GUILE AND GUNS BUNG USED IN MALAYA TO CRACK COMMUNISTS

Wanganui Chronicle, 16 December 1949, Page 7

GUILE AND GUNS BUNG USED IN MALAYA TO CRACK COMMUNISTS

School Sex Up Called An "Academy Of Peace And Tranquility"

(By Lionel Hudson, N.Z.P.A.-Reuter Correspondent in Singapore).

At a school built on an abandoned racecourse at Taiping, in the hills of North Malaya, Chinese with Communist leanings are being enrolled for a course in democracy without tears. Diplomas al this school, called the “Academy of Peace and Tranquility,” will be in the form of jobs and liberty. The pupils are detainees arrested by the Security Forces for supporting the Communist guerilla bands which have been terrorising Malaya for 18 months. Some of the bandits now surrendering may be put through the school.

Competent observers point out that this daring attempt by the government to wean communists away from their doctrine could lead the way to the establishment of a chain of “peace” schools throughout SouthEast Asia. It may prove to be the answer to a similar problem in Burma, Indo-China, Thailand and Indonesia. Malayan officials are planning another re-education centre for Com-munist-minded Malays. It is to be built in the form of a kampong (Malay village) and will probably be located near the Federal Capital, Kuala Lumpur. Authorities expect the lessons of the Taiping “Peace” School to prove invaluable in attracting reluctant guerillas away from the gangs. The response to the campaign offering terms to those outlaws “who have no blood on their hands” has heartened the Government considerably. Weary terrorists are surrendering in increasing numbers and are bringing in useful information, lack of which has hampered operations by the Security Forces in past months. However, the Government does not expect the hard-core of the Communist forces to weaken.

“They are desperate. There’s no way out for them but to stay in the jungle and fight it out with the hope that they will eventually get aid from the Chinese Reds,” said one senior army officer.

Security Force leaders know that they now have to strike harder than ever at the terrorists to keep them on the run. The Federation High Commissioner, Sir Henry Gurney, said recently that the remaining gangs are now concentrated mostly in the dense jungle areas of Pahang, but the bandits were ill-fed, ragged and harried by sickness. “The stories the surrendered men tell confirm the view that

it is mainly fear of being shot by their own leaders that is now preventing the large majority of the remainder i from making their escape to freedom. 'lt may be some time before that opportunity occurs, ’ he added. Sir Henry said the bandits had failed in their expressed objectives of disrupting authority and establishing “liberated areas.” During 1949 nearly 1000 camps had been discovered and destroyed and a of 2000 weapons recovered. According to latest figures over 900 terrorists have been killed by Security Forces and another 600 captured since the beginning of the state of emergency. The Taiping “Peace” School experiment has followed oji the closing of China as an outlet for the disposal of Malaya’s Communist sympathisers. Close on 6000 Chinese have been deported from Malaya and Singapore since the emergency was declared but authorities now say that deportation to China is neither practicable nor politically advisable. Meanwhile, detention camps throughout the Federation are overflowing with Chinese men and women who have come under the influence of Communist terrorist leaders. The Colony of Singapore has had its own

“Peace” School on St. John’s Island, 3ii miles south of the city, since the early days of the emergency. Three thousand suspected Communists have passed through the camp. Many have been banished from the country and others released after a short term. More than 50 Chinese, Indian and Malay “reformed” Communists have been freed to return to their old jobs under suspension orders. They had impressed the authorities that they are ready to divorce Communism following the course of lectures and the lessons on democracy taught in the camp. There are no guards inside the camp which is run, as far as possible, on a basis of self-discipline. The hardest penalty is expulsion and return to a detention camp. With accommodation for 600 the Academy has a trade training centre, a recreation room, a library, a canteen and a 50-bed hospital. The idea of re-educating people with Communist convictions or sympathies was borrowed from the Greek Government, which during the recent Civil War in that country established camps on the Island of Makronesos where conscripts were re-educated politically before graduating for service.