Rahsid Maidin

Rashid Maidin

10 The struggle for independence

The determined efforts of the MCP, the PKMM, unions and associations, together with the progressive leaders of the various communities to realise the dream of “Merdeka,” were welcomed by the people everywhere. Cries of “Merdeka” echoed throughout the country. The loudest calls came from the PKMM and associations such as API and PETA (which replaced API after it was banned by the British) and AWAS, BTM and Hisbul Muslimin.

To distract the people and throw dust in their eyes the British produced the plan called the Malayan Union. The pre-war FMS and UFMS, where the Sultans and Rajas had been proclaimed the heads of the Muslim religion and Malay customs and more or less treated as heads of state under British administration, now came into the Malayan Union. The Sultans and Rajas were humiliatingly made to sign the agreement. The Malays felt threatened by this Malayan Union and rose to oppose it. It was in this atmosphere that Dato Onn formed UMNO. This explains the slogan “Hidup Melayu,” whereas we in PKM and PKMM called for “merdeka,” for which we were branded extremists. The non-Malays, mainly the Chinese opposed the scheme because it excluded Singapore.

Because the people’s call for independence was brushed aside by the colonialists the Malay left gathered together to form the PUTERA and the non-Malays got together under the umbrella All Malaya Council of Joint Action (AMCJA). With these organisations joining together to form the PUTERA-AMCJA alliance the people became a gigantic force. Together they launched a nationwide hartal which lasted one week. That week workers went on strike, shops closed. The British administration was shaken. The country was silent. It was as if it had been attacked by a garuda. Everyone obeyed the instructions of the Party which made our work easy. Everyone we met honoured us and we returned the compliment by spreading news of the hartal and the demand for independence. The demand was supported by all whether they were workers, labourers in the fields, trishaw pedlars, or shopkeepers.

Abdullah CD and I continued to work to develop the left within the PKMM while occupied with the Malay Department of the MCP which was working on the unity of all Malay groups under the dream of independence. Up to then the British had shown their teeth and suppressed our activities as well as that of the left. They refused to let us hold mass meetings or to hold processions during celebrations, and banned API, headed by Ahmad Boestamam.

We set up PETA to replace API. It was not easy to dampen the enthusiasm for independence. The people who were awakened to political consciousness and organised in basic organisations were not afraid to come to meetings although often they were forced to attack police obstruction and threats from the colonial machine. It was certain that the British colonialists were uncomfortable and felt threatened by the overshadowing spirit of independence. Signs that the British were going to use more repressive laws to suppress the rising people were becoming clearer.

From daily observation and systematic political analysis the MCP could see that the British would launch oppressive measures more fierce and bloody than before. The Party issued directives to cadres to withdraw to the countryside. At the same time, about the middle of June 1948 Malay cadres were directed to attend a Party school in Lubuk Kawah at Temerloh, Pahang.

The leader of the school was a representative of the central committee of the MCP, Haji Hashim, whose original name was Chen Nam. Cadres came from the whole country and they included myself and Abdullah CD. The school was provide guidance for the training and preparation of cadres for forming guerilla units in every nook and corner of the country to drive the British colonialists out of this country. We had only two weeks of political education and basic army training after which I has assigned to set up a unit in Sungai Manik, Perak.

So I moved to Labu Kubong, Sungai Manik. There I found a piece of land with which to support my family and to carry out the Party’ s assigned tasks and there waited for directives. It was the same with the majority of the young men and women who had been trained. Back to the kampong and to their homes , to understand the situation and to wait for developments. That time our intelligence tended to be conservative and behind the times with the result that hundreds of Party members were rounded up and detained by the British colonialists. Luckily the main organisation was not damaged and very quickly the cadres were reunited with the armed forces and established the National Liberation Army of Malaya.