History
The Baling talks
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History
The Baling talks |
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FIRST DAY Tunku: Will you please explain that I will talk in English. Are they agreeable? Chin Peng. Yes. Tunku. Do they want me to open the talk first, or would they like to? Chin Peng. I think it is better for the Federation Chief Minister to talk first. Tunku. In the first place, I want to thank them for the confidence they have shown in coming out to meet me. They must remember that I am not standing here in judgement over them. I am here to talk to them, to explain to them. With me are the Chief Minister of Singapore, Mr. David Marshall, and Sir Cheng Lock Tan, who is a political leader and my colleague. They have been in the jungle fighting for what they call independence and a lot of things have taken place in the politics of this country -a lot of changes have taken place. The first important change is that there have been free elections in the country. The results of the free elections are: Mr. David Marshall has been elected the Chief Minister of Singapore by the Labour Party; and Dato Sir Cheng Lock Tan and I joined together to contest the elections and we won. This is just repeating what you already know. Our victory was based on one big promise we made to the people; that one big promise made to the people was responsible for our victory and perhaps our victory is without parallel in any free election in the world. That one big promise which we made was that colonialism must end and that this country must be given freedom - that was the promise we made. Then at the last Federal elections the High Commissioner made an important announcement; he said that self-government will be given to Malaya despite the Emergency. That assurance he gave on behalf of the British Government. In view of that assurance the UMNO Assembly which was recently held - it finished the day before yesterday - passed a very important resolution to the effect that |
| independence for Malaya
must be given by the 31 st August 1957, and I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever
that we shall possibly achieve this aim and that there will be no conditions
attached to that independence. The words "if possible" were included as a
result of an amendment to the resolution that I introduced myself and the
resolution now reads "if possible by 31 August 1957". My only reason for
introducing this amendment was to allow for a smooth handover. We have asked
for the appointment of an Independent Commission - a commission whose members
will be appointed from outside this country - to try to work out a constitution
for this country. This Independent Commission must take time, because the
work before it is rather involved and difficult. There are in this country
people who are immigrants, people who are lived here for generations and
people who are the indigenous people of this country, all these types of
people are living together in this country today. Therefore, it must take
time to prepare a constitution that will be agreeable to them all. There is also another important matter which people ought to consider - that is the position of the Malay Rulers. I said in the course of my speech that the Alliance - UMNO, MCA, MIC - are strong enough to be able to demand immediate independence. The only reason why we have not done so is, as I have explained, that there are so many important matters arising out of this independence that it is necessary to take time. I am leaving on the 1 st January, 1956 for England, to take part in round-table talks with the British Government. I have no doubt that the talks will produce results and will be successful. Before my Party came into power - they must have heard it as it was in the papers -1 said that I wanted to bring peace to this country and I really meant it. But in my opinion there is no way of bringing about peace other than to offer suitable terms for the surrender of the Communist Party against whom the Government is fighting today. Chin Peng must know their position in respect of this Government. They have been, in the view of the Federation Government, fighting the lawful authority - that is, the Government of the Federation of Malaya. That is the position. For that reason there have been laws passed whereby any communist captured could be sentenced to death and so on, because the Government regarded the insurgents as having committed treason against the Government. So, therefore, these Special Regulations were passed to deal with the disturbances in this country. According to these Emergency Regulations - you know the important ones - those captured could be sentenced to death, those in sympathy with the insurgents are to be detained for an indefinite period and it is not likely that they will be released until the Emergency ends. Also while the Emergency last the Emergency will last. I, and my colleague, on my right and on my left - and the rest of the people of Malaya want to see the end of the trouble so that we can declare independence and make the country peaceful, happy and prosperous. Malaya included Singapore for this purpose; that is why, as you know, Mr. Marshall is here to take part in the talk; and Dato Sir Cheng Lock Tan, my partner and colleague and founder of the Alliance, is here for the same reason. In view of the disturbances in this country, the atrocities being committed, in view of the laws that are in existence to deal with these disturbances I cannot do more that to say that if they accept the amnesty everyone will be pardoned - |
| that is the main theme
of the Amnesty. Instead of prosecuting anybody who surrenders under the terms
of the Amnesty we promise him safety, and that promise, as I have said, I
guarantee with my own life. You may consider the terms not too liberal, but
it is up to you to tell me what part of the terms you think unreasonable,
or hard and strict, so that my partners and I will be able to consider them.
You will see that according to these terms those who come in and surrender
will not be prosecuted for any offences connected with the Emergency - any
offence committed under Communist direction either before the date of the
declaration of this Amnesty or in ignorance of the existence of this Amnesty.
You may surrender how and to whom you like including members of the public.
