Editing Malayan Emergency (section)

== Communist guerrilla strategies ==
The Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) employed guerrilla tactics, attacking military and police outposts, sabotaging rubber plantations and tin mines, while also destroying transport and communication infrastructure.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rashid|first=Rehman|year=1993|title=A Malaysian Journey|page=27|publisher=Rehman Rashid |isbn=983-99819-1-9}}</ref> Support for the MNLA mainly came from the 3.12 million [[Malaysian Chinese|ethnic Chinese]] living in Malaya, many of whom were farmers living on the edges of the Malayan jungles and had been politically influenced by both the [[Chinese Communist Revolution]] and the resistance against Japan during WWII. Their support allowed the MNLA to supply themselves with food, medicine, information, and provided a source of new recruits.<ref name="O. Tilman 1966 407–419">{{cite journal|last=Tilman|first=Robert O.|title=The non-lessons of the Malayan emergency|journal=Asian Survey|date=August 1966|volume=6|issue=8|pages=407–419|doi=10.2307/2642468 |jstor=2642468|url=https://online.ucpress.edu/as/article-abstract/6/8/407/24029/The-Non-Lessons-of-the-Malayan-Emergency?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-access=subscription}}</ref> The ethnic [[Malays (ethnic group)|Malay]] population supported them in smaller numbers. The MNLA gained the support of the Chinese because the Chinese were denied the equal right to vote in elections, had no land rights to speak of, and were usually very poor.{{sfnp|Christopher|2013|p=53}} The MNLA's supply organisation was called the [[Min Yuen]] (People's Movement). It had a network of contacts within the general population. Besides supplying material, especially food, it was also important to the MNLA as a source of intelligence.{{sfnp|Christopher|2013|p=58}} The MNLA and their supporters refer to the conflict as the Anti-British National Liberation War.<ref>{{cite book|first=Mohamed |last= Amin |editor-first= Malcolm |editor-last=Caldwell |title=The Making of a Neo Colony|year=1977|publisher=Spokesman Books, UK|page=216}}</ref>

The MNLA's camps and hideouts were in the inaccessible tropical jungle and had limited infrastructure. Almost 90% of MNLA guerrillas were ethnic Chinese, though there were some Malays, Indonesians and Indians among its members.<ref name=":2" /> The MNLA was organised into regiments, although these had no fixed establishments and each included all communist forces operating in a particular region. The regiments had political sections, [[commissar]]s, instructors and secret service. In the camps, the soldiers attended lectures on [[Marxism–Leninism]], and produced political newsletters to be distributed to civilians.{{sfnp|Komer|1972|p=7}}

In the early stages of the conflict, the guerrillas envisaged establishing control in "liberated areas" from which the government forces had been driven, but did not succeed in this.{{sfnp|Komer|1972|p=9}}