‘Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict – alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence.’ — Dorothy Thompson, American journalist
Did you know that the Chinese of Sarawak have a long love-hate relationship for their country of adoption.
In the 1920s, Vyner Brooke invited educated Chinese immigrants to play a role in nationbuilding but discovered a large proportion of the community had leftist leanings.
When the Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1937, Sarawak Chinese organisations boycotted Japanese goods.
The anti-Japanese Singaporebased Chinese Relief Fund under Sarawak banker Datuk Wee Kheng Chiang raised $400,000 which was sent to China.
Chinese Marxist theorist chairman Mao Tze Tung led the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and was a great influence on the China-born Sarawak Chinese.
They were the ones who planted the seeds of communism at the old Chinese bazaar at Siniawan.
Fleeing from the Japanese, a Kwangtung-born teacher Wu Chan taught at Siniawan’s Chung Hua Primary School and instilled communist ideology into the minds of the students.
Tan Sri Stephen Yong in ‘A Life Twice Lived’ said that even though Wu Chan graduated from a Japanese university he was a Chinese patriot.
During the war, Wu Chan attempted to send messages to the Allied Forces on the Japanese army’s strength and type of aircraft.
He contacted his antiJapanese counterparts in Indonesia and smuggled arms and ammunitions to Kalimantan in 1946.
After the war Wu Chan joined the Sarawak leftists and formed the pro-Kuomintang Chung Hua Jih Poh and an English-language paper.
He also joined a group of Overseas Nanyang Chinese, and formed the Sarawak Chinese Association (SCA) and became its first president.
Wu Chan was able to influence Kuching’s Bong Kee Chok and two other Sarawakians Wen Ming Chuan and Lim Ho Kwai thinking.
Dr Michael Leigh in ‘The Chinese community of Sarawak’ (1964) described the Chinese with divided loyalties between the locally-born urban-educated Chinese and leftists.
Datuk Amar Stephen Yong, the first English-trained Chinese lawyer and Tan Sri Ong Kee Hui formed the first political party — Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) in 1959.
Politically-inclined Bong who passed both his Chung Hua Middle School exams and his senior Cambridge at St Joseph’s school, also joined SUPP.
But in 1962 the Colonial government went on an anticommunist drive by launching ‘Operations Banana’ and Bong, his wife and Wen Min Chuan were among seven leftists deported to China on June, 27.
Unhappy with his deportation, Bong returned to Indonesia pledging support for Confrontation in the fight against the formation of Malaysia.
Similarly, in 1962 Lim Ho Kwai left Kuching for Pontianak to strengthen ties with the Partai Komunis Indonesia (PKI) in an anti-Malaysia pact.
On September 30, 1965 Bong formed the North Kalimantan Communist Party (NKCP) which had 1,000 armed terrorists and 20,000 communist sympathisers.
But his plans to take over the Sarawak government were aborted after the Indonesians executed PKI chairman Aidit and launched an anti-communist putsch where many of Indonesian Chinese were killed.
In 1967 the disillusioned Bong and armed CTs returned to Sarawak to carry on their struggle under the Sarawak Communist Organisation (SCO).
The 27-year insurgency ended in 1990 after the communists and security forces suffered heavy losses through armed combats.
In 2011 I wrote a 488-page manual ‘Crimson Tide Over Borneo’ and a year later on March 25, 2012 was awarded the coveted ‘Friends of the Police’ Award for my effort.
On record, I am the only Malaysian journalist honoured for writing the history of the ‘untold story’ of the Sarawak insurgency.
My book has 17 chapters:
• 140-pages of appendices which include the full list of 1,000 communists and 200 security forces members, including 45 Border Scouts, who were killed.
• The NKCP manual and communist paraphernalia.
• SCO influence over the schools.
• History of the Chinese community in Kalimantan.
• Role of the Sarawak Liberation League.
• 22 chronologies of the Sarawak security forces from 1838 to 1990.
• 500 outstanding police/ Special Branch/Border Scout personnel, including 40 recipients of bravery awards.
• Life of Tan Sri Kee Chong Kong (1925-1975).
• 21 of the top Sarawak terrorists.
• 150 references to books, reports and private papers and newspaper articles
Former Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar in his message in ‘Crimson Tide’ praised the thousands of security personnel involved in the insurgency who included the native Border Scouts and Chinese Special Branch personnel, many of whom were murdered for supporting the government.
“In the end it was our relentless efforts, and with the help of other members of the security forces, that our brave policemen were able to force our hand on the communists.
“Ultimately, it resulted in the Sri Aman Peace Accord in 1973 when 580 CTs eventually gave up their armed struggle, resulting in the final closure of the chapter of the last 52 CTs in Sarawak in 1990,” said Ismail Omar.
Now as the world is embroiled in the RussianUkrainian war, one wonders if we have learnt lessons from the insurgencies?
Maybe we should interview two key survivors of the Sarawak episode, namely Bong Kee Chok and Governor Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.
Bong started the Sarawak Insurgency in 1962 and Taib signed the final peace accord of 1990 in Kuching.
Indeed, a full interview with 85-year old Bong, the architect of 27 years of misery and strife, will bring a closure to the suffering.
As they say, better late than never!
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
