[Re]Representing the Batang Kali massacre

In 1992, the BBC aired a documentary titled In Cold Blood under its Inside Story series about “an alleged British Army massacre” that took place on 11-12 December 1948 during the very early period of the Malayan Emergency (BFI Collections Search). The event is known as ‘The Batang Kali Massacre’ and has been dubbed ‘Britain’s Mỹ Lai’, referring to a similar American massacre in Vietnam in 1968 (Hale, 2013). 24 unarmed men were killed by British soldiers from the Scots Guards on suspicion of being or aiding Communist “bandits”. Attempts by surviving family members to hold a public hearing have been repeatedly rejected by British courts.

In 2008, a Wordpress page titled ‘Condemning Batang Kali Massacre’ was published as the official blog of surviving family members in their quest for justice and administrated by a Malaysian lawyer coordinating their legal battle. A prominent tab at the top of the page navigates users to the group’s YouTube channel which contains a 2013 re-edited version of the documentary that runs for 17 minutes and 18 seconds, less than half of its 40 minute original duration. This chapter explores the second iteration of the documentary and its role in the context of the survivors’ trauma, memory, and struggle for justice. The original documentary additionally was cited as evidence in several of the resulting court cases because it contained controversial evidence that supported the survivors’ version of events. I will explore the framing of the Malaysian re-edit and how the survivors and British army veterans returning to the village in 1992 are [re]represented to a modern primarily Malaysian audience on YouTube.