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History
The jungle war (6) by Commander Ah Hai |
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In Chapter 16 Lai Te, the tripple agent, plans to kill Ch'en Ch'un who sets up an independent unit (Chapter 17). In Chapter 18 leaders boycott a bad resolution. The enemy launch a political offensive (Chapter 19). Many leaders are killed by treachery (Chapter 20) and traitors emerge (Chapter 21). Chapter 16 Lai Te plans to liquidate Ch’en Ch’un AT THE END OF May 1942 Comrade Chai K’e Ming (Note 74) and Ah Li came to the village of Lingkap on the Johore border and convened a meeting of the State Committee. Attending this meeting were Central Committee member Chai K’e Ming; Ah Li, the secretary of the District Committee; Ah Hai, organising secretary; Ah San, head of propaganda (Ch’en Ch’un had been suspended; Lao Tian had broken down because of the continuous bombardment by the enemy and, when arrested at the Seremban railway station, had turned traitor. Ah Ch’uan was ill and could not attend) Chai K’e Ming reported on a Central Committee resolution, named the “San Hup Kang” (after a village on the Malacca-Johore-Negri border) resolution, made in the middle of May when Central South Party high ranking cadres held a meeting (Negri state and the 2 Independent were represented by Ah Lee and Lai Lai Fook respectively). Lai Te (Note 75) had analysed the situation and pointed out that the way forward was to preserve and build up our strength and wait for the opportunity, condemned the State Committee and Command’s attacks on the Japanese as “adventurous” which exposed us and led to Japanese attacks on us, frightened the masses and isolated us Chai K’e Ming said that Lai Te was particularly angry about the attack by the 2 Independent on the Kuala Pilah police station. Lai Te charged Ch’en Ch’un with exceeding his powers in directing 2 Independent to attack the police station and the resulting losses for which he should be punished with death. Liu Kuan Wen was to be sacked and expelled from the Party. Ma Ting and Liao Te were to be warned. 2 Independent were to be ordered to conceal their weapons and to disperse to do mass work. |
Ah Hai and Ah San were startled by this (Ah Hai thought to himself, when the blood of the massacred had not yet dried he wants us to hide our weapons This is like tying our hands. But he did not utter one word) After a while the meeting was adjourned. Ah Hai and Ah San exchanged views and decided that if Central believed Lai Te they would resign. They understood that if they did so the Negri organisation would be paralysed which would in turn lead to opposition of the whole State organisation to the acceptance of the Lai Te line and to the proposed punishments. When the meeting resumed Ah Hai and Ah San told Chai K’e Ming of their decision Chai K’e Ming was taken aback by this news. He and Ah Li discussed this privately then told Ah Hai and Ah San that they would ask Central (i.e. Lai Te) for advice before deciding After a few days Ah Li transmitted the Central decision on Ch’en Ch’un: It was to remove him from the State Committee and that he should go down to the branch as an ordinary member to be “steeled”. Ah Hai and Ah San thought that as long as Ch’en Ch’un was not punished with death that was acceptable. When the State Committee met in May, Lai Foo went to Tampin Lingkap and told “Hainan K’ang” (Ah K’ang) and his platoon of the “San Hup Kang” resolution. Ah K’ang then hid all the weapons in the Lingkap forest. Thirty percent of the men went off to “work” in the Lingkap rubber estates, spending their nights in the “stilt house”. Just before dawn the enemy surrounded them, guided by the traitor Ah Ch’i. Our comrades had no weapons and jumped to safety from the building but were shot dead. Thus some 30 men were massacred though it seemed that Ch’en Ching managed to escape Notes: Chapter 17 Ch’en Ch’un sets up independent unit When Ch’en Ch’un heard the news, he called up comrades formerly under his command and they armed themselves with the weapons they had hidden, hid the surplus on another hill, and led a party to wait in ambush. As expected, the traitor Ah Ch’i led a party of Japanese soldiers in search of the hidden weapons. Ch’en Ch’un attacked causing casualties among the enemy who fled. When they enemy got to Johol, they were so angry they killed the traitor After this incident Ch’en Ch’un set up the Independent Platoon with the comrades. Based on the jungle and relying on Linkap village they were active on the border Ch’en Ch’un reported these events to Ah Hai who approved his action and asked him to report to Titi’s 2 Independent. |
| In October or November
1942, Ch’en Ch’un and his troops ambushed a Japanese jeep in the Lingkap
- Ayer Kuning area , killing an officer and a soldier, recovering a pistol
