BATU GAJAH: Stories by Malaysians during the Emergency era will be showcased in an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London.
The museum's principal curator Carl Warner said the experiences and memories of people impacted during the 1950s would be shared in the exhibition, named "Emergency Exits", which would also feature two other Emergency conflicts in Kenya and Cyprus.
"We've been planning it (the exhibition) for several years.
"We realised very early on that we don't have the right information to make it a truly interesting exhibition, which was to feature the stories of the Emergency in Malaya, Kenya and Cyprus, in which these incidents overlapped in the 1950s," he said when met at Papan here on Friday (Dec 6).
"We have a great collection of stories from the British military but we don't have the stories of the people impacted by the conflicts that Britain had fought in.
"We interviewed new villagers in their 80s and 90s, getting their thoughts and recollections of what it was like in the 1950s when they were in the middle of the brutal conflicts," he added.
Warner said he and his colleagues have also visited the Chaah, Tras and Yong Peng new villages.
"We are amazed by the hospitality of the Malaysian people and their willingness to open up to tell us their stories.
"What we've learned and realised are the impact the conflicts had on the people," he said, adding that the exhibition is expected to be opened in October next year.
"Some were traumatic experiences, which vary in different parts of Malaysia, and we also understood how the communists and British were perceived and their memories have affected the next generation," he added.
