the Chief of Staff
the British Government in its turn adopted the decision of moving the main base
of British Far East squadron from Hongkong to Singapore. There began simultaneously
the accumulation of military units and armaments for the re-occupation of
Malaya and for the destruction of the democratic forces in the country. The
British bourgeois press of all shades and trends raised heart-rending wall
about the “Communist” menace in Malaya and about the foreign intervention in
the affairs of the country.
After so much of
careful preparation, the British Colonial Power thought that in June, 1948, a
most appropriate moment had been reached for dealing a blow to the communist
party of Malaya and to the progressive trade unions which had joined the
All-Malaya Federation of Trade Unions. At a signal from London and Singapore,
all over the country there began raids upon communists, the smash-up of trade
union organizations, the arrests and murders of democratic leaders.
It is clear that
the bloody events in Malaya which began in June, 1948, and are continuing to
this day, are not the result of the “Communist plot” as the British military
and political leaders and the corrupt British Press are attempting to prove but
are the consequence of pre-planned provocation, carried out at the dictates
from London and Washington.
Even such a
trumpet of imperialist propaganda as the Far Eastern correspondent of the
London Times, Morrison, in his article published in the Far Eastern Survey (No. 24, December 22, 1948), is forced to state:
“An incontestable
conviction is being developed that the Malayan communists were compelled to
launch military operations earlier than they were prepared for them, i.e. it
turns out (seems) as though they were drawn in the revolution.”
In preparing the
attack against the toiling masses of Malaya, the British colonisers reckoned
that they would be able within a few days to smash the Communist Party and the
trade unions and finally to subjugate and enslave Malaya. However, the British
imperialists had miscalculated seriously. They did not realise the serious
changes that had taken place in S.E. Asia and in particular, in Malaya during
the years that had elapsed. The years of struggle against the Japanese
occupation had contributed to a considerable growth in the political
consciousness of the peoples of Malaya and had assisted in the solidarity of
her popular masses and given the first experience of partisan struggle. As a
result, after the Japanese occupationists had been driven out of Malaya, the
national-liberation movement already had a firm base among the masses of the
people of Malaya, and was based on the political consciousness of the masses
and possessed the experience of an armed struggle. If we bear in mind also the
great influence of the communist Party, and influence which rose in the years
of the anti-Japanese struggle, then the baselessness of the calculations of the
British colonisers about dealing with the democratic movement in a short time
becomes evident.
In reply to the
attack of the British imperialists, the toiling people of Malaya under the
leadership of the communist Party and the All-Malaya Federation of Trade Unions
rose in defence of their independence. The liberation movement developed into
an armed struggle of the peoples of the country against the British colonisers.
In June, 1948, as a reply to the provocative actions of the planters of Perak,
who had formed bands of cut-throats for smashing up the trade unions in the
central parts of Perak, the first partisan units in Malaya were created from
among the former members of the “Anti-Japanese Army of the Malayan People.”
The bands of
ruffians were defeated by the people’s detachments. In the clashes of 16th
June, there Englishmen—managers of the rubber plantations were killed. The
British Colonial Power in Malaya finally secured the long-awaited excuse for
intervention. The British press of Malaya and Great Britain began to screech
about Communist uprising while the Governor of the Malayan Federation, Ghent,
had already on 17th June granted to the police of Perak and other
States of the Federation the right to arrest without trial and even to shoot at
sight all those who “resisted the actions of the police authorities.”
Thus, the most
violent colonial terror against the Malayan people received “judicial”
sanction. The fact that the murder of the three Englishmen, which served as an excuse
for the terror
of the
colonisers
was in actual fact a provocation is also recognised by Morrison, whom we have
already cited and who in the same article in the Far Eastern Economist writes:
“The murder of the three British
planters did not enter into the plans of the Communist leadership and was an
accident.”
In the middle of
June, partisan detachments also began to be formed in the princedom of Kelantan
and in a number of regions, where the local police had been particularly rowdy.