and a sword. Negri’s State Committee was pleased with Ch’en Ch’un’s conduct and decided to put him back on the State Committee to lead the border area work Chapter 18 Boycott of the “San Hup Kang” resolution As a result of the bitter lesson learnt by Ah K’ang’s Independent Platoon, the Negri State and the 2 Independent Command thought that the “Sun Hup Kang” resolution should be boycotted. The battle against the Japanese had taught us that to resist we must have a resistance organisation as well as a resistance base. The experience had taught us that the guerillas must have the jungle as their base, with reliance on the villagers and continuous consolidation and expansion of the resistance forces, the bases and the guerrilla areas. The troops and the people’s movement had to carry out the three big tasks i.e. fight, conduct mass work, store grain, food and medicine before one could speak of developing a great resistance war and armed might to defeat Japanese imperialism and set up a Malayan People’s Republic. However Lai Te’s treachery had led to dissolution of the huge resistance network and destroyed the opportunity for setting up the Republic. Chapter 19 The enemy launches a political offensive In the second half of 1942 and the beginning of 1943, Negri State, co-ordinating with the armed forces, took part in armed battles against the Japanese bandits, who retaliated with a political offensive. They tried forcing relatives of the guerrillas to encourage surrenders. But this was day dreaming. The memory of Jerudong was still fresh. Titi hated the murderers and were eager to get even. The political offensive failed. But the Japanese did not give up, trying again and again, using traitors. Early in 1942 Huang Tong Aun and Lao T’ian were captured and turned traitor. In 1943 the same thing happened to Ah T’ie. At the same time, Titi’s “Yellow Monkey”, Seremban’s x x Yung and Broga’s Li Yan Chang were captured and turned traitor. These men were used to penetrate the forces and the people’s movement; activists were captured and tortured with the water treatment, hung upside down, while the women were stripped naked and hung up by their wrists to force them to reveal secrets. The villagers were forced to cut down trees for the “Stockade Village” (Note 76) in an attempt to cut the villagers off from the resistance troops. |
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But the enemy was attacked by us at every turn. They used turncoats to attack Jerudong and Kenaboi but were also defeated. Attacks on the people’s movement also met with our ambushes. Although they used the people to build “stockade villages” the people would move the tree trunks to let our forces into the village. The enemy continued to use torture against those who fell into their hands but they failed to get more traitors and their political offensive failed. In 1943 we had some redeemed traitors eliminate Huang Tong Aun. Chapter 20 The tragedy of September 1 On September 1, 1942, a momentous and bloody event took place at the Batu Caves (Note 77). That day, the Japanese with the aid of the traitor Lai Te hoped to destroy the resistance to Japan. But the massacre failed to frighten the people who continued with the liberation war. According to Comrade Siao Chang (Note 78) the details of the September 1 Affair are as follows: On the night of August 31, at a hut by the Sungei Tua at the Kanching pass at Batu Caves, there was a meeting. The first to arrive was Siao Chung (Li Chen Chung) of the Central Standing Committee; Siao P’ing (Lin Wang Sheng, later captured and turned traitor); and Chai K’e Ming. Central Committee member Chu Lau; the Party representative to the 1 Independent; Hsu Ching Piao; Ah Su (Liao Yu Sheng) the Perak State secretary; Ah Fook, the Kedah secretary ; Siao Kang (Chung Pu Kang), the Party representative to the South Johore special force; Ah Foo (Yu Hung) commander of the 4 Independent; Yang Mu, the South Johore secretary (Note 79); Chen Yung of the “Liberation News”; Chen Shu, Party Representative of the 3 Independent; Chang Ch’i Sheng (Chang Liang P’ing) Party Representative of the 5 Independent; Siao Chang (Chang Chuan Ching also Chang Ling Yun), Party Representative of the 6 Independent; Wen Yen the Penang City secretary and Ah Li (Lo Chang) the Negri State secretary. Those who did not attend this meeting were the secretary Lai Te, Siao Hei, Singapore secretary (who we learnt later had been captured in June and executed), Ah Chung of East Pahang who was an old Executive Committee member, and Huang Kuo P’ing of 2 Independent who on the way to the meeting was betrayed by Huang Tong Aun and himself turned traitor. On guard were 1 Independent model company commanded by Ah Yen composed of ten men who had light arms, rifles, hand grenades. Those attending the meeting had pistols and hand grenades On the 31st night Siao Chung was in charge of preparations for the meeting and security |
