GetaFix7 posted: " Fm Wikipedia ... On 22 January 1952, Winston Churchill appointed Templer British High Commissioner for Malaya to deal with the Malayan Emergency.[65] Working closely with Robert Thompson, the Permanent Secretary "
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On 22 January 1952, Winston Churchill appointed Templer British High Commissioner for Malaya to deal with the Malayan Emergency.[65] Working closely with Robert Thompson, the Permanent Secretary of Defence for Malaya, Templer's tactics against the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) were held up by Heathcote as "one of the most successful of the British Army's counter-insurgency campaigns".[66] In military terms Templer concentrated his efforts on intelligence.[67] Templer famously remarked that, "The answer [to the uprising] lies not in pouring more troops into the jungle, but in the hearts and minds of the people."[68] He demanded that newly built villages, where ethnic Chinese were resettled away from the jungles and beyond the reach (and influence) of the guerrillas, should be made to look more inviting. To further gain the "hearts and minds" of the non-Malays, who were the main source of communist support, Templer fought to grant Malayan citizenship to over 2.6 million Malayan residents, 1.1 million of whom were Chinese. Templer sought "political and social equality of all" Malayans.[69]Templer awarding an MBE to Weeratunga Edward Perera in Malaya
He instituted incentive schemes for rewarding surrendering rebels and those who encouraged them to surrender[70] and used strict curfews and tight control of food supplies to force compliance from rebellious areas to flush out guerillas. Crops grown by the communists in response to these measures were sprayed with herbicide and defoliants (2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid), the practice of which prepared the way for American use of Agent Orange in Vietnam.[71] Restrictions on food and curfews were lifted on so-called White Areas which had been found to be free of communist incursion.[72]
In private correspondences with Colonial Secretary Oliver Lyttleton, Templer defended the practice of British troops employing Dayak headhunters combat suspected MNLA guerillas.[73] The widespread use of decapitations by Templer's troops in Malaya was exposed to the public by a British communist newspaper called The Daily Worker when they published the first known photographs of the decapitations in April 1952.[74][75]
During his time in Malaya, Templer became commonly known as the "Tiger of Malaya", a title previously enjoyed by the Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita, who had captured Singapore and Malaya in 1942.[76] In response to an article in Time Magazine that "the jungle had been stabilised",[77] he declared "I'll shoot the bastard who says that this emergency is over".[67] The Malayan government eventually declared the Emergency over in 1960.[70] He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George for his work as High Commissioner in the Coronation Honours List in June 1953.[78]
Although Templer's actions were successful in helping to defeat the MNLA, they required the use of many controversial strategies, including the continued use of internment camps known as "New Villages", the forced relocation of ethnic minorities,[79] forced conscription,[1] collective punishment against civilians,[1] the hiring of specialist headhunters to decapitate suspected communists,[1][73][74][75] herbicidal warfare through the use of Agent Orange,[1][80] and the widespread killing of livestock and destruction of food crops to deprive the MNLA of resources.[81]
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