Briggs' Plan in Malaya

The Malayan Emergency in British-rules Malaya was declared in June 1948 in response to attempts by the mainly Chinese-dominated Malayan Communist Party to overthrow British colonial rule.

However British did not at first respond seriously to the threat posed by the communists until October 1951, upon the assassination of Sir Henry Gurney High Commissioner to Malaya.

With the implementation of the Briggs Plan, or to give it is full name the ‘Federation Plan for the Elimination of the Communist Organization and Armed Forces in Malaya’, the scene was set to enter a new phase that marked the beginning of the end of the Emergency and the defeat of the communist uprising.

Within this plan, Briggs stated his belief that the British government needed to demonstrate ‘effective administration and control of all populated areas.’

Lieutenant General Sir Harold Briggs a retired regular Indian Army officer arrived in Kuala Lumpur in 3 April 1950, to take up a new post as Director of Operations.

He had served throughout with the Indian Army, and with his thirty-four years’ experience of warfare in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, he was extremely well qualified for the position.

One of the major features of Briggs Plan, which had already been implemented before Briggs arrived, was the resettlement of thousands of Chinese squatters who lived near the jungle fringes and were thought to provide the communist insurgents with their primary source of food, assistance, and information.

Briggs Plan recognized that because of food could only be cultivated in jungle clearing, the insurgent’s primary source of both food and intelligence was ethnic Chinese squatters ringing the impenetrable jungles. 

Briggs restructured the plan, more thoroughly by coordinating the civil, army and police authority.

The Briggs Plan took over three years to implement and encountered several obstacles along the way. At one point in late 1950, Briggs believed the situation has so deteriorated he flew to London to plead his case directly with the prime minister.

After Briggs retired owing to poor health and after the death of Sir Henry, it fell to General Sir Gerald Templer to implement the Briggs Plan.
Briggs' Plan in Malaya

Jambi (Dharmasraya) Kingdom

The Jambi region, around the basin of the Batanghari River in central Sumatra, was the site of the pre-Islamic kingdom of Malayu.

In the mid-fourteenth century, Adityawarman, a prince who was educated in the Majapahit kingdom of Java set up a kingdom for himself in Minangkabau and rules over it for about thirty-five years from 1340 to 1375. 

Adityawarman moved his capital to Dharmasraya, somewhere in the upper reaches of the Batanghari.

He extended his power to the highlands of West Sumatra and later moved the capital to Pagaruyung.

Jambi took an active part in the international politics of the region, and in the 1670s its might was on par with that of powerful neighbors such as Palembang and Johor.

In 1616, the capital of Jambi was already seen as Sumatra’s second richest port, after Aceh.

In the same year, the Dutch East India Company opened an office in Jambi and quickly formed a successful alliance with Sultan Muhammad Nakhruddin to protect its ships and cargoes from pirates.

When the Indonesia gained its freedom in 1945 Jambi was designated as a Residence and then in 1957, as a Province, which was directly under the Central Government of Indonesia.
Jambi (Dharmasraya) Kingdom