The predominantly-Chinese Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP), the state's first political party which was founded in June 1959

Besides the communist insurgency in Peninsular Malaysia, a second one was waged in Sarawak, one of Malaysia's Borneo states. As with their MCP counterparts, the Sarawak Communist Organisation (SCO) or the Communist Clandestine Organisation (CCO), was predominantly dominated by ethnic Chinese but also included Dayak supporters. However, the Sarawak Communist Organisation had little support from ethnic Malays and the indigenous Sarawak races. At its height, the SCO had 24,000 members. During the 1940s, Maoism had spread among Chinese vernacular schools in Sarawak. Following the Second World War, Communist influence also penetrated the labour movement, trade unions, the Chinese-language media, and the predominantly-Chinese Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP), the state's first political party which was founded in June 1959.