Author: CHUNG Yoon Ngan
Date: 01-03-12 20:54
My Family in the British Colonial Malaya - 1858 to 1969 (5)
081. The Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) in our village - 1949
http://yn.chung.id.au/5th.IndependentRegiment.InCamp.jpg
There were lots of unhappy incidents in our village, Kampong Sayap (沙葉
村). Sometimes the Hill People (山頂老) or the MPAJA went to the roadside
and opened fire on buses belonging to The General Bus Company (普通巴士公
司). The buses were, as usual, running between Ipoh and the two towns of
Tronoh, about 10 kilometers, and Parit, about 20 kilometers from our village.
I remembered a Chinese businessman from Parit was killed. The Hill People
were angry over the refusal of the bus company to contribute donation to
their organization.
I recalled a group of Hill People hijacked a bus, belonging to the same
bus company. They told the passengers to get down and walked to either Pusing
or Siputeh.
They then told the driver to drive the bus to the village basketball field,
near a rubber plantation and lighted it. None of the passengers was hurt.
Several weeks after this incident, Zhang Laifu (張來福), our village school
teacher, was killed by the Hill People, who accused him of being a police
informer. The British were very angry and they came to the village and rounded
up all the male adults and took them by army trucks to the police station
in Siputeh for interrogation. The villagers were all released and sent back
to the village after spending a night in the Siputeh Police Station.
Our study at the Overseas Chinese Primary School in Siputeh (埔地華僑小學
) was often interrupted by incidents in the village and in the town of Siputeh.
There was an occasion when a group of Hill People attacked the Siputeh
Police Station, at night, wanting to burn it down. A truck load of British
troops from the British Regiment in Batu Gajah, about three kilometers east
of Siputeh, arrived to rescue the policemen. The Hill People withdrew. The
next day, the students from our village were afraid of going to school.
Chen Koy Loy, the adopted son of Grandmother [he was from Taiwan and came
to Malaya as a Japanese soldier who defected to the MPAJA], went inside
with the MPAJA although it was not his war. Since he was with the MPAJA
for so many years he was afraid of being arrested by the British and ended
up in jail. The Chung family did not see him again until one year later.
The Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) changed their name to the
Malayan People's Anti-British Army (MPABA). There were about six thousand
fighters in the whole of Malaya.
There were many members of the MPAJA in our village of about one hundred
families. During the Japanese occupation they belonged to the 3rd Patrol
of the 5th Independent Regiment of the MPAJA. The leader of this patrol
was Zhong Jianchuan (鐘劍川) and the deputy leader Zeng Gengyou ( 曾庚友
) who was our neighbor. The MPAJA in our village reorganized their party
to fight the British. They asked the village folks for financial and material
supports. Father was still the village chief, but he was doing business
of dealing rubber and tin ore and lived in Pusing. Other than the regular
donation of provisions to the MPAJA by First Elder Brother, Father contributed
seven sacks of rice to the MPAJA, without the knowledge of the British,
otherwise he would be ended in prison.
As I have stated that there were two little grocery shops in the village.
The other one belonged to a man called Cao Dai (曹帶). When Comrade Zeng
Gengyou asked Cao Dai to contribute seven sacks of rice to the MPABA, Cao
Dai was reluctant to donate saying that he could not afford it but he could
sell the MPABA for 50% discount. The MPABA were not happy and accused Cao
Dai of being too money minded. One night, Zeng Gengyou sent a group of fighters
from another village to Cao Dai's grocery shop and forcefully took away
seven sacks of rice. The fighters also took Cao Dai along with them back
to the jungle to face the severe reprimand by the leader.
One day, Zeng Gengyou sent his third younger brother called Zeng Ziyuan
(曾子元), who was not a member of the MPABA but a member of the Min Yuen
(民運 or Mass Movement), the supporters of the MPABA, to Siputeh town, not
far from the village, and had the police corporal, a Sikh, killed while
he was having his bear tripped in a barber shop. Zeng Ziyuan took the corporal'
s pistol with him. Due to this pistol, later, Zeng Ziyuan paid for his life.
Posted to Overseas Chinese Forum at asiawind.com
By CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)
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