Template:Wp-Perak-History

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Prehistory

Among the prehistoric sites in Malaysia where artefacts from the Middle Palaeolithic era have been found are Bukit Bunuh, Bukit Gua Harimau, Bukit Jawa, Bukit Kepala Gajah, and Kota Tampan in the Lenggong Archaeological Heritage Valley. Of these, Bukit Bunuh and Kota Tampan are ancient lakeside sites, the geology of Bukit Bunuh showing evidence of meteoric impact. The 10,000-year-old skeleton known as Perak Man was found inside the Bukit Gunung Runtuh cave at Bukit Kepala Gajah.^[1] Ancient tools discovered in the area of Kota Tampan, including anvils, cores, debitage, and hammerstones, provide information on the migrations of Homo sapiens.^[2] Other important Neolithic sites in the country include Bukit Gua Harimau, Gua Badak, Gua Pondok, and Padang Rengas, containing evidence of human presence in the Mesolithic Hoabinhian era.

In 1959, a British artillery officer stationed at an inland army base during the Malayan Emergency discovered the Tambun rock art, identified by archaeologists as the largest rock art site in the Malay Peninsula. Most of the paintings are located high above the cave floor, at an elevation of . Seashells and coral fragments scattered along the cave floor are evidence that the area was once underwater.

The significant numbers of statues of Hindu deities and of the Buddha found in Bidor, Kuala Selensing, Jalong, and Pengkalan Pegoh indicate that, before the arrival of Islam, the inhabitants of Perak were mainly Hindu or Buddhist. The influence of Indian culture and beliefs on society and values in the Malay Peninsula from early times is believed to have culminated in the semi-legendary Gangga Negara kingdom.^[3] The Malay Annals mention that Gangga Negara at one time fell under Siamese rule, before Raja Suran of Thailand sailed further south down the Malay Peninsula.

Sultanate of Perak

By the 15th century, a kingdom named Beruas had come into existence. Inscriptions found on early tombstones of the period show a clear Islamic influence, believed to have originated from the Sultanate of Malacca, the east coast of the Malay Peninsula, and the rural areas of the Perak River.^[3] The first organised local government systems to emerge in Perak were the Manjung government and several other governments in Central and Hulu Perak (Upper Perak) under Raja Roman and Tun Saban.^[3] With the spread of Islam, a sultanate subsequently emerged in Perak; the second oldest Muslim kingdom in the Malay Peninsula after the neighbouring Kedah Sultanate. Based on Salasilah Raja-Raja Perak (Perak Royal Genealogy), the Perak Sultanate was formed in the early 16th century on the banks of the Perak River by the eldest son of Mahmud Shah, the 8th Sultan of Malacca. He ascended to the throne as Muzaffar Shah I, first sultan of Perak, after surviving the capture of Malacca by the Portuguese in 1511 and living quietly for a period in Siak on the island of Sumatra. He became sultan through the efforts of Tun Saban, a local leader and trader between Perak and Klang.^[4] There had been no sultan in Perak when Tun Saban first arrived in the area from Kampar in Sumatra. Most of the area's residents were traders from Malacca and Selangor, and from Siak, Kampar, and Jambi in Sumatra. Among them was an old woman, Tok Masuka from Daik, who raised a Temusai child named Nakhoda Kassim.^[5] Before her death, she called on the ancestors of Sang Sapurba to take her place, to prevent the royal lineage from disappearing from the Malay Peninsula. Tun Saban and Nakhoda Kassim then travelled to Kampar, where Mahmud Shah agreed to their request and named his son the first Sultan of Perak.^[5]

Perak's administration became more organised after the Sultanate was established. In democratic Malacca, government was based on the feudal system.^[6] With the opening up of Perak in the 16th century, the state became a source of tin ore. It appears that anyone was free to trade in the commodity, although the tin trade did not attract significant attention until the 1610s.

