Forgotten Wars_ Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia - Christopher Bayly [306]
The last year of a troubled decade ended with the beginning of a series of long marches for the Malayan Communist Party. It drew on legends of the Japanese war to sustain morale. Within the jungle, songs and commemorations kept the dream alive, such as the marking of the legendary 1 September 1942 Batu Caves massacre, with a ‘91’ oath to reaffirm loyalty. It was a morality tale of strength in adversity that encouraged a belief in the inevitability of victory, a faith that sustained the MNLA, even when it suffered severe reverses.173 But its leaders knew that there was no road back: it was too late to break up the army and return to civilian life. They pressed ahead, hoping that some sudden shift in conditions within Malaya would occur, that a new wave of labour unrest might paralyse the country and allow them to take over. But neither this nor a dramatic widening of Malay support materialized. The Party’s 1 October 1951 directives – the product of two months of self-criticism by Chin Peng and his small politburo – openly acknowledged that the initial campaign of terror, the slashing of rubber trees and the destruction of identification cards, had hit hardest the Party’s own sympathizers. The MCP still looked to rebuild its political base, to attempt to recapture influence in the towns and revive the united front. But its fighting units began to withdraw into the deep jungle interior. Chin Peng and his dwindling headquarters was harassed from near Mentekab through a series of camps northwards to Raub, then to the Cameron Highlands and eventually, in the last weeks of 1953, compromised by betrayals from comrades in the pay of the Special Branch, he passed over the Thai border. The area around the Betong Salient remained the redoubt of the Malayan revolution until December 1989, when a peace treaty was finally signed in the Thai town of Haadyai. ‘I never admit that’s a failure’, Chin Peng said later. ‘It’s a temporary setback…’ But by this point guerrilla morale was deteriorating in many places, and more defections occurred. From this position the MCP could prolong the war indefinitely, but it could not win it. ‘I don’t think there was any opportunity of our success,’ reflected Chin Peng. ‘Without foreign aid, we could not defeat the British army, even if we expanded our forces to 10,000… the most was to continue to carry out the guerrilla warfare.’ The Party was now fighting for honour and for posterity, awaiting a general Asian uprising that would never come.
Surrendered Japanese troops in Burma, August 1945
Japanese troops clearing the Singapore Padang before the surrender ceremony, 12 September 1945
Lt General Seishiro Itagaki signing the surrender, Singapore, 12 September 1945
Mountbatten announces the surrender of the Japanese in Singapore, September 1945
A forgotten army: surrendered Japanese in north Malaya, November 1945
Seagrave’s return, 1945
Leclerc and Gracey with Japanese sword of surrender, Saigon, 1945
Soldiers of the Parachute Regiment, Java, 1945
Bengal sappers and miners watch the reprisal burning of the village of Bekassi, Java, 1945
Imperialism’s return? Christison in Java, 1946
Sukarno addresses an ‘ocean’ rally, Java, 1946
Charisma and revolution: Sukarno, Java, 1946
Nehru’s arrival at Kallang Airport, Singapore, April 1946
Macdonald inspects the Malay Regiment, Kuala Lumpur, 1946
Dorman Smith leaves Burma, June 1946
Muslim rioters and the corpse of a Hindu, Calcutta, August 1946
India’s interim government at their swearing in, Delhi 1946
Aung San and Attlee, London, January 1947
The Mountbattens in Delhi, eve of independence, August 1947
Aung San and family, 1947
Celebrating independence in Calcutta, August 1947
Ending the Burmese days: Rance and Burma’s president, January 1948
Communist suspect, Malaya, c. 1949
Bren gun and stengah: rubber