May 13

May 13

Many writers continue to write rubbish about the May 13 incident. They would do well to remember lawyer Marina Yusof’s truthful account. She was charged with sedition for her version but dropping of the charges against her for sedition after seven years of repeated appearances in court showed that the authorities were afraid of her version of the events (exposing the organisers) coming out in court.

“Take over”

The Straits Times commentator ‘Outside the Box’ has written: “For example the Communist Party of Malaya (which was nurtured by the British and whose founding leader, Secretary General Loi Teck was a British spy) was misled into believing that with 2000 or 3000 illiterate rubber tappers, union members and high school kids they could actually take over the country. They wanted to fill a void.” The fact is that the growth of the anti British movement had become an immense power in 1947 with the gigantic growth of the AMCJA-PUTERA movement with its Hartal (shut down movement) that paralysed the country. The British feared the loss of the rubber and tin that was saving them from bankruptcy Thus they had to crush the giant opposition alliance and launched the war which insurance conditions demanded be named as an “emergency”. Those who have read about the days before the war will have read about how Chin Peng was at a tin mine and taken unawares when the war on the people was launched and would have been arrested had he not heard the roar of the approaching armoured vehicles.

Anwar’s correct stand

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim: "People who are angry with Ibrahim Ali asked for him to be charged with sedition or ISA – I don’t," Anwar said. "As a matter of principle, I don’t support ISA or the Sedition Act and therefore I do not condone the use of these (laws), even as a temporary measure.".


Rashid Maidin's memoirs (cont)

16 With the Orang Asal

Apart from publishing, we sent a unit to organise the Orang Asal of Kelantan. Their chief was Datuk Angoi.who often visited and talked to us. The Datuk and I had become close friends so much so that we held a simple ceremony to seal our friendship. Datuk Angoi represented the Orang Asal and I represented our people. I was given the title of Datuk. We pledged and swore to be friends forever.

Apart from this ceremony, a dance was held. The fighters and the Orang Asal sang and danced to the sway of the music and the beat of the bamboo. So comeppling and spirited were the dances that one of our fighters fell into the bonfire but he slightly burnt. It was only when the dawn began that we dispersed, each to his task.

Datuk Angoi and his son were firm supporters of the Army. Every day their men and women brought us tapioca and other produce of the soil. To lighten their burden, Musa Ahmad and I formed a unit of ten led by Awang Ibrahim to help carry the tapioca from Ulu Kelantan.

On the evening of 7 July 1954 Abu Samah’s unit came back to camp and reported that Sulaiman Songsang had surrendered and had revealed our site to the enemy. We had hardly time to come to a decision when, in the morning, planes came to attack us with bombs and rockets. They also machine gunned the forest area. The target was the cave where we camped.

To cope with the sudden change in the situation, Abdullah CD at once issue orders to move. We were led by the Pandak, a son of Datuk Angoi. Soon after we had left the camp the sky was filled with parachutes as the enemy soldiers came down for the attack.

Pandak led us across rivers, over hills, down valleys. It was after two weeks that we got to a base of the Orang Asal. Awang’s unit, guided by Datok Angoi himself also arrived at the same time. This base had escaped the encirclement of the enemy but because there were few fields about food supplies were insufficient and also we lacked a guide to continue the march north. Also we were not sure what conditions were like on the way. We called a meeting to get a consensus. Abdullah CD proposed that we split forces: he would lead one group north and Musa and I would remain behind with the Orang Asal. I took the proposal to be a strategic move to avoid disaster or for training the fighters as we could not guess the future and we had no supplies so I agreed to the proposals. Musa Ahmad however did not say a word and one wouldn’t know whether he agreed or not. Whatever it was, the fact that I supported Abdullah CD would meant a 2 to 1 vote.

When the time came Abdullah CD and the troops left and we moved around the fields of the Orang Asal to await news. We had news that the pioneer group had difficulties with food whereas we had plenty of tapioca to eat.

Talking to Musa he would sometimes say , I am ready to die by the bullet like you Datuk but let’s hope we don’t die.

I said nothing but in my heart of hearts my opinion of him went down because going into the jungle carrying arms to fight the British colonialists meant to sacrifice everything including one’s life for the sake of the country. That was what was noble about it. As a leader Musa should not be talking like that. To Musa I would joke “Who wants to choose death, struggle is messy, to sacrifice oneself in battle becomes a normal thing.”