There will be no general cease-fire, but the Security Forces will be on the
alert to help those who wish to accept this offer, and for this purpose local
cease-fire will be arranged. We carried out this part of our promise and
ordered cease-fire on all fronts. Unfortunately they on their part continued
offensive action, a recent example is the Khea Farm outrage. As a result
the cease-fire arrangement was suspended on our side. And then in the fifth paragraph of the Amnesty Declaration it says that the Government will conduct an investigation on those who surrender. Naturally such an investigation is necessary - in all wars where there has been peace you have got to conduct an investigation on those who surrender - but those who show that they genuinely intend to be loyal to the Government of Malaya and to give up their Communist activities will be helped to regain their normal position in society and will be given the opportunity to be united with their families. It is intended to place restrictions on their liberty for some period. On the other hand, if any of them wish to go back to China or in fact to whatsoever countries they belong - their request will be given due consideration. I understand they have rejected these terms. For what reason I would be glad to hear from them. Perhaps my colleague and friend Mr David Marshall, might care to address them? Dato Sir Cheng Lock Tan, would you like to add anything? Has what I said has been all right? Marshall. Well, as far as I am concerned, it has been a campaign of hate that has corroded our civic life, a campaign of violence, brutality and atrocities that has achieved nothing except misery of the people. We understand that there are some genuine nationalist in the movement. I distinguish between nationalists and those who seek to make us a colony of a foreign ideology. To those nationalist I say they must find out, become convinced that the constitutional peaceful methods the rest of the country have been pursuing are the methods along which their welfare lies, and that violence can only breed violence and misery. They themselves must have seen that they are out of step completely in this age, when people talk of co-existence and non-violence. To those nationalist I say: "You are welcome back to the healthy stream of constitutional progress with your fellow citizens. We will forgive your past delusions and errors, if you yourselves are now conscious that along that path only misery for the people lies, and are prepared to come in and live in peace with the rest of the population." |
| The Federation has suffered
a great deal more than Singapore from these communist brutalities. But Singapore
has suffered as well. I ask for an end to this campaign of hate and violence,
and for all good men to join together in the formation of a democratic nation.
If that spirit can be accepted, all else is detail and should be easily worked
out. Tunku: There is another matter which I would like to add, that I do not come here as the spokesman for the British Government, neither am I the stooge or running dog of colonialism. I am the servant of the people and I represent the people who have elected me to power, and I do genuinely seek peace for this country, Mr. Marshall and I wish to make it clear that you are free to say what you like, we will not mind. Chin Peng. First and foremost, I wish to say that it is precisely because we realise that you are not the spokesman of the British Government and are not the running dog of the British Government, the stooge of the British Government, that we have come out to meet you at the risk of our lives. I am not exaggerating when I say that we came out at the risk of our lives, because the present situation shows that the British armed forces are still in a superior position even though the cease-fire agreement will stand for ten days after the meeting. The British armed forces possess more modern equipments and therefore are still in the superior position. I am not coming here to argue question of ideology, but if questions of peace are to be discussed, we are fully prepared to do so. Peace is the common demand of all people. We also hope that peace will be realised early so that the misery of the people can be reduced. War is war. War will certainly bring misery to the people and will also bring hatred. If I remember correctly, Mr. Nehru made a speech when he passed through Penang at the end of the last year. In that speech he said that violence will only bring about misery and bring about horrors. We agreed with him on this point. Even though the war was still going on at that time, we paid very much attention to his speech. It seems to me that it is not necessary to discuss now who is responsible for the present war in Malaya and who is to be held responsible for the miseries that have been brought about. The reason why we reject the Amnesty offer is very simple, because the conditions offered in this Amnesty Declaration differ little from the existing surrender terms, but we are prepared to discuss this question. In the Amnesty terms the principle is to disregard past behavior and this shows a concialiatory spirit with which we agree. It is because of this that we have said in the past that we are prepared to discuss ways and means to end the present war on the principle of this concialiatory spirit. We also recognise the efforts made by the Tunku and Dato Sir Cheng Lock Tan to bring the war to an end, and we have mentioned this in our statements before. Tunku: Well, I did say that in the course of my various speeches that I want you to come out, so that we could fight together for independence for Malaya by constitutional means and I intended that sentiments to be conveyed here under paragraph (5) which says: |
| "Those who show that
they genuinely intend to be loyal to the Government of Malaya and give up
their Communist activities will be helped to regain their normal position
in society." That is the point. Once they have regained their normal position
in society, there will no be difference between us, or between anybody. We
will be the same. But first you have got to convince us that you will be
loyal to Malaya. To be just anti-British does not suffice to indicate that
one is loyal to Malaya. Therefore as I said just now, you have to prove that
this is the country to which you really owe allegiance; that this is the
country in which you wish to live and in which you wish to die and for this
country you are prepared to die like we are - that is the point. The position
is this: that today the people in Malaya, one and all, regard the communist
activities as something entirely foreign to the Malayan way of life. They
regard the communist party as belonging to a power outside this country and
consider its members give allegiance to that foreign country and not to Malaya.
Therefore, it is necessary for you to prove and to convience the people that
it is not so, that your duty, your loyalty, your love, your everything belong
to this country. That is the position; that is why I said in this letter
"those who show that they genuinely intend to be loyal to the Government
of Malaya and to give up their communist activities will be helped to regain
their normal position in society". Once you have joined this society, taken
your place in society, as I said before, there is no difference between you,
I or anybody else. You said just now that the Amnesty terms are no different from the surrender terms. There is this difference - the pardon which we promise those who surrender. Before the Amnesty they were liable to be prosecuted, that is not so under the Amnesty as this gives absolute pardon for any crime which may have been committed in ignorance of the Amnesty. There is also this difference. The surrender terms were made by the Government of Malaya, the Amnesty was made by the representatives of the people. It was unfortunate, however, that the first leaflet flown into the jungle bore the signature of General Bourne. This was done because originally we wanted to convince the communists that General Bourne, who is in charge of operations, had agreed with me in offering the Amnesty showing that it did not come from me alone but had been supported by the Director of Operations. I did sign afterwards. If you like to ask or talk about these terms you should do so and we will be prepared to listen. Note: Meeting broke off for ten minutes for refreshments and so on) # (to be continued) Introduction (Book review) Go to the top |
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| ______ INDEX Point to the article that you want to read, and CLICK Index page The Baling meeting Book review Food guide The god in the garden Grandma's garden Letter from Pulau Tikus Malay words from Chinese The mistress of ceremonies
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| _____________________ The Penang File Issue 39 |