Shamsiah Fakeh
Encyclopedia
Shamsiah Fakeh was a Malaysian nationalist and feminist. She was the leader of Angkatan Wanita Sedar (AWAS), Malaysia's first nationalist women organization and a prominent Malay leader of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM).
, Negeri Sembilan
. She had her early education in the Madrasah
Aliah Islaiah (also known as the Islamic High School) in Pelangai, Negeri Sembilan
and was later sent to the Madrasah Tuddimiah in Padang Panjang
, Sumatera in what was then the Dutch East Indies
. It was during this time that she came under the influence of Lebai Maadah, an influential scholar and Islamic reformer .
She was also briefly married to Ahmad Boestamam, the leader of PKMM's youth wing, Angkatan Pemuda Insaf (Awakened Youth Organization; API). In her memoirs, she claimed that her marriage broke with Boestamam broke down due to her disagreement with the latter's decision to pay a fine to avoid a jail sentence for publishing a book deemed seditious by government in 1947 . Notably the marriage was never mentioned in any of Boestamam's memoirs and writings.
Her fourth husband, Wahi Anuwar, was a fellow CPM member who was captured by British and imprisoned. Shamsiah was told that he had surrendered and thought he was dead. He was, in fact, imprisoned for 15 years and eventually died in 1980.
Her final marriage was to another CPM member, Ibrahim Mohamad, in 1956. They remained married until his death in 2006 .
and the Malay Nationalist Party , the main Malay
political parties in the post-war period. She eventually chose to join PKMM because she believed it was more dedicated to the struggle for Malaya's independence whereas she considered UMNO a puppet of the British . In 1946, she was asked to lead PKMM's women's wing, Angkatan Wanita Sedar (Cohort of Awakened Women; AWAS).
followed by the mass arrests of left leaning Malay nationalists, Shamsiah retreated to the jungles and joined the predominantly Malay 10th Regiment
of the Malayan People's Liberation Army of the CPM operating from Lubok Kawah near Temerloh
, Pahang
. When the 10th Regiment was forced to retreat together with the 11th and 12th Regiment to the Thai
-Malaya
border in 1953 after a series of military defeats beginning with the Battle of Padang Piul in 1949, Shamsiah joined the retreat and continued to fight as a guerilla until she was sent to the China
for further education together with her husband, Ibrahim Mohamad, in 1956 .
service airing propaganda broadcasts via shortwave
to Malaya. In 1965, they were assigned by the party to Indonesia
to set up a legation
office of the Malayan National Liberation League. Their stint was, however, short lived as they were arrested later that year due to the anti-communist purges in Indonesia in the aftermath of the 30 September Movement
. They remained imprisoned until 1967 when they obtained their freedom through the mediation of the embassy of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and obtained passage via Vietnam back to China .
As a result of faction politics within the CPM and the chaos that resulted from the Cultural Revolution
in China during the period, Shamsiah and her husband became increasingly estranged from the party's Secretary General, Chin Peng
. Both Shamsiah and her husband were expelled from the party in 1972. As they were unable to return to Malaysia (established in 1963 with the federation of Malaya, Singapore
, British North Borneo, and Sarawak
), they settled in the town of Xiangtan
, Hunan
and were assigned to work in a steel factory . She also served as a Malay language consultant with Radio Beijing and the Beijing Foreign Languages Institute .
officers who took them to a resort and for about 10 days, they were debriefed and briefed on the local customs and political scenario in Malaysia. One of the conditions for the family's return was a bar on participation in politics and for the first few years upon their return, Shamsiah was not even allowed to participate in academic speaking engagements . Her Chinese daughter-in-laws were initially barred entry into the country but were eventually granted permanent residency .
Her memoirs were first published in 2004 by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
(UKM) but was immediately suppressed by the authorities and withdrawn from circulation. A new edition as well as a Chinese language
translation was published in 2007 by the Strategic Information and Research Development Centre (SIRD) which saw UKM reintroduce their edition into the market .
Present at the funeral were some prominent politicians including the deputy president of Parti Keadilan Rakyat
, Syed Husin Ali, and Democratic Action Party
Member of Parliament, Tony Pua.
by killing her third child while in the jungle to avoid capture .
She subsequently denied the allegation in her memoirs and explained that she was convinced by fellow guerillas to give the child away to local villagers to be raised upon entering an unfamiliar district. It was only later that she discovered that the child had in fact been killed .
Early life
Shamsiah was born in the village of Kampung Gemuruh near the town of Kuala PilahKuala Pilah
Kuala Pilah is a town and district in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Commonly called Pilah by the mainly Malay Minangkabau inhabitants, it is also the name of a district. It is an old valley town with many of the pre-war Chinese shophouses still fronting the main streets surrounded by traditional style...
