IJCH 2016 Vol.2(4): 208-212 ISSN: 2382-6177
doi: 10.18178/ijch.2016.2.4.065

Demystifying the Rise and Downfall of Communism in Malaysia (1968-1989)

Amelia Yuliana Abd Wahab, Wan Hashim Wan Teh, and Abdul Rahman Razak Shaik
Abstract—This paper seeks to demystify the factors contribute to the rise and downfall of Communist movement in Malaysia during the period of Second Emergency (1968-1989). The Communists were still active after Malaya (now Malaysia) obtained Independence in 1957. Their main target was to transform Malaysia into a Communist Republic. Thus, during this period of time, their movement was more aggressive compared during the First Malayan Emergency (1948-1960). Its took another twenty-one years for the Government of Malaysia to counter Communist guerrila warfare activities in the sovereign state of Malaysia. Rather than giving the definite answers for the communist problems or solutions, the heart of this paper seeks to explore the highly important facets of security complex environment in Malaysia that involved the communist struggle during the above-mentioned period of time. The rise and downfall of communism in their second wave of armed struggle were analysed based on the content analysis of the text from their clandestine radio, Suara Revolusi Malaya and Memoir of the Secetary-General of Communist Party of malaya (CPM), Chin Peng . The paper indicates the rise of communist in Malaysia because of factors such as effective usage of propaganda medium, China Cultural Revolution, material support from China, communal conflict, roles of Min Yuen and economic depression attracted the CPM to revive their struggle. The factors that contributed to communist downfall and failure to maintain power in Malaysia were includes disintegration within the party, discontinuation of communist propaganda medium and the counterinsurgency (COIN) deployed by Malaysian Government.

Index Terms—Communism, second emergency, downfall factors, rise factors, suara revolusi Malaya.

The authors are with Faculty of Defence Studies and Management, National Defence University of Malaysia, Malaysia (e-mail: amelia4433@yahoo.com).

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Cite: Amelia Yuliana Abd Wahab, Wan Hashim Wan Teh, and Abdul Rahman Razak Shaik, "Demystifying the Rise and Downfall of Communism in Malaysia (1968-1989)," International Journal of Culture and History vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 208-212, 2016.

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