biography
In search of gold
the story of an immigrant - by Shan Ru Hong
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biography
In search of gold the story of an immigrant - by Shan Ru Hong |
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(continued) Chapter 9. To Negri Sembilan IN JULY 1941, Bai Yi and Ah Jong attended the 7th Enlarged Central Committee meeting at Singapore and came back with orders that I was to be transferred to Negri Sembilan; Li Bai and Ai Ke to Selangor to be a district and area committee members respectively; Liu Ping to south Johore to be a district committee member. Li Bai, Liu Ping and I were close friends but we had to obey orders and part company. At the beginning, we kept in contact. It was against our security rules but we were young and inexperienced. Li Bai and I were safe but Liu Ping was arrested and jailed in Johore. I learnt later that he had been careless, drawing attention to himself by playing the harmonica in a hut on an estate. It seems that the police found some documents and arrested him. Shen Tian told me that in the chaos following the Japanese advance on Johore’s border, Liu Ping was able to escape. Shen Tian went down from Perak, found his brother and together they cycled back to Perak where they were able to rejoin the organisation. I left for Kuala Lumpur by train. Chai Zhi Yi bought the ticket and, when he thought it was safe, gave it to me. I jumped on the train as it was leaving. He did not wave till the train had gone some distance. I was directed to go with Liew Yit Fun and his wife to KL (he was then a private tutor in Malim Nawar and was under my direction). We were to meet at an amusement park at 7 pm after arrival in KL. Next day we took the train to Seremban. There was a room above a coffee shop which cost one dollar a night, so we took the room. Liew Yit Fun and wife occupied the bed while I slept on two benches put together. Next day we were to meet at a rubber buyer’s shop, where we were to find a letter addressed to a certain person in the “letter box” on one of the pillars. We looked several times but there was no letter. We didn’t know what to do. In desperation, I asked Lau Di (1), “Do you know this Lau Weng who’s supposed to put the letter in the letter box?” I was astonished when he replied, “Yes, I met him when I was teaching in Tapah” |
From then on, Liew Yit Fun was at the window watching the street below (our room faced the street). Our purses were getting empty. Each day cost us $2: $1 for the room and $1 for food. It would be cheaper to eat at the market but with his English looks Liew Yit Fun would be conspicuous. So we decided that his wife, Gao Xiu Feng, and I would go out to eat while he would be confined to the room. Rice and curry cost 5 cents in the market and we were able to save 20 to 30 cents a day. On the 3rd day, Liew Yit Fun caught sight of Lau Weng - heaven had come to our help! He rushed downstairs shouting , “Mr Lau Weng! Mr Lau Weng!" while his wife signalled from the window. Lau Weng explained that he had been careless and apologised. He said we had guessed right, that he had walked down the road hoping to meet us. We would have gone on talking but Gao Xiu Feng said that it was time to go “home.” Lau Weng took us to Rahang to our “hotel”, a small hut in a vegetable garden where soya bean skins were made next to a pig farm. The next day the hut owner’s son brought us some soya bean milk. The boy said if we wanted some more we had only to ask and he’d bring some more. These poor people truly demonstrated class solidarity. The next day we cycled to Tampin. Lau Weng had brought us 24 inch bikes but for me, a shorty, it was tough cycling the 20 miles to Tampin Along the road were rubber estates big and small where the workers were Indian or Chinese. Shops were Chinese and the villagers were Malay. We stopped for coffee and something to eat then we were off. In the afternoon we turned off the road and headed for the tappers’ quarters of a rubber estate. We were at Kotor (2). The estate was owned by a Malay. In the evening there were many people moving about but though we were not known to one another we knew that they were in the “same business”. At 7 pm, Ah Fook (Lau Weng) called a meeting of the district. Among them were Ah Chi, who during the anti-Japanese war led the Japanese to capture or kill 30 men of the Tampin detachment but was himself subsequently killed by them; Ah Tie, a trade unionist from Penang, who turned traitor when captured by the Japanese in Selangor. He was wounded by our extermination squad but the Japanese took him to Singapore to hide; Ah Nin, who was elected a central committee member at the 7th Enlarged Conference and also to the Standing Committee but turned traitor during the Japanese occupation. Nothing was heard of him after that. At the meeting, Ah Nin reported that five members had boycotted Ah Fook’s report on the 7th Enlarged Conference and had refused to recognise him as the district secretary because they were unhappy with his sex life. The central committee decided on a suitable punishment for Ah Fook. It also admonished the five critics by transferring them. Three were sent to Perak to do trade union work in the area committee.(3) It was because of these events that central had decided that we should go to Negri Sembilan. At the elections which followed, Ah Fook , Liew Yit Fun, Chen Zhung, Ah Tie, Ah San (4), Hai Deng, Deng Xin, Ah Lu, Ah Kee, Ye Jen and I were elected to the . |
| district executive
committee. The standing committee
comprised Ah Fook, Liew Yit Fun, Ah Tie and Ah San (Hu Er San).
