|
The Malayan Peoplle's Anti
Japanese Army disbanded
Force 136 lie
The North Central Conference
AT THE END OF AUGUST 1945, everybody was tired and lacked sleep owing to the
amount of work to be done. The office phone rang non-stop. In the middle of
all this, Lai Te summoned a conference of North-South cadres. Ah Hai immediately called an emergency meeting of the State
Committee. As it was thought that work would suffer if the State secretary
went, it was decided that Comrade Siao Liu should
attend the conference instead. We learnt later that in other states
such as Pahang, for example, a State committee member was sent instead of Siao Chang.
For a number of reasons, when Siao Liu got there
the conference had ended. Lau Yang told him of the decisions, the most
important of which was the "Eight Declarations" (Note 120) which
were to replace the "Nine Anti-Japanese Declarations.."
We wondered why.
In fact these decisions were Lai Te's earlier "The Party's policy
and tactics in the new era," based on his analysis of the international
situation, aimed at misleading the cadres at the meeting
According to his analysis the cessation of the world war had resulted in a
basic change in the international situation i.e. from world war to world
peace. Because the people warmly welcomed peace and feared war they wanted as
the main activity restoration of economic damage done by the war and economic
construction . The Malayan people, like the rest of
the people of the world warmly loved peace and would not want war having been
wounded by war; that is to say, Malaya also
wanted the restoration of production and economic reconstruction. At the
meeting he specially emphasised that in Malaya
the development of each nationality was not even. In this situation the Eight
Point Resist Japan programme was not realistic, i.e. to
maintain armed struggle to achieve the Nine Point Programme was not
realistic. He pointed out that the tasks of the Party were to pursue peaceful
struggle, to start a political movement to achieve democracy and
self-government for which he had drafted the
Eight Declarations. It was as follows:
|
|
1. Support the
China-Soviet-UK-USA Alliance, support world peace - the United Nations
2. Carry out a democratic system. Set up an elected public opinion body
representing all nationalities
3. Abolish all bodies set up by the Japanese and
all laws and regulations
4. Achieve full freedom of speech, publication, organisation, assembly
and beliefs
5. Revive industry and commerce, reform democracy, improve pay and
emoluments, help the unemployed and establish an eight hour day
6. Establish democratic education and abolish the old educational
system, use the language of each nationality and develop national cultures
7. Stabilize prices, try corrupt officials and
black marketeers
8. Special treatment for resistance soldiers and economic aid for
families of those who were wounded or died in battle
This programme was adopted by the conference
How did the conference come to do that? Ah Hai
thought it was because although the cadres were loyal and courageous they
were young and lacked experience and their Marxist-Leninist theory weak. They
therefore could not see the one-sided slant of Lai Te's viewpoint (those
whose level of understanding was higher did not dare venture an opinion).
Secondly, these cadres were secretaries of state committees or commanders of
the independent regiments whereas Lai Te was the secretary of the Central
Committee. Added to that was the fact that the 7th Enlarged Conference had
hailed Lai Te with "Long Live Lai Te!" He was of the older generation
and deserved our respect. The third point was that in order to raise his
prestige Lai Te had spoken to the delegates of the 6th and 7th Enlarged
Conferences of his worth, for instance that he had once gone to Shanghai to
battle against the "Li San line", that he had flown with the Red
Air Force in the USSR , that he had been to France
to take part in the "Popular Front" and hinted that he was the Far
East representative of the Third International. We bumpkins, without
thinking, propagandised his words among the other bumpkins. Fourth, we
cadres had grown up in the anti-Japanese war disciplined organisationally,
obeying orders from above. This was the background which made the
cadres accept the Lai Te programme
Lai Te disbands the MPAJA
At the end of 1945 Lai Te, in the name of the Central Committee,
disbanded the MPAJA. And at the Eighth Enlarged Conference, still using his
name, proposed ratification of the decision (without a protest from anyone).