| At dawn Siao Ping woke everyone up and told them that there was a large number of enemy surrounding them. Then the shooting began. The guard unit returned the fire. Siao Ping broke the group into two to withdraw into the hills behind but the enemy opened fire from the banks of the river. Siao Kang was wounded and could not walk and hid in the grass. From the rear right there came the sound of gunfire and we heard Siao Kang shout “Long Live the Communist Party of Malaya!” Our people used their hand grenades to open a way to the jungle only to find that the enemy were also in front of them. Some had rushed down to the river only to find that the enemy had occupied the banks. They were surrounded but shouted “Go!” “Go!” and rushed towards the river Those who broke through were Standing committee’s Chai K’e Ming, Siao P’ing, Ah Fook of the Central Executive, Ah Soo the Perak Secretary, Siao Chang, Party representative of the 6 Independent (Siao Chang was wounded on the thigh could not walk and hid in among orchids). Also hiding was Fu Shen of the guard unit who had a large chunk of flesh torn away by a bullet. When the enemy had left the area the two of them found each other. Chen Yung and Yang Liao were captured. Yang Liao was to report that he was badly beaten by the enemy and witnessed Chen Yung’s release (Chen Yung became a traitor, ran away from the enemy and was appointed by Lai Te the Party representative to 4 Independent) and had agreed to go to Kuala Lumpur to deliver “Resistance News” to Chen Yung. Later Yang Liau, escaped and returned to his unit. During the war against the British he was surrounded by British troops at the Kedah-Province border and was killed. Chen Yung was expelled by the party. Comrades who made the supreme sacrifice were: the Standing Committee’s Siao Chung; the executive committee’s Chu Lau who was the Party representative to 4 Independent; the 1 Independent’s Party representative Hsu Ch’ing Png, the 3 Independent’s Party representative Ch’en Shu, the 4 Independent’s commander Yu Hung; the 5 Independent’s Party representative Chang Chi Sh’eng; the Special Squad’s Party representative Siao Kang; Kedah State secretary Chen Ping Hung; Penang City’s secretary Wen Yen, head of the guard unit Ah Yen; and fighters Huang Kuang, Pao Lun, Siao Lin, Png Yu, Liu Yu, and orderlies Liu San Mai, Liu Kun, and a girl fighter Chang Kuan Feng. Some of the villagers were wounded. In this fight to break through the cordon we lost nine cadres and nine fighters. It was a great loss to the Party. But our fighters were able to confront the enemy when the odds were against us and able to break through and kill and wound as many as 100 of the enemy including some officers. The political repercussions were enormous. The masses praised our bravery and it also set a shining example for the Party and for the Anti Japanese struggle In June 1949 the Central Committee decided that September 1st be Revolutionary Martyrs Day |
Chapter 21 The September 1 incident and the emergence of traitors 1942 was a year of frenzied Japanese fascist attacks on the Negri Resist Japan forces and people In those days of difficulties and dangers the Negri Resistance and people were brave and unswerving in battle, inflicting defeats on the enemy forces. But there were a small number of traitors. They talked big but were really cowards. They turned traitor when they fell into enemy hands and were beaten. They guided the enemy in their attacks on the forces and the civilian resistance movement, arresting patriotic persons. Especially vicious were Hwang Tong Aun, Ah T’ieh, Lee Yuan Ka, Hwang Hou, x Yong, and Lau Tian. On the other hand there were those who fell into enemy hands and turned traitor but escaped and came back to regain their honour as did Ah Li and Ah San. The Japanese made them secret agents for the Kempetai but after they killed the traitor Hwang Tong Aun they came back and fought the Japanese. Ah Li, the Negri secretary, fell ill and at the end of 1942 had gone to Malacca for treatment when he was captured by the enemy. When Ah Li left the enemy and came back he told Ah Hai his story: Ah Li reported that after the September 1 incident he had returned to Tampin. His illness got worse and he had gone to the Malacca hospital for medicine. He did not. improve and was warded. That was when he was arrested (he thought he had been betrayed). In the beginning the Japanese sent a “businessman” to talk to him about co-operating with the Imperial Army. The “businessman” persisted, pressing him for details of the Negri organisation and a name list. Ah Li in the end gave them what they wanted. It was this list that was shown to the comrades captured at Bahau when they were being interrogated at the Cameron Highlands and when they denied they were members of