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History has always been written by the hunters who survive the lion after their contact. Like truth, therefore, history is a point on the hill from where one stands to look at things and such views are understandably always subject to academic interpretation.

Academically, it is not enough to dismiss the views of one's detractors by labelling. It is certainly better to state the facts on which one bases one's conclusion, bearing in mind that some of these facts may be academically challenged and disputed.

Novels – I repeat novels, and not academic tomes – such as The Grand Delusion and Malaya Upside- Down or Marai-ee authored by my late friend and colleague in journalism, former teacher and diplomat Chin Kee Onn who wrote the first book after what he told me were his days of debriefing surrendered enemy personnel, The Jungle is Neutral by Spencer Chapman and The War of The Running Dogs by a former British journalist and other books of the same genre give us glimpses into the communist struggle.

Many of these so-called communists, novelist Chin told me in an interview, were actually unsettled by Japanese militarist atrocities. They were out for revenge after their entire families were massacred in the “sook ching” operations conducted by the Japanese militarists. They fled to the hills in Perak, fighting the Japanese militarists as nationalists and some of them later joined the communists who were co-operating with the British headquartered in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

It was after the Allied victory in World War II that the British betrayed the communists and these nationalists who were virtually forced to stage their armed insurrection.

My pet but academically unproven theory, probably romanticist, is that during World War II, many Asian nationalists from India to Thailand consciously divided themselves into the Allied and Axis camps – for instance, Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose of India and Pibul Songgram and Pridi Phanomyong of Thailand. Even Filipino president Manuel Quezon, before his evacuation, instructed his personal aide to safeguard the Filipinos by working with the invading Japanese when Manila fell.

It is far too early to dismiss Chin Peng as a “freedom fighter.” As put philosophically, freedom fighters of the American Revolution would have been termed rebels had their “sacred cause” for freedom failed. So, what is a “freedom fighter”? For that matter, Thomas Paine, who gave us the book, The Rights of Man, would have been hanged and quartered as a traitor of the British Empire had George Washington failed!

What is perhaps more important is what kind of nation-state we are building and what can collectively achieve as a nation-state.

Stephen Tan Ban Cheng

History is normally the version of the persons in power - i.e. UMNO-led Barisan Nasional.

Hence, the importance to maintain a certain version...

Another version:-

There was the British...then came the Japanese...then the government by those who fought until the Japanese surrendered (MPAJA...and the political party known as the CPM)...then there was the return of the British who seized power again...then the British left and passed on the baton of government to...

Wonder when we will get the correct History of Malaysia...that should be thought to our children and people.

Charles Hector

What was Chin Peng doing then? Took up arms for fun?

Winston Churchill so rightly put it that “History is written by the victors.” Chin Peng’s Malayan Communist Party (MCP) “fought” the Japanese (formed Malayan Peoples’ Anti-Japanese Army together with the British Force 136). Later, after the Japanese surrendered, the British allowed MCP to operate legally. In 1948, hostilities erupted between them, and the MCP raised a new army called the Malayan Peoples’ Anti-British Army (MPABA). From then on, Chin Peng was labelled public enemy No. 1. Chin Peng’s MCP had to fight the British to survive and to be liberated the country from the clasp of colonialism. Chin Peng waged war against the enemies and invaders. In fact, Maharaja Lela killed JWW Birch in Pasir Salak and he is now a hero. Why? Because history is written by the victors. MCP killed Sir Henry Gurney and they are now labelled as terrorists. Why? Because history is written by the victors.

Armed struggle all over the world is rooted in a deeper cause, provoked by discontentment arising from the breakdown of the socio-economic and political system they are in. The Government has acknowledged that the MCP did play a part in hastening the independence of Malaysia. Tan Sri Rahim Noor affirmed this fact at the signing of the Haadyai Peace Accord of 1989 at the Lee Garden Hotel. All these are documented.

Freedom fighting can be in many ways. Whereas some individuals and parties resorted to violence and guerrilla warfare, Gandhi resorted to non-violence civil disobedience; Lee Kuan Yew resorted to a collaboration with the communists (i.e., a pseudo-communist means) for a democratic end; and Tunku Abdul Rahman resorted to democratic means, preceded and hastened by the “fight” by Dato’ Bahaman, Mat Kilau, Mat Kelubi, Maharaja Lela, Chin Peng & MCP, and PKMM (Partai Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya) (although there was no collaboration) for a democratic end. They were all the true fighters against the colonial masters.

The real test is not whether the “fighters” were jailed, killed or maimed but whether they succeeded in achieving their goal. To me, they were all true fighters as they contributed one way or another to the achieve their common goal : INDEPENDENCE.

Guess who the ignoramus is??!!

Nicole Tan

N/B : Partai Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM) was formed on 17 October 1945 in lpoh, Perak, a year before UMNO was formed. Founding leaders were Mokhtaruddin Lasso, Ahmad Boestaman and Dr. Burhanuddin al-Helmi (later became President of PAS). The objective of PKMM was to fight for a truly independent nation, free from the stranglehold of the British colonials. Angkatan Pemuda Insaf (API), Angkatan Wanita Sedar (AWAS) and Barisan Tani Se-Malaya (BATAS), Majlis Agama Tertingga Se-Malaya (MATA) were all subgroups under PKMM to fight for independence. All these parties were banned in 1948, same time as MCP.

Nicole Tan Lee Koon