Two more top Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) leaders Abdullah CD and Rashid Maidin have published their memoirs in Bahasa Malaysia.

Their accounts of the Malayan people's struggle for independence will be translated into Chinese and English soon.

Abdullah CD, whose real name is Che Dat bin Anjang Abdullah, is CPM's chairperson.

In the 283-page book, Memoir Abdullah CD (Bahagian Pertama) Zaman Pergerakan Sehingga 1948, the 81-year-old author, who hails from Perak, talks about his childhood and family.

He also narrates his participation in the then nascent modern Malay nationalist movement and the underground armed resistance to the Japanese occupation organised by CPM as well as the party's struggle for Malaya's independence.

Previously, he published two shorter accounts Perang Anti-British Dan Perdamaian and Darurat Dan Kemerdekaan - Memperingati 50 Tahun Darurat Di Tanah Melayu.

They were published in Hong Kong in Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese.

Memoir Abdullah CD (Bahagian Pertama) Zaman Pergerakan Sehingga 1948 is only the first installment of his complete memoirs. It is not known when the second part will be published.

Detention and escape

Meanwhile, Rashid Maidin's memoirs, Daripada Perjuangan Bersenjata Kepada Perdamaian , focuses on the events that unfolded between 1917 and 1989.

Rashid, 87, was a member of CPM's delegation to the 1947 British Empire Communist Parties' Conference held in London.

He was also a delegate to the 1955 Baling Peace Talk and the 1989 peace negotiations between CPM and the governments of Malaysia and Thailand.

The qualified electrician working for European-owned tin-mining dredges in Perak joined CPM just before the Japanese invasion in December 1941.

In his 104-page memoirs, Rashid expressed gratitude to his intellectual and political mentor Tu Lung Shan who also recruited the famous secretary-general Chin Peng (whose memoirs have also been published) and the wife of Abdullah CD, Suriani Abdullah @ Eng Ming Ching into the party.

Tu was later captured and beheaded by the Japanese military in Perak in 1943 at the age of 21.

Bahasa booklets

Rashid also recalled in detail about the time he was placed under detention without trial by the British between July 1948 and early 1952. He later escaped with the help of a 12-year-old Chinese cowherd in Malacca.

Both memoirs are published in Bahasa Malaysia by a Kuala Lumpur-based private publishing house SIRD.

In a related development, two more pocket-size Bahasa Malaysia booklets recording dialogues with Abdullah CD, Rashid Maidin, Suriani Abdullah and Abu Samah Mohamad Kassim have also been in circulation in Malaysia.

Islam Melayu Komunis Wawancara Dengan Abdullah CD, Rashid Maidin, Abu Samah and Serikandi Suriani Abdullah are also published and marketed by SIRD.

Rashid, Suriani and Abu Samah are members of CPM's cental committee. Abu Samah, 79, published his full memoirs Sejarah Dan Perjuangan Kemerdekaan in 1996 in Hong Kong.