10 2307@43186924 PDF

Oral History and People's Memory of the Malayan Emergency (1948-60): The Case of Pulai
Author(s): TAN Teng Phee

Source: Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, Vol. 27, No. 1 (April 2012), pp.
84-119
Published by: ISEAS - Yosuf Ishak Institute
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/43186924
Accessed: 29-08-2016 11:35 UTC
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SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia Vol. 27, No. 1 (2012), pp. 84-119 DOI: 10.1355/sj27-lc
© 2012 ISEAS ISSN 0217-9520 print / ISSN 1793-2858 electronic
Oral History and People's Memo

Malayan Emergency (1948-60):
The Case of Pulai
TAN Teng Phee1
By using the oral history approach, this article challenges the state-
oriented discourse on the success of the Malayan Emergency. The
British colonial government made claims that a "New Village" was a safe
haven providing sanctuary, security, and a modern way of life for "alien
Chinese squatters". In contrast to state interpretations, what emerges from
the oral recollections of the elderly residents of Pulai contradicts much
of the official narratives which mostly highlight success stories. Based
on interviews with seventeen individuals affected by the resettlement
programme targeted at the Pulai people, this article aims to represent
their hidden history and the legacy of their difficult past. While on the one
hand, the article demonstrates the breadth and depth of state intrusion
and its effects on ordinary lives and the vulnerability of ordinary people
caught between hostile opponents, on the other, the most striking finding
of this research is the resilience of the Pulai people themselves - a
resilience that was especially evident during the Emergency rule that can
only be recaptured through oral history recording because of the absence
of archival material, both state as well as national.
Keywords: Malayan Emergency, resettlement programmes, New Village, British colo

government, Chinese communities, oral history approach.
The British colonial government declared "a state of Emergency

after the murder of three European plantation managers at Sun
Siput in Perak state on 16 June 1948. For the British, these even
marked the outbreak of an armed communist insurgency in Mala
Life in colonial Malaya was irrevocably changed by the onset
the "Emergency", which did not end until 31 July 1960. Dur
Oral History and People's Memory of the Malayan Emergency (1 948-60) 85
these twelve years, one of the most important social impacts of

the Emergency was the "regroupment" and "relocation" of nearly
1,200,000 rural dwellers and squatters in British Malaya: 573,000
people were resettled into 480 so-called "New Villages", while another
650,000 people were also displaced and relocated, mostly to rubber
estates and tin mines (Sandhu 1973, pp. 24-35).
The underlying purpose of this "great social development project",
perceived as a major counter-insurgency strategy, was to isolate and
defeat the communists and to simultaneously win the "hearts and
minds" of the rural populace.2 From a purely military standpoint,
the colonial government won the "shooting war" in the late 1950s.
After Malaya gained its independence in 1957, however, the Alliance
government took another three years to finally end the Emergency
in 1960. Since then, the regroupment areas have been dismantled
and disappeared, whereas the New Villages continue to exist on the
sites where they were first established.3 Set against this background
of counter-insurgency and mass displacement and resettlement, this
article focuses on Pulai as a case study of a forced resettlement
programme and its impact on the local community and history.
According to official accounts, a "standard" New Village usually
possessed basic amenities such as a police station, a school, a
dispensary, a community hall, piped water, and electricity supply
(Corry 1954). However, in practice, there was usually a gap in the
provision of such amenities owing to the lack of resources (money,
staff, and materials) and the rapid strategic demands made by the
Emergency government. In addition, the villagers were both confined
and "protected" by a barbed wire fence and placed under a strict
control and surveillance regime, including curfews, body searches
at checkpoints, communal kitchen arrangements, food restrictions,
and identity certificate registration.4 What occurred on a daily basis
behind barbed wire among the New Villagers largely remains an
untold story. We know little from the perspective of those hundreds
of thousands of rural people who were most directly affected by the
anti-Communist campaign. These people have remained silenced and
their stories buried by official reports and government statistics.
86 TAN Teng Phee
By using the oral

state-oriented dis
colonial governm
safe haven providin
for "alien Chines
interpretations, w
elderly residents o
detailing mostly su
proved particularly
detailing Pulais res
archives. Relying o
this article, based
by the resettlemen
Appendix for detai
history and the lega
the article demons
and the vulnerabi
opponents, on the
is the resilience of
was especially evid
be recaptured thro
Giving voice to th
targeted at the v
the long-term imp
people" and, in th
a fundamental sou
oral history not on
their testimonies a
it also empowers t
their understandin
events in which th
both interrogating
and often provides
and "small people"
past. By including
and writing history becomes more democratic (Thompson 1978,

pp. 224-25).
Having said that, one also realises oral historical material does not
stand apart from more traditional historical source material, such as
newspaper articles and documented records. Rather, it informs and
complements that material and the narratives and interpretations
based on that material. Oral history, along with the use of published
material, is therefore "a powerful tool for discovering, exploring, and
evaluating the nature of the process of historical memory - how
people make sense of their past, how they connect individual
experience and its social context, how the past becomes part of the
present, and how people use it to interpret their lives and the world
around them" (Frisch 1990, p. 188).
With respect to the case study, I first visited Pulai Bahru New
Village in Kuala Terengganu District in the state of Terengganu
in July 2007. A seventy-year-old disabled gentleman whom I met
during my visit told me that the people of Pulai had experienced
resettlement three times during the Emergency period between 1948
and I960.6 He said that the British Government first relocated them
to a fortified central point at Pulai in the State of Kelantan between
late 1948 and early 1949. After a series of Communist activities,
the British authorities decided to destroy the village and resettle the
villagers at Batu Rakit about 200 kilometres away in the State of
Terengganu. However, the villagers were unable to fend for themselves
because of the poor location and sandy land. Three years later, they
were relocated to their current location at Gajah Mati, about sixteen
kilometres north of Kuala Terengganu, and became Pulai Bahru New
Village. In the early 1960s, most villagers moved back to the old Pulai
in Kelantan when the Emergency was lifted. Currently, less than ten
Pulai families remain in the New Village.7 The old gentleman also
suggested that I visit old Pulai in Kelantan to interview the elderly
people there which would enable me understand their traumatic
experiences and history.8
After travelling 200 kilometres, I arrived at Gua Musang (in Malay,
meaning "Cave of the Civet Cats") in Kelantan and found a budget
88 TAN Teng Phee
hotel where I stay

town along the Ea
distance between G
From Gua Musang,
Papan, Batu Tongk
the road, there were
and the occasional
attention as I drov
school on the left,
hall on the right,
a villager for direc
a right turn into
["zK^Jcli" in Mand
Besides the magnif
and other resident
informant, seventy-
with him. He told m
in the Malay Penins
ago.11 However, th
thatvillagers can n
on for generations
miners gradually s
the Pulai settlement
Malay Ruler. It too
came back with o
destruction occurre
Pulais reputation as
burnt down the vil
The third event occ
an undeclared war
relocated Pulai villa
behind. These disp
land in 1960 after
I was surprised b
learn more about i
research project to Mr Han, his first response to my two key

