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“It is a true labour of love, a political achievement (getting this book published in Malaysia), and a path breaking historical record. I am old enough to have been able to have seen the Malayan Communist guerrillas’ army taking part in the Victory over Japan parade in London, 1946. I do not, of course, recall any women amongst them. This book:” Life as the River Flows” recovers them from those many fighters hidden from history, and establishes the role of the women amongst them. “

Dr. Peter Waterman, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2004

This is a unique account, based on the oral histories given to Agnes Khoo by sixteen women from Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, of the part played by women in the 40-year guerrilla war fought by the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM).

The war, which finally ended in 1989 with the Haadyai Peace Agreement between the CPM and the governments of Malaysia and Thailand, was a phase in a longer anti-colonial struggle that had begun under the British regime and gained strength during the Japanese occupation.

Many of the women were from poor backgrounds, both Chinese and Malay, and their accounts describe not only their lives in the jungle, but the reasons they joined the guerrillas, and the difficulties some experienced in adjusting to a new life after the fighting ended. Many of the CPM veterans now live in ‘peace villages’ in southern Thailand.

“Agnes Khoo has brought us not only a series of poignant and moving life stories; she has opened a path back to a forgotten history. Her book ensures that the traces of so much heroism and hope will not be covered over by the indifference of time.”

Prof. Sheila Rowbotham, Professor of History and Gender Studies, University of Manchester, United Kingdom

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In November 1969, “The Voice of the Malayan Revolution” (also known as “Suara Revolusi” in Malay) – a radio broadcast by the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) and its Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA), began its debut from the city of Hunan in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Its broadcast, however, of revolutionary and militant news were not aimed at the Mainland Chinese public but rather it was beaming at Malaysians and Singaporeans who live hundreds and thousands of miles away. These broadcasts were in Malay, Chinese (Mandarin), Tamil, English, as well as several other Chinese dialects. This seems like a far cry when compared with what we have today in high-tech broadband internet, which can now broadcast not only audio, but also video and texts all around the world instantaneously. Less than 30 years ago, Malaysian and Singaporean youths, students, activists, as well as underground members of the CPM, including its MNLA fighters (some of whom were still operating incognito inside the countries), could only rely on the crackling sound of the shortwave radio to get alternative news. Between then and now, we have certainly come a long way!

A Historical Overview of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM)

Malaysia today has a population of more than twenty million and Singapore, about four million – comprising of mainly Malays, Chinese and Indians, but also a number of other nationalities and ethnic minorities. These are namely, the indigenous communities like the Ibans and Dayaks, descendents of early migrants from as far as the Arabic countries to as near as Indonesia, Eurasians who are of Portuguese or European descent. The last two to three decades of economic affluence in Malaysia and particularly in Singapore, also saw a rapid rise in the number of migrant workers from neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand, Sri Lanka, Burma, Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, and increasingly, China nowadays.

Before 1963, Malaya, as then it was called, consisted of eleven
states, which included the Peninsula of Malaya and Singapore. However since 1963, the former British territories in Borneo, i.e. Sabah and Sarawak were merged with Malaya to form the Federation of Malaysia. This was an arrangement the British colonialists made to forestall the possibility of Borneo territories falling into the hands of neighbouring Indonesia, which was then led by anti-colonialist and nationalist President Sukarno. He was eventually toppled by Suharto in a military coup with the support of the CIA and the US government. As a result, the people from Sabah and Sarawak were never democratically consulted in the way their independence should have been determined. Therefore, the left wing and progressive movements in Malaysia and Singapore; the CPM being only a part of it, never recognised Malaysia as a legitimate country. They also saw the separation of Singapore from the Peninsula of Malaysia; to form an independent state on its own, as a ‘historical mistake’ made by the overly ambitious Lee Kuan Yew, the then Prime Minister of Singapore. That is why the CPM continued to refer to Malaya, which includes Singapore, and not Malaysia.

