Malaysiakini(http://www.malaysiakini.com)
Anti-Japanese fighters and CPM not the same, 20 September 2013
by Goh Hoe Hoe
I am not here to glorify the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), but to speak the truth. It is a proven fact that the CPM had threatened the security of the country by involving themselves in killing, arson, kidnappings, and organising strikes and demonstrations. They had also infiltrated themselves into political organisations and schools to carry out anti-establishment activities.
However, there should be a delineation between the Malayan people fighting against the Japanese military during the Japanese occupation and the CPM. It is not appropriate to generalise people fighting against the Japanese military during the Japanese occupation as members or supporters of CPM.
I wish to make this comment in order to clear up the misunderstanding that those involved in fighting against the Japanese military during the Japanese occupation were terrorists because of their association with the CPM.
In the first place we must ask why did those people fight against the Japanese military during World War II. Very clearly they wanted to protect their homeland from being destroyed by the Japanese soldiers who had committed crimes like burning of civilian houses, shops, and places of worship including mosque and shrines. These soldiers also had forced local young women to become comfort women.
So those who fought against the Japanese should be highly saluted for volunteerism and their willingness to defend the country .
The next question is why did they cooperate with the CPM in their fight against the Japanese soldiers? Because the British government did not have enough manpower to train the volunteers to fight, therefore they had agreed to let the CPM, which was more experienced, train local volunteers. The British colonial government had also supported them with weapons and ammunition.
Most of those who fought against Japanese military returned to normal life and some had became businessmen, while there are also others who became teachers and civil servants.
Not only commoners were involve in the fight against the Japanese military, prominent figures like Lim Chong Eu and Abdul Razak Hussein were also among others who were involved in the fight against the Japanese military during World War II.
Disgusted Goh where did you get your facts from. During the Japanese time very few malays died in their hands as the malays (especially the UMNO type) for their own benefit had supported the Japanese against the British, Chinese etc for their own safety and comfort. Chinese were hated by the Japanese and many perhaps 100s of thousands died in their hands. Tun Razak and many other (later UMNO leaders)had joined a local army formed by Japanese to fight against the enemies of the Japanese. They thought that Japanese were powerful and would rule Malaya for a long time. Unfortunately, the Japanese were defeated too son(sic) and then these UMNO type turncoats quickly jumped to the British side. The biggest losers of Japanese occupation of Malaya were the Chinese. CPM was also the biggest losers as they came off empty handed and had to flee the country when their Guerilla warfare against the British failed after having fought the Japanese with British support and got British back Malaya.
22/9/2013
6th Generation Immigrant. The Chinese also had in built hatred for the Japanese because of the atrocities that took place in China before that. Remember, the "social contract" (thoroughly abused by UMNO today) was not even mooted then; the Chinese in Malaya were Chinese in Malaya with divided loyalty then but nevertheless fought the Japanese and Communists. I am a 6th Generation Chinese and a Malaysian..........period!
22/9/2013
Fair&Just Thanks for the conflicting article, as there is the dawning of the idea of how such disaster as the may 13 can occur among the various peace loving races here which were then truly malaysianised if not for the advance japanese military training learned during the war where the japanese are infamous for creating chaos and excuses to occupy territories like the Manchurian incidents and others.
21/9/2013
Fair&Just The article is alright but become confused with the mention of Lim Chong Eu and the abdul razak hussein involved in fight against the Japanese military as stated above. We do not have any facts about Lim's role during the japanese occupation but there are facebook showing pictures about abdul razak in the museum with an annotations below it which is "Tun Abdul Razak (bercermin mata) ketika memasuki latihan tentera Jepun (gambar Muzium Negara)". So are we talking about the same abdul razak who joined the japanese and also fighting against the japanese military. Which is which or perhaps the picture is doctored? Then can visit the museum and have a good look for verification?
20/9/2013
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