Curtain falls on communist era with Abdullah’s death

Cik Dat bin Anjang Abdullah, known by Malaysians as Abdullah CD, served as chairman and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM). He passed away on 13 January 2024 at the age of 100 years. (Photo: Indra Djaja Abdullah)

When I was young, I often heard the names Chin Peng and Rashid Maidin mentioned whenever adults spoke about the Malayan Emergency or the communists.

Later, I learnt about Abdullah CD and Shamsiah Fakeh.

In fact, these were the names most often associated with the Malayan Communist Party, although there were other known leaders such as the wives of Abdullah and Rashid – Suriani Abdullah and Salamah Abdullah respectively – Lai Teck, Yeung Kwo and Musa Ahmad.

The last of the big names – Abdullah – died on 13 Jan 2024 at the age of 100 in a village in southern Thailand.

Chin Peng died on 16 Sept 2013, Rashid died on 1 Sept 2006 and Shamsiah died on 20 Oct 2008.

The death of Abdullah, I believe, draws down the final curtain on the communist movement in Malaysia, although the armed communist threat itself ended in 1989.

Abdullah, whose full name was Cik Dat Anjang Abdullah, was a big name in the years before and after Malaya’s independence in 1957. He led the CPM’s 10th Regiment of the Malayan National Liberation Army from 1949 until the party disbanded in 1989.

The Perak-born Abdullah was one of the three who signed the 1989 Hat Yai Peace Accord on behalf of the CPM with the Malaysian and Thai governments. The others were Chin Peng and Rashid. The historic agreement ended the communist insurgency in Malaysia,

Abdullah then lived in Peace Village in southern Thailand with many fellow members of the disbanded CPM. There have been reports that he and his wife were allowed to visit Malaysia, and did so on several occasions.

I always found it curious that except for Chin Peng, the other Chinese leaders are not as well-known as Abdullah, Rashid and Shamsiah although most of the Malayan communists were Chinese.

On several occasions in the past, I’ve been asked why hardly anyone mentions the Malay or Indian communists when condemning communism and the CPM. I have read reports that fewer than 100 Indians were associated with the CPM though.

Malaysian leaders express condolences

I was surprised to read that several leaders – such as Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu, former PKR deputy president Syed Husin Ali, Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim, former Malaysian Trades Union Congress president Syed Shahir Syed Mohamad and PSM deputy chairman S. Arutchelvan – had expressed their condolences on the death of Abdullah.

Syed Husin said Malaysians should not forget that Abdullah was a nationalist who was committed to the fight for independence.

Malaysiakini reported Hassan as saying that Abdullah fought for the freedom and independence of Malaya but that he did so through armed struggle against British rule.

The same report quoted Syed Shahir Syed Mohamad as saying that young people should know the contribution of people like Abdullah to the nation.

He said the late deputy prime minister Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman had praised Abdullah CD and Rashid Maidin, saying that they had contributed to independence in their own way.

Arutchelvan too said Abdullah had contributed to independence and hoped history would be fair to him.

He added that the contribution of the CPM towards achieving Merdeka was acknowledged by none other than first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman and that Tunku had said the Hat Yai Peace Accord was proof of Abdullah’s leadership ability.

In the past, people offering such views would open themselves up to verbal attacks. As far as I can tell, it did not happen this time.

Usually politicians and civil society leaders – particularly Malay politicians – try to steer clear of any connection with or mention of communists and the CPM – unless it is to criticise or demonise them or clap when someone else does so.

That’s probably because many still remember the sufferings they or others went through at the hands of the CPM during the insurgency.

Another possible reason is that they, and even ordinary Malaysians, fear being shouted down by others or investigated by police if they were to say something that could be construed as being sympathetic of the communists.

Perhaps it is time for historians to evaluate – critically and without bias – the role of the CPM in the fight for independence and the nation’s trajectory.

Two who fought the communists

Two of my super seniors – Mohd Ghazali Che Mat and Yuen Yuet Leng – were right in the forefront of the fight against the armed communists from the late 1950s. Sadly, both of them have since passed on.

General Ghazali, who retired in 1987 as Malaysian Defence Forces chief, was bestowed the nation’s second highest gallantry award, the Panglima Gagah Berani on 31 Aug 1958.

The award was given after lieutenant Ghazali, leading a Royal Malay Regiment platoon, successfully fought off an ambush by the CPM in the deep jungle on 13 Nov 1957. He was only 28 then.

Yuen, who retired as Sarawak commissioner of police in 1984, was not only one of the key negotiators in the signing of the 1989 Hat Yai Peace Accord but also fought the communists as a Special Branch officer in his earlier years.

In fact, Yuen – who was wounded in the chest during a gun battle in the Gerik jungle in 1951 while trying to ambush a communist terrorist group – was high on the wanted list of the CPM.

I met Ghazali once or twice and was impressed by the way he carried himself. I first met Yuen in 1976 when he was Perak police chief and I was a rookie reporter, and much later at annual dinners of the old boys association of King Edward VII School in Taiping, Perak.

Once Yeun told me that he was in Sungai Siput planning an operation codenamed Operation Ginger when Tunku Abdul Rahman was declaring “Merdeka” in Kuala Lumpur on 31 Sug 1957. That operation – over 18 months – “eliminated the entire communist terrorist organisation in central Perak, except for eight terrorists who fled to the Thai border,” he said.

I don’t know what they would say about the death of the last giant of the CPM if they were alive today.

If I were to venture a guess, knowing a little of the character of Ghazali and Yuen, I think they would ask us to learn from the past, cherish the lack of armed conflict, live in amity, and contribute to the security and development of the nation.

A.Kathirasen is a veteran Malaysian journalist/editor who has been writing columns, with breaks, in newspapers and online since 1981. All views expressed are the writer’s own.

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