Throughout the 1570s, the Sultanate of Aceh subjected most parts of the Malay Peninsula to continual harassment.^[4] The sudden disappearance of Perak's Sultan Mansur Shah I in mysterious circumstances in 1577 gave rise to rumours of abduction by Acehnese forces.^[7] Soon afterwards, the late Sultan's widow and his 16 children were taken as captives to Sumatra.^[4][7] Sultan Mansur Shah I's eldest son, Raja Alauddin Mansur Syah, married an Acehnese princess and subsequently became Sultan of Aceh. The Sultanate of Perak was left without a ruling monarch, and Perak nobles journeyed to Aceh in the same year to ask the new Sultan Alauddin for a successor.^[4] The ruler sent his younger brother to become Perak's third monarch. Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin Shah ruled Perak for seven years, maintaining the unbroken lineage of the Malacca dynasty.^[4] Although Perak did fall under the authority of the Acehnese Sultanate, it remained entirely independent of Siamese control for over two hundred years from 1612,^[7] in contrast with its neighbour, Kedah, and many of the Malay sultanates in the northern part of the Malay Peninsula, which became tributary states of Siam.

When Sultan Sallehuddin Riayat Shah died without an heir in 1635, a state of uncertainty prevailed in Perak. This was exacerbated by a deadly cholera epidemic that swept through the state, killing many royal family members.^[4] Perak chieftains were left with no alternative but to turn to Aceh's Sultan Iskandar Thani, who sent his relative, Raja Sulong, to become the new Perak Sultan Muzaffar Shah II.

Aceh's influence on Perak began to wane when the Dutch East India Company (VOC) arrived, in the mid–17th century.^[7] When Perak refused to enter into a contract with the VOC as its northern neighbours had done, a blockade of the Perak River halted the tin trade, causing suffering among Aceh's merchants. In 1650, Aceh's Sultana Taj ul-Alam ordered Perak to sign an agreement with the VOC, on condition that the tin trade would be conducted exclusively with Aceh's merchants.^[8][9] By the following year, 1651, the VOC had secured a monopoly over the tin trade, setting up a store in Perak.^[10] Following long competition between Aceh and the VOC over Perak's tin trade, on 15 December 1653, the two parties jointly signed a treaty with Perak granting the Dutch exclusive rights to tin extracted from mines located in the state.^[4]

Although Perak nobles had destroyed the earlier store structure, on orders from the Dutch base in Batavia, a fort was built on Pangkor Island in 1670 as a warehouse to store tin ore mined in Perak.^[10] This warehouse was also destroyed in further attacks in 1690, but was repaired when the Dutch returned with reinforcements.^[10] In 1699, when the regional dominant Sultanate of Johor lost its last Malaccan dynasty sultan, Sultan Mahmud Shah II, Perak now had the sole claim of being the final heir of the old Sultanate of Malacca. However, Perak could not match the prestige and power of either the Malacca or Johor Sultanates.

The early 18th century started with 40 years of civil war where rival princes were bolstered by local chiefs, the Bugis and Minang, all fighting for a share of tin revenues. The Bugis and several Perak chiefs were successful in ousting the Perak ruler, Sultan Muzaffar Riayat Shah III in 1743.^[11] In 1747, Sultan Muzaffar Riayat Shah III, now only holding power in the area of Upper Perak, signed a treaty with Dutch Commissioner Ary Verbrugge under which Perak's ruler recognised the Dutch monopoly over the tin trade, agreed to sell all tin ore to Dutch traders, and allowed the Dutch to build a new warehouse fort on the Perak River estuary. With construction of the new warehouse near the Perak River (also known as Sungai Perak), the old warehouse was abandoned permanently and left in ruins.^[10] When repeated Burmese invasions resulted in the destruction and defeat of the Siamese Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1767 by the Burmese Konbaung dynasty, neighbouring Malay tributary states began to assert their independence from Siam. To further develop Perak's tin mines, the Dutch administration suggested that its 17th Sultan, Alauddin Mansur Shah Iskandar Muda, should allow in Chinese miners. The sultan himself encouraged the scheme in 1776, requesting that additional Chinese workers be sent from Dutch Malacca. The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in 1780 adversely affected the tin trade in Perak, and many Chinese miners left. In a move which angered the Siamese court, neighbouring Kedah's Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah then entered into an agreement with the English East India Company (EIC), ceding Penang Island to the British in 1786 in exchange for protection.^[12]

