abstract: In the former British colony of Malaya, communism is a controversial subject that often invites significant scrutiny from government officials and pro-British scholars who describes the radical movement as a foreign conspiracy to dominate the small Southeast Asian nation. The primary goal of this thesis, therefore, is to reinterpret and revise the current established history of Malayan communism in a chronological and unbiased manner that would illustrate that the authoritative accounts of the movement was not only incomplete but was also written with explicit prejudice. The secondary goal of this thesis is to argue that the members of the Malayan Communist Party were actually nationalists who embraced leftist ideology as a means to fight against colonialism. By examining the programs and manifestoes issued by the Party over the years, it is clear that the communists were in fact had been arguing for social reforms and independence rather than a Russian-style proletarian revolution. This research scrutinizes the authoritative texts written by Cold War-era scholars such as Gene Hanrahan as well as newly published historical analysis of the period by Cheah Boon Kheng in addition to memoirs of surviving members of the Party such as Chin Peng and Abdullah C.D. The evidence indicates that early understandings of the Malayan communist movement were heavily influenced by Cold War paranoia and that over time it had become the accepted version of history. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. History 2011

華人至馬來亞的歷史相當長遠，但馬來亞華人參與馬來亞政治的運動卻從戰後才風起雲湧。1945年日本戰敗，大英帝國重拾對馬來亞的控制。1946年出現的馬來亞聯盟（或名聯邦）計畫（Malayan Union）擴大了馬來亞境內公民權的取得資格，並且中國與英國於1943年簽訂的中英新約，廢除過去英國對中國的不平等條約，中國與英國互為平等國家，此舉是否侵犯了馬來亞華人擁有的各種通商權益，立場不同的各界展開了一場激烈的論戰。1948年大英帝國毅然實施與馬來亞聯盟計畫迥然不同的馬來亞聯合邦（Federation of Malaya），短縮了公民權的取得，並且以馬來人的利益至上。面對此一變局，馬來亞華人團體各自採取了不同的管道來應變：有從政治層面下手的溫和手段，也有馬來亞共產黨的武裝暴動。在戰後初期，1940年代末的馬來亞地區經歷了種種巨大變革，華人就在這種劇烈變幻的世局中試圖力挽狂瀾，從公民權到通商權益的爭議，至1950年代馬來亞華人爭取官方語言與教育的權利，都是戰後一連串爭取政治平等運動的延續；最後1957年馬來亞獨立，今日馬來西亞華人的處境就在那時成形。