December 12 1948 Batang Kali Massacre Malaysia

On December 12th 1948, fourteen members of the Scots Guard massacred twenty four Malaysian civilians and set fire to their village, in the Batang Kali Massacre. The massacre is commonly seen as part of the lead up to the Malayan Emergency which lasted from June 1960 to July 1960.

The Malayan Emergency was essentially a Chinese-sponsored communist insurgency. While the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) was at first granted legal recognition by Britain in the early post-war years, the MCP began to disagree with Britain’s plans for a Malayan Federation, which they saw as an anti-communist strategy. The Malayan Communist Party created the Malayan Races Liberation Army (MRLA), a communist guerrilla force with the objective of battling British supremacy.

On June 16th 1948, the MRLA force killed three British rubber planters at Sungai Siput in Perak. Britain responded with a state of emergency, beginning the twelve year Malayan emergency. The Batang Kali Massacre caused much controversy initially. Several reports circulated about what actually happened, ranging from “the dead ran into the soldiers’ guns” to “the soldiers gave chase and opened fire.” An official account was released from the British government, saying that the twenty four villagers were killed after failing to comply with orders from the Scots Guard.

Though an inquiry was originally launched to explore the incident, no one was every charged, and the inquiry was closed in 1970.