During the British colonial period, most of the Malays lived in the countryside as small farmers and peasants. Traditionally, Malay society tends to be feudalistic in structure and practice, based on a social hierarchy of highly differentiated power relationships with the King/Sultan at the top. Each state in Malaya or Malaysia as it is today, would have its own Sultan. When the British colonised Malaya, they kept the Sultans only as figureheads and deprived them of any real power to rule. To maintain overall control over MaIaya, the British tended to use ‘divide-and-rule’ by playing one Sultan against the other or supporting one brother within a Sultanate over the other in their power struggle.

The Malay society was also traditionally an agrarian society, mainly of landlords and peasants, including many tenant farmers. From the 19^th Century onwards, the British brought many Chinese peasants from Mainland China who were keen to escape poverty into Malaya as migrant workers. As a result, the Chinese formed the largest single group of migrant labour in Malaya all throughout the 1950s. At around the same time, the British also brought many poor Indian peasants from the Southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu to Malaya, mainly as indentured labour to work in the British-owned rubber plantations. India was still a colony of the British Empire then.

Hence with these early ‘division of labour’, the three major racial groups in Malaya were kept by and large segregated from one another by the British colonial government’s deliberate divide-and-rule polices. Even though the CPM was able to recruit members from all the three different communities, it was however most successful in attracting and retaining Chinese members. Among many different reasons, the history of its formation probably played a decisive role.

The CPM was founded in April 1930 in a small village near Kuala Pilah in the State of Negri Sembilan (part of the Peninsula Malaysia). Before its establishment, it existed only as a branch of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and was known as the Nanyang Communist Party (i.e. Southseas Communist Party in Mandarin). It consisted almost entirely of Chinese migrant workers from Mainland China, particularly those who were being persecuted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuo Min-Tang or KMT which ruled Taiwan as a single party until 1994) led then by Marshall Chiang Kai-Shek; who later became the first President of Taiwan.

On 30^th April 1930, the Shanghai-based Far East Bureau of the Comintern (Communist International) helped organize the first Party Congress of the CPM with Ho Chi Minh attending it as its representative. Ho was then working as a representative of the Comintern. In its early years, the CPM operated as an underground organization. It experienced enormous hardships and was severely hunted down by the British colonial government. The British ferociously arrested, detained and executed party members as well as people who were suspected to be members. Even sympathizers or people who were only remotely associated with such persons were not spared the prison or gallows. Those CPM members who were not sentenced to death were quickly deported to China, even though some of them were actually born in Malaya or have already lived most of their life in Malaya.

However, the CPM were still able to organize workers in the plantations (mainly rubber, oil palm), as well as in tin and coal mines. Workers in the transportation sector of the economy were also recruited and became active members. These establishments were owned mostly by the British and their collaborators. Furthermore, high school students from Chinese schools where the medium of teaching is Mandarin or a specific Chinese dialect also formed a potential pool of recruits for the CPM-led or CPM-influenced student movement and mass organizations. This was in stark contrast to the English-medium schools where the students tended to be much more elitist and pro-British.

When Japan invaded Southeast Asia, the British did not defend Malaya for very long before they surrendered both the Peninsula Malaysia and Singapore to the Japanese army. It was an unconditional surrender within 24 hours of Japanese invasion in some parts of Peninsula and in Singapore, despite the confidence of the colonial government of its prowess in its navy and weaponry. The Japanese nevertheless was able to take the colonial army by surprise by literally cycling southwards into Malaya through the border with Thailand in a swift capture, destroy and occupation mission, while the British cannons stood aiming for its enemy at the other end of the Peninsula, towards the Pacific seas.

In fact, the only organized defence then came only from the CPM. And it could only rely on very rudimentary weapons and soldiers with very little training. Therefore, the party had no choice but to enter into a strategic cooperation with the British colonial authorities, so as to gain proper military training and obtain better firearms to defend themselves and the Malayans against Japan. In return, the British released jailed CPM members to form the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), which could then carry out guerrillas operations inside the country just behind the enemy’s line. This tactical coming together between the two enemies lasted from 1941 to 1945 until the end of World War II.