The planters and
the colonial army units were frightened. They demanded of the British
Government the employment of most resolute measures and the dispatch of
military regiments. Already on 22nd June the British minister for
Colonies, Creech Jones, speaking in Parliament reported that the government had
decided to liquidate the disorder at any price. It granted extraordinary
plenary powers to the British colonial authorities in Malaya and sent military
units there.
On the very day,
it was announced in the Federal capital of Kuala Lumpur that there was to be a
state of siege in the four main rubber-producing regions of Malaya. After two
days, the State of siege was also extended to Singapore although it was
perfectly calm there. The British colonizers calculated on thus dealing a
powerful blow to this centre of the National Liberation movement of Malaya.
As a result, from
20th to 24th June, according to the official figures
alone more than 800 members of the Communist party of Malaya were arrested in
the big centres of Malaya. In the end of June, the state of siege was extended
to the whole of Malaya. The police and troops were granted the right of
shooting at sight any one who was found in possession of weapons. The Malayan
police widely employed the draconian rights granted to them and hundreds of
democratically-minded Malayan, Chinese and Indian workers were tortured and
shot down in the police regions.
However, already
the first days of June saw a noticeably significant extension of the partisan
movement, which embraced the regions directly bordering on Kuala Lumpur. On 3rd
July, 1948, the group of representatives of the rubber planters and tin
monopolies visited Ghent, the Governor of the Malayan federation. These real
masters of the colonial administration categorically demanded form Ghent the
employment of the most fierce measures against the rebels and also the
immediate bringing into action of the big military units.
Literally on the
very day, the big Conservative papers in Britain published editorials
containing sharp accusations regarding the inefficiency and uselessness of the
British colonial administration in Malaya. The Governor of Malayan Federation,
Ghent, well-known for his opposition to the policy of the Minister for Colonies
with respect to Malaya, was urgently summoned to London for the next
instructions. However, he did not succeed in flying to Britain. He was killed
in Switzerland in an air catastrophe, resulting from circumstances that have
not been explained.
Frightened by the
revival of the movement of the people in revolt and apprehending the beginning
of a general uprising, the British colonizers began demanding immediate
military reinforcements. Gurkha regiments, mine-fusiliers, Yorkshire,
Inniskilling and Irish fusiliers regiments were sent to Malaya in the course of
July 1948 from Britain, the Near East Malta, Ceylon and Hongkong.
Already in the
middle of July these newly-arrived troops were directly from their ships, sent
into action against the partisan detachments whose numbers had begun to grow
and extend over the entire country. For reconnaissance and for dealing blows to
the partisans from the air, the air force was widely utilised. For this purpose,
several squadrons of destroyers and bombers were transferred from Ceylon to
Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
In the second half
of July, over almost the whole of Malaya there took place many engagements
between the partisan detachments and the British military units. The most
serious engagement took place in central Kedah, in the region of Balito, where
the battle between the partisans and army units went on for 16 hours on 15th
July. Serious engagements took place in all the provinces of Selangor, Perak,
Negri Sembilan. A particularly tense situation was created in Johore, nearby
Singapore. In this princedom there began simultaneously with the struggle of
the partisans a strike of the workers of almost all the rubber plantations.
The alarmed and
frightened shareholders of Great Britain could now no longer be satisfied with
fables about the conspiracy of a small number of Communist in Malaya. In spite
of the obstacles placed by the British censor, it has become clear even to the
ordinary readers that unrest embraces the whole of Malaya.
In order to
somehow explain away the situation that was developing and to save the British
authorities from reproaches the Reuter agency
and a number of British papers began, as has been pointed out above, to publish
reports about “Cominform activities” in Malaya, about the co-ordination of the
Communist movement in Malaya and Burma, about the help which the Malayan
Communists were supposed to be receiving from outside. The Bangkok fables about
the activities of the mythical League of South East Asia were again let loose.
All this
anti-Communist propaganda reached its climax on 23rd July, when at a
session of the House of Commons, Creech Jones declared with shouts of approval
both from the Conservative as well as from the Labourite members that the
British Government had sanctioned the decision of the Malayan colonial
authorities for the immediate banning of the Malayan Communist Party.
