Security for Development: Tun Abdul Razak’s National Security Strategy

Abstract

Socio-economic and socio-political stability are closely related with national security. Thus, security and development in these two aspects played a crucial roles as it seen by the ruling political elitists as two sides of the same coin, especially to counter communist insurgents. Eventhough, the First Emergency (1948-1960) was declared over in 1960, the communist illegal activities led by Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) was still active in the soil of Malaysia. Their illegal activities was the major threats towards the fragile multi-ethnic society in Malaysia. The objective of this paper is to identify the national security strategy crafted during Tun Abdul Razak’s premiership in 1970s that contribute to the success of counter communist insurgents. This period of low-intensity conflict between the Government of Malaysia and CPM also known as the Second Emergency (1969-1989) was a tough and challenging phase of Malaysia to ensure it survival as the sovereign state. The paper discover Tun Abdul Razak’s national security strategy to counter insurgency does not solely rely on the usage of hard power. The non-kinetic approaches through the development and stability in economics and politics contributed to the victory on the side of the government to ended the power of Communists in Malaysia. The collapse of CPM in Malaysia, with the signed treaty of surrender for peace or known as Hatyai Treaty in year 1989 indicated the efficacious of national security strategy crafted by the Malaysia’s political elitists.

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Author Information
Wan Hashim Wan Teh, National Defence University of Malaysia, Malaysia
Amelia Yuliana Abd Wahab, National Defence University of Malaysia, Malaysia
Abdul Rahman Abdul Razak Shaik, National Defence University of Malaysia, Malaysia

• Category: Strategy and Warfare

Posted by James Alexander Gordon

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