The Templer Plan
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The Templer Plan was a political directive which laid out High Commissioner General Gerald Templer’s plan for the political and economic development of Malaya in the 1950s.[1] It was outlined in a fifty-minute speech delivered on 19 March 1952, by General Templer to the Federal Legislative Council of Malaya.[1] The Plan contained eighteen points on various social, economic, and political issues facing Malaya in light of the Malayan Emergency and as the nation prepared itself for self-government and eventually independence from the British.[2] Several of the points were already covered in The Draft Development Plan of the Federation of Malaya 1950–55 which failed to be implemented due to The Malayan Emergency.[3] It would serve as General Templer’s blueprint for governing the country during his two-year tenure as High Commissioner and Director of Operations of Malaya from 1952 to 1954.[2]
The Templer Plan was based on an original Directive issued by the British Government named Directive issued to General Sir Gerald Walter Robert Templer, K.C.B., K.B.E., C.M.G., D.S.O., A.D.C., High Commissioner in and for the Federation of Malaya, by the Secretary of State for the Colonies on behalf of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom on 1 February 1952.[4] Prior to delivering his speech on 19 March 1952, General Templer sent a draft of his speech for vetting to Oliver Lyttelton, the Secretary of State for the Colonies of the United Kingdom.[4] Lyttelton approved the speech and stated it was “entirely in accord with Her Majesty’s Government’s policy”.[4] The Plan was noteworthy for the breadth of the topics it covered, ranging from the contentious issue of citizenship that ultimately caused the downfall of the Malayan Union just four years earlier, to developing a national education system that would protect the rights of the ethnic Chinese in Malaya.[5]