During the Emergency period, father Chung Chow and mother Lee Mooi added five more new members (3 sons and 2 daughters) to the ever-growing Chung family which had grown to six at that time (father, mother, grandmother, 1 daughter and 2 sons).
Eight of us
A month after the British declared a state of emergency in June 1948, mother Lee Mooi gave birth to her fourth child and yours truly - Chew Wah, born on July 20, 1948 and the third son in the family. The following nine years saw the births of Chew Hong, born on January 24, 1951; Chew Kiat, born on August 29, 1952; Suit Meng, born on April 8, 1954; and See Kun, born on February 14, 1957. Like the first three siblings, we were all born in the same house and attended to by the same mid-wife.
On February 1, 1948, the British Military Administration, in its efforts to change the country's political structure, announced the formation of the Federation of Malaya. Amongst the rights were automatic citizenship to be granted to anyone born in the Federation as well as their children, and citizenship to applicants who have at least 15 years of continuous residence in the Federation.
In February 1952, Lieutenant General Sir Gerard Templer arrived in Malaya to take over as new high commissioner from Sir Henry Gurney who was assassinated by Communists guerrillas. Templer declared a new approach to capture "the hearts and minds" of the general population.
Amongst the many improvements were that more Chinese would be given citizenship and be allowed to enter the Malayan Civil Service. Certain villages that were completely free of communists were designated 'white areas' where curfews and restrictions on personal movement were lifted. Over 500 communist guerillas had surrendered and the few remaining ones fled to the Thai border.
In the general election of July 1955, the Alliance of UMNO, MCA and MIC won the election convincingly. On August 31, 1957, the independence of the Federation of Malaya was proclaimed. The State of Emergency officially ended on July 31, 1960.
On August 31, 1963, Malaysia consisting of the 11 states in peninsular Malaya, Singapore, Sabah (North Borneo) and Sarawak was proclaimed by the Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. Singapore seceded to become an independent state in its own right in 1965 leaving Malaysia in its present form.
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