‘Transmogrifying’ Malaya: the impact of Sir Gerald Templer (1952–54)

@article{Ramakrishna2001TransmogrifyingMT,
  title={‘Transmogrifying’ Malaya: the impact of Sir Gerald Templer (1952–54)},
  author={Kumar Ramakrishna},
  journal={Journal of Southeast Asian Studies},
  year={2001},
  volume={32},
  pages={79 - 92}
}
  • K. Ramakrishna
  • Published 1 February 2001
  • Political Science
  • Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
This article rebuts recent attempts to diminish Sir Gerald Templer's role in the Malayan Emergency. It contends that the revisionists overlook the decisive psychological impact of Templer's Malayan sojourn. Fundamentally, through very deliberate words and deeds, he gave both government and Malayans confidence that the communists could and would be beaten. 
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31 Citations

31 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

General templer and counter-insurgency in Malaya: hearts and minds, intelligence, and propaganda
General Sir Gerald Templer's period as High Commissioner for Malaya (1952–54) has provoked considerable and enduring controversy. To his admirers, he turned the tide of the Malayan Emergency in…
The Malayan Emergency as Counter-Insurgency Paradigm
Abstract The Malayan Emergency of 1948–60 has been repeatedly cited as a source of counter-insurgency lessons, with debate over the relative importance of coercion, ‘winning hearts and minds’, and…
Using and Abusing the Past: The Malayan Emergency as Counterinsurgency Paradigm
The Malayan Emergency officially lasted from June 1948 until 31 July 1960 (Chin and Hack 2004: 3–37). It pitted British-led forces against the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), its Malayan National…
Assessing the British Counter-Insurgency Effort in Malaya
The Malayan Emergency (1948-1960) has been popularly mounted upon a high pedestal. It has become symbolic as a victory standing bold and near alone amidst a sea of unpopular and failed small-wars…
‘A very salutary effect’: The Counter-Terror Strategy in the Early Malayan Emergency, June 1948 to December 1949
Abstract The counter-insurgency lessons commonly drawn from the Malayan Emergency ignore strategy in the opening phase or dismiss it as characterised by mistakes committed in a policy vacuum. This…
The Running Dog War: Malaya
While the British had suffered a humiliating defeat in Palestine, the conflict that was developing in Malaya was to later be seen as a model for the conduct of counterinsurgency operations. Indeed,…
Camp follower or counterinsurgent? Lady Templer and the forgotten wives
ABSTRACT British counterinsurgency thinking today remains strongly influenced by the Malaya Emergency (1948–1960) but little-known is the extensive women’s outreach program, pioneered by Lady…
Everyone lived in fear: Malaya and the British way of counter-insurgency
Recent research on Palestine, Kenya, and Malaya has emphasised the coercive nature of ‘Britain's dirty wars’. Abuses have been detailed and a self-congratulatory Cold War-era account of British…
Counterinsurgency as armed reform: The political history of the Malayan Emergency
ABSTRACT Despite the emphasis in doctrine and academia that counterinsurgency is in its essence political, these operations are all too commonly discussed and approached as primarily military…
Transformative Invasions: Western Post-9/11 Counterinsurgency and the Lessons of Colonialism
The shooting side of the business is only 25 percent of the trouble and the other 75 percent lies in getting the people of this country behind us.- British General Gerald Templer, Malaya, 1952'Having…
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