During the interval Yang Ke talked to Ah Hai and said, "Stalin said, first you must arm
yourselves, second, arm and third, arm. How do we explain this
disarming?"
|
|
Ah Hai laughed bitterly but did not
speak for he had now known Yang Ke for long and
Yang Ke had attended the Seventh Enlarged
Conference. Yang Ke also laughed bitterly
While we disarmed and turned to peaceful struggle we developed the trade
unions, peasant unions, youth organisations, womens
groups and cultural associations and the Negri
newspapers. They grew but the enemy was strengthening his positions and
step by step was suppressing the Party and the democratic organisations
When at the end of 1945 Lai Te gave orders for the disbanding of the MPAJA,
the British army sent in its agents to the village of Parit
Tinggi near Batu Gigi, Kuala Pilah where a dead
pig was thrown into the mosque in the village; this was to divide the
Malay and Chinese nationalities
In 1946 the British imperialists used arms to crush and to kill striking
workers and former MPAJA fighters at Ladang Geddes
, Bahau and Tanah Merah,
and Port Dickson
Because of this the people were not happy with the disbanding of the MPAJA
and the abandonment of the anti-Japanese Nine Point Programme. These moves
were criticised as "unwise and wrong". These views caused more and
more comrades to be dissatisfied with Central's decisions.
The plain fact was that the decisions were solely Lai Te's. His theory at the
North-Central Cadres Conference of post war "absolute peace",
nonsense about people hating war, were but preparations for the disbanding of
the MPAJA. His method was to disband first then seek ratification at the
Enlarged Eighth.
The Central Committee which was made up of comparatively wide awake members
started thinking about the acts of Lai Te and their consequences. Why was it
that disaster hit the committees so soon after they were elected by the Sixth
Enlarged and the Seventh Enlarged? They were either arrested or were killed
while Lai Te remained unharmed.
Also Lai Te's movements were a mystery, camouflaged by the excuse that
underground activities needed the utmost secrecy. This avoided collective
supervision by the Central Committee. Everything was done over the heads of
the Central Committee. How was it that his powers were unquestioned by the
Central Committee?
During the Japanese occupation, watched by the Japanese, the Party's cadres
had to be careful not to attract attention. But Lai Te was able to
travel about in a car openly under the noses of the Japanese. There were
reports that Lai Te was even spending time in night spots e.g. in the
amusement parks and there were reports that he was seen coming in and out of
the Japanese Kempeitai offices.
Most of the high ranking Central Committee members were killed in the
September 1 Incident. Lai Te did not attend this meeting. Again he managed to
escape.
|
|
Doubts began to grow and more and more "whys" were
being asked. The MCP, young in the international movement but experienced in
battle, became aware that Lai Te, this so called Far Eastern Representative
of the Third International, was nothing but an hidden enemy planted in the
heart of our Party
The international situation
In 1946, the Central Committee met. It pointed out to Lai Te that Zhdanov had, in the
Communist and Workers Parties Information Bureau's magazine, written that
although the war had ended imperialism still existed so that war was
inevitable. In his analysis, Lu Ting Yi, a leader of the Chinese
Communist Party, was of the same view as Zhdanov. Lai Te was asked whether his or Zhdanov's analysis was
the correct one. Out-generaled, Lai Te did not
admit he was wrong but boldly claimed that both analysis were correct.
In fact, the end of the war told us that with the Soviet-US-UK-French defeat
of the German-Italian Axis forces the world situation was turning from war to
peace. The war saw the defeat of three imperialist powers and the weakening
of two imperialist powers. Only the US imperialist power gained,
becoming the imperial power of the "gold dollar." After the war the
British, US, French, and Dutch imperial powers restored their colonial rule
over Asia Africa and Latin America; the contradiction between them and their colonies
sharpened. The war which had just ended was turning into aggression by
the imperial powers against their colonies and semi colonies and a war
against aggression by the oppressed. In Indonesia, the people started a
war for national liberation against the Dutch. Wars started in Indochina against the French and in Burma against
the British for national liberation. In India the struggle was peaceful
and unarmed but it was also combined with force. In China the struggle
against oppression by imperialism and feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism
and the US imperialist supported Chiang Kai Shek
Kuomintang became a large scale national liberation struggle
In short the post war period saw a change in the international situation in
which the outstanding fact was the acute contradiction between the new
imperialists of Germany, Italy and Japan and the old imperialists (war) and
the acute contradiction between the old imperialists and the entire socialist
camp (war) had become less acute (war into peace). But the contradictions
between the imperialist colonial rulers and the oppressed nations and peoples
became increasingly acute. The imperialists used armed force to restore their
colonial rule for the exploitation of the colonial peoples but the colonial
peoples and nations, especially those who had gone through the shower of the
second world war, resolutely took up national emancipation to threw off colonial slavery and chains. The curtain rose on
a vigorous and lively armed struggle by the oppressed nations and people
against imperialist colonial rule throughout the world
Zhdanov was right that as long as imperialism existed war was inevitable
To the Malayan Communist Party and the people of Malaya the objective
situation was clear, that the British imperialists would not hand over
sovereignty, that it would not grant self government, much less independence,
to the people of Malaya
|
|
Which was the way
forward? Remain obedient to the British imperialist colonial rule and remain
a slave nation or bravely stand up with weapons and fight for national
liberation, using force against force? This was the critical question before
the Malayan progressives. The people needed peaceful labour to build the
nation but the British imperialists increased their exploitation on their
return to this country to replace what they lost during the war. The people
had to choose which road to take. The right path was for the people to cry
out when there was discrimination, resist official oppression; this was the law of social development and no one
could stop it
The Force 136 lie
After the war there was talk of the real fighters against the Japanese being
Force 136. This lie was spread by the pro-British elements. It was to gloss
over the shameful British history ending with Percival's
surrender to the Japanese on February 15, 1942
and the Japanese replacing the British as oppressors. It was to create
British heroes. Then there were the pro-Japanese elements,
traitors who were the targets of our Army. These people wanted to hide
their treachery by belittling the war by our army against the Japanese and
wiping out the history of the cruelty of Japanese occupation. It was
propaganda aimed at those born after 1946 who knew nothing of the Japanese
period or little about the war that we fought against the Japanese.
