"Communist insurgency"

A writer in the Aliran monthly writes that the Emergency Ordinance was enacted to "battle communist insurgency."  It is sad that our writers continue Britain's propaganda which hides the truth - that the rubber and tin interests saw the hartal as the sharp end of  a threat to their millions. Anyone who has read Colin Abraham's account would have learnt that the first to be detained during the war on freedom were Malays whose nationalists, inspired by the Indonesian revolt, were at the forefront of the battle for self-government.

The Putera-AMCJA alliance carried no guns and only called for independence of the Canadian kind from Britain. But John Eber and other leaders of the movement were detained and the movement crushed.