Iraq and Malaya

So, Tonbridge has a new headmaster. Well, not so new actually. He started at the beginning of this term. I am typing this while listening to his short first speech at the school. Sounds alright so far. Anyway, there was another good programme on Radio 4 last Tuesday. Intriguingly, it compares the conflict in Iraq with the communist insurgence in Malaya in 1951. The programme argued that there are many similarities between the two situations. Both involved insurgency based on imported ideologies (communism from China and terrorism from Al-Qaeda). Both involved the struggle by the British to enforce democracy. And several more similarities that you will be able to pick up if you listen to the programme. The one that attracted my attention was when Jamie Zubairi, a London-based Malaysian actor, read a letter written by Lord Montgomery to describe the situations in Malaya. Lord Montgomery said that the conflict in Malaya was a conflict between democracy and communism, east and west, and Christianity and evil. Our secondary school history lessons never mentioned anything about the British occupation of Malaysia as "religious". But there you go... There are many more interesting points discussed in the programme. Click here to listen. If the programme has been moved by BBC, just use the "Listen Again" facility to find Long View, aired on Tuesday 1 Nov 2005 at 9.00 am.