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Abdullah CD on Japanese instigation of inter-racial
conflict
Parang panjang
THE ANTI-JAPANESE WAR developed rapidly. The people - Chinese , Malays, Indians and Orang
Asli supported the anti-Japanese movement. The
kampongs set up armed auxiliaries for the protection of the kampong. In the
countryside there were established something like people's coalition
governments under the leadership of the Anti-Japanese League led by the
Communist Party.
To crush the fight against them the Japanese fascists used various methods
such as surround and destroy against the MPAJA, arrest, questioning and
killing of anti-Japanese activists as well as ordinary people. These however
failed to stifle the anti-Japanese movement.
Apart from the attacks launched by the MPAJA various anti-Japanese
organisations such as the Anti-Japanese League, the armed auxiliaries and
kampong guards took action against bad hats, especially the fascist spies.
They eliminated agents spying on the anti Japanese movement or threatening the people
The angry Japanese would take revenge. They used parang
panjang gangs in Batu Pahat and Muar to kill Chinese. This policy was continued
by the returning British using intelligence people or army men who came just
before or after the Japanese surrender. Both the Japanese and the British
blamed the MPAJA and the Communist Party for
these incidents. Even after merdeka there are people who deliberately dig up
the past and turn history on its head with the Japanese fascist and British
colonial version.
According to reports from the Communist Party's anti Japanese orgnisations, from the Malay section of the anti Japanese
movement, from the Malay cadres of the Communist Party Johore the anti
Japanese movement in Batu Pahat
not only developed among the Chinse but also among the Malays. In the
kampongs armed auxilliaries were formed and the
people warmly supported the anti Japanese battle and the Malayan Peoples Anti
Japanese Army. In the meanwhile repeated attacks by the MPAJA had out the
Japanese army in difficulty.
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Using pork
Because of this they threw pork into a mosque in Kampong Bagan
Serai, Batu Pahat.
They blamed this act on the Chinese and the anti Japanese organisations.
Some Malays were taken in by this lie. Two anti-Japanese activists charged
with guarding the kampong and the collection o f donations were killed. This
was thought to be the work of the parang panjang gang. The Malay Work Unit led by Jasman went to investigate. But the leader of the parang panjang, Kiai Salleh, had already
mobilised Malays for an attack on the Chinese in Batu
Pahat, Sengarang, Rengit and Beanut. They were
supported by a platoon of the Japanese fascists. The move had the support of
Dato Onn Jaafar.
The Chinese ran to the forest to seek the protection of the MPAJA and to ask
for arms for a counter attack. But the MPAJA advised them that such a
situation could not be solved by shedding more blood. MPAJA could only
protect them if they were attacked.
Jasmani reported that the Malay units for
organising the people also came under attack. He and some friends were
in fact surrounded but managed to escape. Jasman
defied danger to investiatea the root cause of the
problem. The units that he led had been scattered and
had lost contact with him.
Because of the killing in Batu Pahat
the Chinese ran to Parit Jawa
to ask for protection by the MPAJA. For the sake of peace and to stop more
bloodshed the MAPAJA stood guard at a river and asked the parang
panjang to cease bloodshed, that Malays and Chinese
were not enemies and that the Japanese were really the enemy. But the
Japanese had so deeply poisoned their minds that the parang
panjang attacked forcing the MPAJA to open fire in
self defence forcing them to withdraw.
The Pontian Incident
Pontian was an important anti Japanese base. The
population was mainly Malay and the Chinese there were seoarated
from them by a river. Many supported the battle against the Japanese. However
there was a group of gangsters from Singapore in the MPAJA who smoked
opium and were undisciplined. They finally left the MAJA and planted hill
paddy. One day, they attacked the Japanese army which retaliated by
punishing the people.
They did what thy did in Batu
Pahat using the parang panjang to kill Chinese. Because Malay Chinese relations
were already tense following Batu Pahat th Chinese ran to the
hills to ask the MPAJA for protection. They built stockades for safety.
One morning, the Japanese army together with more than 700 parang panjang attacked this
group of Chinese. The MPAJA ordered the parang panjang to lay down their weapons, They stressed that the
Malays and Chinese were brothers all oppressed by the fascists. However the
Japanese army pushed them on.