In fact, the MPAJA was even honoured by the Queen of England in 1946 for its contribution to the defeat of Japan with several of its top leaders invited to London to receive their medals. Chin Peng, the Secretary General of the CPM was among one of those honoured. The quote at the beginning of this chapter by Peter Waterman refers precisely to this event. Ironically, soon after this, Chin Peng was named by the British Empire as Enemy Number One and Malaya’s top terrorist on the British most wanted list with a hefty bounty for his capture.

When World War II ended in 1945, the CPM continued to cooperate briefly with the returning British colonial authorities – a political move that has remained controversial even until today. The blame for this “mistaken tactic” was laid on Lai Te, the Party’s General Secretary then, who turned out to be a triple agent working not only for the British but also for the Japanese at the same time. How Lai Te was able to infiltrate all the way to the top leadership of the CPM remains a mystery until today. Little was known about him except that he was originally from Vietnam and had posed himself as a Comintern representative sent from its Hong Kong Office. He was able to gain the trust of the CPM leadership by impressing them with what seemed to be his vast knowledge on Marxism, which was quite rare at that time, considering that most CPM members were much less educated. In 1947, the CPM Central Committee finally discovered his real identity and he was subsequently killed after he had escaped to Thailand. The circumstances surrounding his death and the identity of his killers remain unconfirmed even until today.

Between 1945 – 1948, the CPM engaged in a brief period of open and legal front activities in Malaya, including in Singapore. They were influencing and leading left-wing trade unions, peasant and student movements, some newspapers, as well as other forms of mass organizations. However, the returning British Military Administration after World War II was very ruthless in suppressing the CPM’s activities. By 1948, the British colonial government declared Emergency/Martial Law in order to eradicate the CPM completely. This period of military and political repression was to last until 1960.

Under the ‘Emergency Rule’, the British stripped the Malayans of all civil liberties, imposed indefinite detention without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA) on anyone suspected to be a communist or communist sympathizer. Anyone found in possession of subversive materials were immediately arrested and detained. Summary executions or ‘disappearances’ of activists and suspected CPM members or sympathizers were common especially in the areas of military operations by government security forces. These repressive measures finally forced the CPM to once again go underground. From 1948 to 1959, the CPM re-launched its guerrilla war against the British, known also as the period of the Anti-British National Liberation War.

The British colonialists retaliated by employing not only its elite armed forces but also 24 mercenary battalions comprising of Fiji, Africa, Australia and Nepal’s Ghurkha’s soldiers. Furthermore, they also armed the local police force, home guards made up of ordinary folks and several Malay regiments to attack the MNLA. The British employed air strikes, artillery firepower, tanks, armoured military vehicles, and the whole range of modern weaponry against the CPM which by that time, consisted of no more than 8,000 men and women military regulars, supported by about 60,000 members in CPM-led mass organizations.

Not only that, in order to stem out completely the civilian support for the CPM and MNLA, the British authority rounded up mainly the Chinese population and forcefully evacuated them from their homes, in order to put them into concentration camps far out in the countryside. This is to cut off the support and lifeline of the guerrillas and the underground members, so that they could not easily get their supplies of food, arms and daily necessities from the people. These camps known as ‘the New Villages’, were guarded twenty-four hours a day and surrounded by barbed wires with electricity. Villagers could only use one exit and entrance and they were body-searched each time they left or returned to the camp. Besides their ruthless military methods, the British authority was also guilty of spreading ‘white terror’ or ‘red scare’ by beheading and killing civilians, to ‘weed out’ any possible support for the CPM and its guerrillas’ fighters. As the MNLA became more and more isolated and their survival increasingly impossible in the deep tropical jungles, they finally decided to retreat northwards to the no man’s land along the border between Thailand and Malaysia. They set up their base camps in the heart of the impenetrable tropical rainforests and were to remain there for almost half a century until 1989 after the Peace Agreement with the Malaysian government was signed.

