According to a Feb 19 report in Sin Chew Jit Poh , yet another group of Malayan/Malaysian communists now residing in southern Thailand celebrated the Chinese New Year openly and pledged their loyalty to Malaysia and support for Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Earlier on Feb 4, national news agency Bernama reported from Yala in southern Thailand that former chief commander of the 10th Regiment of the armed guerilla of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), Rashid Maidin, also made similar statements.
However, while Rashid Maidin was aligned with the legendary Chin Peng (Ong Boon Hua) in the 'central' (mainstream) faction, the group reported recently by Sin Chew belonged to a rival faction.
Mahathir should feel greatly rewarded for the truly courageous decision he made in the mid-1980s to engage leaders and members of the CPM (central faction) in a dialogue of national reconciliation.
The process ended successfully with the signing of a peace accord between the government of Malaysia and CPM (central faction) and terminated the armed conflicts which began in 1948 as a genuine anti-colonial uprising.
Order of the British Empire
Inaugurated in a railway station in Buloh Kesap in Johor on April, 1930 (no historian has established the exact date yet) by a representative of the Communist International (Comintern) Ho Chi Minh, who spoke in English the CPM first fought British colonialism between 1930 and 1941, and then aligned itself with the British from 1941 to 1945 to fight the Japanese Occupation.
After World War II and its operations ended in the Pacific Theatre on Aug 15, 1945, the armed forces of CPM emerged from their guerilla bases in the jungles and mountains as part of the Allied Forces. Chin Peng was awarded Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the Queen of England, and MCA representatives were invited to London to participate in the grand military procession to celebrate the worldwide defeat of fascism.
From 1945 to 1948, CPM operated openly in Peninsular Malaysia semi-legally and attempted to fight for national independence through peaceful, legal and constitutional means. However, as the worldwide Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union began in March 1947, the relationship between CPM and the British administration became tense. In the end, allies became enemies again.
Three factions
On June 18, 1948, the British administration declared a State of Emergency and proscribed CPM, its newspapers, and detained without trial its leaders, members and supporters. In response, CPM declared an anti-colonial war of national liberation.
Many Malay nationalists like Abdullah CD, Rashid Maidin and Shamsiah Fakiah joined the new secretary-general, Chin Peng, and the armed forces of CPM, retreated into the jungles again. The partys vice-chairperson, the late RG Balan, was then under detention.
However, under the might of the British and Commonwealth armed forces, the CPM finally retreated to the (then) Malayan-Thai border, and some of its top leaders moved to China to establish political command in more secure places. On July 31, 1960, the independent government of Malaya terminated the Emergency. Thereafter, CPM engaged only in low-intensity conflicts with the Malayan/Malaysian Armed Forces.
From the late 1960s onward, CPM began to seriously split and three factions emerged, namely the central faction led by Chin Peng, Abdullah CD, Rashid Maidin and Shamsiah Fakiah, the Marxist-Leninist faction and the revolutionary faction. In the aftermath of the communist victories in Indochina in 1975, the splinter factions stepped up their terrorist activities by, for example, murdering the Inspector-General of Police and the CPO of the Perak state.
However, as Chin Peng told this writer and his former colleagues in Sin Chew in an exclusive interview in 1998, from 1979 onwards, CPM had no recruits. After its detente with the United States in 1972, China began to recognise the government of Malaysia, and in 1974, Malaysia and China established formal diplomatic relationship. The historic mission of CPM ended.
Happy to speak freely
After his 48-hour marathon interview with Sin Chiew , Chin Peng left for London where he was interviewed by the British Broadcasting Corporation ( BBC ) and The Observer newspaper. It was an irony that one of the British veteran journalists who interviewed Chin Peng in London was a former British commando sent to Malaya with the specific assignment to track him down as a 'bandit' and 'terrorist'.
After London, Chin Peng was invited to give a lecture on history in the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra.
Obviously, both London and Canberra had decided to let bygones be bygones. A source close to Chin Peng said the former student of the Anglo-Chinese School in Sitiawan, Perak, and ex-holder of the Order of British Empire (OBE) felt happy and thankful to be allowed to speak freely without fear in London and Canberra.
When pressed by this writer in a Bangkok interview in 1998, Chin Peng admitted that CPM made some mistakes and errors in adopting terrorist tactics in some instances, like the killing of an innocent British estate manager in Sungai Siput 1948. He requested this writer and his former colleagues to convey his apologies to the family and offspring, if any, of that young Briton. The message was accordingly included in the exclusive interview published in Sin Chew .
Let bygones be bygones
However, Chin Peng insisted that from 1930 to 1957, CPM conducted just struggles and fought just wars against British colonialism and Japanese militarism.
He also insisted that the just struggles and wars waged by countless Malayan communists of all ethnic backgrounds who sacrificed their lives from 1930 and 1957 speeded up the process of Merdeka and should therefore form part of the true history of the making of our modern nation.
In that Bangkok interview, Chin Peng also revealed that he was attempting to write an autobiography. He also told this writer privately that he really wanted to do research in libraries in London or Canberra before embarking on his memoirs.
But, to date, this writer has not been informed of any developments. Maybe it is time for Dr Mahathir to complete his commendable project of national reconciliation. And after this, there is yet another process of national reconciliation to embark on.
Let bygones be bygones, and let justice be restored for all who love this country and our people, albeit in different ways.
JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based political report, http://www.analysismalaysia.com> Analysis Malaysia . Wong is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew, he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.
