Author: Yoon-Ngan CHUNG
Date: 05-04-02 02:28
Hakkas vs Hainanese in the Malayan Communist Party
According to the official estamites the total population of the then Malaya
in 1931 was 4,347,704. The Chinese population was 1,704,452 which was
divided into these sub-groups: Hakka (客家), Hokkien (福建), Cantonese (廣府),
Teochew (潮州), Hainanese (海南), Guangxi (廣西), Hokchew (福州),
Hingfa (興化), Fuching (福清) and a dozen more
The Chinese Communist Party was founded in July 1921. In 1924 the Chinese Communists sent agents to Malaya to spread Communism to the "Overseas Chinese". However, their political arch rival was the Nationalist Party or the Kuomintang which was founded by Dr Sun Yar Sen who overthrew the Qing
Dynasty (清朝). The influence of the Kuomintang among the Overseas Chinese
in Malaya was very strong. Although Kuomintang had been declared an illegal society by the British Colonial Authority in Malaya it had struck deep roots among the Overseas Chinese.
The Communists achieved little sucess as there were no oppressed labour force
downtrodden peasants in Malaya. The Overseas Chinese were too busy working with the intention of making some money so that they could return to their homes and families that they left behind in China (Tang Shan 唐山). After the First World War the Labourers in Malaya were quite well paid in comparison with other
Asiantic countries.
The Communists found out that the Hakkas and the Hainanese were ready to
listen to their preaching of "Freedoms In The Future". At that time most of the Hainanese were in businesses concerned with food. They ran restaurants, hotels
and many of them were cooks and boys in the British homes. Other Chinese sub-groups looked down at the Hainanese and considered them not the pure Han-Chinese who were of aboriginal blood. The Hakkas were known in China as
the revolutionalists. After the collapse of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國), many Hakkas fled to Malaya. The Hakka people were mostly tin mine workers and rubber tappers.
In those days the majority of the new emigrants from China were illiterate. The Communists established night schools for them so that they could learn a few Chinese characters. There, the Communists taught them Marxism. Most of the night students could not understand what was Marxism or Communism. However, when the Communists preached the similarity of the Communist Revolution and
the Taiping Revolution the Hakkas took it seriously as they had lost in the Taiping Revolution. The Hakkas flocked to the Communist movements. Illigal trade unions and craft guides were formed.
The Malayan Communist Party (MCP) was officially founded on 30th of April
1930. There were twenty people, including Ho Chi Minh (胡志明 who later founded the People's Republic of Vietnam. His real name was Ruan Ai Guo 阮愛國. Ho Chi Minh was the name he used when he was a journalist for a Chinese newspaper in Guangzhou 廣州 city in the 1930s ), attended the first congress which was held in
Kuala Pilah in the State of Negri Sembilan. The members in the meeting unanimously approved the formation of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP).
Out of the twenty members sixteen of them were Hainanese, one Hokkien, one Teochew, one Teochew and no Hakkas. A Hainanese, Li Guang Yuan (黎光遠), was elected the leader of the MCP
In 1931, Wu Qing (吳清), a Hainanese, was elected the leader of MCP. In 1932,
He Wen Han (何文漢), another Hainanese, was elected the leader of MCP in the second congress held in Kluang in the State of Johore. The third congress was
held in Singapore in 1933 and Chen Liang (陳良), another Hainanese, was elected the leader of MCP. From 1930 to 1935 the Hainanese (海南) dominated the MCP. The British Colonial Authority in Malaya estimated there were about 11,750 members in the MCP. These numbers were increased to more than 50,000 by 1938.
The British Authority did not recognize the MCP as a legal organization. If any MCP member were arrested on illegal activities against the British Authority he would be deported to China. The MCP published their own newspaper called "Emancipation News (解放新聞)". This newspaper carried articles on anti-Japanese and anti-Fascism propagandas. The newspaper also urged the workers to go on strike for 8 hours work, better pay, better working conditions, kick out the British Imperialists from Malaya and establish a Soviet Republic in Malaya.