It was only in 1955 that for the first time after the party had gone underground; the CPM was able to engage the would-be leaders of Malaya, who were then the Malayan Chief Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman and Singapore’s Chief Governor, David Marshall - in a peace negotiation. However, the peace talk failed because Tunku Adbul Rahman insisted on an unconditional surrender of the CPM, which the party could not accept. Consequently, the CPM returned to the jungle and re-launched its guerrilla war. It was only after the Peace Agreement was signed between the CPM and the Malaysian government in 1989 that the guerrillas’ fighters finally laid down their arms and left the jungle.

And this is where the book, “Life As The River Flows” begins...

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Annex

A Summary of Malaysia-Singapore History

[CHEAH, Boon Kheng (2006), CHIN, Peng (2003), S. Rajaratnam (2005)]

1786 — The British gradually colonised the Malayan Peninsula (including Singapore). Malay State officials and masses resisted British control but were brutally suppessed

1900 — Malaya experiences economic boom because of growth in the tin mining industries and rubber production. Chinese and Indian migrants brought from China and India to work in tin mines and rubber estates respectively

1930 — Great Depression – Malaya also suffered

1937 — Japan invaded China, widespread resistance against Japanese invasion among people in Malaya, especially the overseas Chinese

1941 — Japan invaded Malaya, mass uprising against the invasion in Malaya. Despite the initial reluctance of the British colonial government to train and arm the local resistance, they finally did train several hundreds of Malayans in Singapore. After the military training, they were sent to the Peninsula to establish the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA)

1941-45 — Japan occupied Malaya, anti-Japanese war continued

1945 — Japan surrendered; the MPAJA took over the government of the Peninsula temporarily. In certain mining and plantation areas, the communist red flags were raised

1946 — The British colonial government returned to resume control over the country through harsher repression and persecution of the left wing, communist forces and by taking back control over the tin mines and rubber estates, which is the main economic source of the country

20 June 1948 — British colonial government declared Martial Law over Peninsula Malaya and Singapore with mass arrests under the Emergency Ordinance Regulations. The British banned communist-controlled trade unions and organizations in Malaya and Singapore. Freedom of movement, speech, assembly and publications were severely curtailed. Internal Security Act (ISA) gives the authority, power to detain anyone suspected of being a communist or a national security threat, and they can be detained without trial indefinitely. Compulsory identity card system was introduced to control people’s movement. The Societies Act was implemented to register and control all social and civic organizations and political parties. The Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) took up arms again

1949 — People’s Republic of China established under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

1950 — Communist agents tried to assassinate the British Governor Gimson but failed. The British colonial government implemented the School Registration Ordinance to stem out communist influences in Chinese schools. Under the ordinance, police could search any Chinese schools for communist documents, arrest students and teachers and close down the school.

1951 — In Singapore, the police arrested leftwing groups such as the Singapore Teachers’ Union, Singapore Cooperative Society, the University of Malaya and its students, as well as journalists. Also raided Chinese schools and detained the students, including Lim Chin Siong who later became a well-known Trade Union leader in Singapore. He was detained under the ISA twice, first by the British colonial government and then later by the Singapore government, after being successfully elected into the Singapore Parliament. He was the youngest parliamentarian at the age of 22. After his second arrest and release, he went into exile in Britain until his return to Singapore in the1980s.

The British repression of Chinese schools prompted the Chinese in Malaya to raise funds to build a private Chinese-medium University – Nanyang University which was abolished by Lee Kuan Yew in the 1970s. Nanyang University becomes today’s Nanyang Technical University because Lee Kuan Yew wants to build closer economic ties with China after it began its economic reforms under ex-Premier Deng Xiao Ping.