The following needs repetition.
1 The Japanese invaded Malaya on
December 8, 1941. The British surrendered on
February 15, 1942
2. The Malayan Communist Party took up the task of national liberation
against the Japanese aggressors. The Malayan Peoples Anti-Japanese Army
under the leadership of the Communist Party and with the support of the
people of all nationalities fought a bitter and difficult underdog war
against the Japanese and developed from small to big, from weakness to
strength until there were in all eight independent regiments which in the
three years and eight months destroyed five to six battalions of the fascist
troops and finally with the help of supplies from the allies defeated
the Japanese colonial rule and liberated the people
3 It was when the Malayan Peoples Anti-Japanese Army had grown
strong and the war against the Japanese aggressors intensified that the
British army sent from India the so called Allied Davies group which
landed by submarine at Telok Anson to seek out
our 5 Independent for cooperation against the Japanese. We, on
our part, in accordance with our united front policy, came to some agreement
with them These were, inter alia, that the
British despatch liaison officers to contact us and to drop arms from the air
to strengthen the fight against the Japanese. About 100 men in all came with
the liaison groups (as described above those that came to Negri
to liaise with the 2 Independent including Lt Col Olson (?) and
6 others and technicians numbering 7 to 8 persons, a total of 13 to 14 men.
They were to have been dropped at Bahau but were in error dropped into Pahang. These men
were what came to be called Force 136
|
|
At that time our
troops had developed into 8 independent regiments with the strength of 8
battalions (among them the Seremban force, the 2
Independent, which included the old and new troops, and the armed peoples movement units: altogether a force of 800 men.
This was a comparatively small force compared with the others like 1
Independent, 3 Independent, 4 Independent and 5 Independent, which were much
bigger than 2 Independent). Armed forces which came to the strength of
one division. The eight regiments stationed in all states not only destroyed
Japanese units but also traitors and spies. With the supplies from the Allied
forces and the struggle in each of the south Asia
countries the Japanese were finally driven out.
4 After the Japanese surrender the British army's liaison officers came down
from the hills and recruited some Malays and formed what they also called
Force 136 But this was not a force that fought the Japanese
5 Facts are stronger than lies. History cannot be wiped out. We
must tell the truth about the Malayan anti
Japanese war
[Note: Anthony Short in "In Pursuit of Mountain Rats" writes that
the MPAJA fought the Japanese single-handedly. He points out that while
Victor Purcell claimed that there were 700 in Force 136, in fact only 88 British officers were dropped towards the
end of the war, between May and August 1945, that these drops were made
possible when the new mark of "Liberator" plane was
introduced. In his book on Force 136, Tan Chong Tee, who landed by submarine
in Perak, appends a list of some 110 men (including those who entered Malaya
by submarine)]
Postscript
My memoirs here are only short notes on the guerrilla war against the
Japanese occupation in Negri
Events happened long ago and memory fades with age. Some events have slipped
my memory. Because of this, defects and partiality will detract from
this account. If old comrades or readers find errors, corrections will be welcomed
so that amendments can be made in future editions
Note 120: (120) "Eight
Declarations. This was the opportunist line that Lai Te imposed on the Party
Shan Ru Hung
August 1995
Go to the top
for Part 14
click here
|
