Malaysian Special Branch

The Special Branch or SB ( Malay: Cawangan Khas) is an intelligence agency attached to the Royal Malaysian Police. The SB is empowered to acquire and develop intelligence on internal and external threats to the nation, subversive activities, extremist activities and activities of sabotage and spying. It is also empowered to analyse and advise on the necessary course of action to the various departments and agencies both within the Police Department and other related agencies. In the past, they have worked together in reforming the Thai Special Branch.

The SB is the successor of the Malayan Security Service.

The SB was initially modelled after the Special Branch of the United Kingdom.

During the Malayan Emergency, when the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) guerrillas were in open revolt, the Special Branch successfully infiltrated the party chain of command. Reportedly, one Special Branch officer managed to gain sufficient trust from the MCP to be ordered to infiltrate the Special Branch. He in turn managed to feed false information back to the MCP. It has also been claimed that the second-most high-ranking official in the MCP was a Special Branch agent, who was executed when he was discovered.

The Special Branch's activities during the Emergency were widely praised, garnering accolades such as one calling it "one of the finest establishments of its kind in the world". Other intelligence agencies sent observers to a Special Branch training centre in the Malayan capital of Kuala Lumpur to learn its tactics of infiltration and espionage. It was during this period that the British "Asianized" the Special Branch, replacing its crop of British spies and officers with trained locals.

In 1998, former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was charged with sodomy and corruption, both crimes in Malaysia. During his trial, a number of statements were made by Special Branch officials, who had been implicated in the case.

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