Briggs ' Plan Briggs ' Plan was a military plan devised by British General Sir Harold Briggs shortly after his appointment in 1950 as Director of Operations in the anti - communist war in Malaya . The plan aimed to defeat the Malayan communists , who were operating out of rural areas as a guerrilla army , primarily by cutting them off from their sources of support amongst the population . To this end , a massive program of forced resettlement of Malayan peasantry was undertaken , under which about 500 , 000 people ( roughly ten percent of Malaya ' s population ) were eventually removed from the land and interned in guarded camps called " New Villages " . British authority in Malaya ' s rural areas had only been tenuously reestablished following the withdrawal of Japan at the end of World War II . The British regarded a group of about 500 , 000 " squatter s " , largely of Chinese descent , who practiced small - scale agriculture , generally lacked legal title to their land , and were largely outside the reach of the colonial administration , as particularly problematic . They formed the backbone of the communist guerrilla support : some were genuinely sympathetic to communism ; others , considering the weak British presence , communist self - help activism , and the leading role that the communists had played in the anti - Japanese resistance during World War II , regarded the Malayan Communist Party as a legitimate authority , and were not hard to prevail upon for contributions ; still others were definitely threatened by the guerrillas into giving support . By isolating this population in the " new villages " , the British were able to stem the critical flow of material , information , and recruits from peasants to guerillas . The new settlements were guarded around - the - clock by police and were partially fortified . This served the twofold purpose of preventing those who were so inclined from getting out and voluntarily aiding the guerrilla , and of preventing the guerrilla from getting in and extracting help via persuasion or intimidation . 450 new settlements were created in this process and it is estimated that 470 , 509 people - 400 , 000 Chinese - were involved in the program . The Malaysian Chinese Association , then the Malayan Chinese Association , played a crucial role in implementing the program . The British also tried to win the hearts of some of the internees by providing them with education and health services . The New Villages , which were equipped with amenities such as electricity and piped water , were surrounded with perimeter fencing and armed guards to prevent attacks from the communist soldiers . It was hoped that by providing the Chinese with such facilities , they would be converted from " reservoirs of resentment into bastions of loyal Malayan citizenry " . However , critics argue that the homogenous nature of New Villages — with the few multiracial ones eventually failing or turning into ghettoes — worked against this goal , instead accentuating communalist fervour and causing racial polarisation , especially in politics , as electoral constituencies would now be delineated more along racial lines . Previously , the Chinese had been spread out geographically , but the Briggs Plan would now bring together rural Chinese from all over the country and concentrate them in the New Villages . There was significant resentment towards the programme both among the Chinese and Malays . The Chinese frequently suffered from collective punishment , preventive detention and summary deportation aimed at weeding out communist supporters , while the Malays were incensed at the infrastructure provided for the New Villages as their own settlements remained undeveloped . Forcibly removing a population that might be sympathetic to guerrillas was a counter - insurgency ( COIN ) technique which the British had used before , notably against the Boer Commando s in the Second Boer War ( 1899 – 1902 ) . It is described in John Nagl ' s book " Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife " which tries to draw lessons from the British Malaya experience for the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan . Upon completion of the program , the British initiated the Hunger Drive in an effort to flush out the communists from the jungle . Briggs ' Plan was a military plan devised by British General Sir Harold Briggs shortly after his appointment in 1950 as Director of Operations in the anti - communist war in Malaya . The plan aimed to defeat the Malayan communists , who were operating out of rural areas as a guerrilla army , primarily by cutting them off from their sources of support amongst the population . To this end , a massive program of forced resettlement of Malayan peasantry was undertaken , under which about 500 , 000 people ( roughly ten percent of Malaya ' s population ) were eventually removed from the land and interned in guarded camps called " New Villages " . See also . British authority in Malaya ' s rural areas had only been tenuously reestablished following the withdrawal of Japan at the end of World War II . The British regarded a group of about 500 , 000 " squatters " , largely of Chinese descent , who practiced small - scale agriculture , generally lacked legal title to their land , and were largely outside the reach of the colonial administration , as particularly problematic . They formed the backbone of the communist guerrilla support : some were genuinely sympathetic to communism ; others , considering the weak British presence , communist self - help activism , and the leading role that the communists had played in the anti - Japanese resistance during World War II , regarded the Malayan Communist Party as a legitimate authority , and were not hard to prevail upon for contributions ; still others were definitely threatened by the guerrillas into giving support . By isolating this population in the " new villages " , the British were able to stem the critical flow of material , information , and recruits from peasants to guerillas . The new settlements were guarded around - the - clock by police and were partially fortified . This served the twofold purpose of preventing those who were so inclined from getting out and voluntarily aiding the guerrilla , and of preventing the guerrilla from getting in and extracting help via persuasion or intimidation . The British also tried to win the hearts of some of the internees by providing them with education , health services and homes with water and electricity . 450 new settlements were created in this process and it is estimated that 470 , 509 people - 400 , 000 Chinese - were involved in the program . The Malaysian Chinese Association , then the Malayan Chinese Association , played a crucial role in implementing the program . [ citation needed ] Forcibly removing a population that might be sympathetic to guerrillas was a counter - insurgency technique which the British had used before , notably against the Boer Commandos in the Second Boer War ( 1899 - 1902 ) . Upon completion of the program , the British initiated the Hunger Drive in an effort to flush out the communists from the jungle .