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Friday 2 September 2011

Insaf dan Sedar di bulan Shawal


Muslims celebrate eid ul fitri for a month. It takes place during the month of Shawal. So in the spirit of Hari Raya, it’s not too late for me to wish all Muslim brethren, SELAMAT HARI RAYA ADIL FITRI, MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN.

It’s given with an open heart and I hope it’s received with an open heart. I thank also my non-Muslim readers for their kind wishes.

Over the last few days, I had the opportunity to finish reading the memoir of one Shamsiah Fakeh. Memoir Shamsiah Fakeh- Dari AWAS ke Rejimen ke-10. Her name reemerged with some notoriety recently when, the Bersih marchers on July 9th 2011 were said to be influenced by her actions.  

She was a member of Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya- a left leaning Malay political party formed in 1945. It was the first political party that openly declared its mission to be that of securing independence for Malaya. In that sense PKMM preceded UMNO in its commitment to secure Merdeka for the Malayan people.

UMNO leaders at that time scoffed and chided and were dismissive of the manifested desire to gain independence. UMNO leaders often derided those who wanted independence as fanciful dreamers who couldn’t even manufacture a needle. By the way, to all those who chide me for writing in English, please also ask UMNO leaders to abandon the name UMNO. It’s an English acronym.

Shamsiah fakeh was of Sumatran decent. She was born in Negeri Sembilan. She was influenced by the political thoughts of PKMM while she was studying in a religious school in Sumatera. Her political awareness heightened when she was directly involved in roadshows carried out by PKMM. She often spoke at PKMM sponsored rallies and gatherings. In 1946, UMNO came into being as a political party, more amenable to the British. UMNO was given a wider berth by the British colonial government while PKMM was suppressed. Shamsih Fakeh was increasingly drawn to political militancy, the product of a repressive colonial political system.

Two splinter groups broke away from PKMM later. One led by its youth wing formed API or Angkatan Pemuda Insaf. It was led by Ahmad Boestaman. The other wing was led by the women group and was led by Shamsiah Fakeh.  It was known as Angkatan Wanita Sedar or AWAS. Both API and AWAS pushed the idea of securing independence through armed aggression. Boestaman wrote a book espousing his nascent ideas about securing independence through armed uprising in his pamphlet titled Testamen Api. This booklet was referred to in Shamsiah’s memoir.

Shamsiah later took to the jungle when she later became a member of Malayan Communist Party’s 10th regimen. She spent most of her lifetime on the run in the jungle and later lived in China for a great number of years. Because of ideological differences, she was expelled from the Malayan Communist Party in the 1960s.

Was Shamsiah Fakeh a doctrinaire communist? Reading the memoir revealed no traces of doctrinaire communism. Her mission was simply to secure independence for Malaya by any means necessary including a romantic notion of armed struggle. The description of her life on the run in the Malayan jungles would quickly dispel anyone’s flirtations and romantic infatuations with armed struggle. Her short book revealed no deep-seated thoughts about the philosophical underpinnings of Communism. I came across just a short and amateurish understanding on dialectical materialism’s thesis, antithesis and synthesis. It is clear, from my reading of Shamsiah’s memoir, she is no communist.

So it baffles me, how did people associate the Bersih marchers of 907 with the communism of Shamsiah Fakeh? By the way, the man responsible for bringing and allowing Samsiah Fakeh to return to Malaysian soil was Dr Mahathir Mohamed. Can we then declare Dr Mahathir as a communist sympathizer and a therefore a communist lackey in the same manner the Bersih marchers were described?

So in the month of Shawal, let us Insaf and Sedar.


7 comments:

Donplaypuks® 2 September 2011 at 14:23  

The ghost of Communism was resurrected by a Penang police officer no doubt directed by Rosemajib, Kerismudin and the I Raja Polis to lend a veneer of credibility to the blatant lie that Dr.Jeyakumar and 5 others were out "to wage war on our King" and turn M'sia into a 21st century Communist State.

No doubt Dr.Jeyakumar and his cohorts, armed to their eyeballs with exocet-class yellow T-shirts and lethal pamphlets and heading towards Penang and not Putrajaya, would have succeeded had not I Polis Raja been ever so vigilant to take preventive action to save M'sia and possibly, the world too from a major holocaust!

I bet if the Merdeka Centre were to carry out another poll, it would reveal that 88% of M'sians don't believe a word of this infantile and low IQ stradegies by this UMNO/BN and its clueless leaders.

As for Chin Peng, Rashid Maidin, Ms. Suriani Abdullah, Abdullah CD (Dat Anjang Abdullah), Shamsiah Fakih and her husband (she was married 5 times), whether or not anyone wishes to quibble over doctrinnaire vs superficial, they were all out and out Communists and not merely fighting for Malayan Independence from the British. Samsiah's fleeing to China and not elsewhere is a telling clue as to her real beliefs and affiliations.

Of course, writing memoirs and history with selective memory and rose-tinted glasses is a favourite hobbby among many a M'sian.

As for Maha Firaun's decision to allow Samsiah Fakeh to return to M'sia, again, racial and religious sentiments tipped the scales.

dpp
we are all of 1 Race, the Human Race

Anonymous,  2 September 2011 at 19:13  

Salam Aidilfitri Dato, maaf zahir dan batin.
Time will tell and it will be sooner or later the truth is slowly coming out. But definitely it is a starting point with all the fumbles created by Jibby and his cohorts.
My only prayer that is "Insaf dan Sedar di bulan Shawal" dan siapa kah sebenar nya yang mengamalkan ala komunis?

Unrepentant Klepto,  2 September 2011 at 23:47  

Dato, a belated Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to you and family.

As you have rightly said it was Tun Mahathir who got Shamsiah Fakeh to return to Malaysia. Rashid Maidin confirmed that it was the late Megat Junid who brought him to see the Tun. It was also Megat Junid who made it possible for him to perform the Haj. Last statement in the book 'The Memoirs of Rashid Maidin - From Armed Struggle to Peace', "Blessed was it to be in front of God, I was able to complete my obligatory hajj in peace."

Before any self-righteous UMNO or Barisan members reveal their ignorance any further about the nationalists who preceded them I suggest they buy and read, and read over and over again the book mentioned above by Rashid Maidin, 'The Memoirs of Shamsiah Fakeh - From AWAS to 10th Regiment', and also, the latest by Mohamed Salleh Lamry, 'Siti Norkiah Mahmud - Srikandi dari Pahang Utara'.

History may not be re-written just now by pseudo-nationalists, but I am very sure the day will come when names like Shamsiah Fakeh, Siti Norkiah Mahmud, Suriani, Zainun, Rashid Maidin, Abdullah C.D, Abu Samah, etc will find their proper place in the annals of the initial struggle to make Malaysia free.

Bangsa Malaysia senang lupa!

Anonymous,  3 September 2011 at 10:19  

selamat hari raya maaf zahir batin

Anonymous,  3 September 2011 at 13:03  

"all those who chide me for writing in English"

these hypocrites who think they are all perfect, all I can say is your sole purpose in life is to constantly remind the rest of us not to be like you fools who humiliate only yourselves.

The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion!

Anonymous,  4 September 2011 at 10:14  

Selamat Hari Raya Dato'. Your writings have certainly lifted the 'blinkers' of most Malaysian especially the Malays from one track mind/thought that umno is the only real hero. I am sure now more people will do their own research to have alternative views. Salam

Anonymous,  5 September 2011 at 21:10  

Haha, Mahathir a communist sympathiser? So what would that make the over "1 million" UMNO members? Communists?

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