words - "Emergency" and "Communists" - was, "They are very
sensitive topics in Pulai, even nowadays."12 At that time, Pulai
was experiencing a so-called "Second Emergency" because of the
resurrection of Communist activities in the area. The Government
had imposed a twelve-hour curfew from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Pulai
between 1976 and 1983. These incidents revived ghosts of the past,
resurrecting villagers' buried fears. I tried to convince Mr Han, who
later became my key informant, that the Communists are no longer
a sensitive issue because the government signed a peace accord in
1989. I also emphasized my intent and why recording the people of
Pulai s oral histories and memories of the Emergency were important.
With his promise to assist me, I returned to Pulai in January 2008
and stayed for one and a half months at both Gua Musang New
Village and Pulai. I interviewed seventeen elderly villagers - nine
males and eight females - who were over seventy years of age at
the time of the interview (see appendix A). Their narratives proved
useful to the investigation of the lived experiences of the Pulai
people and stood in contrast to the views of the younger generation
of those in their thirties and forties who seemed to be disinterested
or unfamiliar about the resettlement programme undergone by the
older generation.
In attempting to understand the experiences of the Pulai villagers
from their point of view, this article begins with a brief history of
early Pulai, which was transformed from a gold mining settlement
to a padi growing area by the end of World War II. The article
then moves on to a discussion of the Emergency period, when the
Communists attacked Gua Musang Police Station and established the
first "Liberated Area" - an event with severe consequences for the
Pulai community. Following these sections is an analysis of the exile
and interstate resettlement from Ulu Kelantan to Kuala Terengganu of
the original Pulai setders, as well as an investigation into the everyday
lives of the people in the Pulai Baru New Village, which reveals the
trauma these people had undergone. The final section then looks at
the villagers' homecoming to the old Pulai in the 1960s, once again
90 TAN Teng Phee
speaking to the loc

to the resettlement
Pulai: From Ancient Settlement to World War II
There are two village legends, a mixture of fact and fiction, which
connect the early Pulai Chinese settlement with the discovery of
gold along the Galas River in the Ulu Kelantan area. In the past,
the river was the only mode of transportation available for travelling
into the interior of the State of Kelantan. The Galas River is one of
the two main tributaries of the Kelantan River that flows northwards
into the South China Sea. It was said that a notorious Chinese sea
pirate from South China fled with his followers from Hong Kong to
Malaya. They sailed on the rivers south from Kota Baru and made
their way to the Galas River. They discovered gold and, eventually,
settled at Pulai in the early nineteenth century.13 Another popular
legend, told by older villagers, highlights how several hundred years
ago, it was the Orang Asli (indigenous people) who first collected
shining gold sand at the river. They travelled along the Galas River
to the Kota Baru market and bartered with Chinese traders. Some
Hakka Chinese followed the Orang Asli to Ulu Kelantan and began
their gold panning in the Pulai area. Year after year, more and more
Hakka Chinese came and settled down at this gold-mining area.14
According to local accounts, these first Pulai settlers even sent
a force of 500 fighters to assist the Sultan of Kelantan to defeat
a Siamese invasion around 1800. The Sultan, in return, granted
permanent land titles to the miners for their expression of loyalty.
However, tensions that developed between the Pulai settlers and the
Sultans brother twenty-five years later led to disastrous consequences.
Strained political relations first emerged when the Sultans brother sent
messengers to demand increased tribute, or taxes, from the Hakka
gold-mining centre in Pulai. The local ruler threatened to stop the
passage of the river boats which supplied rice and other commodities
to the miners, if they refused to pay the levy. Some Pulai settlers
complained directly to the Sultan about his brothers unreasonable
demands. The Sultan replied in a half-joking manner, "You can

kill my brother if he demands heavy royalties again."15 After the
Sultans jocular statement, the Pulai settlers paid little attention to
the brothers demands. In retaliation, the Sultans brother blocked
the passage of all riverboats to the Pulai settlement. A famine soon
broke out because of the blockade. When the Sultans brother visited
Pulai to demand payment, he was met by famished settlers who
were outraged by his extortionate demands. In their anger, several of
them attacked the Sultans brother and accidentally killed him.
Not long after this tragic incident, the son of the deceased
aristocrat led a large troop of Malay fighters; they ascended the
river by boat and massacred thousands of Pulai people to avenge his
fathers death. It was said that the river ran red with blood and the
stench of decaying bodies polluted the air for miles. The old gold-
mining settlement had suddenly been wiped out.16 After a number
of years, it was said that some surviving miners returned to the
Pulai area. They had learnt a painful lesson from the massacre about
the need for self sufficiency, and began to cultivate rice for half of
each year and spent the remaining part of the year panning gold.
In the course of these events, Pulai transformed from a gold-mining
settlement to a self-sufficient community based on rice production.
For over a hundred years, this small Hakka settlement remained
largely isolated from the outside world. These rice cultivators lived
in scattered houses on their own podi land. By this time, most single
settlers had also married Siamese or Orang Asli women in the area.
They wore sarongs (a long length of fabric wrapped around the waist
worn by both men and women) and practised Hakka culture from
generation to generation. The Malay Sultan appointed a Chinese
kapitan (headman) as their leader to settle local disputes among the
villagers. The Kuan Yin temple bound Pulais people together and
all the villagers celebrated the "Kuan Yin Dan" festival (the birthday
of the Goddess of Mercy) annually.17
When the British began to extend their economic influence into
gold-mining in Kelantan in the early twentieth century, they recorded
some initial impressions and accounts about Pulai. For instance, in
92 TAN Teng Phee
the early 1900s, W.

miles from the coa
in gold-mining (Gr
in the State of Pah
mining minerals, a
Kelantan. In 1915,
Galas River were discontinued because there was little revenue to be
earned from the project. A local newspaper reported that the Pulai
Chinese were not adversely affected by Duffs development plan and
"continued as of yore fossicking for a return" ( Straits Times, 28 July
1917, p. 8). 18 Another Malayan Civil Servant, S.M. Middlebrook,
provided a detailed description of Pulai after his 1933 expedition
to the area. Middlebrook mentioned that he walked along a jungle
path from Gua Musang to Pulai. He estimated there were about
700 to 800 Chinese of Hakka ethnic origin living in the remote
/W/-growing settlement. Besides scattered huts, he noted that there
was a temple, dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy, and a school
situated in the central part of the village. The houses and shops
were constructed of padi clay and bamboo. He also noticed that
intermarriage was common among the Chinese and Siamese and
aboriginal women because of the latters "swarthy physical features"
(Middlebrook 1933, pp. 151-56). Moreover, there was a Sultan-
appointed kapitan who served as the village headman, but he had
moved to live with one of his wives in Gua Musang.19
Based on this, it is fair to conclude that Pulai could be regarded
largely as an old Chinese settlement with a well-remembered history
of over two hundred years. This remote Hakka community, isolated
in the depths of Ulu Kelantan, became a settlement of self-sufficient
padi cultivators and gold miners with the passage of time. Even in
more recent times, Pulai had remained a sanctuary of peace. Even
after the British construction of the East Coast Railroad in the
1930s, which led to thousands of newcomers flocking to the Gua
Musang area to start rubber plantations, Pulai remained out of the
mainstream and unscathed. The outbreak of World War II and
political developments in the years to follow, however, massively
transformed Pulais historical destiny. In particular, the emergence