, Negeri Sembilan
Negeri Sembilan
Negeri Sembilan, one of the 13 states that constitutes Malaysia, lies on the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia, just south of Kuala Lumpur and borders Selangor on the north, Pahang in the east, and Malacca and Johor to the south....
. She had her early education in the Madrasah
Madrasah
Madrasah is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious...
Aliah Islaiah (also known as the Islamic High School) in Pelangai, Negeri Sembilan
Negeri Sembilan
Negeri Sembilan, one of the 13 states that constitutes Malaysia, lies on the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia, just south of Kuala Lumpur and borders Selangor on the north, Pahang in the east, and Malacca and Johor to the south....
and was later sent to the Madrasah Tuddimiah in Padang Panjang
Padang Panjang
Padang Panjang is located in the cool highlands of West Sumatra, inland from the provincial capital Padang. It sits on a plateau beneath the volcanoes Mount Marapi and Mount Singgalang. It has an area of 23 km² and a population of over 40,000...
, Sumatera in what was then the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
. It was during this time that she came under the influence of Lebai Maadah, an influential scholar and Islamic reformer .
Family life
Shamsiah was married five times from the age of 17. Her first husband, Yasin Kina, abandoned her while she was pregnant with their second child and both children died in their infancy. Her second husband, J. M. Rusdi, was eventually discovered to be an informer for the Japanese forces then occupying Malaya.She was also briefly married to Ahmad Boestamam, the leader of PKMM's youth wing, Angkatan Pemuda Insaf (Awakened Youth Organization; API). In her memoirs, she claimed that her marriage broke with Boestamam broke down due to her disagreement with the latter's decision to pay a fine to avoid a jail sentence for publishing a book deemed seditious by government in 1947 . Notably the marriage was never mentioned in any of Boestamam's memoirs and writings.
Her fourth husband, Wahi Anuwar, was a fellow CPM member who was captured by British and imprisoned. Shamsiah was told that he had surrendered and thought he was dead. He was, in fact, imprisoned for 15 years and eventually died in 1980.
Her final marriage was to another CPM member, Ibrahim Mohamad, in 1956. They remained married until his death in 2006 .
Early involvement
As a fiery orator, Shamsiah was scouted by both the United Malays National OrganisationUnited Malays National Organisation
The United Malays National Organisation, is Malaysia's largest political party; a founding member of the National Front coalition, which has played a dominant role in Malaysian politics since independence....
and the Malay Nationalist Party , the main Malay
Malay people
Malays are an ethnic group of Austronesian people predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, including the southernmost parts of Thailand, the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and the smaller islands which lie between these locations...
political parties in the post-war period. She eventually chose to join PKMM because she believed it was more dedicated to the struggle for Malaya's independence whereas she considered UMNO a puppet of the British . In 1946, she was asked to lead PKMM's women's wing, Angkatan Wanita Sedar (Cohort of Awakened Women; AWAS).
Armed struggle
With the banning of the PKMM, API and AWAS in 1948 prior to the declaration of the Malayan EmergencyMalayan Emergency
The Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army , the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party, from 1948 to 1960....
followed by the mass arrests of left leaning Malay nationalists, Shamsiah retreated to the jungles and joined the predominantly Malay 10th Regiment
10th Malay Regiment
The 10th Malay Regiment, established May 21, 1949, was the only predominantly Malay regiment of the Malayan National Liberation Army . Other regiments of this armed wing of the Malayan Communist Party were predominantly Chinese. The regiment fought against the British occupation of Malaysia after...
of the Malayan People's Liberation Army of the CPM operating from Lubok Kawah near Temerloh
Temerloh
Temerloh is a town in Central Pahang, Malaysia in Temerloh district. Located about from Kuala Lumpur along the Kuantan-Kuala Lumpur trunk road, Temerloh is the second largest town in Pahang after Kuantan. It is situated at the junction of the Pahang River and the Semantan River...
, Pahang
Pahang
Pahang is the third largest state in Malaysia, after Sarawak and Sabah, occupying the huge Pahang River river basin. It is bordered to the north by Kelantan, to the west by Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, to the south by Johor and to the east by Terengganu and the South China Sea.Its state...
. When the 10th Regiment was forced to retreat together with the 11th and 12th Regiment to the Thai
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
-Malaya
Federation of Malaya
The Federation of Malaya is the name given to a federation of 11 states that existed from 31 January 1948 until 16 September 1963. The Federation became independent on 31 August 1957...
border in 1953 after a series of military defeats beginning with the Battle of Padang Piul in 1949, Shamsiah joined the retreat and continued to fight as a guerilla until she was sent to the China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
for further education together with her husband, Ibrahim Mohamad, in 1956 .