Siam regained strength under the Thonburi Kingdom, led by Taksin, after freeing itself from Burmese occupation. After repelling another large-scale Burmese invasion, the Rattanakosin Kingdom (Chakri dynasty) led by Rama I, as the successor of the Thonburi Kingdom, turned its attention to its insubordinate southern Malay subjects, fearing renewed attacks from Burma along the western seaboard of the Malay Peninsula.^[13] Attention to the south was also needed because of disunity and rivalries among the various southern tributary sultanates, stemming from personal conflicts and a reluctance to submit to Siamese authority.^[14] One example of this resistance was the Sultanate of Pattani under Sultan Muhammad, who refused to aid Siam during the Siamese war of liberation. This led Rama I's younger brother, Prince Surasi, to attack Pattani in 1786. Many Malays were killed, and survivors were taken to the Siamese stronghold in Bangkok as slaves.^[15][16] Siam's subjugation of Pattani served as a direct warning to the other Malay tributary states, particularly Kedah, they too having been forced to provide thousands of men, and food supplies, throughout the Siamese resistance campaign against the Burmese.^[15]

In 1795, the Dutch temporarily withdrew from Malacca for the duration of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. Malacca's authority was transferred to the British Resident.^[8] When war ended, the Dutch returned to administer Malacca in 1818. In 1818, the Dutch monopoly over the tin trade in Perak was renewed, with the signing of a new recognition treaty. The same year, when Perak refused to send a bunga mas tribute to the Siamese court, Rama II of Siam forced Kedah to attack Perak. The Sultanate of Kedah knew the intention behind the order was to weaken ties between fellow Malay states,^[17] but complied, unable to resist Siam's further territorial expansion into inland Hulu Perak. Siam's tributary Malay state, the Kingdom of Reman, then illegally operated tin mines in Klian Intan, angering the Sultan of Perak and provoking a dispute that escalated into civil war. Reman, aided by Siam, succeeded in controlling several inland districts. In 1821, Siam invaded and conquered the Sultanate of Kedah, angered by a breach of trust.^[14][17] The exiled Sultan of Kedah turned to the British to help him regain his throne, despite Britain's policy of non-engagement in expensive minor wars in the Malay Peninsula at the time, which the EIC upheld through the Governor-General of India.^[15][18] Siam's subsequent plan to extend its conquests to the southern territory of Perak^[7][19][18] failed after Perak defeated the Siamese forces with the aid of mixed Bugis and Malay reinforcements from the Sultanate of Selangor.^{[7][15][20][21]} As an expression of gratitude to Selangor for assisting it to defeat Siam, Perak authorised Raja Hasan of Selangor to collect taxes and revenue in its territory. This power, however, was soon misused, causing conflict between the two sultanates.

British protectorate

Since the EIC's establishment of early British presence in Penang, the British had maintained another trading post in Singapore, avoiding involvement in the affairs of the nearby Malay sultanate states. In 1822, the British authority in India sent British diplomat John Crawfurd to Siam to negotiate trade concessions and gather information with a view to restoring the Sultan of Kedah to the throne. The mission failed. In 1823, the Sultanates of Perak and Selangor signed a joint agreement to block the Dutch tin monopoly in their territories.^[22] EIC policy shifted with the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1824, Siam then becoming an important ally.^[18]