of Communist forces in the area and their close relations with the
Pulai villagers, during and after the Japanese Occupation, turned the
future of this isolated community upside down.
When the Japanese invaded Malaya in December 1941, the
Pulai area had about 200 farming families, with a total population
of 2,000 Hakka Chinese. There were about ten shops around the
central area, in which stood the Kuan Yin Temple. When the Japanese
landed along the northern Malay Peninsula, it was said that there
was a head-on train collision during the hurried evacuation of the
British from North Kelantan. As a result, the British left behind
a wagon loaded with arms and ammunition lying on its side just
north of Gua Musang. Local villagers and "bandits" obtained these
weapons from the wagon.20 During the Japanese Occupation, there
were three self-armed local forces in the Pulai areas.21 In January
1943, the Communist Party organized the Malayan Peoples Anti-
Japanese Army (MPAJA) in Kelantan and recruited these three
local forces. They presented a combined front and worked with
the British Force 136 against the Japanese authority. These guerrilla
fighters ambushed and attacked the Japanese troops several times
as they advanced to Pulai. After encountering these well-organized
shows of resistance, the Japanese burnt down Pulai village before
they retreated to Gua Musang.22
After the Japanese surrender, some of the members of the
MPAJA and Pulai Reserve Forces returned to their normal lives
as /W/'-growing farmers in Pulai village, while others remained
in the jungle to join the Communists. The British Government
even awarded the Penghulu of Pulai, Mr Tong Kong Nyen, with
the British Empire Medal (BEM) at Kota Bharu, the capital of
Kelantan State. Mr Tong was decorated with the medal because,
despite continued raids and burnings by the Japanese soldiers, he
and his villagers showed great courage and loyalty in assisting the
British liaison officers and Chinese guerrilla forces who stayed in the
jungle throughout the Japanese Occupation ( Straits Times, 12 June
1948, p. 5). 23 The peace did not last long after the return of the
94 TAN Teng Phee
British colonial go
the political develo
to Pulais historical
Communist forces a
and after the Japa
isolated community
The Communist Ins
Soon after the dec

a group of Comm
major attack again
Gua Musang Polic
railway town. On
supporters attacke
killed two policem
surrender ( Straits
Gua Musang town
in the Malay Peni
reinforcements f
a counterattack. A
while they moved
major and six Mala
four "insurgents"
1948. The Commun
of Information 19
area" in Malaya last
About two weeks
their position at
5 August 1948, th
found it had becom
children had fled
police blankets and
Pulai. They burnt
the Pulai area ( Str
missing village headman, Mr Tong, came out to "surrender" to two

British officers ( Straits Times, 13 August 1948, p. 5). His personal
account, along with interrogations of captured "insurgents", provided
a more detailed picture of the Gua Musang attack.
According to Mr Tong, a group of Communists first came and
told him they were the "West Pahang Liberation Army". They said
they were going to attack Gua Musang Police Station and establish
a Communist state. The Communists threatened his wife and family
with death if Mr Tong did not obey their orders. He was forced to
join them. Then the Communists called on the men of Pulai and said
that "war had broken out with Russia in Europe, and that Singapore
and Kuala Lumpur had fallen to Communist troops" ( Straits Times,
22 August 1948, p. 7). Hence, no more British troops were left in
the whole country. About eighty armed Chinese Communists, along
with Pulai residents, gathered and stayed at the Kuan Yin temple
that night. They worshipped the Goddess of Mercy for their victory
and prepared for the attack.26
Early Saturday morning, the armed Communists, followed by
Pulai villagers, walked down to Gua Musang. One eighty-eight-year-
old ex-Communist who joined the attack recalled that, by chance,
they caught sight of the police chief at a barber shop. Because of
Mr Tongs familiarity with the police, the Communists captured
the police superintendent and asked Mr Tong to persuade him
to return to the police station and order the other policemen to
surrender. After entering the police station, the chief quickly armed
his men and refused to surrender. A gunfight ensued that lasted for
hours. Some Communists climbed up the limestone cliff, firing and
throwing hand grenades into the compound of the police station.
After several rounds of attacks, the Communists threatened to burn
the police station to the ground if they continued to fight. The police
eventually surrendered when they ran out of ammunition, resulting
in the Communists occupying and "liberating" the whole town.27
After the British recaptured Pulai, Mr Tong approached two
British officers and surrendered himself on 13 August 1948. He
suggested that the British authorities send an official announcement,
96 TAN Teng Phee
informing the vil

their safety. The
message on the wa
returned to their
Gua Musang for fu
The Gua Musang
great impact on th
it triggered a str
the Pulai area an
the Gua Musang
Soon Chin Sip to
terms of imprison
to punish lawbre
garrison near Pula
time it took to bu
launched its squatt
and "resettlement
operation was "to r
and allow the law
their normal occu
by the British au
if they had consi
the official justifi
retorted, "Illegal? W
and suddenly the
At a press conf
revealed that the
- thirty-one men
Pulai ( Straits Tim
provided no detail
shared their perso
year-old Mr Wong
Tuang early one m
rounded up and fo
Mr Wong, togeth
escorted on a three-mile walk to Pulai Temple, where they waited

for others to arrive so that they could be transported together
to Gua Musang by jeep. They were detained for two nights in a
row of bamboo huts which were guarded by the police. Mr Wong
recalled that the only information he received about the raid was
that they were suspected of helping the Communists in the jungle.
He complained that they were "locked up like dogs".33 Without
any interrogation, the British transported them to Kuala Lipis in
the State of Pahang and detained them for another two days. After
that, they were sent to Benta and reached Jerantut to take a train
to Kluang, in the state of Johor. From there, the police and military
vehicles transported them to the Kluang Detention Camp. Hence,
the evacuation began from Kuala Tuang and Pulai and continued via
Gua Musang, Kuala Lipis, Benta, and Jerantut to Kluang, crossing
over the states of Kelantan, Pahang, and Johor.
Wong and his family members were detained for three years until
a contractor came to recruit them to work as tappers at Yong Peng
rubber estate in Johor. The whole family decided to return to their
homeland in the 1960s after the government declared Pulai a "white
area". Another grandmother aged eighty years told me that when the
security forces rounded the villagers up at Kuala Semur (two miles
from Pulai), they called out several names on a list. Those who were
called by the officer were under arrest, while the rest were told to
resettle at a central point near the Pulai temple. The soldiers allowed
them to go home for three minutes. She grabbed only one set of
clothes and several bowls and followed her family all the way to the
Kluang Detention Camp. They were detained for more than two
years and sent to Mawai resettlement camp at Kota Tinggi in Johor.
Several months later, they were relocated to Yong Peng rubber estate
after the resurrection of Communist activities in the Mawai area. In
late 1960, she and her whole family moved back to Pulai after more
than ten years of tapping rubber trees in Johor.34
After the evacuations in the Pulai area, the British security
forces resettled the remaining "squatters" into a central location
98 TAN Teng Phee
in Pulai village nea

at Batu Papan wer
newly established
in 1950. Soon aft
River, the British
fence around the p
were a governmen
built their bambo
the existing villag
behind barbed wir
gates to control th
Kuala Tuang, the o
A gate curfew was
/»¿¿//-growing fa
day, Malay guards
to leave the villag
checks, the Britis
villagers who were
household tenant f
were rationed and
Through the resett
the British colonia
the Pulai people s
between the Comm
"Ghost Village": The

