Chaah New Village 三合港新村
The Counter-insurgency measures adopted during the Emergency in Malaya has largely been seen as a successful example of a victorious counter-insurgency of a late colonial attempt to maintain a stronghold over vital economic assets (rubber, tin, oil palm) by the British. Over half a million villagers were relocated/ resettled in over 450 New Villagers during the Emergency (1948-1960). Previous scholars suggest British’s army shaped by imperial ‘historical practices’, a way of utilizing small cost to achieve its goal. Lieutenant-General Harold Briggs was appointed as the Director of Operations on 3 April 1950. He realized the importance of isolating the insurgents from their sources of food and creating a sense of security in populated areas so that people would be more willing to provide information. Hence, the policy was developed from “coercion and enforcement” in 1950 to win the “hearts and minds” of villagers in 1951 to defeat the Communist Terrorist (CT) by “Resettlement and Regroupment” squatters and villagers in rural and urban fridge areas. This move have sparked the development of new urban configuration in the form of New Village, that changed the entire rural landscape of Malaya in 1950s, introducing health and safety concepts and a more civic-minded nation towards Independence. A total population of 18,500 resettled in new villages before April 1950, and by Oct 1954, 572,917 resettled in over 480 new villages in Malaya.
Cha’ah New Village (NV) is 1 out of 84 NVs in Johor, or 450 in Peninsular in 2002 survey. The site is approx. 193 acres (76.013 hectares) on flat terrain, a total 716 units of residential house and 198 units of shop-houses. In 1953, the population already increased to 7,434 comprising of 5,354 (72.0%) Chinese, 1,300 (17.5) Malay, 760 (10.2%) Indian and 20 (0.3%) others. It is amongst the 5% of the total large scale new villages in Malaya with population above 5,000. Cha’ah NV is under Majlis Daerah Labis. In the 2000 survey, Cha’ah New Village with total of 840 household and average household size of 4 only. The population decrease to 3,384 in year 2000, with 29.55% aged 0-14, 60.67% aged 15-64 and 9.78% aged 65 and above.
Cha’ah New Village was selected as case study to provide an overview of the development of Cha’ah New Village, and a glance on the culture and heritage embedded within this village resulting from the planning and ethnic mixed, a melting pot of built form and culture in rural areas in Malaysia. The paper divided into 3 parts: Part 1 provides background information on its relation with Kangchu system in Johor followed by French relation on agriculture development in Northern Johor since 1930s; Part 2 focuses on the incidents at Cha’ah Village since July 1948 and policies adopted since 1948 at local level and the total resettlement to Cha’ah Village on 27 August 1951, setting up of village committee, home guards, many others strategies by colonial government as counter insurgency strategies to defeat CT influences; and Part 3 gives clues on the embedded cultural and heritage maintained and developed over 70 years after its formation on 27 August 1951
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