The Minister for
Colonies pointed out that he wholly supported the assertion of the British
authorities in Malaya that the Communist Party bore the main responsibility for
the present happenings inside the country and that it had carried out all the
preparatory work for an uprising.
The Communist
member of Parliament, Gallacher, spike in reply to the Government, to the
businessmen and officials of the colonies, who had gone to extreme lengths and
to the conservative and Labour members who had let themselves go. He exposed
“all this slander and attack against the working class of Malaya” and refuted
the assertion that the Communist Party of Malaya was to blame for the disorders
in Malaya. Gallacher pointed out that the disorders in Malaya are an expression
of the frank and legitimate demand of the peoples of the country for the
granting of independence to them. The events in Malaya, emphasised Gallacher,
are a protest against the injustice done to toiling classes, who are demanding
that the tin and rubber should be taken away from imperialists who control them
and who exploit the people of Malaya.
As usual, the
bourgeois Press attempted to blackout Gallacher’s speech. However, it reached
Malaya and produced a very powerful impression there, as a symbol of the
fraternal support of the British proletariat to the peoples of Malaya, fighting
for their freedom.
Simultaneously
with the banning of the Communist Party, the British authorities took the decision to ban other progressive democratic
organisations also—the league of democratic youth, the Ex- Comrades Association
of the Anti-Japanese army of the People of Malaya, and the League of Youth for
the Struggle for the National Independence of Malaya. During the month
preceding this, the British colonial authorities had taken the decision to
disband the All-Malaya Federation of Trade Unions which was so popular among
the working people and so hated by the planters.
Having organised
numerous provocations and having drowned Malaya in blood, the British colonial
authorities executed the orders of the British tin and rubber monopolies and
the task set up by the bosses of Wall Street; they disbanded and banned the
progressive organisations of Malaya.
However, the plans
of the British monopolists were realised only partially; the banning of the
Malayan Communist Party and the anti-Japanese Army of the Malayan People did
not in the least signify their liquidation. On the contrary, going underground
the Malayan Communist Party raised aloft the banner of the anti-imperialist
struggle by uniting around itself the toiling masses of Malaya and the members
of the former Anti-Japanese army of the People of Malaya, and came forward in
an active struggle against the British colonisers.
It was no accident
that in the many proclamations and leaflets issued by this fighting
organisation, it called itself not the anti-Japanese but the Anti-British Army
of the People of Malaya. In the second half of July, 1948, the military
operations continued to spread. The partisan detachments attacked a big centre
of the coal industry—Baty Arang and a large number of coal pits were put out of
commission. Serious battles took place in the area of the tin mines and rubber
plantations to the South of Kuala Lumpur, where the British commander was
forced to concentrate two columns of British troops with artillery, tanks and
aeroplanes.
In the last days
of July when the unrest spread to the main centre of tin industry—Ipoh, the
British command, on the demand of the tin concerns brought aerial descent units
into action and mass attacks of “spitfires” were organised on the peaceful
Malayan villages in the area of Ipoh, and big artillery reinforcements were
ordered from the Near East.
The panic amongst
the British planters and colonial authorities reached unheard of dimensions in
the beginning of August. An all-Malaya meeting of the planters in Kuala Lumpur
demanded the immediate despatch to Malaya of not less than two fresh divisions
of regular troops, threatening otherwise to cease immediately the extraction of
rubber with all the consequences for British export ensuing from it. And this
being not enough, frightened by the unexpected result of their own provocation
and machinations, the British colonial authorities demanded that the British
Government should raise before the Australian Government the question of
transfer of Australian troops from Japan to Malaya.
With the aim of
working out concrete measures to crush the national-liberation movement, a big
meeting was called in Singapore on 6th August of British military
and civil authorities in S.E. Asia. The Commander-in-Chief of the British armed
forces in Malaya—General Boucher and other top representatives of the British
armed forces in S.E. Asia and also the Governors and representatives of the
colonial authorities of all the British possessions in the region, took part in
it.
