UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

COLLAGE OF LAW GOVERNMENT AND

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

GFPS 3513PROPAGANDA AND

PERSUASION

HOW COMMUNIST USE PROPAGANDA TO INFLUENCE

THE PEOPLE IN MALAYA TO COMMUNISM DURING THE

PERIOD OF EMERGRNCY

1948-1960

PRIDHIVRAJ NAIDU (127445)

BACKGROUND OF EMERGENCY

• The beginning of communism:

• 1919 ComIntern by Soviet Union• 1923 Chinese Communist Party (CCP)• 1924 CCP sent agents to SEA• 1930 Malayan Communist Party (MCP)

PRIDHIVRAJ NAIDU (127445)

• Poster of the Third International ComIntern

COMINTERN est.1919• By all available means,

including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie

• & for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the State

Illustration of communism in China

1923 & 1924 CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY

• In 1922 the CCP opened an clandestine office in Singapore which sowed the seed for the South Seas Communist Party or Nanyang Communist Party.

• This party was mainly active in the Dutch East Indies and French Indo-China In Singapore its work centered on the trades unions.

ROLE OF CCP IN South East Asia

• “To protect the legitimate rights and interest of Chinese residing abroad”

• “It was the imperialist plot of attack against the Chinese people”

• Peking Radio : condemn SEA govt.• Against imperialist

MALAYAN COMUNIST PARTY (MCP)

• 1930• Overthrow British administration• Establish Communist Government

• Subversive organization• Did not gain support of Malays• Penetrated Chinese schools & Hainanese

community

1937 – Declared Illegal

• Fomented series of strikes:-18,000 workers on December 17, Singapore-150,000 to 200,000 workers walked off the

job; by the 31st Singapore was at a “standstill”

- Early 1947, the ordinary trespassing law- 1940 Trade Union Ordinance

1937 Japan attacked China

• Emotional approach• Tried to increase the strength• Formed Anti Japanese group received British backing (Force 136)• Eg. MAPAJA

Malayan Peoples Anti Japanese Army (MPAJA)

• 1941• Sure of Japanese invasion• Est. subversive agents

• MPAJA was formed, received training & weapons from the allies

• 1943 - Force 136 est. contact till the end of 1945

When the war was Over

• The MPAJA was disbanded• The MCP members revived their original

goals• To overthrow government & est. communist government

--

MCP POLICY• “ Democratic People’s Republic”

• A world Liberation Movement

• When the communist revolution succeeded in China and the people’s Republic was formed in 1949, the MCP was jubilant.

• They claimed new China would exert their influence in Malaya.

9 MCP OBJECTIVE • The objective of the MCP to establish the Malayan Communist

Republic as embodies in their - nine point program.

• 1) drive the Japanese Fascists out of Malaya and establish the Malayan Republic.

• 2) establish a National Organization composed of representatives universally elected from the different nationalities to govern and protect our mother land.

• 3) giving freedom of speech, publishing, organization and thought.

• 4) improve people’s living conditions, relieve the unemployed and the refugees, increase wages and salaries

9 MCP OBJECTIVE• 5) reorganize the Malayan Anti-Japanese guerrillas into National Army

of Defense to defend territory.

• 6) free education was practiced universally

• 7) confiscating the properties of the German, Italian and Japanese Fascists which become national property.

• 8) practice of tariff, where should have an agreements and establish commercial relations with other countries

• 9) joined with Russia and China to support the struggle for independence of the oppressed nations in the far east

Malayan Communist Party

• From 1945 to 1948

• 1948 – labour tactic to armed revolt

• The MCP was shaped along CCP model.

• From Central Bureau directives & methods of propaganda was

sent to regional and branch offices throughout the country.

• MCP consisted of 2 main branches :

military and civilian organized at state and district levels.

• In March 1948

• The insurgents were mainly from MPAJA and restyled Malayan

races liberation army (MRLA) on 1 February 1949.

• According to British, Loi Tak was the important person in the

Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

• As a first step, the policy was tested in the Singapore worker’s

strikes in April and May 1948 but the result was total failure.

Cont.• Meanwhile, the “mobile corps” was formed by the MPAJA secret units,

which carried out a program of murder and terror in the peninsula.

