With the Japanese finally forced out after a hard fought war, the British had regained power in Malaya and were trying to redeem severely dented pride. There appeared two options-winning the hearts and minds of Malayans who had lost their faith in them or launch a brutal elimination of their fiercest opposition.
It was a time of high uncertainly with many groups working at different levels to gain political mileage in a nation ripe for independence.
It was also a time when the communist insurgency, through the Malayan National Liberation Army, was gaining a strong foothold in the country, especially in Perak and Selangor.
The year was 1952, Malaya was under Emergency then and the one place which exemplified the ongoing battle for public support, among the British and the communists was undoubtedly Sungai Siput, Perak.
Living in an estate a few kilometres away from Sungai Siput, 11-year-old Asi (not his real name) was always impressed by two things: the manner with which the communists got the better of the British and the way an Indian gentleman called Perumal propagated an independent nation.
"I was in awe of the communists. They would come to my estate at night. Some will be hurt after fighting. Some of them were fathers of my friends and they were all very friendly with us," started Asi.
"And then there was Perumal, a communist too but not a fighter. His job was to explain to the people all about communism and he was highly effective... I was impressed with what he had to say," he added.
"These two factors pulled me to become a communist at the age of 11," he told Malaysiakini recently.
Today, he is the only Indian Malaysian communist alive.
In good care of elder comrades
Asi lives in a communist village in southern Thailand which was set up after the 1989 peace talks between the Malaysian and Thai governments. The village is inhabited by former members of the formidable 10th Regiment of the Communist Party of Malaya, led by Abdullah CD and his wife Suriani Abdullah. Asi was a member of this regiment.
"I have no regrets at all about joining this revolution. I think I have achieved the main aim - to get rid of the British and free Malaya," said this frail-looking man who had spent 40 years of his life in the jungle.
It would of course be wrong to judge the 68-year-old by his delicate appearance. Asi is very much fit and able and continues to wake up at 4am daily to tap rubber in the nearby plantation, which has about 100 trees planted in a six-acre plot, courtesy of the Thai government after the peace deal.
He is married to a Thai communist comrade - "she has been in war with me" - and they have a daughter, who is married to a Thai and settled in the same 'peace village'.
"I have led a very dangerous life but it has been exciting. Communism has always been and is my way of living. My friends are all my ex-comrades. Abdullah and Suriani are like my parents. They took me under their wings from the very beginning," he said.
Asi is also not bothered by the fact that he is the only non-Malay communist in the village. In fact he has forgotten what it is like be an Indian.
"In the jungle, we were all fighting for survival and a common cause. The spirit of camaraderie was very strong, with no one caring about what race you were. I'm very close to these friends here and for them I'm like one of them. Since I joined the movement at a young age, I was looked after by senior Malay comrades," he said in flawless Malay. His Tamil, however, is understandably rusty.
Asi also readily admits that he was one-of-a-kind simply because there were not many Indian communists in the movement.
"The number of Indians was not many. At one time, there were about 85 of us. Right now, I'm sure I'm the only living Indian communist from Malaya," he said with a smile.
The jungle years
Asi joined the movement with four of his childhood friends in Sungai Siput. In the early days he helped out Perumal by distributing communist propaganda material.
"And then later in the year, the British offensive became too risky for us to remain in Sungai Siput. We joined Perumal in going into the jungle and we hooked up with the 5th regiment.
"There were about 85 active Indian communists at that time. Many others were not involved in fighting but in trade unions and propaganda division. During that period of 1952, many sleeper Indian communists were arrested, especially those involved in unions.
"But the 85 of us joined the 5th Regiment and we had a platoon called the Indian platoon, led by Perumal and I was the youngest. It was while in the jungle that I had the full exposure to communism. The ideology was taught to us by an officer named Muthusamy.
Recounting his life in the jungle at that time, Asi said that he was subsequently taken under the wings of a regiment leader called Liau Liew (or better known as Sukong).
"I was very young and he was worried I would be killed if left with the 5th regiment. He took me to his headquarters deep in the jungle and I was with him from 1952 to 1959," he said.
The year 1959 brought about another life changing experience for Asi as he was involved in a major fight with the British in Betong.
"Many of my friends died. Another Indian comrade named Alou and myself were then sent over to the Pahang jungle to be with Abdullah (right). By this time, the Indian platoon had been wiped out and only a handful of us remained.
"With Abdullah's regiment, I was at first tasked to be the messenger boy, meaning I had to deliver messages to other units. This would sometimes take days. After sometime, I was put in charge of hunting for animals to feed the comrades.
"That was an exciting period. Did you know that the Perak jungle had huge deer those days?"
Hunting required the little boy to be trained in weapon usage and slowly Asi was moved into the fighting unit. From then on he became involved in more than 40 fights, mostly against the British and the Gurkhas, and has many wounds to show as evidence of his jungle warfare.
Nationalist or terrorist?
He gets emotional when asked about being labelled a terrorist.
"That's wrong! How about the other side, the British? They committed atrocities in kampungs and blamed us for that...they were violent as well.
"Don't forget it was a period of war. If we didn't defend ourselves, we would have been killed! We were fighting for a free nation and they were protecting their colony from being liberated," he said.
"But sadly, we are not recognised for our role in winning independence. We are also accused of causing atrocities.
"No matter how bitter or bloody it was, it was a fight for the independence of our nation... no one would hand out independence on the plate for nothing like what is being claimed by the present government," he added.
"There is no truth in the myth espoused that Malaysia gained independence without shedding a drop of blood. WE shed our blood and lives for this. It is only right we are recognised for that," he stressed, saying that the Malaysian history must be rewritten to indicate this.
He stressed in his soft voice that he still believed in the ideologies of communism.
"For me, my struggle with MCP was noble. I'm a patriot, along with my comrades. Please revise the history," he said.
Returning to Malaysia
On that note, he also expressed his disappointment that people in Malaysia were ignorant of their history.
He has been back to Sungai Siput quite regularly but has always found it difficult to settle in. He still has families back in Perak - including his elder brother and nephew but is happy to be his Southern Thailand village.
However, there is still one thing which he wants corrected in Malaysia - he wants to convert his red IC to a proper MyKad.
"I'm a Malaysian citizen. I was born in Sungai Siput. My father was a known figure in the estate and yet I have been denied my right.
"I have travelled up and down many times to get the identity card and have spent almost RM10,000 for this cause. I have met Malaysian politicians and civil servants but have had no success," he added with bitterness.
"Maybe the government is punishing me for my past but strangely all my other comrades have proper citizenship. It's just me who is left out," he said.
It was for this reason Asi refused to reveal his real name for he fears he will be blocked altogether from entering into Malaysia if the border authorities know who he is.
"I wish I'm properly recognised as a citizen as well as for my role along with my comrades on freeing Malaya from the occupiers," he ended with a forlorn hope.
K.KABILAN
EDITOR MALAYSIAKINI
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