On August 7th,
the Times published an editorial
devoted to the results of this meeting. In it, this organ of the City pointed
out that the aim of the coming invasion of Malaya is “the suppression of the
forces of the Communists in Malaya, which will mean a heavy blow to Communism
throughout Asia. If a defeat can be inflicted on the Malayan communists, then
al the forces which give rise to the unrest and disruption that is taking place
at the present time in Burma, Siam and in the Dutch East Indies will receive a
blow. This will clear the path for the economic and political rehabilitation of
these countries, which is being carried on in collaboration with the Western
Powers who expect aid and a balancing of their budgets from this part of the world.”
It is difficult to
express more clearly the aims of the British monopolists. It turns out that the
question is not of the mythical menace of Communism but of the desire to subjugate
the peoples of S.E. Asia once again to their power, to convert this area into a
vast reserve of raw materials and dollars for the Marshallised countries of
Western Europe.
However, the
bellicose declarations of the British generals and the still more bellicose
articles of the British papers did not frighten the peoples of Malaya. In
September, 1948, the partisan movement embraced two-thirds of the country.
The British
Government adopted an extraordinary decision. Two-Guard brigades were sent to
Malaya. Never before in the history of Britain have the Guards been sent to the
colonies in times of peace. At that very time, two squadrons of the latest
reactive-destroyers with rocket equipment were sent. The Attlee-Bevin
“Socialist” Government decided to employ also other methods of fighting the
people of Malaya. According to the report of the special correspondent of the Daily Worker, the British authorities
acquired wolf-hounds, specially trained for hunting men in the Hitlerite
concentration camps. These dogs were transported to Singapore to hunt down the
partisans. But even this turned out to be inadequate for the Labourite
colonisers who were running riot. The progressive public of the whole world was
literally stunned by the report that, at a special directive of the British
Government, the savage inhabitants of Borneo, the Dyaks, were conveyed in
aeroplanes from Sarawak to Singapore. According to a report of the Reuter
agency, the Dyaks were intended for the organization of special detachments
which were to track down the partisans in the Malayan jungles. The main weapon
of the Dyaks were the special blow-pipes, from which they released poisoned
darts. This weapon was conveyed from Sarawak to Singapore by a special plane.
From rocket destroyers and the latest tanks to wolf-hounds and poisoned
darts—such were the methods of fighting employed by the British “Socialists”
against the peoples of Malaya.
In order to
frighten the population of the country, towards the end of September the
British colonial authorities began to conduct mass public executions of the
partisans who had been taken captive, employing the method of “psychological
attack”, namely, one with British aeroplanes scattering tens of thousands of
leaflets depicting the mutilated head of the murdered leader of the Malayan
partisans, Liew- yau, who had proved himself to be a courageous fighter and a
splendid organiser of the masses of people.
However, nothing
helped. The movement against the colonisers continued to grow. The British
colonisers attempted to mobilise Malayan feudal reaction against the peoples of
the country. There appeared at the courts of all the nine Malayan Sultans,
special representatives of the ministry for Colonial Affairs. They promised the
Sultans a number of additional concessions, granting some of their demands in
exchange for support for the struggle of the colonisers against the
national-liberation movement. The reactionary Muslim clergy mobilized and it
began to set the Malayan Muslims against the Chinese. It was with this very
same aim that the experienced provocateur, the former Commissioner of the
Palestine police, Gray, was sent to Malaya. He began immediately to operate in
the Palestine style by organizing clashes between the Malayan and Chinese
groups of the population. In accordance with the agreements with the feudal
rulers, Gray and his henchmen set about organizing a band of provocateurs, who
distributed themselves amongst the partisan detachments. These traitor
cut-throats were set the task of establishing contact with the partisans and
thus betraying the location of the partisan detachments to the British command.
In October, 1948,
with the arrival of the Guards, the total number of British troops in Malaya
exceeded 50,000 and thus the British were compelled to employ against the
peoples of Malaya considerably more forces than they had employed in their time
against the Japanese in this very theatre of military operations. The number of
partisan ranks towards the end of 1948 did not exceed twenty thousand members
even according to the figures of the British bourgeois press. But all the same,
the British colonisers were not able to achieve any decisive successes.
