New villages, also known as Chinese new villages, are settlements created during the waning days of British rule over Malaysia. The New Villages were originally internment camps created by the British military as part of the Briggs' Plan, first implemented in 1950 to imprison rural civilian populations during the Malayan Emergency. Their location and designs were chosen by the British to eliminate rural communities, therefore lessening their contact with the Malayan National Liberation Army communist guerrillas who lived in the Malayan jungles. According to British military historianJohn Newsinger, people forced to live in the New Villages had been "effectively deprived of all civil rights". Although the majority of inhabitants were Chinese, thousands of Orang Asli were forcefully uprooted from their ancestral lands and imprisoned in new villages. Historian John D. Leary in his study of the Orang Asli during the Emergency, argued that the forced resettlement used to create the New Villages brought "misery, disease and death" to many aboriginals. Today the New Villages are no longer internment camps and since the end of British colonialism in Malaya have evolved into ordinary civilian communities.
History
The original purpose of the new villages in Malaysia was to segregate primarily Chinese villagers from contact with the anti-colonial guerrilla fighters of the MNLA, which were led by the Malayan Communist Party during the Malayan Emergency. It was part of the Briggs Plan, a military plan devised by British GeneralSir Harold Briggs shortly after his appointment in 1950 as the British military's Director of Operations in Malaya. The plan aimed to defeat the MNLA communists, who were operating out of rural areas as a guerrilla army, by cutting them off from their sources of support mainly amongst the rural population. To this end, a massive program of forced resettlement of rural workers was undertaken, under which about 500,000 people were eventually removed from the land and housed in guarded camps called "New Villages". These New Villages were usually surrounded by barbed wire and sentry posts. In some cases 22 hour curfews were placed upon the populations of New Villages, such was the case in the infamous Tanjong Malim New Village. Although most victims of the forced relocation and New Villages were Malaysian Chinese, the aboriginal Orang Asli were also targeted due to their rural locations which meant they came into frequent contact with the MNLA communist guerrillas. Believing that the aboriginals were supporting the communists, the British targeted the Orang Asli for internment in New Villages. This plan however was halted after between a quarter and a third of those Orang Asli captured by the British had died. By isolating this population in the "new villages", the British were able to stem the critical flow of material, information, and recruits from peasants to guerrilla. The new settlements were given around the clock police supervision and were partially fortified. This served the twofold purpose of preventing those who were so inclined from getting out and voluntarily aiding the guerrilla, and of preventing the guerrilla from getting in and extracting help via persuasion or intimidation. Upon completion of the resettlement program, the British initiated a starvation campaign by rationing food and destroying rural farmland in an effort to starve the Communists guerrillas. Using internment to forcefully remove a population that might be sympathetic to guerrillas was a counter insurgency technique which the British had used before, notably against the Boer Commandos in the Second Boer War.
Population
During the Malayan Emergency, 450 new settlements were created and it is estimated that 470,509 people – 400,000 Chinese – were involved in the resettlement program. The Malaysian Chinese Association, then the Malayan Chinese Association, was initially created to address the social and welfare concerns of the populations in the new villages. It is estimated that today, about 1.2 million people live in 450 new villages throughout Peninsular Malaysia. About 85% of the population in new villages are ethnically Chinese. The ethnic Malays take up about 10% and ethnic Indians roughly 5%.
