exclusive

From its inauguration in 1930 to 1937, when the Japanese launched a war of aggression against China, the Communist Party of Malaya was essentially an urban-based party that championed the causes of the workers who were mostly Chinese and Indian migrant labours.

CPM also attempted to form a broad united front of different sectors.

To counter the growing influences of CPM and its front organisations, the British administration generally adopted the measures of suppression, complemented by infiltration, detentions without trial and deportations (usually to China for the Chinese members).

Many academic books and monographs have detailed the activities of CPM and the British counter-measures against the party, but the best is Yong Ching Fatt's The Origins of Malayan Communism (Singapore, South Seas Society, 1997).

Malay communists

In that period, it was undoubtedly true that most of the leaders, members, supporters and sympathisers were Chinese, but there were serious efforts made to recruit and organise the Malays.

According to Yong, "1932 seems to be a high point for the Malay communist movement with the (British) Special Branch in Singapore estimating that there were 30 Malay and Indian CPM members, 40 Malay and Indian communist youth members, 1,000 Malay and Indian members of the MGLU (Malayan General Labour Union) and 100 Malay and Indian members of the Peasants' Union 1,170 all told.

"At the first representatives conference of CPM in April 1930, its minutes recorded that there were five Malay 'comrades', three in Johor and two in Melaka. Between October 1930 and February 1931, the party succeeded in recruiting some Malays who were sent to Singapore for training and these trained recruits were despatched to Rembau and Kuala Pilah in Negeri Sembilan, to form peasants' and workers' cells among the Malays..." (p162)

Historical records show that prominent Malay-speaking communists in Malaya in the late 20s and 30s included Abdul Majid Dato Gambo Abdul Wahab, Abu Samah Haji Majid, Ali Majid, Ahmed Baiki Suile, Abdul Rahman, Subakat, Sutan Jenain, Jamal Ud Din, Haji Mohamed Hashim, Selleh Sapi and Semaun.

In 1936, Sutan Jenain (also known as Ma Ali) was a member of the party's central committee.

However, most of the Malay-speaking communists were either rounded up and detained by the British as top-security priority or went to Dutch East Indies to fight the Dutch.

Japanese invasion

When the war in China with Japanese broke out on July 7, 1937, Chinese patriotism overwhelmed CPM. Many non-communist Chinese either joined or began to support the party to express their solidarity with the victims of Japanese militarism in the mainland.

CPM seemed to be in a state of indecision between 1939 and late 1941. On one hand, it had to seize the opportunities offered by the upsurge of Chinese patriotism, but on the other, it had also to preserve its Malayan identity. Nevertheless, on the ground, the popular anti-war sentiment swept the grassroots of the party into an anti-Japanese movement.

The British, too, was alarmed by the expansionist tendency of the Japanese. At first, it continued its anti-CPM policies and measures, but as the possibility of the outbreak of war in the Pacific theatre loomed large, it began to soften its attitudes toward the Malayan communists. There were secret negotiations between top CPM leaders and their British counterparts.

A day after the Japanese attack in Pearl Harbour on Dec 7, 1941 which raised the curtain of World War Two in the Pacific, the Japanese armed forces attacked Malaya from Kota Baru in Kelantan. In one of the swiftest military operations, the Japanese defeated the British leading to a humiliating surrender in Singapore on Feb 15, 1942.

However, just before the total fall of Peninsula, the British released hundreds of communists from detentions without trial. Together with other fellow Malayan communists, they were given training in guerilla warfare and other techniques of special operations by British military advisers. They were to stay behind in the Malayan jungles to resist and engage the Japanese until the tide turned.

Guerilla warfare

The Malayan communists, including some Malays, Indians and Orang Asli, formed the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), and conducted raids and sabotages in Malaya occupied by the Japanese. Its role was comparable to the anti-Nazi Partisans in Europe, especially in France.

Although the main forces of MPAJA comprised of Chinese, non-Chinese and even non-communist Malayans assisted in the resistance. The late Madam Dr Kartigesu from Ipoh, for example, supplied information and medicines to the resisters in her clinic set up in Papan, a small town around Ipoh in Perak. RG Balan, who later became CPM vice-president, also joined the guerillas in that period.

According to figures compiled by CPM, during the 44-month Japanese occupation, MPAJA killed about 5,500 Japanese military personnel, and itself suffered some 3,000 casualties.

CPM legendary leader, Chin Peng, was then a junior commander of the MPAJA army in southern Perak. He had joined the party only a few years earlier at the age of 15. He spent his early 20s as a guerilla leader fighting against the Japanese.

It was also during the Japanese occupation that Chin Peng developed good personal ties with some British military officers, such as John Davis who trained the Malayan communists for guerilla warfare and special operations just before the British withdrew from Peninsula to Singapore at the end of 1941.

Davis was to be Chin Peng's 'guarantor' and 'protector' in 1955 when he accompanied Chin Peng out from the jungles to attend the historic Baling Talks, and after the peace meeting failed, sent Chin Peng back in safely.

When met by this writer in 1998 in Bangkok, Chin Peng still fondly remembered Davis as a " good friend" and "fine British gentleman".

Metamorphosis of CPM

During the almost four years of Japanese occupation, Chin Peng also developed the skills of managing technical and signal communication.

One of the memorable event in Chin Peng's life as a guerilla commander was how he and his company secretly transported a radio station from an Allied submarine in the Perak coast, into the jungle. The radio station was supplied by the Allied command in Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon).

The war against the Japanese was crucial in the metamorphosis of CPM. Before the war, the party was an underground and urban-based organisation, but the war of resistance gave it a new dimension and experience.

Trained by the British for modern guerilla warfare and special operations, Malayan communists, for the first time in their political existence, gained comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of the terrains of the jungles and mountains in Peninsula Malaysia during the war. They also made friends with the Orang Asli communities living in the interiors.

CPM and its armed forces, MPAJA also collected and piled up weapons left behind by the defeated British, or seized from the Japanese.

According to Chin Peng, at the end of World War Two, the armed forces of CPM numbered some 10,000 personnel. This was a sizable force compared to the few hundreds in Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh, and those in Indonesia led by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta.

Yet, CPM failed in seizing state power immediately after the war, while Ho and Sukarno succeeded. Why?

This is the fifth of a seven-part series on the 'Life and times of Chin Peng', exclusively for Malaysiakini subscribers.

A time for revolution

The rise of communist leader Chin Peng

A date with the 'terrorists'

Village of ex-communists finds new hope

Chin Peng's memoirs to be released this year

Chin Peng and other ex-communist leaders not coming home

'We did not praise Mahathir': ex-CPM leader Chin Peng

Ex-communist leader says Bernama report misleading