Ah Fook was secretary and I was the organisational head with Chen Zhung
as vice-head and Liew Yit Fun in charge of propaganda with Ah San (Hu
Er Xian) as vice-head. Ah Tie was the trade union secretary Work was discussed and planned. I was to organise a union at Tanah Merah Estate at Port Dickson. I learnt how to tap rubber trees from Bai Mau Kuang with whom I lodged. I was to learn that conditions here were different from those in Tronoh. Bai Mau Kuang woke up very early each day and after a cup of kopi-o and after instructing me on how to prepare Hainanese rice gruel would go off to tap rubber. Most of the tappers were Hainanese. They believed that chook (5) prepared their way was anti-typhoid. Bai Mau Kuang would bring back thee-layered pork, some preserved lopak (6) and soya bean cake for the meal. A kati would last 3 - 5 days. After cooking, I would go in search of Bai Mau Kunag who would patiently teach me how to tap the tree. I was clumsy and practised on old trees. I was lucky that the owner did not come often to inspect or else he would have discovered beginner me cutting too deep and wounding the tree. After a few days Bai Mau Kuang pronounced me qualified. I contacted Chen Ah Chuan to get details of hours of work, whether pay was based on work or piece, racial composition of the work force, number of workers and acreage and so on at Tanah Merah European estates, but he had difficulty in understanding me because he had no schooling. Ah Chuan explained that he was given two “row heads” (a “row head” counted two rows of 300 - 400 trees covering an area of four acres). He tapped one and the next day the other “row head”. He would earn 40 - 50 cents per day bringing in about $13 to $15 dollars every month .But if it rained they earned nothing He thought they would work 25 days a month, sometimes only 20 if it rained continuously. He was paid by weight; thus 50 - 60 lbs of latex would give a yield of 17.5 - 18.5 lbs of rubber sheets but with percentages taken off for this and that the calculation of yield would only give 16 - 17 lbs. Everyone was unhappy with this cheating at weighing but no one dared utter a word. I said tentatively, “Why don’t you get them together and talk to the boss?” He asked me whether I was speaking about setting up a union. The workers were such that it was difficult to get them together. He said not to try because the workers were made up of three races. As for the Chinese there were all types of persons. Once you start they will report you to the police. Seeing this attitude I changed the subject and asked him how many workers there were in this estate. He told me that no one had counted them before; some said 4000 some said 6000. He thought that inclusive of road makers and repairer men there should be about 6-7,000 workers on the estate. To my question as to their political consciousness he laughed and said there was a saying “ Seremban grows only one type of flower”. We could not talk of progressives or the backward or the reactionary. Here they were all reactionary and all Kuomintang. I asked him to introduce three friends of his who were progressive to me. I said there was no hurry. “What about running a school for the workers?” I asked him. He said there were those like him who would like to learn to read but some would oppose such a proposal. |
| Ah Chuan told me
that the estate was about 10,000 acres in size. I
calculated that if each tapper tapped eight acres and there were 4000
tappers employed on the estate it would be about 30,000 acres in size
but Ah Chuan said I was wrong because the tappers brought with
them their families who also tapped and, besides, there were
other employees like office workers who did not tap. I asked him
whether we could suppose that tappers were 3/5 of the total which would
make the estate about 20,000 acres. Ah Chuan’s silence showed he
disagreed with me. I was planning a night school when a letter came from Ah Fook asking me to go to Titi to take over Liew Yit Fun’s work. I was to leave immediately. Notes:_______ (1) “Imperialist fellow” - a nickname friends used (2) Kotor (dirty) because of the incinerator nearby (3) After the war Chin Peng told me that they were later promoted to the district committee. (4) There were two Ah San. There was an Ah San of the special committee of Malacca who turned traitor after his arrest. The Negri Ah San whose real name was Hu Er San also turned traitor but escaped and was restored to membership by Lai Te who appointed him political officer for the 7th Independent. At the 8th Enlarged Conference Ah Zhung proposed him for the Central Committee but he was expelled from the party before the anti-British war. (5) rice gruel (6) A white root vegetable shaped like a carrot Go to the top (to be continued) |
| DATES May 21, 1921
Lindberg flies the Atlantic |
| _____ INDEX Point to the article that you want to read, and CLICK Refugees, Odisi Remember me (poem) Secret Servce fake |
| _____________________ The Penang File Issue 66 |