Terengganu
Unfortunately, peace did not come to Pulai after the evacuation

and resettlement programme in 1949. Instead, the suffering of
Pulai villagers heightened after two major incidents in the following
two years. The first incident was the Sungai Semur ambush. On
23 March 1950, the Communist guerrilla fighters ambushed a
platoon of twenty-five soldiers (including the Malay Regiment and
special constables), who were escorting eighteen Pulai men to collect
daun payung ("umbrella leaves") in the jungle. They killed seventeen

Malay soldiers and wounded six others in the battle (for details of
the ambush, see the Straits Times, 18 April 1950, p. 6). The other
incident was the murder of the Pulai village headman on 22 April
1951. The Communists shot fifty-five-year-old Mr Tong dead when
he and two auxiliary constables went to supervise rice harvests two
miles from Pulai New Village ( Straits Times, 23 April 1951, p. 1).
These two incidents, both carried out by the Communists, eventually
forced the British Government to carry out an unusual counter-
insurgency policy: interstate resettlement.
On 25 May 1951, within a month of the murder of the Pulai
village headman, the British Government sent a group of working
teams to inform the remaining fifty-three families (three hundred
and fifty villagers) about their impending resettlement the following
day.35 The working teams were divided into several groups and
accompanied by interpreters. Each group assessed and calculated
each family's goods and chattels for compensation. For instance, the
veterinary team used a broom and white paint to mark a price on
the body of a buffalo; in this way, they also valued other livestock.
The Public Works Department teams visited each house to value
agricultural tools and furniture, while the agricultural team assessed
padi stocks. Compensation amounts were recorded on a receipt and
issued to each family representative. After valuation, each family
moved and stored their items in a public building. That night,
while heavy rain was pouring down, the Pulai people prayed to the
Goddess of Mercy for their future.36
Because of the heavy rain, the transportation team from Gua
Musang encountered a broken bridge and muddy roads. The Public
Works Department sent a team to rebuild the bridge and improve
the roads. The transport vehicles eventually reached the Pulai temple
at noon the next day. In the midst of their hurried packing, Pulai
families were also lighting joss sticks on their ancestral altars to send
away their ancestors to heaven. The community leaders negotiated
with the British authorities and were granted permission to bring
along their statues of the Goddess of Mercy and other deities. The
1 00 TAN Teng Phee
statue of the Godd

an honoured village
the entire time. Af
belongings were loa
men. While the Bri
wait another day wh
the men insisted o
not want to be sep
nurse accompanied
wept at having to l
there for generatio
by Pulai men, bega
By the time they
26 May 1951.
The British authorities arranged for the Pulai villagers to stay
for two nights at the Gua Musang New Village community hall
and two makeshift camps nearby. The next morning, the British
authorities transported some local businessmen from Gua Musang
to Pulai. They brought with them buffaloes and livestock as well
as other goods that were left behind. These vehicles then carried
them back to Gua Musang. During their stay at Gua Musang, the
Social Welfare Department provided three meals a day for the 350
Pulai villagers. At night, they were entertained by open-air movie
screenings. During the relocation, the British authorities recruited a
total of thirty military trucks, lorries, and buses in order to transport
all the villagers from Gua Musang to Bertam. On 29 May 1951,
the transportation team set out in the morning, taking five hours
to cross over a river at Bertam. From Bertam, the villagers were
transported by train to Kuala Krai, where they rested for one night.
The British used a cargo train to transport the Pulai people and
their belongings. It was said that more than two-thirds of the Pulai
population had never seen a train before. Hence, this was their first
experience of travelling by train in their lives. Elderly villagers were
particularly nervous because of the noisy engine and vomited from
motion sickness.38 The next morning they continued their journey
Oral History and People's Memory of the Malayan Emergency (1948-60) 101
by bus and lorry between Kuala Krai and Kota Bharu, the capital
of Kelantan.
From Pulai to Kota Bharu, under military escort, the Pulai people
travelled about 200 kilometres within five days. At Kota Bharu, the
Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) Branch assisted the British
Government to take care of Pulai villagers while they were waiting
for the completion of the new resettlement camp at Batu Rakit in
the State of Terengganu. The local MCA members provided cooking
utensils, soap, and other daily essentials. One informant recalled that
villagers were impressed by the flushing toilets at their temporary
accommodation because they had never used one before. Several
children kept flushing it and spilt water over the floor.39 Ten days
later, all Pulai villagers were transferred by bus and truck to their
final destination. They travelled south for about 170 kilometres and
eventually reached Batu Rakit in early June 1951. One old lady said
the bumpy and dusty journey on the east coast road made several
women throw up on the lorry. She remembered her face was full of
dust by the time she arrived at the resettlement site.40
Soon after the evacuation and resettlement of all the Hakka
villagers, the British authorities declared Pulai a "Restricted Area".
The security forces collected any remaining padi and burned it.
They also destroyed agricultural tools and any usable items left
behind so that the Communists would not obtain and reuse them.
The burning of the village lasted for several days. One eighty-five-
year-old ex-Communist recalled watching the village burn down
from a distance:
I would never forget the scene. The British soldiers set fire and
burned down my homeland. For nearly a week, I could not do
anything except watch the smoke go up to the sky. The fury only
fuelled my hatred and strengthened my will to fight against the
British Colonial Government.41
After the destruction and the burning, this isolated ancient settle-
ment became a deserted "ghost village" ( Straits Times, 24 June 1951,
p. 10).
1 02 TAN Teng Phee
"It was a punishmen

Re-resettlement
Because of the British resettlement scheme, the villagers were evacuated

from Pulai and transited at Gua Musang, Bertam, Kuala Krai, Kota
Bharu and, finally, relocated at Batu Rakit. Batu Rakit New Village,
located six miles north of Kuala Terengganu, was a 105-acre sandy
land surrounded by Malay kampongs. The British Government
hastily selected and constructed the site as a New Village for the
Pulai people. When the transportation team stopped at the new
settlement site, several elders sat down and lamented over the sight
of their "new homes".42 There were only five rows of attap longhouses
standing on the newly cleared sandy land. The resettlement officers
assigned each family a house unit, each of which was numbered. The
Malayan Chinese Associations Terengganu Branch prepared a meal for
these newcomers and assisted them in setding down to begin their
new life in Terengganu. The state government provided a six-month
living allowance to Pulai villagers - $15 for each adult and $7.80
for children each month (Land Office Terengganu 1952).
Unlike other New Villages, the British did not construct a barbed
wire fence to enclose the new settlement. There were no auxiliary
constables patrolling the village. No curfews and body searches at
entry/exit points were imposed on the villagers. There was one
Residential Assistance Resettlement officer to "look after" these New
Villagers. When I asked one informant why there were no strict
regulations and controls in the New Village, he said:
We were resettled from a settlement encircled by hills to a totally
new location, far away from our homeland. We were surrounded
by Malay kampongs and faced the sea. There was no way of escape.
Most importandy, there were no Communist activities in the area.
The British were not worried at all since we were traumatized after
the evacuation and resettlement.43
In addition to their traumatic resettlement experience, Pulai people

