Air Power, Insurgency and the “War on Terror” - Prof. Joel Hayward's ...

Chapter 12
was no expert on Malay culture, <strong>and</strong> his knowledge of Malay language <strong>and</strong> culture was
never deep. I doubt that he knew more than a few phrases of Malay, <strong>and</strong> certainly no
Chinese. Yet in <strong>the</strong> weeks before he went out to Malaya, he corresponded <strong>and</strong> talked with
several senior officials <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r experts on Malaya. Even before he arrived, he had a good
underst<strong>and</strong>ing that <strong>the</strong> solution to <strong>the</strong> insurgency was going to be as much political as it
was military.
The insurgents in Malaya were overwhelmingly ethnic Chinese, who were actually a
plurality of <strong>the</strong> population of <strong>the</strong> Malayan states, but excluded from government power by
<strong>the</strong> ethnic Malays. Templer understood that one of <strong>the</strong> core causes of <strong>the</strong> insurgency was
this systematic exclusion of <strong>the</strong> Chinese from <strong>the</strong> government, civil service <strong>and</strong> security
forces. Templer immediately initiated a series of reforms to help close <strong>the</strong> deep social
<strong>and</strong> political divide between <strong>the</strong> Malays <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> ethnic Chinese. Against considerable
resistance from <strong>the</strong> Malay state governments, <strong>and</strong> many in <strong>the</strong> British military <strong>and</strong> civil
service, Templer pushed <strong>the</strong> Federation governments to admit Chinese to <strong>the</strong> civil service
<strong>and</strong> into <strong>the</strong> security forces with <strong>the</strong> goal of making <strong>the</strong> Malayan army <strong>and</strong> police forces
representative of all of Malaya’s groups. Since Chinese were excluded from <strong>the</strong> Malaya
Regiment, he created new Malayan regiments that would be multi-ethnic <strong>and</strong> personally
recruited for officers from among <strong>the</strong> Chinese community. Sir Arthur Young, who came
out with Templer to take over <strong>and</strong> reform <strong>the</strong> Malayan Police, worked toge<strong>the</strong>r to weed
out <strong>the</strong> most corrupt elements from <strong>the</strong> police force <strong>and</strong> to recruit as many Chinese as
possible into <strong>the</strong> force.
Most importantly, Templer encouraged all efforts of <strong>the</strong> Malayan politicians to reach
out to <strong>the</strong> Chinese community. Some of <strong>the</strong> most prominent Malay political leaders
had also concluded that an independent Malaya required a partnership between <strong>the</strong>
Malays <strong>and</strong> ethnic Chinese <strong>and</strong> co-operated with Templer in supporting reforms. Tunku
Abdul Rahman, leader of <strong>the</strong> Malay nationalist UMNO Party, began to forge alliances
with <strong>the</strong> moderate Malayan Chinese political groups in <strong>the</strong> 1952 municipal elections. As
<strong>the</strong> political co-operation between Malays <strong>and</strong> ethnic Chinese improved, <strong>the</strong> Chinese
support for <strong>the</strong> insurgency declined. While <strong>the</strong> literature about <strong>the</strong> Malayan insurgency
concentrates overwhelmingly on <strong>the</strong> military side of <strong>the</strong> insurgency, <strong>the</strong> political reforms,
coupled with <strong>the</strong> reform of <strong>the</strong> Malaya security forces, did more to curb <strong>the</strong> popular
support for <strong>the</strong> insurgency than overt military operations. Templer’s role as comm<strong>and</strong>er
<strong>and</strong> governor general was key to <strong>the</strong> success. He understood that <strong>the</strong> mission was
now one of preparing Malaya for independence, <strong>and</strong> sooner ra<strong>the</strong>r than later. He also
understood <strong>the</strong> central importance of building a sound foundation for a multi-ethnic
state. Throughout his tenure he probably spent as more time in meetings with Malay
<strong>and</strong> Chinese leaders as he did overseeing military operations; which is about right for a
<strong>Air</strong> <strong>Power</strong>, <strong>Insurgency</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> “War on Terror” 213