In February, 1949,
it became evident that in spite of the extensive military operations of troops
supplied with modern arms, the British colonisers were not able to defeat the
partisan detachments of the Malayans and the Chinese and at the price of considerable
sacrifices, could only squeeze the fighting
units of the Malayan patriots out
of the southern part of Malaya and in particular out of Johore into the central
and north-western part of the peninsula. A debate in the House of Lords was
held in February, 1949, on the situation in Malaya. The Labourite Lord Elibank
was forced to admit that the situation in Malaya had deteriorated. He
emphasised that “our prestige and our positions in the Far East are at stake.”
The Conservative Lord Shankfort declared: “It is difficult to understand what
is happening in Malaya to- day. One thing is clear—we are not winning.”
In concluding his
speech, he emphasised that the military operations in Malaya cost the British
exchequer 35,000 pounds daily. Lord Hurley (Independent) was also forced to
admit that “there were almost no successes in Malaya.”
A still more
concrete declaration on the state of affairs in Malaya was made in the House of
Commons on 8th February, 1949 by the Labourite Longden, who pointed
out that “the Malayan population was more favourably inclined towards the
rebels than towards the Government.”
A no less
pessimistic appraisal of the situation of the British colonisers in Malaya was
given by the newspaper Yorkshire Post,
which is closely connected with the leadership of the Conservative Party. In
its leading article, devoted to the situation in Malaya (19th
February) it noted that although the total number of British troops and police
in Malaya had risen to 70,000 they had not succeeded in winning victory over
the partisans. The article pointed out that the partisan detachments had the
opportunity of making up for their losses by considerable reinforcements from
the local population.
The Singapore
correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and
Morning Post, Buckley, also testifies
to the fact that the losses of the partisans in the military operations against
the British armed forces were not great. In an article published on 16th
May, 1949 he estimates the possible losses of the partisans to be 20 per cent
of their total number. He emphasises that the only result, achieved by the
British Command at the end of a year’s struggle against the partisans and at
the cost of heavy human and material sacrifice is that the main forces of the
partisans were forced to retreat to the central part of the peninsula, mainly
in the direction of the Siamese border. Thus, the first five months of 1949 did
not bring any victory to the British imperialists in their struggle for the
enslavement of the peoples of Malaya. Being unable to achieve victory in the
struggle against the partisans the British colonisers began employing ruthless
repression against the defenceless, peaceful inhabitants of the peninsula. According
to the figures of Lim—the Editor of the bulletin, The Malayan Monitor—during the one year of war operations in
Malayan, the British imperialists hanged 75 and shot down more than 500
fighters for freedom. Two thousands three hundred Malayans and Chinese were
exiled form Malaya only for being suspected of sympathising with the partisans.
On that very same charge, eleven big villages were burnt down by the British
colonisers; nearly 7,000 Malayans are languishing in concentration camps. The
British colonizers in their hatred towards the democratic forces of Malaya went
to this extent that from 1949 they began to exile and to hand over the families
of the Chinese settlers who were fighting in the ranks of the partisans to the
Kuomintang authorities.
However, neither
the gallows nor torture can break the will of the Malayan people. The manifesto
published recently by three organizations participating in the struggle for
national liberation—the Organisation of the Fighting Youth, the Peasants’ Union
and the Women’s Federation—points out:
“British imperialism
has completely exposed its fascist character by shooting down the village
population by the bombardment of the countryside and the driving away of people
from their homes.”
In conclusion, the
Manifesto says that although the struggle against imperialism will be a
prolonged one “victory is with us because British imperialism is getting weaker
and becoming more and
more
isolated, while we are becoming stronger, since our struggle is a revolutionary
war for the liberation of our country and our people.”
