One of the reason why I joined the Army in the late 80s was because I wanted to fight the Communist Terrorists (CTs). At that time nearly 80% of the youngmen from my longhouse joined the army. And these soldiers when they came back to our longhouse for short leave they always told us about their army lives, especially how their comrades lost their limbs and their lives fighting the CTs.
Their struggles had encouraged me to join the army.After completed my studies, I joined the military and attended the Army Officer Cadet training at Royal Military College (RMC), Sungei Besi.
I was commissioned as a second leutenant to one of Malaysian Army elite forces, 6th Ranger Regiment.With 6th Ranger I did go for jungle operations in Malaysian "black area" such as Gubir, Lenggong, Biawak in Sarawak. During all the jungle operations that I went to, I was so unfortunate because I did not have the opportunity to meet with the Communist Party Malaya (CPM) or Parti Kommunis Malaya (PKM) or Parti Rakyat Kalimantan Utara (PARAKU) in sarawak members.
To make the matter worst, in 1989 our government signed a Peace Aggreement with PKM and followed by another Peace Agreement with PARAKU in 1990.
No doubt CTs has caused a lot of trouble to Malaysian especially to the members of the defense forces (Military and Police) and also to the populations that lived in the nothern states of Peninsular Malaysia and, in Sarikei and Sibu in Sarawak.
To the soldiers , many of their members lost their limbs and lives and for the family members had lost their love ones.
After the agreements, Malaysian economy and the quality of lives of the population had also improved termendously. Just use our imaginations what would happened to us and the economy of Malaysia , supposely if the PKM did not sign the peace Agreement with our government?
Althought the contents of the Peace Agreement was not made public by the government, but one of the condition stipulated in the agreement was that Malaysian government must allows the Ex-CPM members to return to Malaysia.
Personally I would like to urge all members of the ex-Servicemen to allow all the ex-CPM members to return to Malaysia. Please learn to Forgive and Forget...
In making the above call, I would like everyone to look back at how we treated our past enemies :-
(1) Japanese Cruelty During WWII. We were badly treated and tortured by our Japanese soldiers during WWII but now we accepted Japanese people as our close Business partner. There will be no Proton or Perodua without Japanese companies assistance. Please look back at the history, Japanese army during WWII had cost us more lives and casulty compared to the CPM.
(2) First Peace Agreement with CTs. The first peace Agreement signed with CTs was held between PARAKU and Sarawak Government on 20 October 1973. To commemorate this event Simanggang was renamed Sri Aman. All the members of PARAKU and its Chairman , Bong Kee Chok were given huge piece of land and substantial amount of money to start their businesses. When Looking back on what the government had given to the ex-CTs in Sarawak, I am in the agreement with Lt Col(Rtd) Robert Rizal in his blog that suggested we should have joined the PARAKU in the first place.
(3) Second Peace Agreement with Communist in Sarawak. Weng Min Chyuan, from China, issued instructions that the Clandestine Communist Organisation (CCO) should also open negotiations with the Sarawak government. A series of negotiations took place in Bintulu in July 1990. On 17 October 1990, a formal peace agreement ending the communist insurrection in Sarawak was signed in Wisma Bapa Malaysia, Kuching. The final group of about 50 guerrilla gave up their armed struggle . All the ex-guerillas were allowed to reside in Sarawak and also with the government Assistance.
(4) History Rewritten for ex-Sarawak TYT. Sarawak's ex-TYT was the member of a group that opposed to the formation of Malaysia. He fought the British Army alongside the Indonesian Army during Malaysia confrontation with Indonesia. But after his passing away, "someone" rewritten the history. Instead of being the traitor he is now the freedom and Independent fighter. Didn’t we Forgive and Forget ?
(5) Al-Maunnah and The Death Of Private Matthiew . Al-Maiunnah was the Muslim Extremist that waged war against the King , and shot Private Matthiew to death in year 2000 just because he was non-muslim. Its leader Mohamed Amin Mohamed Razali went to the gallows early Friday morning on 4th August 2006. Some members were punished by life imprisonement and the rest were detained under Internal Security Act (ISA). All 15 members that were held under ISA had been released in 2003, merely after 3 years in detention. My question is, why didn't the ex-servicemen Association and other NGOs especially those members that majority are Iban did not make any protest? Why didn't we protest for the cold blooded murder of our brother Private Matthiew by the muslim extremist just because he was non-muslim?