continued to encounter and experience new difficulties in their
new life in Terengganu. Firstly, the British authorities selected a
sandy land, situated not far away from Batu Rakit beach, as the
new resettlement site. It was not only unfit for growing padi, the
seawater intrusion made it almost impossible to grow other crops.
The villagers also had to get used to the heat. Unlike in Pulai, which
was cool and hilly, the villagers now constantly felt hot inside and
outside their homes. Worse still, this sandy land caused two kinds
of illnesses among the villagers. The first was "rotten feet" (a fungal
skin disease affecting the feet). A huge number of villagers developed
foot problems after being infected by the skin disease. It usually
took weeks of resting at home to recover.44 The other problem
involved their eyesight. Some elderly villagers remained at home
because the light reflected off the sand seemed to cause their vision
to deteriorate. Because of these problems, the villagers took months
to adjust to their new settlement.
The poor site selection also affected the water quality in the
wells. Pulai New Villagers dared not drink the well water because it
was "smelly with a yellow colour". The villagers immediately asked
the Goddess of Mercy for help through the only shaman in the
new village. The shaman held a ritual of incantation and requested
villagers to bring bags of Chinese tea leaves. They burned the
incantation slip and threw it, together with the tea leaves, into the
well. It became clearer and cleaner in the following two days. Only
then was the drinking water acceptable to the villagers.
Secondly, for over two hundred years, Pulai villagers could speak
only the Hakka dialect. Except for a few traders who knew Malay,
the majority lived at their padi fields and seldom interacted with
outsiders. After resettling in Terengganu, they realized that the
dominant dialect group at Batu Rakit and Kuala Terengganu was
Hokkien. They found it hard to communicate with each other.
Similarly, since they never learned the Malay language, Pulai people
had very little social interaction with the Malays because of this
language barrier. In the beginning, when Pulai villagers went to Batu
Enam, the nearest town, they relied on body language to buy daily
essentials from grocery shops.45
Thirdly, these newcomers encountered difficulties in finding jobs
in the local employment market. For generations they were adept
1 04 TAN Teng Phee
/W/-growers withou
British authorities
Department of Irr
ditches in nearby villa
to find jobs to suppo
they could not culti
forced to work as da
sites, or engage in la
Pulai people encounte
grumbled:
The intention of the British authority was obvious: It was a
punishment to Pulai People! You see, there were other good lands
across Kelantan and Terengganu, they knew we had been growing
rice for generations, yet they still decided to move us into a sandy
land, with bad water, little job opportunities, and encircled by
Malay kampongs.48
What my key informant did not know is that the Kelantan State
Government had also banned sixty-nine Pulai villagers from re-
entering Kelantan. The British Advisor, Mr D. Headly, justified the
"banishment" order. Headly believed some of the Pulai people might
become Communist sympathizers before they were resettled, and
would probably become "a nuisance if they were permitted to return
to any part of Kelantan before the end of the Emergency" ( Straits
Times, 13 February 1954, p. I).49
Encountering these difficulties, the New Village headman,
Mr Wen, and other Pulai leaders began to request the British
authorities to move them to another location. After many attempts
for two years, the British Government allowed the entire village to be
re-resettled near Bukit Gajah Mati (literally meaning "dead elephant
hill"), about eleven miles from Kuala Terengganu, in 1954. The
state government provided a piece of coconut land which became
the "Pulai Bahru New Village" for Pulai people. It was about 120
acres, with 105 house lots. The state government built a primary
school, a playground, a community hall, and a temple in the new
village. Each family was granted a thirty-year lease house lot (Osman
Oral History and People's Memory of the Malayan Emergency (1948-60) 105
Mamat 1981, p. 69). Meanwhile, the authorities also offered land to

the villagers to build rubber plantations. However, because rubber
trees need to grow for seven years before they can be tapped, only
a few families expressed interest in applying for such land. Besides,
since the Pulai villagers were promised they could return to their
homeland once Pulai was declared a "White Area", most families
preferred to save their money for future investments when they
returned to Kelantan.50
From Batu Rakit to Gajah Mati, Pulai families tried hard to grow
podi fields but failed to produce the same quality of rice as they did
in the old Pulai valley. "The irrigating water and soil quality would
never be the same as in Pulai Valley", said one informant.51 He
continued to say that after re-resettlement, Pulai villagers still had
to look for odd jobs outside Pulai Bahra New Village. While some
adults became loggers and quarry workers, others went to Kuala
Terengganu city to try their luck.52 Another informant mentioned
two other kinds of hardship the Pulai people experienced in their
New Village. The first was secondary education. Every day, he
had to cycle twelve kilometres to attend a secondary school after
finishing primary school in the village. In fact, many of his friends
dropped out of school and went to look for odd jobs to support
their families. He was lucky to complete his junior middle school
and became the highest educated person in the village.53 The second
involved the cemetery. A few Pulai elders passed away during the
time they were resettled in Terengganu and several poor families had
to seek help from the Hakka Chinese Association to buy a coffin to
bury the deceased. More importantly, instead of being buried with
their ancestors, these families had to bury them in other Chinese
cemeteries in the Kuala Terengganu district. In other words, as one
informant heard from his father, the deceased would feel "lonely
without friends and relatives in the other [dead] world."54
The "White Area" and the Return to Old Pulai
The Kelantan State Government declared the Gua Musang and Galas
areas a "White Area" on 16 July 1957. It was the last area, covering
1 06 TAN Teng Phee
381 square miles, w

declared a "White Ar
p. 1). During the lat
the Pulai people to r
six acres of land to
government officer
New Village. Mr Han
to return to old Pula
as a bus conductor when his father informed him of the decision
to return to Kelantan. Even though he was not willing to go back,
as the only son in the family, he obeyed his father. Being the first
family to return to their homeland was far from simple and easy.
He recounted the difficulties and unexpected dangers encountered
by his pioneering family when they returned to old Pulai.55
First of all, each family needed a sum of savings to pay for the
transport from Terengganu to Kelantan as well as to support the
family for one whole year before the first harvest. Han said his family
had only 800 dollars cash with them when they left Pulai Bahru New
Village. Travelling from Pulai Bahru New Village to Gua Musang in
1960, they hired a lorry to transport everything, including furniture,
utensils, and clothes. Since Pulai became a "no mans land" after the
interstate resettlement, many Pulai Bahru villagers and Gua Musang
townsfolk were doubtful about moving back from Terengganu to
Kelantan. Ignoring the sceptics, the Han family rented a single room
at the railway town. While Hans mother and pregnant wife stayed
at the room, he walked two hours along the jungle tracks, together
with his father and uncle, to Pulai to re-cultivate their original padi-
land. The first sight of their deserted village when they reached the
Pulai setdement remains vivid in his mind:
It was sad to see that everything was ruined in our old village.
Wild elephants knocked down the remaining temple and buildings.
The utensils and items stored at the public building were broken
and scattered on the ground. A small hill of carbonized grain was
burnt down by the British soldiers. Trees had also grown in our
podi fields over the years.56
Oral History and People's Memory of the Malayan Emergency (1 948-60) 1 07
The first thing they did was to build a simple tree house so
that they could keep away scavenging animals as well as stay and
work at Pulai. At night they heard different noises made by tigers,
elephants, and other wild animals roaming around the area. Just like
their ancestors who first came to Pulai, they built their homeland
from scratch. They spent two months cutting down and burning the
trunks, clearing and re-irrigating the podi fields, and ploughing with
simple tools. Han walked from Pulai to Gua Musang fortnightly to
buy essential supplies such as food, tools, and seeds. After obtaining
seeds from Gua Musang, they cultivated tapioca and other vegetables.
They also caught a lot of river fish in the Galas River.
The hard work of the Han family resulted in a fruitful harvest
in early 1961. They manually milled the grain, sold their quality
rice at Gua Musang, and earned enough cash to clear and plant
their rubber plantation in Pulai. The news of the Han family's first
great harvest began to attract more and more families to return from
Pulai Bahru New Village in the following two years. Most families
followed the same pattern, renting a place in Gua Musang, while
young and able-bodied males went to clear and cultivate their podi
fields until the first harvest in Pulai. After harvesting, each family
had enough money and rice to invest in their rubber land. Besides
Terengganu Pulai villagers, some families, who were resettled in the
State of Johor as well as Gua Musang New Village, also moved back
to old Pulai in the 1960s.
Why did the Pulai people choose to return to the old Pulai? Three
reasons were mentioned in the oral histories of returned villagers. First
of all, it was the British Government who forcefully evacuated and
resettled the Pulai people to the States of Johor and Terengganu. They
never wanted to leave their homeland and abandon their ancestors.
When they lighted incense to "send off" their ancestors, they
promised them they would return and take care of their homeland.
One elder villager told me, "Since our ancestors' graves and land
are still in Pulai, we decided to come back when the government
allowed us to do so."57 While the first reason is culturally rooted, the
second and third reasons are economically driven. The government's
1 08 TAN Teng Phee
six-acre allotment for