Being unable to
achieve the defeat of the democratic forces through military methods, through
terror and intimidation, the British imperialists made an attempt to disrupt
the national-liberation movement by compromising with certain circles of the
Malayan and in particular, the Chinese petty and middle bourgeoisie. Already on
November 10, 1948, during a debate in the House of Lords on the Malayan
question, Lord Listowel acting for Creech Jones reported on a number of reforms
which the British Government intended to introduce in Malaya. As one of these,
he pointed to the possibility of a unification of Singapore and the Malayan
Federation. The separation of Singapore from Malaya was one of the most
important aims of the British colonisers at the time when they had put forward
the plan of forming a Malayan union and later the Malayan Federation. Now the
British Minister for Colonies was forced to raise the question of a possible
unification of Singapore and the Malayan Federation. It is perfectly evident that
it was only the growth of the national-liberation movement in the country which
compelled the British imperialists to change their stand on this question. A
characteristic proof of the people’s successes in Malaya is the speech (20th
April, 1949) made at a meeting of the London branch of the League of Young
Conservatives by Mancroft, a prominent leader of the Conservative party who had
recently returned from Malaya. Mancroft declared: “We will be glad to see
Malaya within the Commonwealth of Nations as an independent dominion.” Surely
this is an indication of the anxiety of British imperialism for its position in
Malaya. Such a declaration testifies to the fact that the British ruling top
stratum, having sustained defeat in its policy of employing the knout in
respect of Malaya is now attempting to pursue the policy of honeyed words.
The British
colonisers made the usual attempt to split the trade union movement in Malaya
and through this make the struggle of the Malayan proletariat more difficult.
At the end of February, 1949, at the dictates of the British authorities a
conference of the representatives of yellow trade unions was called in Kuala
Lumpur. The leader of the Malayan feudal reaction, Dato Onn Bin Jaffar, who had
secured from the British the post of Prime Minister of Johore spoke at this
conference. Jaffar pointed to the necessity of uniting within a new Federation
of trade unions all the “moderate” elements in the working class and trade
union movement. Jaffar’s speech was the beginning of a big campaign of
provocation by the British colonisers. In order to further this campaign “trade
union advisers” were sent from Britain who had actively joined in all measures
directed towards splitting the trade union movement.
However, no
quislings were found among the Malayan working people. The yellow unions were
boycotted and the All-Malayan Federation of Trade Unions which was disbanded by
the British and had gone underground enjoyed tremendous authority and
popularity as before. The British made attempts to physically wreak vengeance
on the leaders of the All-Malaya Federation of Trade-Unions. In March, 1949,
the President of the All-Malaya Federation, Ganapathy, an Indian was captured,
put under arrest and tortured. Ganapathy’s arrest and the sentence of death
passed on him for alleged possession of a revolver, evoked tremendous
indignation of the public in the countries of the East and in particular in
India. This compelled the Indian Government, after fruitless efforts at
securing from the British authorities in Malaya commutation of the sentence, to
turn with a corresponding request to the Minister for Colonies in London. In
spite of the promise of the Minister for Colonies to consider this question,
Ganapathy was executed on 3rd May. Ganapathy’s execution evoked a
still greater outburst of indignation. In India there began mass protests and
it is characteristic that the Indian public connected the disdainful attitude
of the British authorities to the request of the India Government in respect of
Ganapathy with the lowering of India’s prestige, brought about by Nehru’s
acceding to allow the country to remain within the British “Commonwealth of
Nations.” The Acting-General Secretary of the All-India Trade Union Congress,
Manek Gandhi, declared on 5th may, at a crowded meeting in Bombay
that Ganapathy’s execution is “the first result of the fact that the Nehru
Government was subservient to British imperialism and had agreed to retain India within the “Commonwealth of Nations.” A prominent member
of the
Socialist
party of India, Ashok Mehta declared: “The tragedy of Ganapathy hangs like a
load in the Commonwealth chain recently forged in London.”
However, the
British colonisers were not content with the vengeance wrought against
Ganapathy. In the beginning of May, the Indian, Veersenan, who succeeded
Ganapathy to the post of President of the All-Malaya Federation of Trade Unions
was shot down.