When the British government began drafting Singapore youths for military training to fight the CPM forces, the Singapore Chinese students organized class boycotts, demonstrations and refused to enlist. This struggle against national military service led to the occupation of the Chinese High School in Singapore for one month. During this time, the students established the leftwing Singapore Chinese Middle School Students’ Union but was not legalised until 1955. Students’ resistance continued from 1950s to the 1970s in Singapore.

October 1951 The CPM tried to build a united anti-colonial front through constitutional means and in urban areas by taking part in lawful political and social activities. Leftwing and communist elements were active in the Anti-British League (ABL). Those dissidents who were detained during colonial and post colonial times had included students, journalists, writers, lawyers, artists, workers and trade unionists.

1954 — In Singapore, The Labour Front, affiliated to the Singapore Trades Union Congress won the majority in the elections and went on to form the government

13 May 1954 — 900 Chinese school students demonstrated against the military draft near the Governor’s House and 48 were arrested for unlawful assembly and rioting. This was how Lee Kuan Yew began his contacts with leftwing groups and mass organizations in Singapore by becoming the students’ defence lawyer. Through this, he got to know leftwing leaders and trade unionists who later formed the People’s Action Party (PAP) with him. However, Lee turned against these leaders when he came into power.

1955 — CPM guerrilla forces retreated northwards to the Thai-Malaysian border. The historical Baling Peace Talk between Tunkul Abdul Rahman (Prime Minster of Malaya), David Marshall (Chief Minister of Singapore) and the CPM broke down because of Tunkul and Marshall’s insistence on an unconditional surrender by the CPM

Singapore was given limited self-government with David Marshall as its Chief Minister and he remained in office for only 14 months. He resigned after the British government rejected his proposal for full independence of Singapore. Britain insisted on retaining control over Singapore’s defence, external affairs and internal security. Marshall was succeeded by an anti-communist Lim Yew Hock who began to arrest leftwing leaders in Singapore. These arrests allowed the moderates like Lee Kuan Yew and his group to strengthen themselves in PAP. Lee Kuan Yew secretly worked with the colonial Chief Secretary, Willian Goode and the Chief Minister, Lim Yew Hock to eliminate leftwing influence within the PAP. Lim Yew Hock was subsequently charged with corruption and escaped from Singapore. Until today, nobody knew where he is.

In Malaya, The Alliance Party in Malaya comprising three communal parties, each representing the Malays, Chinese and Indians won the elections. The Malay Party, United Malays National organization (UMNO) is the dominant party in this coalition. This Alliance Government is made up of UMNO – MCA (Malayan Chinese Association) and the MIC (Malayan Indian Congress). They won all seats except one. The only opposition went to the Pan Malayan Islamic Party (PAS). This Islamic Party is today in power in the State of Kelantan, Malaysia.

31 August 1957 — The British government finally transferred power to UMNO-led coalition and Malaya became independent. This coalition has remained in power until today.

1957 — Leftwing and communist parties and mass movements were severely repressed and the CPM went underground. The British allowed the nationalist and communalist parties in Malaya to take over and reluctantly granted Malaya independent. But Britain retained control over its economy, internal security and the military. Independent Malaya upholds Malay special rights, Islam became the official religion and the Malay Rulers became constitutional monarchs. In return, the Chinese and Indians could become citizens of the newly independent country.

1959 — In Singapore, the People’s Action Party (PAP) led by Lee Kuan Yew ousted the Labour Front led by Lim Yew Hock in the Singapore General Election and went on to form a majority government. Both Labour Front and PAP were anti-communist even though they collaborated with the communists and other leftists to gain electoral support. The leftwing faction of the PAP finally bolted out of the party and formed the Socialist Front (Barisan Socialis).

The CPM did not intend to capture political power in Singapore since it has always considered Singapore as part of Malaya and not as an independent entity. However, its cadres, members and sympathizers were successful in influencing trade unions and mass movements inside Singapore and commanded enormous popularity among the grassroots.

In Malaya, the left secured several seats in the country’s Parliament and swept most of the town council elections, from the 1960s onwards.

