For many years, the official narratives and discourses in the party-controlled mass media in Malaysia have given one strong impression to the other that Umno is the alpha and omega of the theory and practice of Malay nationalism as well as the struggle for the independence of Malaya.

However, while the future of Malay nationalism in a globalising world and multiethnic society is being rationally and critically explored by public intellectuals like Rustam A Sani in his latest book Ke Mana Nasionalisme Melayu? (Wither Malay Nationalism?), the past is also catching up with the publications of the memoirs of two ex-leaders of the Communist Party of Malaya, namely Shamsiah Fakeh and Ibrahim Chik.

When Memoir Ibrahim Chik Dari Api ke Regimen Ke-10 (Kuala Lumpur, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, 2004) and Memoir Shamsiah Fakeh Dari Awas ke Regimen Ke-10 (Kuala Lumpur, 2004) were first published, they were not publicly well known. However, thanks to their hostile critics who mounted a media campaign in the Umno-controlled Utusan Malaysia recently, the two books are now said to be selling well among friends, foes as well as neutrals alike among all races.
Challenging monopoly of truth

Nowadays, it has become a fashion for many Malaysians to read what the conservative or even reactionary elites do not like to read or would not like them to read. It augurs well for the opening up of the Malaysian minds and challenging the secular monopoly of truth, including holy ones, by Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, RTM and some of their fellow scribes in the universities and think-tanks.

However, the memoirs are published only in the context of a series of other memoirs, including those of the very anti-communist Ghazali Shafie, a former Malaysian foreign as well as home minister in the 1970s and also a former British agent of special operations with the anti-Japanese Force 136.

Indeed, whether one finally agrees with Ibrahim Chik or Shamsiah Fakeh or not, the mere publications of their memoirs are indeed intellectually courageous acts which must be commended by all right-minded persons. The question that remains now is whether there would be rational and fair-minded public discussions on the contents of the memoirs.

At this point, it seems that there is a need for younger Malaysians to understanding clearly several key concepts and entities before they venture into the maze of Malayan/Malaysian unofficial or anti-official history.

The term Regimen Ke-10 appears in both the titles of both memoirs and it can therefore be assumed that it is an important entity. It is indeed important.

In English, Regimen Ke-10 simply means the 10th Regiment. In the specific context of Malayan/Malaysian history, the 10th Regiment was a Malay/Muslim-majority unit of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) which was, in turn, the armed forces of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM).

According to the official historian of the regiment, Suriani Abdullah in a recently published Chinese-language account, the 10th Regiment was inaugurated on May 21, 1949 in Temerloh, Pahang under the leadership of Abdullah CD and its recruits came from members and supporters of the anti-colonial Malay radicals whose political organizations had just been proscribed several months before by the British administration as part of the 'Emergency' security measures.

Also according to Suriani Abdullah, as a whole, the 10th Regiment stayed loyal to the Communist Party of Malaya until it was disbanded after the 1989 Peace Accord and it was led and directed by legendary Malayan communists like Abdullah CD, Rashid Maidin, Abu Samah Mohamad Kassim, Chik Ibrahim,
Abdullah Sudin, Kamarulzaman The and Mat Amin. Suriani Abdullah @ Eng Meng Cheng, a top CPM leader of Chinese ethnic origin and armed partisan in Perak during the Japanese Occupation is herself married to Abdullah CD.

API (Angkatan Pemuda Insaf), Awas (Angkatan Wanita Sedar), KMM (Kesatuan Melayu Muda) and PKMM (Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya) were secularly leftwing Malay nationalist and anti-colonial organixations. Many leaders, members and supporters of which later joined the Communist Party of Malaya and its armed struggle beginning in June 1948.

Secretly detained

According to the secretary-general of CPM, Chin Peng who told the Chinese-language Sin Chew Jit Poh in 1998, it was believed that about 5,000 Malay leftwing anti-colonial nationalists were pre-emptively and secretly detained by the British authorities jut before the 'Emergency' was officially declared to prevent them from joining forces with the CPM. Meanwhile, many leftwing Indian labour activists also become the target for colonial repression: RG Balan was detained without trial for 12 years while SA Ganapathy and Veerasenan were killed.

Seen in this historical context, the British-favoured Umno (that is the original one founded in 1946 and de-registered by an order of court in 1988) was merely one of the two camps of secular Malay nationalist theory and practice. A truer picture has also emerged to show that the post-war anti-colonial struggle, both peaceful and armed, were very multiethnic and it was the British colonial psychological warfare which made it appeared to be a 'Chinese chauvinist' attempt to challenge the 'Anglo-Malay (read Umno)' alliance.

The memoirs of Chik Ibrahim, 83, and Shamsiah Fakeh, 81, take us further: Like Chin Peng, they re-tell their childhood and earlier lives as innocent kids and idealistic youths during the years of pre-war British colonialism as well as Japanese Occupation.

The religio-cultural milieus and language-world in their childhood days as they describe in their memoirs, however, obviously differed from those of Chin Peng. While theirs were typically a Malay-Muslim world, Chin Peng's was evidently a Malayan Chinese one. However, it is clear that what separated them in their childhood religio-cultural milieus and language-world (as well as practical strategies during the Pacific War) did not prevent them from reaching a political and ideological consensus as adults: colonialism must go.

The common convictions led to about 40 years of comradeship or, at least, close cooperation, although Shamsiah Fakeh finally estranged herself from the mainstream of the party.

Another distinguishing features of the two memoirs are the rare photographs showing almost all stages of their lives with their parents, relatives, children and comrades. And some of these photographs were taken in the Malayan jungles during the armed struggle, while other in Mao's China.

So, despite the always noisy objection of their hostile critics in the Utusan Malaysia, the memoirs of Chik Ibrahim and Shamsiah Fakeh are worth buying and reading because, agree with them or not all detailed opinions or propositions, Chik Ibrahim and Shamsiah Fakeh are parts and parcels of our
evolving nationhood.

Whatever the mistakes, errors and misjudgements they made in the past, they had also contributed and sacrificed as portions of the world-historic forces that have liberated us - Malays, Chinese, Indians, Orang Asli and other races, from colonialism.