Neither the
repression of the British imperialists, nor the provocation of British agents,
nor the military operations of the British armed forces could break the
resistance of the working people of Malaya. The armed struggle against British
imperialism is continuing. In the beginning of November, 1949, more than 40 per
cent of the territory of Malaya was an arena of fierce battles between the
partisan detachments and the British armed forces. In the princedoms of Pahang,
Perak and particularly in Kelantan and Keddah, vast territory is under the
direct control of the Malayan partisans.
It is true that
the partisans have not succeeded in forming a contiguous territory of liberated
regions. Nevertheless, the British armed forces, numbering more than 75,000 and
equipped with the most up-to-date fighting technique were not able to defeat the
partisans of Malaya in a year.
It is difficult to
describe the brutality let loose by the British colonisers. The correspondent
of the reactionary American paper, Christian
Science Monitor, writes in an article published on 1st April
1949: “The troops bombard, machine-gun and raid villages, inhabited by the
peaceful natives, if there is suspicious that Communists are hiding in the
village. The troops shoot down men carrying prohibited weapons, they throw into
prison the inhabitants suspected of radical leanings (for this no proof is demanded)
and banish the population of entire Chinese villages by directing the
inhabitants into Kuomintang China.
The struggle
continues. The heroic Malayan partisans—Malays, Chinese, Indians—enjoy the
widest support of the entire population of the country. This explains the
surprising fact that for more than one year 20,000 partisans have been
resisting the British armed forces, which exceed their number by many times and
are defeating all the provocations of the British colonisers and local Malayan
reaction.
In Malaya, the
people’s liberation war is taking place against British imperialism. The leader
of the anti-imperialist struggle of the peoples is undoubtedly the heroic
proletariat of Malaya, whose numerical strength as distinct from the other
countries of S. E. Asia, is quite big and amounts to (along with the workers of
the rubber plantions) 10-12 per cent of the country’s population.
The most important
reasons determining the success of the struggle of the peoples of Malaya
against the British colonisers are the solidarity and organisation of the
proletariat of Malaya and in particular of the workers of the mining industry,
the tremendous authority and popularity enjoyed inside the country by the
Communist Party of Malaya, which has been able to rally not only the industrial
proletariat but also tens of thousands of farm labourers, and permanent and
seasonal workers of the plantations. The correct policy of the Communist Party
of Malaya on the agrarian question and the national question contributes in no
small degree to the successes of the democratic movement and to drawing in the
broad masses of the peasantry in it, and uniting for the first time in the
history of Malaya, the Chinese, Malayan and Indian population inside the
country.
Of course, one
must not think that the British ruling circles have given up the idea of
enslaving the peoples of Malaya. On the contrary, at present with the
tremendous growth of the national-liberation movement over the whole of S.E.
Asia and in particular with the remarkable victories of the democratic forces
in China, the British and the American imperialists who are standing at their
back (on the Malayan question, they act in conjunction) will exert all their forces in order to suppress
the national-liberation
movement of the peoples of
Malaya. In acting jointly with the American imperialists against the national-
liberation movement in Malaya and creating a cordon sanitaire on the borders of China, the British colonisers
are pursuing their own aims in Malaya. Behind the clamour of a struggle against
Communism on the north-west borders of Malaya, the British by establishing
contact with the reactionary regime of Pibul Songgram in Siam, are attempting
to strengthen their positions in that country, positions which have been shaken
as a result of the growth of American influence. This tendency became
particularly noticeable very recently when British military experts visited
Bangkok and numerous British “Liaison Officers” appeared in the regions of Siam
bordering on Malaya.
It is necessary to
point out also to the economic background of the events in Malaya. One of the
reasons of the Malayan conflict was the attempt of the British ruling circles
to secure a considerable reduction of wages and of the living standards of the toiling
masses and, at the same time, to increase the profits of the British rubber and
tin monopolies after defeating the democratic forces in Malaya.
Such is the
situation in Malaya. Inspite of all the measures of a military and political
character, British imperialism has not succeeded and will not succeed in
breaking the will for victory of the peoples of Malaya. The struggle of the
peoples of Malaya for the freedom and independence of their country which they
are wagging under the leadership of their Communist Party and with the support
of progressive people all over the world, is continuing and has all chances of
complete success.
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