Word: malim
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Collective Punishment. But he also had a police job to do. He had been in Malaya only two months when Communist guerrillas ambushed and killed a British patrol of twelve men near the small town of Tanjong Malim. Templer arrived in his armored car, glared at the town elders over his spectacles, and said: "It doesn't amuse me to punish innocent people, but many among you are not innocent. You have information which you are too cowardly to give. Have some guts and shoulder the responsibility of citizenship...
There was no response. Templer slapped a 2 2-hour curfew on Tanjong Malim and cut the rice ration. Work stopped. Villagers had only two hours a day in which to buy food. British soldiers went from house to house, handing out a questionnaire. In Chinese, Malay and Tamil, Templer wrote: "If you are a Communist I don't expect you to reply. If you aren't, I want you to give ... as much information as you can to help my forces catch the Communist terrorists in your area ..." He itemized the questions, then added...
...soldiers collected the questionnaires in sealed boxes, which Templer himself opened. Some of the letters contained only insults. But a few days later 28 people in Tanjong Malim and in a village near by were arrested. After 13 days the curfew was lifted, the rice ration restored, and the people of Tanjong Malim went back to work...
...On.Templer's questionnaire asked to identify local Communists, their recruiting, agents, propagandists, and those shops supplying them with food and materials. British soldiers collected the forms in locked boxes. In the government residence at Kuala Lumpur, Templer opened the boxes in the presence of six representatives from Tanjong Malim, sent them home with a large photograph of the opening ceremony...
Templer refused to say what he found in the questionnaires, or how many were blanks, but within four days his men had arrested 28 suspected Communist collaborators, among them several prosperous shopkeepers. Last week in the central playing field at Tanjong Malim, the populace was assembled before a platform decorated with loudspeakers and British and Malayan flags. The people were told that the 22-hour curfew was lifted. Men with 13 days' lost work to make up, and mothers anxious for their pale, sickly children heaved audible sighs of relief...