Through its Governor, Robert Fullerton, Penang tried to convince the main EIC authority in India to continue helping the Sultan of Kedah to regain his throne. Throughout 1824, Siam aimed to expand its control towards Perak and Selangor. The dispute between the British and Dutch formally ceased when Dutch Malacca in the Malay Peninsula was exchanged with British Bencoolen in Sumatra, both parties agreeing to limit their sphere of influence through the signing of the 1824 Anglo-Dutch Treaty. In July 1825, an initial negotiation was held between Siam, represented by tributary state the Kingdom of Ligor, and the EIC. The King of Ligor promised that Siam would not send its armada to Perak and Selangor, so resolving the issue of its attacks. The British renounced any aspiration to conquer Perak or interfere in its administration, promising to prevent Raja Hasan of Selangor from making trouble in Perak, and to try to reconcile the differences between Selangor and Ligor.^[23] A month later, in August 1825, Ibrahim Shah of the Sultanate of Selangor signed a friendship and peace treaty with the EIC, represented by John Anderson, ending the long feud between the governments of Selangor and Perak. Under the treaty, Selangor gave assurances to the British that it would not interfere in the affairs of Perak; the border between Perak and Selangor was finalised; and Raja Hasan of Selangor was to be immediately exiled from Perak, paving the way for peace between the two Malay states and the resolution of the power struggle between the British and Siam.^[24]

In 1826, the Kingdom of Ligor broke its promise and attempted to conquer Perak. A small British expeditionary force thwarted the attack. The Sultan of Perak then ceded to the British the area of Dindings and Pangkor (the two now constitute Manjung District) so that the British could suppress pirate activity along the Perak coast where it became part of the Straits Settlements.^[25] The same year, the British and Siam concluded a new treaty. Under the Burney Treaty, signed by British Captain Henry Burney and the Siamese government, the British undertook not to intercede in the affairs of Kedah despite their friendly relations with Kedah's ruler, and the Siamese undertook not to attack either Perak or Selangor.

The discovery of tin in Larut and rapid growth of the tin ore trade in the 19th century saw an increasing influx of Chinese labour. Later, rivalry developed between two Chinese secret societies. This, coupled with internal political strife between two faction of Perak's local Malay rulers, escalated into the Larut Wars in 1841. After 21 years of liberation wars, neighbouring Kedah finally freed itself from full Siamese rule in 1843, although it remained a Siamese tributary state until 1909.^[25][20] By 1867, the link between the Straits Settlements on the Malay coast and the British authority in India was broken, with separate administration and the transfer of the respective territories to the Colonial Office.^[26] The Anglo-Dutch Treaties of 1870–71 enabled the Dutch to consolidate control over Aceh in Sumatra. This later escalated into the Aceh War.

Internal conflicts ensued in Perak. In 1873, the ruler of one of Perak's two local Malay factions, Raja Abdullah Muhammad Shah II, wrote to the Governor of the British Straits Settlements, Andrew Clarke, requesting British assistance.^[27] This resulted in the Treaty of Pangkor, signed on Pangkor Island on 20 January 1874, under which the British recognised Abdullah as the legitimate Sultan of Perak.^[28] In return, the treaty provided for direct British intervention through the appointment of a Resident who would advise the sultan on all matters except religion and customs, and oversee revenue collection and general administration, including maintenance of peace and order. The treaty marked the introduction of a British residential system, with Perak going on to become part of the Federated Malay States (FMS) in 1895. It was also a shift from the previous British policy of non-intervention in Perak's affairs.^{[25][27][28][29]} James W. W. Birch was appointed as Perak's first British Resident. His inability to understand and communicate well with the locals, ignorance of Malay customs, and disparagement of the efforts of the Sultan and his dignitaries to implement British tax control and collection systems caused resentment. Local nationalist Maharaja Lela and the new monarch, Sultan Abdullah Muhammad Shah II, opposed him, and the following year, in 1875, Birch was assassinated through a conspiracy of local Malay dignitaries Seputum, Pandak Indut, Che Gondah, and Ngah Ahmad.^[8] The assassination angered the British authority, and the perpetrators were arrested and executed. The Sultan and his chiefs, also suspected of involvement in the plot, were banished to the British Seychelles in the Indian Ocean in 1876.