Exile
The couple remained in China and served as broadcasters with Radio Peking's Malay languageMalay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
service airing propaganda broadcasts via shortwave
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
to Malaya. In 1965, they were assigned by the party to Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
to set up a legation
Legation
A legation was the term used in diplomacy to denote a diplomatic representative office lower than an embassy. Where an embassy was headed by an Ambassador, a legation was headed by a Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary....
office of the Malayan National Liberation League. Their stint was, however, short lived as they were arrested later that year due to the anti-communist purges in Indonesia in the aftermath of the 30 September Movement
30 September Movement
The Thirtieth of September Movement ) was a self-proclaimed organization of Indonesian National Armed Forces members who, in the early hours of 1 October 1965, assassinated six Indonesian Army generals in an abortive coup d'état. Later that morning, the organization declared that it was in control...
. They remained imprisoned until 1967 when they obtained their freedom through the mediation of the embassy of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and obtained passage via Vietnam back to China .
As a result of faction politics within the CPM and the chaos that resulted from the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
in China during the period, Shamsiah and her husband became increasingly estranged from the party's Secretary General, Chin Peng
Chin Peng
Chin Peng, former OBE , was born Ong Boon Hua in Sitiawan, and was a long-time leader of the Malayan Communist Party...
. Both Shamsiah and her husband were expelled from the party in 1972. As they were unable to return to Malaysia (established in 1963 with the federation of Malaya, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, British North Borneo, and Sarawak
Sarawak
Sarawak is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. Known as Bumi Kenyalang , Sarawak is situated on the north-west of the island. It is the largest state in Malaysia followed by Sabah, the second largest state located to the North- East.The administrative capital is Kuching, which...
), they settled in the town of Xiangtan
Xiangtan
Xiangtan is a city in China's Hunan Province that is located on the lower reaches of Xiang river. The hometowns of several founding leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, including Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, and Peng Dehuai are in the Xiangtan Municipal District, as well as the hometowns of Qing...
, Hunan
Hunan
' is a province of South-Central China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...
and were assigned to work in a steel factory . She also served as a Malay language consultant with Radio Beijing and the Beijing Foreign Languages Institute .
Return to Malaysia
Shamsiah and her family applied to the Malaysian government for permission to return to the country from 1985 onwards. Following the terms of the 1989 peace agreement signed between the CPM and the Government of Malaysia in Haadyai, Thailand, permission was finally granted on July 23 1994 and Shamsiah returned along with her husband, their three sons and their four grandchildren. Upon their arrival, the family was met by Special BranchMalaysian Special Branch
The Special Branch or SB is an intelligence agency attached to the Royal Malaysian Police. The SB is empowered to acquire and develop intelligence on internal and external threats to the nation, subversive activities, extremist activities and activities of sabotage and spying...
officers who took them to a resort and for about 10 days, they were debriefed and briefed on the local customs and political scenario in Malaysia. One of the conditions for the family's return was a bar on participation in politics and for the first few years upon their return, Shamsiah was not even allowed to participate in academic speaking engagements . Her Chinese daughter-in-laws were initially barred entry into the country but were eventually granted permanent residency .
Her memoirs were first published in 2004 by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
The National University of Malaysia is a public university located in Bangi, Selangor which is about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur...
(UKM) but was immediately suppressed by the authorities and withdrawn from circulation. A new edition as well as a Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
translation was published in 2007 by the Strategic Information and Research Development Centre (SIRD) which saw UKM reintroduce their edition into the market .
Death
Following a stroke in 1999, Shamsiah had generally been in poor health and was bedridden by 2007 . She died on October 20, 2008 at the residence of her son, Jamaluddin Ibrahim, due to respiratory failure and was buried at the Sungai Besi Muslim cemetery at 5.30pm of the same day.Present at the funeral were some prominent politicians including the deputy president of Parti Keadilan Rakyat
Parti Keadilan Rakyat
The People's Justice Party , often known simply as KeADILan) is a centrist political party in Malaysia formed in 2003 by a merger of the National Justice Party and the older Malaysian People's Party...
, Syed Husin Ali, and Democratic Action Party
Democratic Action Party
The Democratic Action Party, or DAP is a secular, multi-racial, social democratic Malaysian political party.The DAP is one of the three major opposition parties in Malaysia, along with the PKR and PAS, that are seen as electable alternatives to the Barisan Nasional coalition of parties...
Member of Parliament, Tony Pua.
Controversies
As a prominent Malay leader in the ranks of the CPM, Shamsiah was frequently demonised by the Malaysian press. In 1981, the defected chairman of the CPM, Musa Ahmad, claimed that Shamsiah had committed infanticideInfanticide
Infanticide or infant homicide is the killing of a human infant. Neonaticide, a killing within 24 hours of a baby's birth, is most commonly done by the mother.In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible...
by killing her third child while in the jungle to avoid capture .
She subsequently denied the allegation in her memoirs and explained that she was convinced by fellow guerillas to give the child away to local villagers to be raised upon entering an unfamiliar district. It was only later that she discovered that the child had in fact been killed .