Engagements
At the time of independence in 1957, the Malayan Armed Forces, together with British Commonwealth troops were engaged in the Emergency, a communist insurgency in the Malayan interior. The Malayan Communist Party, led by Chin Peng, found support mainly among the ethnic Chinese. Independence for Malaya removed the major grounds for the rebellion, and by 1960 Chin Peng had ordered an end to the fighting.
Three years after the end of the Emergency, the merger of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo (now Sabah) to form the current Federation of Malaysia was opposed militarily by the Sukarno regime of Indonesia. Called the Confrontation, this was mainly a low-level conflict fought in the jungles of Borneo. Malaysian forces were once again assisted by Commonwealth troops. By 1966, Sukarno had been toppled, and the war was at an end.
However, just three years later, Chin Peng reignited the dormant communist insurgency. The communists never gained much ground, and were engaged mainly by the Royal Malaysian Police. Nevertheless, it was twenty years before a peace agreement was signed in 1989.
Read more about this topic: Military History Of Malaysia
Famous quotes containing the word engagements:
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