During his exile, the Sultan had use of a government-owned residence at Union Vale in Victoria, Mahé. The other exiled chiefs were given allowances, but remained under strict surveillance. The Sultan and his chiefs were temporarily relocated to Félicité Island for five years, before being allowed to return to Victoria in 1882 when turmoil in Perak had subsided. The Sultan led a quiet life in the Seychellois community, and had communications access to Government House. After many years, the Sultan was pardoned following petitioning by the Seychellois and correspondence between W. H. Hawley of Government House, Mauritius, and Secretary of State for the Colonies Henry Holland. He was allowed to return to the Malay Peninsula, and spent most of his later life in the Straits Settlements of Singapore and Penang before returning to Kuala Kangsar in Perak in 1922.^[30]

British Resident in Perak Hugh Low proved an effective administrator, preferring to adopt a generous approach that avoided confrontation with local leaders. As a result, he was able to secure the co-operation of many rajas and village penghulu with his policy rather than resorting to force, despite giving transport infrastructure little attention during his term.^[8] In 1882, Frank Swettenham succeeded Low for a second term as the Resident of Perak. During his mandate, Perak's rail and road infrastructure was put in place. Increasing numbers of labourers were brought from India, principally to work as railway and municipal coolies.^[31][32]

The British introduced several changes to the local political structure, exerting influence on the appointment of the Sultan and restricting the power of his chiefs to Malay local matters. The Sultan and his chiefs were no longer entitled to collect taxes, but received a monthly allowance from the state treasury in compensation. British intervention marked the beginning of Perak's transition from a primarily Malay society to a multi-ethnic population. The new style of government worked to promote a market-driven economy, maintain law and order, and combat slavery, seen by the British as an obstacle to economic development and incompatible with a capitalist economy.^[33] Under the Anglo-Siamese Treaty, signed in Bangkok in 1909, Siam ceded to Great Britain its northern Malay tributary states of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, and Terengganu and nearby islands. Exceptions were the Patani region, which remained under Siamese rule, and Perak, which regained the previously lost inland territory that became the Hulu Perak District.^[34][35] The treaty terms stipulated that the British, through their government of the FMS, would assume responsibility for all debts owed to Siam by the four ceded Malay states, and relinquish British extraterritorial rights in Siam.

Second World War

There had been a Japanese community in Perak since 1893, managing the bus service between the town of Ipoh and Batu Gajah, and running brothels in Kinta.^[31] There were a number of other Japanese-run businesses in Ipoh, including dentists, photo studios, laundries, tailors, barbers, and hotels. Activity increased as a result of the close relationship created by the Anglo-Japanese Alliance.^[31]

Early in July 1941, before the beginning of World War II, a Ceylonese Malay policeman serving under the British administration in Perak raised an alert. A Japanese business owner living in the same building had told him that Japanese troops were on their way, approaching not around Singapore from the sea, as expected by the British, but from Kota Bharu in Kelantan, with bicycle infantry and rubber boats.^[31] The policeman informed the British Chief Police Officer in Ipoh, but his claim was laughed off.^[31] By 26 December 1941, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) had arrived in Ipoh, the capital, moving southwards from Thailand. The following day they went on to Taiping, leaving destruction and heavy casualties in their wake. The British forces, retreating from the north of the Malay Peninsula under Lieutenant-General Lewis Heath, had moved a further to the Perak River (Sungai Perak), damaging the route behind them to slow the Japanese advance.^[36] With the approval of Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, the British mounted a defensive stand near the river mouth and in Kampar, leaving the towns of Ipoh, Kuala Kangsar and Taiping unguarded.^[36]

