Background of Communist Influence in Our Country

Where the ideology came from

Communism reached Malaya from outside. The Third Communist International (Comintern), based in Moscow, wanted to spread revolutionary ideas across Asia, while the success of the Chinese Communist Party gave local supporters a model to follow. Malaya, with its busy ports and mixed immigrant society, became an easy channel for these ideas to enter.

An early organisation, the Nanyang Communist Party, worked among the Chinese community in the 1920s. In 1930 the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) was formed to lead the movement in Malaya itself, adopting the goal of overthrowing British colonial rule and building a communist state.

How influence spread

The MCP did not win support openly at first. Instead it worked quietly through everyday organisations:

• Labour unions — organising workers on rubber estates, in tin mines and at the docks, and using strikes to build a following;
• Chinese schools and night classes — where teachers and reading groups introduced young people to communist writing;
• Newspapers and pamphlets that criticised colonial rule and poor working conditions.

Hardship helped the message spread. Low wages, unemployment during the world economic slump, and the gap between rich and poor made some workers willing to listen to promises of equality.

The wartime turning point

During the Japanese Occupation (1942–1945) the MCP led the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), a guerrilla force that fought the Japanese from the jungle. The British even armed and trained MPAJA fighters. This experience gave the communists weapons, fighting skill and organisation that they would later turn against the British after the war.