for the villagers. Mo
jobs they had taken
as day labourers. Th
cultivate their podi f
felt they had greater
were still Pulai families who chose to remain outside Pulai from the
1960s onwards. One informant explained why a few families stayed
on in Terengganu. Two families had moved to Kuala Terengganu
city and obtained better education and job opportunities for their
children.59 Another elder said he believed Pulai could never be a
"peaceful" place again and decided that he would not return to
his "homeland".60
As for the returned families, they rebuilt the ancient settlement of
Pulai like a phoenix reborn from the ashes. However, the resurrection
of Communist activities in the Pulai area ignited a Second Emergency
in the mid-1970s. Several young villagers joined the Communist
movement and went into the jungle. In June 1976 the government
launched a security operation and arrested seventeen suspected
"Communist agents" in Pulai village.61 They were detained for one
night at Gua Musang, then sent to Kota Bharu for interrogation.
After that, under the Internal Security Act, they were put behind
barbed wire in the Kamunting Detention Centre in Taiping in
the State of Perak. After the police raid, the government imposed
a temporary twelve-hour house curfew in the village between
6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Eventually security checkpoints were set up and
another curfew was imposed from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. in the area for
the following seven years.
Because of the Second Emergency and its "black" reputation, the
Pulai community had to wait until the late 1980s and early 1990s to
enjoy modern amenities. The government first enhanced the laterite
road and built a seven-kilometre tarred road from Gua Musang to
Pulai village in 1989. The government provided piped water and
electricity in 1990 and 1992 respectively. The first public telephone
arrived in 1997. In addition to the delay of such services, the states
Oral History and People's Memory of the Malayan Emergency (1 948-60) 1 09
policies supporting the reinstitution of gold-mining in Pulai gravely

affected its padi- field landscape. In 1987 the Malaysian Government
began to negotiate and reclaim 146 acres for gold-mining purposes.
The authorities resettled these scattered villagers to a new village site
not far away from the Pulai temple with little compensation. They
also selected another cemetery site for the villagers who were forced
to move their ancestors' graves.
In fact, Pulai villagers had stopped growing padi around 1985
because fewer young people were interested in the back-breaking
labour involved, and rubber production became regarded as a more
lucrative enterprise in supporting local families. Families had also
begun to grow cocoa and young men turned to logging. Unfortu-
nately, the Malaysian Mining Corporation started gold-mining around
these padi fields in the 1990s. After five years of mining, the private
multinational conglomerate left the area since there was little gold
beneath. The mining activity had further damaged the local irrigation
system and turned many padi fields into lakes. Pulai people could
no longer cultivate their padi fields, which their ancestors practised
for nearly two hundred years. Most of the villagers looked after
their rubber estates and fruit orchards. The end of gold-mining
also marked the disappearance of a /Wi'-growing community in the
Pulai area.
Conclusion
Records of Pulai s resetdement process are absent from both Malaysia's

national archives and Kelantan's state archives. But for oral history,
the story of that process would be lost. Pulai represents a unique
case in the history of the Chinese in Malaya. Post-war Pulai was an
isolated Hakka community over two hundred years old situated in the
Malay-dominated State of Kelantan. Pulai was also an unusual case
in the context of the Emergency. The settlement and its inhabitants
were involved in the Malayan Communist Party's first and only
effort to establish a "Liberation Area" in the Malay Peninsula. After
the British reoccupied Gua Musang and destroyed Pulai, the Hakka
110 TAN Teng Phee
community became
the Kluang Detentio
experienced their fir
or Gua Musang New
By the end of 194
attached to an exi
heavily guarded by
government decided
aftermath of two
ambush and the mu
Pulai community w
kilometres to a ne
of poor site selectio
groups, and the lack
site, the Pulai villag
livelihoods. They repe
move to an area more
were granted permi
Bahru New Village,
six years.
Elderly villagers can still recount their traumatic memories of the
impact of multiple resettlements on their lives since the onset of
the Emergency. They experienced long periods of separation from
family and kin. While some chose to join the Communists in the
jungle in their younger days, others were detained in different states
or deported to China if they were suspected of sympathizing with
the Communists. They also bore the burden of severe economic
loss because of their removal and relocation. Generally they were
resigned to their fate. They endured considerable hardship, waiting
for the day when they would be allowed to return to their ancestral
homeland in Pulai.
However, as more and more villagers returned from Terengganu
and Johor in the 1960s, the revival of Communist activities resulted
in a mass arrest and the second Emergency in Pulai by the mid-
1970s. The large-scale police raid and the imposition of curfews
revived villagers' memories of the earlier removal and resettlement

