The Forgotten Patriots

MalaysiaKini is currently running an amazing series on the leaders of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) that features the likes of Rashid Maidin, Suriani Abdullah (nee Eng Ming Ching), Abdullah CD, and others. This series alone is worth every penny of the paid yearly subscription. Curiously, there isn't anything substantive about Chin Peng in the series (so far) but I assume that his prominence in the history of the Communist struggle and his name recognition among the Malaysian public do preclude any introductory effort. Also, the release of his 900+ page memoir last year does help in pushing the discussion on the role of the Communist movement in the pre-Independence Malaysia out in the open and somehow helps the public to see the Communist struggle (and by extension, other leftist groups such as KMM, API, AWAS, etc) in a much fairer light, and maybe to hopefully someday clears the long-besmirched name of the Progressive political movement in colonial Malaya.

There's hardly any mention about other MCP leaders like Shamsiah Fakeh, Ibrahim Chik, Chen Tien and others. It's probably because the author was interviewing the ones who are living in-exile in Southern Thailand; the rest of the CPM leaders are living in China.

It's about time that the Malaysian public realize that UMNO is not the "party of independence" as the people are being led to believe. When others were fighting the British colonial power tooth-and-nail, the UMNO leaders at the time, which comprised of the Malay elites and bluebloods, were thoroughly co-opted by the British colonial administration and served as collaborators, in return for some mid-level civil service jobs and the promise to continue the British colonial policies if Malaya becomes independent. Case in point: The Internal Security Act (ISA), the Anti-Sedition Act and other draconian laws that are presently on the book. We owe it to ourselves to recognize the contribution of these unsung heroes and heroines of the colonial past and bestow upon the them the proper respect and merit that they have long deserved.

p/s: I forgot that one needs to be a subscriber in order to have full access to the MalaysiaKini website. Use fido666 as Username and pukimak (all lower case) for Password.