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Abstract
What is known about the low-intensity conflict historically known as the “Malayan Emergency” were predominantly told from the perspectives of the victorious British and its Malayan allies. Veterans of the Malayan Campaign often depict this conflict as a classic tale of democracy triumphing communism, a veritable example of good versus evil. Nonetheless, this narrative is profoundly troubling as it is completely one dimensional and ignores the perspectives of their opponents, the now-defunct Malayan Communist Party (MCP). This article uses the memoirs of two former Malayan communist guerrillas, Zhang Zuo and Yi Chuan, to explore the factors driving these men and women to willingly take up arms once again to expel the British following the devastating anti-Japanese resistance during the Second World War. Through analyses of their writings, it is discovered that they were mainly motivated by intensely personal reasons as opposed to being part of a global Marxist conspiracy. These publications essentially challenged contemporary history that long situated the Malayan conflict as merely another front in the greater Cold War while at the same time exposes another hidden, very personal, chapter of the Malayan communists’ war for Malaya.
Recommended Citation
Ng, Jason, Sze-Chieh
(2021)
"Jungle Lives: Malaya’s Counter-Insurgency War through the Eyes of the Retired Malayan Communists,"
Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies: Vol. 10:
No.
2, Article 3.
Available at:
https://mjcs.newera.edu.my/journal/vol10/iss2/3