The MPAJA was forced to open fire, Many of the parang
panjang died. The Japanese platoon was wiped out
and their weapons seized. The parang panjang laid down their parangs
when they saw the fate of the Japanese platoon. The MPAJA explained the
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policy of the Communist Party which was to respect
the customs of the people of various races and firmly opposed plots to split
the people. The parang panjang
then exposed the gang leaders that first made trouble. The puppet
masters were the Japanese fascists.
The clash at Muar
When the Japanese surrendered a section of the MPAJA took control of Muar and
, amongst other posts, took over the police station. (The MPAJA had not
yet Batu Pahat). These
Japanese troops were disarmed and were waiting for orders to go to Singapore.
The MPAJA detained a Javanese suspected to be the evil source of the created
conflict between the Chinese and the Malays. One day he appeared to be
dead and the guards thinking he was really dead loosened their guard. He
escaped and reported to the police at Batu Pahat.
The district officer at Batu Pahat,
Dato Onn Jaafar immediately gathered a force of
3000 parang panjang which
attacked a Chinese village and the MPAJA at
Sungai Muar. Because the MPAJA men were only one section strong (about 12
men) they had to ask for help from the surrendered Japanese soldiers to force
the parang panjang to
retreat.
A few days later the MPAJA took over Batu Pahat and sponsored the spirit of unity especially
between the Chinese and the Malays. They met Dato Onn and explained the
policy of the Communist Party and the discipline of the MPAJA which was to
respect the customs of the various peoples and which opposed anything that
cause trouble among the various peoples. The MPAJA told Dato Onn what had
actually happened. Dato Onn immediately gave his co-operation.
The MPAJA also met with various local organisations of influence which
included Dato Onn with the object of wiping out trouble making among the
people and to restore good relations and togetherness that had prevailed
before. All signed a document pledging to defend the unity of the peoples.
Dato Onn then openly issued a directive that the parang
panjang were forbidden to kill.
Following the work of all sides there was less tension and hostility and
unity restored. I met Dato Onn again a few months later at Johore Bharu. Then I already had a report about him from the
Communist Party,
Jasman
Born in 1918 in Sengarang , Batu
Pahat, Jamal bin Haji Sulaiman, Jasman assumed the
name of J H Jasman. His parents who were Banjar came from South Kalimantan,
then under Dutch rule.
Jasman was a paying pupil in a kampong school for a
year then he went to Sekolah Melayu Parit Kemang, Sengarang, studying in the evenings at an Arabic school.
He finished five years at the Malay school and was selected to be a trainee
teacher but
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when he could not produce a birth certificate had
to stop work. After he finished 6th grade of the Arabic school he was offered
the job of trainee teacher and planned to pay for studying English in a
private school in the evenings. But the Japanese attack put a stop to his
studies.
In May 1942 he and his wife joined the anti Japanese movement. He and 43
other young Malays in the movement were invited to a course in politics and
military training for 27 days. The courses made them have a higher level of
consciousness and strengthened their will to fight the fascists for their
country.
Towards the end of the war there were large scale killings in Batu Pahat due to instigation
by the Japanese fascists. Jasman and his friends
tried to prevent such killings and also investigated the cause in a dangerous
environment. As the clashes became serious such anti Japanese organisations
such as the armed auxilliaries became disorganised;
Malay cadres became the target of the parang panjang. Jasman and nine of his
friends were surrounded one day but managed to escape to Johore to join the
MPAJA. They lost contact with the other friends.
In Janauary 1945 Jasman
became a member of the Communist Party. In February 1947 he was appointed as
secretary of the office of the Malay Work Unit, Johore. Just before the emergency was declared he attended a
political and military course at a Party school and at the outbreak of the
war he headed a Johore-Malacca army unit which was active in the Tangkak Barat - Malacca area.
At the end of 1952, Jasman and a group of his
friends were united with the HQ of the 10th Regiment at Semantan,
Temerloh, Panang.#.
from
the Memoirs of Abdullah C D
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