Shamsiah Fakeh.

30.5.2008.

I've known the existence of, and heard some stories about, Shamsiah Fakeh the Communist even as a secondary school student in Kuala Pilah - she was from there.

During the 1999 General Elections her name came out, in a small way, in Kuala Pilah when her great neice stood for the Kuala Pilah State seat and won and later became an Exco member. Last week there was an article in one of the English Language dailies about her that perked my interest. On 28th. May while at a bookstore in Subang Jaya my eyes caught sight of her memoir published by SIRD. Apparently the original was published by UKM in 2004, but the newspaper article mentioned something about censorship and that this second publication had been somewhat revised. The slim book of about 132 pages makes an interesting reading because of the extraordinary circumstance of the Shamsiah Fakeh saga.

In the interest of the recent history of Malaysia I feel this little memoir should make a useful addition to one's library. The book covers the period from her childhood in 1930's to her return to Malaysia in 1994. She now lives in Gombak, an octagenarian and apparently ailing. 

In a way this is a rather sad story. Here was a young Malay woman caught in the early nationalistic fervour of seeking self rule for Malaya from the British after the end of WW2. But unlike the likes of Ghafar Baba, Baharudin Helmi, Samad Idris, Aishah Ghani, Ahmad Boestamam and others that she mentioned in her book, she chose to continue her political struggle in the jungles instead of at the meeting table. It is sad because of the futility of the method that went with the exuberance of the spirit. It is sad for a young Malay woman with adequate Islamic education to have become a member of the Comintern known to be atheist, and to choose an armed struggle in a most ill-advised and lopsided confrontation. 

There is a tragic episode in the book relating to how her infant child was cruelly murdered by her own comrades in the Pahang jungles. The early welcome she got from the Communist Party in China also did not last. Following the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution incited by Mao Tze Tung, Shamsiah and her husband suffered political disgrace and financial hardship. Although later the couple were reinstated as Communist Party guests, news of developments in Malaysia helped increase their longing to return.

In a way, to the end of the memoir Shamsiah seemed to remain recalcitrant about the nobility of her cause. She even compared it to the readiness of the youth wing of UMNO, in a secret plan, to take to arms and move into the jungles if their demands for Independence were not met by peaceful means. She maintains that it was the fighting, albeit small and sporadic in numbers, carried out by the 8,000 "Communist terrorists" in the jungles of Perak, Pahang and Negri Sembilan that helped tilt the Independence talks between the Alliance Parties and the British Government.

The value of this memoir is probably as an addition to the records of the struggle for self government that took place in this British Colony incited by WW11 and the defeat of the British rulers in Malaya and the Dutch in Indonesia at the hands of an Asian power, the Japanese. What the book failed to mention was the murders of ordinary citizens and the damage to private property committed by the Communist terrorists. Shamsiah's hands may not have blood on them, but she chose to be one of them. That she had the conviction of her own belief, misguided though it may seem, is all the more incredible, given the love of her family that she enjoyed and the sedateness of the life she led before making the tumultuous jump into violent struggle.

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