The surrender of Japanese Imperial Forces left a power vacuum in Malaya. The British were still recovering from WWII and their focus was on domestic affairs. This allowed Malayas WWII allies, the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) and the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), to take the seat of power and form an independent government with a socialist economy, and began assassinating Malayans who had collaborated with the Japanese during the Japanese occupation of Malaya. After their truce was broken in 1947, a war broke out known as the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960) in which the comunist forces of the Malayan National Liberation Army fought against the British colonial occupation. After two years of fighting, the BMA realised that conventional forces were not effectively fighting the MPAJA, so the elite unconventional special forces were established.