Most civil administrations were closed down, the European administrators and civilians evacuating to the south.^[36] By mid-December, the Japanese had reached Kroh in the interior of Perak, moving in from Kota Bharu in Kelantan. The Japanese arrived both from the east and by boat along the western coast.^[36] Within 16 days of their first landings, they had captured the entire northern part of the Malay Peninsula. The British were left trying to blockade the main road heading south from Ipoh. While the defending troops briefly slowed the Japanese at the Battle of Kampar and at the mouth of the Perak River, the Japanese advance along the trunk road, followed up with bombing and water-borne incursions, forced the British to retreat further south.^[36]

The Japanese occupied all of Malaya and Singapore. Tokugawa Yoshichika, a scion of the Tokugawa clan whose ancestors were shōguns who ruled Japan from the 16th to 19th centuries, proposed a reform plan. Under its terms, the five kingdoms of Johor, Terengganu, Kelantan, Kedah-Penang, and Perlis would be restored and federated. Johor would control Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, and Malacca. An area in southern Johor would be incorporated into Singapore for defence purposes.

In the context of the military alliance between Japan and Thailand and their joint participation in the Burma campaign against the Allied forces, in 1943 the Empire of Japan restored to Thailand the former Malay tributary states of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, and Terengganu, which had been ceded by the then-named Siam to the British under the 1909 treaty. These territories were then administered as Thailand's Four Malay States, with Japanese troops maintaining an ongoing presence. Perak suffered under harsh military control, restricted movement, and tight surveillance throughout the Japanese occupation and until 1945.^[3] The press in occupied Malaya, including the English-language occupation-era newspaper The Perak Times, was entirely under the control of the Dōmei News Agency (Dōmei Tsushin), publishing Japanese-related war propaganda. The Dōmei News Agency also printed newspapers in Malay, Tamil, Chinese, and Japanese. The indigenous Orang Asli stayed in the interior during the occupation. Much of their community was befriended by Malayan Communist Party guerrillas, who protected them from outsiders in return for information on the Japanese and their food supplies. Strong resistance came mainly from the ethnic Chinese community, some Malays preferring to collaborate with the Japanese through the Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) movement for Malayan independence. But Malay support also waned with increasingly harsh Japanese treatment of civilians during the occupation. Two Chinese guerrilla organisations operated within Perak in northern Malaya. One, the Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Army (OCAJA), was aligned with the Kuomintang. The other, the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), was closely associated with the Chinese Communist Party. Although both opposed the Japanese, there were clashes between the two groups.

Sybil Kathigasu, a Eurasian nurse and member of the Perak resistance, was tortured after the Japanese Kenpeitai military police discovered a clandestine shortwave radio set in her home. John Davis, an officer of the British commando Force 136, part of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), trained local guerrillas prior to the Japanese invasion at the 101 Special Training School in Singapore, where he sought Chinese recruits for their commando teams. Under the codename Operation Gustavus, Davis and five Chinese agents landed on the Perak coast north of Pangkor Island on 24 May 1943. They established a base camp in the Segari Hills, from which they moved to the plains to set up an intelligence network in the state.^[37] In September 1943, they met and agreed to co-operate with the MPAJA, which then provided Force 136 with support and manpower. This first intelligence network collapsed, however, when many of its leaders, including Lim Bo Seng, were caught, tortured and killed by the Japanese Kenpeitai in June 1944.^[37] On 16 December 1944, a second intelligence network, comprising five Malay SOE agents and two British liaison officers, Major Peter G. Dobree and Captain Clifford, was parachuted into Padang Cermin, near Temenggor Lake Dam in Hulu Perak under the codename Operation Hebrides. Its main objective was to set up wireless communications between Malaya and Force 136 headquarters in Kandy, British Ceylon, after the MPAJA's failure to do so.^[38]

