The Second World War had only ended three years previously when a new round of violence exploded in the Malay Peninsula in June 1948. This new outbreak of violence which was to last for twelve long years was the Malayan Emergency. The "Malayan Emergency" was an understated term as it was in reality a full-scale war fought between the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), and the British and Malayan authorities. The name "Emergency" could not hide the savage killings that took place all over the peninsula. Despite initial difficulties and setbacks, the British and later Malayan authorities were able to finally defeat the dangerous and elusive communists.

The Emergency took place at a time when the Cold War was beginning to sweep over the whole globe. It took place at a time when the "Iron Curtain" was descending over Eastern Europe and China. It was a time when the Communism was on a roll. The red tide seemed inexorable. Communists all over the world took heart in the spectacular increase in the number of Communist states after years of isolation of the Russian Soviet state. It seemed that it was a matter of time before more countries would join the Communist fold.

This is perhaps true of Asia more than anywhere else. The Atlantic Charter had signalled that Britain would eventually grant its colonies the right to self-determination. In 1947, the world witnessed the birth of India after more than a century of British control. The other Asian colonies of the Western world had also begun to see their colonial masters in a different light. Where at one time, the Western colonial powers had an aura of invincibility, that perception was shattered by the initial victorious thrust of Japan during the Second World War. The Japanese showed scant respect for the Western powers and their initial victories meant that despite eventually defeating Japan, the Western powers' hold over the Asian colonies would not last forever. Like Humpty Dumpty, the colonial empires could never be put together again as they were before.

In Malaya, despite years of relatively benevolent British rule, a new force had emerged which would try to spearhead the drive for independence. This was the MCP. The MCP was the successor of the Nanyang Communist Party which had been formed in 1925 with the aim of spreading Communism throughout Southeast Asia. The MCP comprised of largely Chinese members as most of the Communist agents sent to Malaya were Chinese. Despite the fact that it was an illegal organisation, it was able to grow in strength only for the party to be decimated by the British authorities after a premature attempt at forming a Communist government in Malaya in the 1930s. This premature revolution weakened the MCP and paved the way for the arrival of Lai Teck to reorganise the Party.

His arrival coincided with the outbreak of war in Europe. With the German war machine winning battle after battle, Stalin wanted a stop to all revolutionary activities against the colonial powers of Asia as they were Russia's allies in the war against Germany. This was at best a temporary respite from the attempt to set up Communist governments in these colonies. When Japan attacked Malaya, the Lai Teck offered his help. This uneasy truce was a marriage of convenience as once the Japanese had been defeated, the MCP would renew its attempt to get rid of the British from Malaya. Thus began an important chapter in the history of the MCP.

This period saw the British equipping and training the military arm of the MCP, the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army, to help fight the Japanese. With the defeat of the British in Malaya and Singapore by early 1942, the only organised resistance in the peninsula was the MPAJA, who with the help of the British, were able to carry out guerrilla attacks on the Japanese. Here they not only gained invaluable experience fighting a guerrilla war against a numerically superior army, but they also gained the weapons that was to be eventually used against the British after the war.

When the war ended in 1945, the MPAJA guerrillas who emerged from the jungles were seen as heroes by the Malayan people. Even the British were grateful to them and legalised the MCP. However, the Communists soon began to infiltrate the trade unions and eventually turned against the British during the campaign against the proposals for the Federation of Malaya in 1947-48. To the MCP, the British agreement to the Federation of Malay proposal meant that the British were determined to control the independence process because they did not want to see the establishment of a Communist state in Malaya. This was perhaps reason enough for the MCP's eventual armed revolt, but the the arrival of Chin Peng as the new leader of the MCP after the mysterious disappearance of Lai Teck ensured that the armed struggle would break out soon. He fervently believed that an immediate armed revolt would succeed in establishing a Communist state in Malaya. The insurrection soon started with the murders of three British planters in June 1948. This started a violent war which was to claim many lives during the course of its twelve years. It was only with a combination of resolute measures that the Communists were finally defeated and the Emergency ended.

While acknowledging that the Emergency required a military solution, the British also realised that more comprehensive measures were required. Among them was the massive resettlement of thousands of squatters from the jungle fringes where they were exposed to the terrorists, to the relatively safety of the New Villages. This was part of the famous Briggs Plan to defeat the Communists. The Briggs Plan was vigorously pursued by High Commissioner Lieutenant-General Gerald Templer to its successful conclusion. At the same time, the British also prepared the Malayans for their eventual independence which dutifully arrived on 31 August 1957. This was important as it clearly deflated all attempts to justify their armed insurrection as a liberation struggle from the colonial oppressors. The MCP realised that by the mid-fifties their insurrection was doomed to failure with independence looming. It was in this atmosphere that Chin Peng decided to meet the Malayan leaders at Baling in 1955 to salvage whatever he could for the MCP. This he failed to do so.

By 1960, it was clear that the Emergency was practically over as only small scattered remnants of the once formidable terrorist force was left, mostly secluded to the areas near the Thai border. The Malayan Government finally decided to declare the Emergency over on 31 July 1960.