This set has seven questions on Emergency and security responses, based on real events. Attempt each in writing before opening the answer.
Questions
Question 1. Sort into background, trigger or aims: “The growth of trade unions and a wave of strikes after the Second World War.” 1
Answer
Background. It is a condition that built up over time. A trigger would be a specific incident, such as the killing of plantation managers at Sungai Siput, and aims would state what a group wanted. 2
Question 2. Label as military, administrative or social: “Identity cards were made compulsory for everyone aged 12 and over.” 4
Answer
Administrative, because they are rules that control movement. They have a security side, so some textbooks treat them as security measures. Follow your textbook and state the reason.
Question 3. Label and explain: “Home Guard units were among the security forces formed during the Emergency.” 4
Answer
Military. Local people were organised to help guard against armed attack. It adds manpower to the security effort, and its community side is secondary.
Question 4. Write a measure, purpose, effect chain for the Briggs Plan of 1950. 3
Answer
Measure: squatters were resettled in New Villages. Purpose: to separate residents from communist influence and threats. Effect: the tactic cut off the communists’ food supplies and their links for communication, information and medicine. 6
The answer keeps the intended purpose apart from the observed effect, and does not credit the result to one measure alone.
Question 5. The Baling Talks were held on 28 and 29 December 1955. 5 A source says only: “The talks failed because the government refused to compromise.” What must you ask before using it?
Answer
Ask who wrote it, why, when and whether other evidence agrees. If it came from the communist side, it shows that side’s view. Other accounts record that the talks ended without agreement because the Malayan Communist Party would not accept the condition that it lay down its arms 7, so the source alone does not show the whole story.
Question 6. Rewrite this answer without a modern analogy: “The government’s account of Baling is just like the news today, so it is biased.”
Answer
Rewrite: “The account comes from the government side of the talks, so it may present the government’s position favourably. It is useful for that position but does not show the reasons of the communist delegation.”
Question 7. Write a three-sentence point on why the Emergency began in June 1948, using Question 1 and the Sungai Siput killings.
Answer
“After the Second World War, trade unions grew and strikes spread, which formed the background. On 16 June 1948 the killing of three European plantation managers at Sungai Siput became the trigger, and the Emergency was declared in Perak and Johor the next day. The Emergency was declared over on 31 July 1960.” 2
If you got these wrong
Question 1 links to explaining the context of the Emergency. Questions 2 and 3 link to distinguishing military, administrative and social measures.
Questions 4 and 7 link to connecting measures with stated purposes and effects. Questions 5 and 6 link to evaluating sources without partisan modern analogies.
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