1948-1960 — The British sent a Commonwealth army comprising of soldiers from Fiji, Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Nepal to control Malaya

1960 — The General Secretary of the CPM, Chin Peng left for Beijing, China and remained there for 29 years, alongwith several members of its Central Committee

August 1961 — The leftwing faction of the Lee Kuan Yew-led People’s Action Party (PAP) in Singapore left and formed the Barisan Socialiis, taking with them 70% of PAP’s rank and file. Control of almost all PAP offices and branches fell into Barisan’s hands. They opposed the merger of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore to form the Federation of Malaysia which they saw as a anti-communist British plot.

The Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), the Indonesian government under Sukharno and the People’s Republic of China condemned the Malaysia concept as a ‘neo-colonial’ plot, which would allow Britain to decolonize and yet help it to retain its colonial influence within Malaysia

1 September 1962 — In Singapore, PAP held a referendum to allow the people of Singapore to decide on the issue of merger within Malaysia. However, PAP only won through manipulation in the process. After this, the British authorities immediately arrested all the leftists in Barisan Socialis.

2 February 1963 — In Singapore, the police launched Operation Cold Store using the ISA, more than 110 trade unionists and opposition leaders including those from Barisan Socialis were arrested. With this move, Lee Kuan Yew consolidated his power inside PAP and in Singapore. PAP remains in power until today.

1960–1968 — Broad leftist alliances formed and were active and successful in Malaysia and Singapore. The British responded by even greater repression over social movements in Singapore and Malaysia, leading to mass arrests and deportations. The government repression also succeeded in dividing the left movement along ethnic lines.

September 1963 — The Federation of Malaysia was formed despite leftwing opposition. The British colonial government manipulated the formation of the Federation of Malaysia, comprising of Malaya Peninsula, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak, with the cooperation of pro-Britain and pro-West local leaders, just before Malaya’s independence.

Confrontasi, an episode of political and military tensions escalated between Indonesia (under the leadership of its Nationalist leader, Sukharno) and Malaysia as a result. Indonesia considered the establishment of the Federation of Malaysia as a western plot against the interests of Indonesia. Indonesian troops parachuted into Johor State (in Peninsula Malaysia) and infiltrated across Kalimantan in Borneo into the State of Sarawak.

1964 — The controversy over the formation of Malaysia continued to divide most political parties and resulted in a swing in votes in favour of the left and the opposition in the municipal elections. The Alliance Government led by UMNO responded by suspending all local elections for an indefinite period. Ethic riot erupted in Singapore

1965 — The PAP under Lee Kuan Yew tried to push communal interests and issues to the forefront of Malaysian politics until finally the UMNO-dominated Alliance government decided to expel Singapore from Malaysia. Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew had no choice but to declare independence.

Sukharto instigated a coup d’état against Sukharno and imposed military rule over Indonesia with the support and help of the USA. Massacres of the leftists including members and sympathizers of the PKI (Communist Party of Indonesia) took place. Until today, the real figure of people killed is still unknown.

9 August 1965 — Singapore left the Federation of Malaysia and declared itself independent

1969 — Ethnic riot erupted in Malaysia

1970s — Indochina (i.e. Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) became Communist. Student Movements in Malaysia and Singapore were again at its peak, also in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries

1965 – 1975 — China’s Cultural Revolution

May 1976 — The Socialist International decided to expel the Singapore PAP government because of its authoritarian rule and repression inside Singapore

1989 — Haadyai (Hatyai) Peace Agreement reached between the CPM, Thai and Malaysian governments

REFERENCES

CHEAH, B.-K. (2006) "The left-wing movement in Malaya,
Singapore and Borneo in the 1960s: ’an era of hope or
devils’s decade?", Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 7, pp
634 - 649.

CHIN, P. (2003) My Side of History, Singapore, Media
Masters.

S.R. (2005) Malaya: Revolution and its Abandonment. A
World To Win.