Published June 25, 2009

Colonial official's rally raises debate on exiled rebel's return

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(KUALA KUBU BHARU) As Malaysian officials marked the spot where communist guerillas killed Britain's top colonial official 58 years ago, debate has erupted over whether to allow an exiled rebel leader to return.

Looking up at history: The ceremony at Fraser's Hill highland resort, also marked the beginning of the 1948-1960 Malayan Emergency 61 years ago

Soldiers and policemen gathered during the weekend on the spot where British high commissioner Henry Gurney was ambushed and gunned down, and where a commemorative blue and white plaque was erected in his memory.

Mr Gurney, the colonial government's senior representative in what was then known as Malaya, was killed by communist guerillas on October 6, 1951, three years after the rebels launched a bid to oust colonial authorities.

'This (killing) was a historically significant event as it marked the beginning of a bloody war with the communists,' district government officer and event organiser Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan told AFP.

Mr Nor Hisham said that state authorities plan to construct a permanent memorial in time for the 58th anniversary of Mr Gurney's killing this October.

The solemn 10-minute ceremony on Saturday on a narrow tree-lined road leading to the highland resort of Fraser's Hill, also marked the beginning of the 1948-1960 Malayan Emergency 61 years ago last week.

Mr Gurney took over as high commissioner just months after the Emergency was proclaimed on June 18, 1948 to deal with an armed rebellion by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), supported by the Chinese Communist Party.

Mr Gurney and his wife were being driven in their Rolls Royce to the popular resort when they were ambushed by insurgents.

Witnesses said Mr Gurney deliberately left the car when the shooting began, to draw fire away from his wife and driver.

He was shot and died in the middle of the road.

The brazen attack galvanised British authorities and marked a turning point in the campaign to crush the insurgency.

'Despite having numerous plans to tackle the insurgents, Mr Gurney's death provoked a strong reaction from the incoming Churchill government in Britain, now determined to find a lasting solution to the insurgency,' said Brian Farrell, associate professor of history at the National University of Singapore.

Government records show that at the height of the insurgency in the early 1950s, Malaya was home to some 40,000 British and Commonwealth troops, 70,000 police and a quarter of a million volunteer guards facing off 8,000 communist guerillas.

Several thousand civilians, insurgents and government troops were killed during the Emergency, according to colonial records, but historians are still divided over the exact number.

The insurgency ended two years after Malaysia gained its independence from Britain in 1957 but the MCP continued fighting until a 1989 peace agreement was signed.

This long-forgotten chapter in Malaysia's pre-independence history is being examined anew as Chin Peng, the country's former communist leader, seeks to return home from exile.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak last month ruled out the return of the insurgent chief - who fled Malaya in the 1960s and now lives in Thailand - after he lost his final legal appeal in April. -- AFP