Author: CHUNG Yoon Ngan
Date: 01-06-12 17:32
My Family in the British Colonial Malaya - 1858 to 1960 (5)
095. The Hill People kill Father's business partner - 1952
入山不怕傷人虎,---Ru4 shan bu4 pa4 shang ren2 hu3,
只怕人情兩面刀.---Zhi3 pa4 ren2 qing2 liang3 mian4 dao.
Going into the mountain I am not afraid of the dangerous tiger,
But I am afraid of double-dealers
A Chinese proverb
................................................
Father could not understand why the Hill People (Communists) wanted to kill
his business partner, Huang Renan (黃仁安). It was the policy of the British
Colonial Authorities to establish a Home Guard Force in every town and new
village throughout the country. Huang Renan was appointed by the British
to administer the Home Guards (1A) in Pusing. If it was not him the British
would appoint a Malay to take charge of them. The British knew that the
Hakka Chinese would not be happy under a Malay leader in a Hakka town. The
British wanted the cooperation from the Hakka Chinese to defeat the Hill
People.
Huang Renan listened to Father's advice and shifted with his family to live
in Pasir Pinji near Ipoh town where he had bought a house. However, Hunag
Renan preferred to live with his second wife, an Eurasian woman, originally
from Medan, Indonesia. Her father was Hokkien Chinese and her mother was
a Dutch woman. She lived in the rented upstairs of a shophouse next to the
Menglembu police station. Only a wire fence divided the shophouse and the
police station. He thought that it was safer to live near a police station.
Huang Renan was a Hokkien Chinese and his Hokkien dialect name was Ooi Eng
An. He loved to eat curry mee (curry noodle) selling in the Menglembu market.
Occasionally he went with his second wife to the market to have curry mee
for breakfast. He did not realize that he was being watched by the members
of the Min Yuen (民運 Mass Movement), an organization that supported the
Hill People. The Min Yuen members marked and informed the "Traitor-killing-squad"
stationed in Lahat. This "Traitor-killing-squad" was very active during
the Japanese occupation. Major, later Colonel, Spencer Chapman, the military
instructor of the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) visited that
camp. [Please refer to chapter 16 in his book "The Jungle is Neutral".]
One morning, in 1952, without knowing that he and his wife were being followed
by two members of the "Traitor-killing-squad" disguised as tin mine workers,
Huang Renan and his second wife went to the market for curry mee. While
they were having the delicious curry mee the disguised tin mine workers,
by using their little sharp axes, hacked open his head and his brain spilled
out on the ground. Huang Renan died instantly. His wife was not hurt. What
could she do except screaming out hysterically.
Father was very sad and could not believe the Hill People could be that
cruel. During the Japanese occupation the Hill People were looked upon as
the Freedom Fighters protecting the people. They were the pride of the Chinese
people in Malaya. Now they had turned into murderers. Father paid for all
the funeral expenses. Members of his family buried him in the Chinese cemetery
in Batu Gajah near the Batu Gajah Convent English School. As the Hill People
had killed so many innocent civilians suspected for being cooperators of
the British, ordinary people had to be very careful what they said about
the Hill People who were losing the war and becoming desperate. They became
ruthless and cruel, particularly towards the police informers.
In Pusing, there was a "private taxi man" (that means a man who does not
have a licence to run his taxi, in Malay it is called Curi Ayam or stealing
chicken) by the surname of Cai (蔡 I have forgotten his full name but I
remember him walking with a limp. Knowing that he was running his taxi without
a taxi licence yet the police did not give him any trouble at all. Pusing
folks spread rumour that he was a police informer because people saw him
frequently sneaked into the police station in Batu Gajah. He was very friendly
to everyone in town specially to those who lived in Gunong Hijau New Village
(喜州新村). One day, he was having Chinese tea with a few friends who were
talking about how to smuggle tin food out of the town to the Hill People.
One of them mentioned about how Mr so and so (I forgot the name) smuggled
ten tin food out by hiding them among the night-soil for his vegetable patch
about a kilometer away from the barbed wire that fence in Pusing. On arrival
at the police post, the policemen not only did not check the night-soil
in a large bucket on his bicycle carrier but told him to get out as fast
as possible because the night-soil was stinky smelly. The policemen covered
their noses with handkerchiefs and chased him away. At his vegetable patch
he washed the tin food and gave them to the Hill People. It was another
ordinary story about smuggling food to the Hill People. The listeners laughed
and Cai also pretended to laugh.
