COLD WAR AND COMMUNALISM IN WEST MALAYSIA, 1963-1969

Abstract

Cold War binaries were prevalent in the political contestations in West Malaysia during the 1960s. The Alliance government employed anti-communist rhetoric to repress the Socialist Front, the Pan-Malayan Islamic Party as well as the trade unions. This thesis argues that social unrest in the 1960s arose from grassroots discontent rather than from the top-down directives of the Communist Party of Malaya. Through examining official documents, memoirs, and interviews with political prisoners accused as “communist agents”, the thesis explores the social conditions and motivations of workers and disadvantaged Chinese youths who participated in activism. They were drawn towards the Socialist Front through practical needs to attain basic literacy and a sense of community rather than the lure of ideological conviction. The sudden outbreak of racial violence of May 13, 1969, saw the Alliance government shift its focus from anti-communist to communal rhetoric as the main state narrative.