process. Hence, they organized an "Anti-communist" rally in the
village to demonstrate their loyalty to the Malaysian Government and
to avoid the possibility of the introduction of another "resettlement
scheme".62
The Second Emergency not only stirred up the Pulai villagers'
traumatic memories of the Emergency between 1948 and 1960, it
also turned the history of the recent past into a taboo subject among
the villagers over the next three decades. During my stay in Pulai,
I could sense the villagers' fear and anxiety during some of our
conversations about the history of the settlement. Several villagers
even informed me that no one would dare to talk openly about
the Emergency and the Communists until quite recently. When
approaching potential Pulai interviewees, I was always accompanied
by Mr Han, my local informant. However, three elderly villagers
politely declined my invitation to interview them. The first was an
old gentleman. He simply said his frail health would not allow him
to have an interview. The other two were women. While one said
that she was too old to remember, the other accepted my interview
request but we were interrupted by a phone call from a family
member. After receiving the call, her facial expression and tone of
voice changed, and she responded by saying that she had forgotten
much about the past and could not remember anything. Before I
left the village, one informant told me that these individuals were
concerned about the content of the interviews and written records
because "who knows, one day the government might use that against
the villagers here."63 Despite these very real fears and reservations,
with the assistance of two key informants, I was still able to conduct
interviews in Pulai - interviews which revealed not only the
experiences and lived memories of the people of this community
during critical points in the history of the Malayan Peninsula but
also how people have come to negotiate the difficulties they face and
the extent of attachment they have developed to a place they call
their homeland.
1 1 2 TAN Teng Phee
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Appendix A
Informants of Pulai (2007-08)
Age/Year
No Name of Birth Personal description
1. Mr Han 70 A grocery owner at Pulai, who hosted Sharon
(1938) when she conducted her fieldwork from 1978 t
2. Mr Sun 80 Born in Kuala Tuang, Sun was sent to Kluang Detention
(1928) Camp in 1948. After two years of incarceration, he
worked in a rubber estate in Johor.
3. Madam Chang 73 My key female informant, accompanying me when
(1935) approaching other female interviewees in the village; was
resettled to Terengganu in the 1950s.
4. Madam Liu 75 Born in Pulai, she moved to Gua Musang when she was
(1933) nineteen years old to marry a local there.
5. Mr Wong 89 The oldest person in the village, who was once an
(1919) ex-MPAJA member. He was detained at the Kluang
Detention Camp in 1948 and moved back to Pulai in
the 1960s.
6. Mr Kam 76 Born in Kuala Semur, Kam was resettled to Terengganu.
(1932) He is currently a ritual master at the Kuan Yin temple.
7. Mr Chang 74 Born in Kuala Semur, resettled to Pulai in 1949 and
(1934) moved to Terengganu with his six family members.
Chang returned to Pulai in the late 1 960s.
8. Madam Lau 73 Born in Pulai, resettled to Terengganu. Her daughter did
(1935) not allow me to interview her, probably because of fear.
9. Madam Soo 86 Born in Kuala Tuang and detained at Kluang in 1948;
(1922) she was pregnant and gave birth to her first daughter at
the detention camp.
10. Mr Tong 78 Second son of the murdered Penghulu of Pulai, he was
(1930) the Assistant Resettlement Officer of Gua Musang New
Village in the early 1950s.
1 1 . Madam Tey 74 Born in Pulai, she was pregnant during the resettlement
(1934) journey to Terengganu.
12. Madam Chia 80 Born in Kuala Semur, she was detained in 1948 at
( 1 928) Kluang Camp with her family.
13. Mr Nyen 75 His family moved to Gua Musang before the evacuation.
(1933) Nyen joined the forest police when he was eighteen
years old.
14. Madam Chong 80 She was resettled to Terengganu and her first child was
(1928) born in the New Village.
15. Mr Ng 88 Ng, who followed the Communists to attack Gua
(1920) Musang in 1948, now runs a grocery shop in the village.
16. Madam Wu 80 An ex-Communist who participated in the attack of
( 1 928) Gua Musang; now stays in Kedah.
17. Mr Soon 88 An ex-Communist who attacked Gua Musang; now
( 1 920) stays in Betong village, Thailand.
1 1 4 TAN Teng Phee
NOTES
1. The author would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their
valuable comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this article.
2. The term "hearts and minds" was coined by the British High Commissioner,
General Gerald Templer, when he arrived in Malaya in February 1952. See
the Straits Times , 27 March 1968. For scholarship works on the Malayan
Emergency, see Stubbs 2004 and Short 2000.
3. More recently, in 2008, the Malaysian Government reported that there were
still 450 New Villages spread throughout the Malayan Peninsula. See New
Villages Master Plan 2005.
4. See, for instances, Nyce 1973, Strauch 1981, and Loh 1988.
5. For instance, the Governor of Singapore, Sir Franklin Gimson, once said after
visiting several resettlement camps in Johor: "From what I saw, it was quite
obvious to me that the Federation has found the right solution for coping
with the Communist menace". See Straits Times , 22 September 1950, p. 7.
6. Authors interview with Mr Yen, Pulai Bahru New Village, Terengganu, 5 July
2007.
7. According to statistics from the governments 2000 census, Pulai Baru New
Village has 425 villagers. Among the population, only thirty- two Chinese are
originally from Pulai, the rest are Malay (368) and "Others" (25). See "Pulai
Bahru Profile" 2000.
8. Authors interview with Mr Lai, Pulai Bahru New Village, Terengganu,
16 July 2007.
9. On the eastern side of this town stands Bukit Gua Musang, a barren hill of
rocks and stone steps running 105 metres high. From a distance, this hill looks
like a stone pillar with a big crack that appears to split it vertically into two
equal halves. Between the hill and the town runs a railway track. Besides the
railway quarters, Gua Musang New Village is adjoined to the town area.
10. Pseudonyms are used throughout the article in order to protect the identity
and confidentiality of my informants.
11. Authors interview with Mr Han, Pulai, Kelantan, 18 July 2007.
12. Mr Han told me that when Sharon Carstens came to conduct her fieldwork
in Pulai in 1978, some thirty years ago, several villagers thought she was a
"government spy" (authors interview with Mr Han, Pulai, 18 July 2007).
Carstens (1980) also mentions this in her thesis.
13. See Fu 1966, p. 39. It was said that the notorious Chinese pirate could be
Chang Pao Tsai, but so far there is no historical evidence to support that
statement.
14. Authors interview with Mr Han, Pulai, 18 July 2007. There is also an
Chinese text from this period. For reference, see Cushman and M
Oral History and People's Memory of the Malayan Emergency (1 948-60) 1 1 5
15. Authors interview with Mr Han, Pulai, 18 January 2008.

16. Interestingly, this local legend is similar to the one Sharon Carstens (1980)
mentioned in her thesis nearly thirty years ago. She cites the original source
of the folktale as W.A. Grahams (1908) study. See also Carstens 1988.
17. Authors interview with Mr Han, Pulai, 18 July 2007. A British officer
visited Pulai in 1933 and provided his description of the old settlement. See
Middlebook 1933. Another useful reference is Carstens 2005.
18. For more details on the Duff Development Company, see Naysmith 19 66.
19. One local villager mentioned that Liu Chin Foo was the last Kapitan [headman]
in Pulai and retired in 1934 (see Huang 1966).
20. Authors interview with Mr Wong, Pulai, 1 February 2008.
21. The first group, made up of about fifty armed men, were led by Fong
Chen, and were stationed near Pulai Settlement. They also assisted Pulai
males to establish its "Reserve Forces" (ítfSfêÊ) so that they could prepare
and resist the invaders. The second group was also made up of about fifty
Chinese supporters of the Kuomintang, led by Mr Chiang and Mr Yang
and based at Kuala Kundor near Gua Musang. The third group, made up of
about thirty men and led by Mr Kao, drifted around without a base. While
the second and third groups considered themselves part of the Overseas
Chinese Anti-Japanese Army, many Pulai villagers accused them of being
"bandits" (±Ü) in the area. These bandits kidnapped and extorted money
from local villagers during the Japanese Occupation (Sun and Zeng 1996,
p. 73-81).
22. Each time before the Japanese army marched on the only jungle track towards
Pulai, the MPAJA and Pulai Reserve Forces would evacuate the women and
children into the deep jungle or limestone caves (authors interview with
Madam Soo, Pulai, 17 January 2008).
23. Interestingly, local elders interpreted the medal as the Chinese traditional
medal from the Emperor - "Mian Si Jin Pai" (:fe^EifeJ$) - which allowed
a person to be exempt from any penalties for law-breaking.
24. Generally speaking, the Malayan Communist Party planned three phases to
create its "Peoples Republic". In the first phase, the Communists hoped to
create an effective mass movement, accompanied by guerrilla warfare. In the
second phase, they were to occupy police stations and other government
buildings, and to establish "liberated areas". In the last phase, they would link
these "liberated areas" under the "liberation army" to conquer the country.
25. On the way to Pulai, one Gurkha soldier was killed and two "insurgents"
shot dead {Straits Times , 5 August 1948, p. 1).
26. Authors interview with Madam Wu, Pulai, 26 March 2008. Wu was seventeen
years old and the only female Communist fighter when she joined the Gua
Musang attack.
1 1 6 TAN Teng Phee
27. Author s interview w