From 1934 to1935 there were strikes every where in the major towns in Malaya. These strikes were all organized by the members of the MCP. Many leaders of the MCP members were arrested by the British Authority and deported to China. There were also some MCP members who urged their leaders to stop organizing strikes because too many of their leaders were being arrested and deported to China. Instead, they argued, the party should organize the workers into groups to study Communism and later to establish a Soviet Republic in Malaya. With different idealogies internal quarrels erupted among the MCP members. Eventually, two factions, the Hakka and the Hainanese, were existed in the party. The internal squabblings continued. Sometimes, the tactics of murdering were committed by
both sides.
For example, in 1935 Liu Deng Cheng (劉登乘), a Hainanese and a member of the Central Committee of MCP, living in Singapore, was being forced to return to China. In the early of 1936 Wu Chi Fu (烏熾夫﹐alias Zhi Hao 志豪), a Hakka, a Central Committe Member of the MCP, wanted to go to Malacca to meet a contact messenger. He took a train from Singapore to Tampin (淡邊) where he got down. He then borrowed a bicycle from a party member and cycled to Malacca. After he had cycled a short distance from Tampin, near a rubber plantation, he was attacked by an unidentified man with a parang ( a Malay big knife). He was killed instantly.
This incident was reported in the Malayan newspapers which also carried the comments about inter-factional fightings in MCP high hierarchy among the Hakkas and the Hainanese. The fratricides did not stop until 1938 when a new leader was elected to guide the party. He was a Vietnamese called Loi Tak (萊特) who had
thirteen different aliases.
From 1933 to 1935, the Executive Committee of the Communist International
(Comintern) in Moscow sent two agents to China. The two agents were to represent the Comintern and to become the military advisers to the Chinese Communist party and the Malayan Communist Party. Otto Braun (Li De 李德 in Chinese), a German, was to stay in China and Loi Tak (萊特), a Vietnamese, was to proceed to Hong Kong to meet the contact man of the Malayan Communist Party to make arrangemant to travel to Singapore to take up his post in Malaya. In August 1935 Loi Tak met the MCP contact man, Wu Si Li (吳司理) in a grocery shop in the
western suburd of Hong Kong. The shop belonged to Wu Si Li. Zhang Xiao Ming
(張小明), the assistant of Wu Si Li made neccessary arrangement to convert Loi
Tak from a member of the Comintern to become a member of MCP. Wu Si Li
bought a ship passage for Loi Tak to travel to Singapore. Zhang Xiao Ming sent
a telegram to the MCP headquarters in Singapore telling them that a Comintern Commissioner (欽差大臣) was on his way.
Eventually, Loi Tak arrived in Singapore safely in September 1935. The MCP held
a meeting to meet the representaive from the Comintern in a village called Cai Cuo Gang (蔡厝港) in Singapore. The meeting was held in a house belonging to the Association of Vegetable Gardeners.[ I think, our friend, HK HEW knows something about this meeting]. The leader of the MCP was Chen Liang (陳良) who welcomed Loi Tak to Malaya. The person who was in charge of security for that meeting, was Deng You Fa (鄧佑發). Loi Tak was a genius in languages.
Loi Te was fluent in Mandarin, Vietnamese, French, English, Russian and Japanese.
Sources
(1) The mystery of Loi Tak (神秘萊特)
by Guo ren De (郭仁德)
(2) ...And The Rain My Drink..
by Han Suyin
(3) Menance in Malaya
by Harry Miller
(4) Red Star Over Malaya
by Cheah Boon Kheng
(6) Ke Jia Yuan Yuan Liu Chang
(客家淵遠流長)
by The Federation of the Hakka Associations of Malaysia
CHUNG Yoon-Ngan
All rights reserved 2002
http://www.riobay.com.au/chinbk.html
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