Post-war and independence

Despite the Japanese surrender to the Allied forces in 1945, the Malay state had become unstable. This was exacerbated by the emergence of nationalism and a popular demand for independence as the British Military Administration took over from 1945 to 1946 to maintain peace and order, before the British began introducing new administrative systems under the Malayan Union.^[3] The four neighbouring Malay states held by Thailand throughout the war were returned to the British. This was done under a proposal by the United States, offering Thailand admission to the United Nations (UN) and a substantial American aid package to support its economy after the war. The MPAJA, under the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), had fought alongside the British against the Japanese, and most of its members received awards at the end of the war. However, party policy become radicalised under the authority of Perak-born Chin Peng, who took over the CPM administration following former leader Lai Teck's disappearance with the party funds.

Under Chin's authority, the MPAJA killed those they considered to have been Japanese collaborators during the war, who were mainly Malays. This sparked racial conflict and Malay retaliation. Killer squads were also dispatched by the CPM to murder European plantation owners in Perak, and Kuomintang leaders in Johor. The Malayan government's subsequent declaration of a state of emergency on 18 June 1948 marked the start of the Malayan Emergency.^[39] Perak and Johor became the main strongholds of the communist movement. In the early stages their actions were not co-ordinated, and the security forces were able to counter them. Earlier in 1947, the head of the Perak's Criminal Investigation Department, H. J. Barnard, negotiated an arrangement with the Kuomintang-influenced OCAJA leader Leong Yew Koh. This resulted in most OCAJA members being absorbed into the national Special Constabulary, and fighting against the MPAJA's successor, the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA).^[40]

The Kinta Valley, one of the richest tin mining areas in Malaya, accounted for most of the country's tin exports to the United States. To protect it from the communists, on 1 May 1952, the Perak Chinese Tin Mining Association established the Kinta Valley Home Guard (KVHG). Often described as a private Chinese Army, most of the KVHG's Chinese members had links to the Kuomintang. Many of the Kuomintang guerrillas were absorbed from the Lenggong area, where there were also members of Chinese secret societies whose main purpose was to defend Chinese private property against the communists.^[31] Throughout the first emergency the British authorities and their Malayan collaborators fought against the communists. This continued even after the proclamation of the independence of the Federation of Malaya, on 31 August 1957. As a result, most of the communist guerrillas were successfully pushed across the northern border into Thailand.^[41]

Malaysia

In 1961, the Prime Minister of the Federation of Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman, sought to unite Malaya with the British colonies of North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore. Despite growing opposition from the governments of both Indonesia and the Philippines, and from communist sympathisers and nationalists in Borneo, the Federation came into being on 16 September 1963. The Indonesian government later initiated a "policy of confrontation" against the new state. This prompted the British, and their allies Australia and New Zealand, to deploy armed forces, although no skirmishes arising from the Indonesian attacks occurred around Perak. In 1968, a second communist insurgency occurred in the Malay Peninsula. This affected Perak mainly through attacks from Hulu Perak by the communist insurgents who had previously retreated to the Thai border. The Perak State Information Office launched two types of psychological warfare to counter the increasing communist propaganda disseminated from the insurgents' hide-out. The campaign against the second insurgency had to be carried out as two separate efforts, because communist activities in Perak were split into two factions. One faction involved infiltrators from across the Thai border; the other was a communist group living among local inhabitants.

With the end of British rule in Malaya and the subsequent formation of the Federation of Malaysia, new factories were built and many new suburbs developed in Perak. But there was also rising radicalism among local Malay Muslims, with increasing Islamisation initiated by several religious organisations, and by Islamic preachers and intellectuals who caught the interest both of Malay royalty and commoners. Good relations with the country's rulers resulted in Islamic scholars being appointed as palace officers and dignitaries, teachers, and religious judges, contributing to the further spread of Islam. Islam is thus now seen as a major factor that shaped current attitudes to standing up for Malay rights.