A few days later, that Mr. so and so was arrested by the police and was
charged for smuggling tin food out to the Hill People. Under the Emergency
Regulations, the police did not have to prove anything. The guilt was a
suspected Hill People supporter. Those who were present in the conversation
knew that Cai had informed the police about this man. Someone told the Hill
People that Cai informed the police and as a result that Mr so and so was
arrested. The Hill People were angry and they went after him. But Cai did
not leave town for quite sometime and the Hill People could not capture
him. A member of the Min Yuan tricked Cai's pregnant wife for going to Bamban
New Village (民萬新村)[2B], about two kilometers south of Pusing. While
on her way to Bamban New Village,Cai's wife was captured by the Hill People
who tied her to a tree in a coconut plantation, not far from the main road
to Lumut, a jetty town, and cut off her throat and slit opened her stomach
with the foetus spilled out on the ground. The British Authorities were
furious with this gruesome killing and rounded many adults, male and female,
from Pusing and trucked them to the scene to see for themselves the death
body of Mrs. Cai and the foetus. Many of them vomited and a few of them
fainted after seeing the grisly corpse and the foetus. They returned and
spread the news of the inhumane atrocity committed by the Hill People who
lost their credibility in Pusing as the freedom fighters. I was too young
to be herded to see the gruesome scene.
However, no one felt sorry for Cai and some of the people even blamed him
for the death of his pregnant wife. The Hill People would never try to kill
him if he was not proved to be a police informer who had made many people
being arrested by the police and later being banished to China. Months later
he was not wanted by the police as everyone knew he was a police informer
and no one wanted to hire his private taxi. He was in great financial difficulty
and it seemed no one was willing to help him. He became depressed and felt
guilty for causing the death of his wife he committed suicide. Pusing folks
said that it was his retribution for causing so many families suffered.
I am not sure if he had any children.
Note:
[1A] from a Pusing townsman
Author: Lean Yen Loong
Date: 07-28-06 08:13
Dear Yoon Ngan,
During the Emergency, the barbed wire fence was just a stone throw away
in front of my maternal grandparents' house in Kampong Pinang, Pusing. My
parents' house was, and still is diagonally behind my grandparents'. As
a kid, I used to play near the fence with other kids, unaware of the tension
looming in everyone's mind. At the end of the fence stood an army check
point, which was blocking the main truck road running from Ipoh-Pusing-Batu
Gajah-Tanjung Tualang. Everyday, I used to see village folks on their way
to work being asked to enter a small hut and came out a few minutes later.
The adults were saying that the army were checking them to make sure that
they were not bringing out food items to supply to the communists. They
were allowed to bring only cooked food enough for one person which was their
lunch. I often heard adults complaining how rough they were being treated
by the soldiers at the check point.
Outside the fence, soldiers made frequent patrols. Sometimes village folks
in green uniform were also seen patrolling. I was told they were called
Homeguards, a group formed by the village folks who also helped to prevent
people from crossing the fence. A few times I heard loud gunshots beyond
the fence. Adult said that was because the Homeguards were doing shooting
practice at the tin mining area outside the fence. Adults flocked towards
the tin mining area to see the shooting practice. Out of curiosity, I joined
in the crowd only to be shooed away by the adults, saying that children
were not allowed to go near.
I have also seen air plane flying low above the village houses, with papers
raining down from it. That was a great scene to behold for a kid like me.
I had picked up some of those papers with many words printed on them. I
could not read but adults told me that those were leaflets asking the communists
to surrender to the authority.
Those days, there were few private cars around. The most common vehicles
passing the trunk road once in a while were buses, armoured cars and army
trucks. At times, a convoy of 20 to 50 army trucks and armoured cars might
come thundering pass the road. Excited children playing by the roadside
would shout and wave frantically to the British soldiers in the truck. Often
the soldiers would smile and wave back. Occasionally, to the children's
delight a friendly soldier would throw down a big packet of sweets that
caused the children rushed to grab it. In fact hoping to get a packet of
sweets was one of the reasons why we liked to wave to the convoy of military
vehicles.