• The main victims of the communist murders were the Kuomintang right-wing members of the Chinese populace.

• The propaganda section of the regional and branch offices produced a continuous flow of leaflets, news-sheats, slogan, posters and booklets

• The policy and tactics of the Communist, later produced in a booklet of thirty six pages.

• Written in Chinese, described tactics to be used to establish a “Soviet Republic of Malaya”.

•As the campaign of violence became intensified, murderous attacks on laborers

in the rubber estates and tin mines were increased.

• 16 June 1948

• 19 June 1948

• Subsequently, the MCP was declared illegal together with

3 other satellite bodies, it includes -

a) MPAJA Ex-Service Comrades Association

b) New Democratic Youth League

c) League for the Defense of Malaya (Ikatan Pembela Tanah Ayer Melaya).

MCP PROPAGANDA• 1) They also had propaganda officers at all levels of the

organizations:

-To conduct talks

-study groups & quizzes

-Examination or political theory

-Indoctrination of party members (political educations)

• 2) Most of the communist propaganda was directed at workers and illiterates and youths and the min yuen (squatters).

• 3)They conducted ‘ Lessons’ for the illiterate recruits and established ‘reading rooms’ and information central.

MCP PROPAGANDA• 4) “whispering campaigns” - agents to educate people in communist aims.• 5) Anniversaries :

October revolution - a political revolution and a part of the Russian

Revolution of 1917

- the October revolution began in Petrograd, then the

capital of Russia and quickly spread to the rest of

the country

Red army day - The Soviet government’s revolutionary militia

beginning in the Russian civil war of 1918- 1922.

May day - refers to several public holidays.

- In many countries, May Day is synonymous with

international workers day or labour day

MCP PROPAGANDA

• 6) On these days red flags were raised and postures and leaflets

distributes secretly.• 7) Their propaganda material promised “ownership” of land by farmers

and an economy based on cooperative basis.• 8) They claimed that the MCP was a party of the “Powerful Labouring

Class” working for the liberation of peasants as improvement of living standards.

• 9) The propaganda material were also published in underground newspapers :

- Humanity news, Lenin news, vanguard worker peasant news

(Chinese)

- Seruan Rakyat ( call of the people) & Suara pemberontak

(voice of the revolutionary malay).

- No Tamil communist newspaper , only occasional manifestos

and pamphlets.

LABOUR ORGANIZATION

Before the emergency , MCP was established Malayan General Labour Union and Communist Youth League.

Purpose: Influence the labour to support the communist and promoted strikes and labour unrest to cripple the economy.

Coal miners' strike at Batu Arang, Selangor (1935) were involved 6000 workers.

30,000 labourers strike in pineapple canning and the building industries (1936).

INFILTRATION INTO POLITICAL PARTIES

o MCP had hoped that the BMA would recognize and incorporate with them.

o But the BMA refused to recognize the People's Committees and would not work with them.

o So, the MCP sought to exert influence through parliamentary politics.

CONT..

o MCP members joined :

i)The Malayan Democratic Union (MDU) ii)The Malay Nationalist Party (MNU) iii)Angkatan Pemuda Insaf (API)iv)Angkatan Wanita Sedar (AWAS)v) All Malayan Council for Joint

Action (AMCJA).

VIOLENT PROPAGANDA

o MCP violent started with the labour unrest –destroying the property and killing.

o Kill those who not supported strikes, “ worked for other races” and “ running dogs for the police”

o On February 1949, a Bomb attack on Tan Cheng Lock in Ipoh.

o In 1950 & 1951 , they destroyed 151,450 identity cards.

o Burned and destroyed the new villages, factories, tin mines and transportation.

During the emergency (17.5.1958) the communist attacked and burned the villages in Pekan Simpang Tiga, Setiawan, Perak and

1,000 civilians lost their house.

CONCLUSION

• The MCP’s inspiration from China.• Confined membership in Malaya.• The communist ideology & violence preached

by the MCP were rejected by the people of Malaya.

• Finally, the MCP collapsed and on July 31, 1960 the Malayan government declared the state of emergency was over.

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