CPM leader's long-time comrade still feels betrayed

When Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra cried 'Merdeka!' seven times on Aug 31, 1957, Lao Chiang was a 28-year-old crouching near a radio in the middle of the jungle.

Taking up arms as part of the Communist Party of Malaya guerrilla army four years earlier, Lao said the Merdeka broadcast felt like a betrayal.

"He (the Tunku) did not say a word about the communist fighters. We fought the Japanese and the British, and now the fruit of independence was taken by someone else. Khianat," he said in Malay.

It is this sense of betrayal that kept him in the jungles, fighting with the 5th Regiment until the peace accord in 1989.

"A few days before the peace accord (then CPM secretary-general) Chin Peng came to see us in the jungle on the Thai border and told us we could soon lay down our weapons.

"In 1989 we were still there, still in our uniforms because the Tunku did not agree to let us be free (in the 1955 Baling Talks).

"If Chin Peng had agreed to the Tunku's conditions, all of us would have been charged with some crime or the other. Thank goodness for Chin Peng."

A towkay's son

Today, at Chin Peng's wake in a temple in Bangkok, Lao Chiang (a nickname that means 'old river') is feeling a mix of betrayal and loyalty.

Loyalty for a "towkay's son who gave up wealth to fight for the people", and the feeling of betrayal over how Chin Peng has been treated, even in death.

Ironically dressed in a jacket with the words 'police' written on its sleeve, Lao said, bitterly: "The police won't even allow his ashes in. Not one little speck!

"A three-day wake for someone like him is so short," Lao said, his voice, cracking. "He was a great man, but they (the Malaysian government) can't even properly remember his name."

His 36 years in the jungle did not appear to have taken a toll on his health.

At 84 - and only five years younger than Chin Peng when he died on Sept 16 - Lao stands straight as a broom and was seen pacing the temple perimeter for hours, waiting for Chin Peng's remains to arrive.

Eagerly, he tells Malaysiakini that he hails from the same small town as Chin Peng - Sitiawan in Perak.

"But I didn't know him until later. He was already part of the revolution at the age of 15. I was still planting vegetables."

Independence and equality

Having worked in an underground anti-colonisation movement, along with members of AMCJA-Putera for six years, he said he took up arms because police started looking for him.

"No one knew, not my brother, or even my wife. But a Special Branch officer went to my brother and told him I was with CPM. I had no choice but to go to the jungle," Lao said.

"We survived because the people gave us food and money. Malay and Chinese villagers, Indian estate workers who hardly had enough or themselves. The guerilla army existed because of the people."

Joining the insurgency also meant leaving his pregnant wife. He would not meet his daughter for another 36 years, when she sought him out at the peace village in which he settled down, in southern Thailand.

In 1989, Lao applied to return to Malaysia but was rejected because he refused to denounce the CPM.

"They had it all written out for me. That the CPM was bad and all that, and I had to sign it. I refused so I was not allowed to return to Malaysia."

These days, he said, he enters Malaysia with a Thai passport and sometimes he meets his grandson.

"He's a bright kid, drives a big car. But the government did not want him. He could not get contracts because he is Chinese. They only gave things to Malays, so he's now in Singapore.

"Independence did not bring us equality," Lao added.