the Communist Party. Ah Li was released after giving his captors the list and became a traitor. Chai Tong (Note 80) had seen Ah Li with the Kempeitail forces at Bahau in the attack on the State Committee and the 24 Platoon of the 2 Independent and the armed civil resistance movement (including the office of the “Voice of the Anti-Japanese Resistance” and the armed resistance camp). The State Committee was located at the edge of the jungle at Ladang Geddes (the old and the new estates together made up more than 10,000 acres). The 24 Platoon camped in “Tapioca Hill” at Palong. Stretching From Palong to Rompin “Tapioca Hill” was about 6 to 7,000 acres of land; add oil palm to that and it was an area of about 10,000 acres. The Japanese force dared not enter these two regions and confined themselves to observation at Bahau. Yan Shau Kee also saw Ah Li with the Japanese and reported this to Ah Hai At Bahau, Ah Li met Li Tien Wu, the bogus Support Association’s President, i.e. Chai Tong whom Ah Li recognised and also the puppet secretary Yan Chau Chi (a secret Party member using the name of Liu San) |
| Li Tien Wu was later arrested and locked
up in Gemas where he was released on the guarantee of a puppet committee
member of the Support Association. The Bahau area District Committee
member Ah Han and an activist Lau Ming were also locked up in Gemas but
one night, when there was fierce thunder and lightning, they managed to
escape. They said that they were interrogated by Ah Li When Ah Li came back to us Ah Hai asked him whether he had given the Japanese the list and he admitted doing that but said that he had only given them the names of those who had died in the fight. Ah Hai had him sent under escort to the 6 Independent for reforming himself After the Japanese surrender, the Party summoned the 8th Enlarged Plenum where Ah Li represented the Singapore Party organisation. In 1947 the Party launched a cleaning up campaign and cleared out all the traitors including Ah Li Ah San had turned traitor when caught in Seremban.. He and an “ordinary person” once walked hand in hand past a watch repairer’s stall. Soon after, the watch repairer was arrested. He had been a secret member who had been in contact with Ah San. Ah San had escaped and come back to us. In 1944 Ah Chong had asked Lai Te to send a cadre to be the political chief of the 7 Independent. Lai Te sent Ah San to him for the job Notes: (74) Chai K’e Ming . Member of the standing committee of the Central Committee. He studied at the Anti-Japanese Political University at Yenan and died while under arrest (75) Lai Te. Vietnamese. Turned traitor when the French were in control in Vietnam and was sent into Canton as a secret agent. In the 1930s he infiltrated the Malayan Communist Party and seized the position of the general secretary of the Party and betrayed the 6th Enlarged Committee, the 7th Enlarged Committee, and the Chienchin Meeting, and was the cause of the September 1 tragedy (76) “Protected Village”. This was the puppet organisation used to sever the close relations between the people and the Party and Army (77) September 1 Tragedy. A bloody attempt by the Japanese bandits aided by Lai Te’s betrayal to wipe out the armed forces of the anti Japanese resistance (78) Siao Chang also Chang Chuan Ching who used the name Lin Wen in China. Secretary of the Pahang District and Party representative at the 6 Independent using the names of Chang Ling Yun also Feng Yun. Elected a Central Committee member at the 8th Enlarged Conference meeting and at the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th Enlarged Conferences was elected to the central committee as well as to the Political Committee. He was also head of the delegation to foreign countries. He was a graduate of the second session of the Marxist Leninist Institute |
| and secretary of the North Bureau of the Communist Party.
In 1988 he was head of the delegation to the peace talks with the Thai
and Malaysian governments. In 1990 he died of an illness (79) Yang Mu also Yang Ke . He was surrounded by the enemy during the anti British war in the Penang-Kedah area and died in action (80) Chai Tong also Li Tian Wu. An underground member of the Party. During the Japanese occupation he was head of the puppet Support Association and when arrested was released on the guarantee of the Bahau puppet association. After liberation was a people’s representative at Bahau, a member of the people’s committee and the general editor of the Negri People’s Paper. When the anti British war broke out he was banished to China where he took part in the work of building the socialist China in Fujien from The War in the South - the story of Negri Sembilan's guerrillas by Shan Ru -hong (Internet edition) First published 2003 Go to the top (To be continued) Part 5 |
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