I finally finished "The K Section", and it is a very different book from "The Officer From Special Branch" even though it has many of the same characters...
In this book, our hero from "Officer From Special Branch" is now in a neighboring country about to move from British control to local government. This is complicated by the many local tribes who are close knit and don't mingle with each other. The problem facing the British authorities is to try to make sure that the colony adopts democratic principles rather than fall under Communist control. The Special Branch undertakes a campaign to place their own local people in high places in the trade unions, as these are the organizations that will control the coming elections.
This book was a lot more complicated, politically, than the first book. I admit that I still don't understand many of the machinations described, partly because some of the practices detailed in the book are foreign to me. (Some are not; for instance, trade unions telling their undecided (or uninterested) members who to vote for)...
Not too much violence in this book, mostly behind-the-scenes maneuvering to place men in positions of influence. Blackmail, assassination, terrorist acts. Whether such methods were actually used in Malaysia during & following "The Emergency" is left to the reader's determination.
A book worth reading, but like some others, I may have to read it a couple times to fully grasp the ideas and ideology being portrayed...