Regards,
Lean Yen Loong
----------------------------------------
[2B] A lady originally from Bamban New Village
Author: Chai Lee Fung
Date: 04-17-05 19:29
I'm a Hakka now residing in Singapore. I originate from Bemban New Village
(that's half way between Siputeh and Batu Gajah) but my great-grandmother
used to live in Pusing.
http://yn.chung.id.au/BembanNewVillage.jpg
I was always told that I am "Dongguan Hak" but when I tell people, they
gave me a puzzled look. "Not Moi Yen or Ka Yen Jiu or Hor Por?" they would
ask. I am also confused and often feel sheepish.
Can anyone advise me what sub-group of Hakka am I? My best guess is the
typical Pusing type of Hakka. My grandmother like to say" Poi Tiok" whenever
she got irritated and I remember hearing many of the womenfolk use that
expression. Any help is appreciated.
----------------------------------------------
Author: CHUNG Yoon Ngan
Date: 04-18-05 08:44
Dear Lee Fung,
If you are not from Yuk Kwan Chinese High School (育群中學), you must be
a SYS boy. It was Batu Gajah English School before it was moved to the present
site at the foot of Changkat. The British Colonial Authorities changed it
to SYS (Sultan Yussof School). Batu Gajah English School at the old Market
(which was demolished for other development), has now become a Malay school.
Many a time I was invited to your school sport days as I am a friend of
many of the teachers who live in Pusing, my hometown. Two of my younger
brothers a few nephews attended SYS. But my sisters and nieces attended
Convent School next to the Chinese cemetery.
Originally Bemban village (Grape Garden) was called Hong Mao Lu (紅毛路
Red Hair Road). There were about 500 or 600 British soldiers in the army
barracks at Batu Gajah. They built a road from the barracks to Siputeh and
then to Lumut jetty. It was a short cut to Lumut bypassing Pusing. It was
a track road and no name was given by the British for recording. So the
Dongguan Hakka called it Red Hair Road (Hong Mao Lu or European Road). I
used to go swimming in the pond near your village.
I had written a story about the Chinese Primary School in your village and
posted to the Forum. I used to frequent your village when I was at high
school. I think you are still young and you don't know how the "Hill People
(Communists)" came down from the hill to get food from your village. Next
time when you go home ask your parents or grandparents to tell you the many
stories of your village.
CHUNG Yoon-Ngan
Author: Chai Lee Fung
Date: 04-18-05 19:09
Dear Mr Chung:
Thank you for a little history lesson of my village. I've always enjoyed
your post on Tales of a Hakka Town--maybe you can consider writing a novel.
I'm female so I studied at BG Convent, next to the cemetery. Graduated from
CHIJ in 1972, so you may have some relatives who may be my peers.
I remember the barracks very well cos I used to push my bicycle up that
slope. There used to be beautiful bungalow just a stone's throw from the
barracks that people believe was haunted. During my last trip back to BG
(last Dec), I noticed it was torn down. What a shame, eh?
You are right. I don't know much about the "Hill People" but for years I
could not understand how an uncle of mine was 'enlisted' to fight for the
communist and was deported to Mainland China. Today, he resides in HongKong.
There were lots of disused mining ponds in my village and boys used to swim
there. Not uncommon to find families with children drowned in these ponds.
I used to sit by the pond, pondering... And admiring the beautiful wild
orchids that seem to grew and bloomed profusely in what seemed to me harsh
environment.
I taught in Yuk Kwan as a temporary teacher in 1975. I must say it was challenging.
I get students coming from the village who attended school after tapping
rubber. They used to sleep in my class. I've encountered a student who threatened
a male teacher with a pen knife, dropped out of school, and whiled his time
away gambling beneath the trees in the village. When the school sent a convoy
to talk to his parents, they were threatened with a huge iron pipe. The
teachers fled.
My father was a school teacher in Bemban New Village all his life. You may
even have heard of him ( Chai Kwong Yap). It's nice to meet people who share
similar experiences with you in the past.
Write more tales. I've really enjoyed them.
Posted to Overseas Chinese Forum at asiawind.com
By CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)
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