2008.
28. The following are interesting recorded statements made by Pulai villagers who
joined the Gua Musang attack: (1) "I was told by the Communists, here is a
gun. Come with us or we will shoot you."; (2) "After I had thrown a hand
grenade at the police station I went into a shop and bought a tin of sardines,
and then went back to Pulai."; (3) "After I had fired three shots towards the
police station I went to sleep. Next day I returned to Pulai."; (4) "We were
deceived by the Communists. They boasted that the British Army, like the
Japanese before, could never reach Pulai or Gua Musang." See Straits Times ,
6 September 1948, p. 1.
29. As the Secretary of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), Chin Peng
commented that the Gua Musang attack was not an official order from the
Central Committee; rather, it was the local Communist Party committee
who decided to launch the attack. Chin Peng (2003, p. 232) concluded
that the five-day liberation of Gua Musang was "to be pre-empted" and "did
nothing for our long-term cause". It is also interesting to note that Chin
Peng included only one page on the Gua Musang attack in his 516-page
memoir.
30. Mr Soon was charged with the possession of a Sten gun and 117 rounds of
ammunition and was hanged at Penang Gaol. After the Gua Musang attack,
the police recovered from the area 72 rifles, 28 shotguns, 2 Vickers machine
guns, 7 Sten guns, 2 Tommy guns, a two-inch mortar, and hundreds of rounds
of ammunition. See Straits Times , 3 February 1949, p. 7.
31. To the British authorities, these undesirables were described as "thugs, ready
to attack and pillage whenever it pays for them to do so". See Straits Times ,
19 May 1949, p. 1.
33. Authors interview with Mr Wong, Pulai, 14 January 2008.
34. Authors interview with Madam Shie, Pulai, 19 January 2008.
35. Unless other sources are stated, this section regarding the resettlement from
Pulai to Kuala Terengganu, is based on a report from an official Chinese
newspaper. See "Great Procession" 1951.
36. One informant remembered that he heard elderly people express their worries
of being "thrown into high sea by boat". This prompted them to seek the
Goddess of Mercys help (author's interview with Mr Han, Pulai, 13 January
2008).
37. Authors interview with Madam Chang, Pulai, 14 January 2008.
38. Authors interview with Madam Tey, Pulai, 19 January 2008.
39. Authors interview with Mr Han, rulai, 12 January 2008.

41. Authors interview with Mr. Soon, Betong village, Southern Thailand, 15 May
2008.
42. Authors interview with Madam Chong, Pulai, 31 January 2008.

44. It was said that many villagers, over seventy per cent, had the "foot illness" at
Batu Rakit New Village. This was partly because Pulai villagers were barefoot
all the time, leading to frequent infections (author s interview with Mr Chang
Pulai, 17 January 2008).
45. In the authors interview with Madam Chang, Pulai, 14 January 2008, cultural
change was mentioned. She said they used to sing Hakka songs while cultivating
padi in the past, but no one ever sang Hakka songs after the resettlement to
Terengganu.
46. The Department of Irrigation and Drainage paid $2.25 per day to a Pulai
worker (authors interview with Mr Kam, Pulai, 17 January 2008).
47. While clearing land could earn $3-4 a day, construction workers made $5-6
at that time. One Pulai woman said she learnt how to drive a lorry and
received her licence so that she could earn more money to support her family
(authors interview with Madam Chang, Pulai, 14 January 2008).
48. Authors interview with Mr Han, Pulai, 16 Tanuarv 2008.
49. The ban was lifted on 13 February 1954.
50. Authors interview with Mr Chang, Pulai, 17 July 2007.
51. Authors interview with Mr Lai, Pulai, 16 July 2007.
52. Authors interview with Mr Lee, Pulai, 16 July 2007.
55. Authors several interviews with Mr Han, Pulai.
57. Authors interview with Mr Kam, Pulai, 16 January 2008.
58. Authors interview with Mr Sun, Pulai, 1 1 January 2008.
60. Authors interview with Mr Lee, Pulai Bahru New Village, 16 July 2007.
61 . Included among these seventeen arrested villagers were the Pulai village headman
and three women. See Straits Times , 18 June 1976, p. 1.
62. Authors interview with Mr Han, Pulai, 16 January 2008. Han used the term
"communist blood" to describe their social and political situation in Pulai,
which meant that the government would never trust the villagers, having
suspected them of having close connections with the Communists in the
past.
63. Authors interview with Madam Liu, Pulai, 17 January 2008.
118 TAN Teng Phee
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Singapore 327874, Email: ttp216@gmail

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Oral History and People's Memory of the Malayan Emergency (1948-60): The Case of Pulai

Author(s): TAN Teng Phee

Oral History and People's Memo

TAN Teng Phee1

Keywords: Malayan Emergency, resettlement programmes, New Village, British colo

The British colonial government declared "a state of Emergency

these twelve years, one of the most important social impacts of

By using the oral

and writing history becomes more democratic (Thompson 1978,

hotel where I stay

research project to Mr Han, his first response to my two key

speaking to the loc

Pulai: From Ancient Settlement to World War II

demands. The Sultan replied in a half-joking manner, "You can

the early 1900s, W.

transformed Pulais historical destiny. In particular, the emergence

The Communist Ins

Soon after the dec

missing village headman, Mr Tong, came out to "surrender" to two

informing the vil

escorted on a three-mile walk to Pulai Temple, where they waited

in Pulai village nea

"Ghost Village": The

Unfortunately, peace did not come to Pulai after the evacuation

daun payung ("umbrella leaves") in the jungle. They killed seventeen

statue of the Godd

"It was a punishmen

Because of the British resettlement scheme, the villagers were evacuated

In addition to their traumatic resettlement experience, Pulai people

Mamat 1981, p. 69). Meanwhile, the authorities also offered land to

The "White Area" and the Return to Old Pulai

381 square miles, w

six-acre allotment for

policies supporting the reinstitution of gold-mining in Pulai gravely

Records of Pulai s resetdement process are absent from both Malaysia's

revived villagers' memories of the earlier removal and resettlement

15. Authors interview with Mr Han, Pulai, 18 January 2008.

27. Author s interview w

40. Authors interview with Madam Chang, Pulai, 14 January 2008.

42. Authors interview with Madam Chong, Pulai, 31 January 2008.

Carsten, Sharon. "Images of Community in a Chinese Malaysian Settlement". PhD

of the South Seas Society 53 (1988): 5-34.

Singapore University Press, 2005.

"Pulai Bahru Profile". Department of Statistics, Kuala Lumpur: Federation of

Strauch, Judith. Chinese Village Politics in the Malay

Tan Teng Phee is Assistant Curator, Sun

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