Templar's Malayan villages plan and the US version in Vietnam - 'Strategic Hamlets' did work. Albeit, the Strat Hamlets plan failed once the US had colluded with those plotting Diem's assasination.... and regretted it instantly.
However, using the sucess of the Malayan strategy as an exemplar is flawed... as it was in Vietnam... because the key factor that the British had in their favour was that they were able to effectively control things going in and out of Malaya. With the porous borders today (and with the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos and Cambodia during VN) this is impossible.
As an aside, Robert Thomson, Templar's COIN expert and later adviser to Kennedy and Nixon, was an ex RAF officer who had been an ALO with the Chindit columns. His autobig 'Run for the Hills' is well worth a read.
Who says ELCs aren't a good thing!