Shamsiah Fakeh

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Shamsiah Fakeh
Born1924
Kampung Gemuruh, Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan, Federated Malay States, British Malaya (now Malaysia)
DiedOctober 20, 2008(2008-10-20) (aged 83–84)
Kuchai Lama, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Resting placeSungai Besi Muslim Cemetery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Other namesRatu Rimba (Malay for 'Queen of the Jungle')
Known forResisting the British colonial occupation during the Malayan Emergency.
Leader of the Angkatan Wanita Sedar.
Prominent member of the Malayan Communist Party.
RelativesJamaliah Jamaluddin (granddaughter)

Shamsiah Fakeh (1924 – 20 October 2008) was a Malaysian nationalist and

Communist Party of Malaya (CPM). She was the grandmother of Jamaliah Jamaluddin, Member of the Selangor State Executive Council (EXCO) and Member of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Bandar Utama
.

Early life

Shamsiah was born in the village of Kampung Gemuruh near the town of

Sumatera in what was then the Dutch East Indies.[2] It was during this time that she came under the influence of Lebai Maadah, an influential scholar and Islamic reformer.[3]

Family life

Shamsiah was married five times from the age of 17. Her first husband, Yasin Kina, abandoned her while she was pregnant with their second child and both children died in their infancy. Her second husband, J. M. Rusdi, was eventually discovered to be an informer for the Japanese forces then occupying Malaya.

She was also briefly married to Ahmad Boestamam, the leader of PKMM's youth wing, Angkatan Pemuda Insaf (Awakened Youth Organisation; API). In her memoirs, she claimed that her marriage with Boestamam broke down due to her disagreement with the latter's decision to pay a fine to avoid a jail sentence for publishing a book deemed seditious by government in 1947.[1] Notably the marriage was never mentioned in any of Boestamam's memoirs and writings.

Her fourth husband, Wahi Annuar, was a fellow CPM member who was captured by British and imprisoned. Shamsiah was told that he had surrendered and thought he was dead. He was, in fact, imprisoned for 15 years and eventually died in 1980.

Her final marriage was to another CPM member, Ibrahim Mohamad, in 1956. They remained married until his death in 2006.[4]

Political activism

Early involvement

As a fiery orator, Shamsiah was scouted by both the

Malay political parties in the post-war period. She eventually chose to join PKMM because she believed it was more dedicated to the struggle for Malaya's independence whereas she considered UMNO a puppet of the British.[1]
In 1946, she was asked to lead PKMM's women's wing, Angkatan Wanita Sedar (Cohort of Awakened Women; AWAS).

Armed struggle

With the banning of the PKMM, API and AWAS in 1948 prior to the declaration of the

China for further education together with her husband, Ibrahim Mohamad, in 1956.[1]

Exile

The couple remained in China and served as broadcasters with

Democratic Republic of Vietnam and obtained passage via Vietnam back to China.[1]

As a result of faction politics within the CPM and the chaos that resulted from the

Beijing Foreign Languages Institute.[1]

Return to Malaysia

Shamsiah and her family applied to the Malaysian government for permission to return to the country from 1985 onwards. Following the terms of the 1989 peace agreement signed between the CPM and the Government of Malaysia in

Special Branch officers who took them to a resort and for about 10 days, they were debriefed and briefed on the local customs and political scenario in Malaysia. One of the conditions for the family's return was a bar on participation in politics and for the first few years upon their return, Shamsiah was not even allowed to participate in academic speaking engagements.[4] Her Chinese daughters-in-law were initially barred entry into the country but were eventually granted permanent residency.[5]

Her memoirs were first published in 2004 by

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) but was immediately suppressed by the authorities and withdrawn from circulation. A new edition as well as a Chinese language translation was published in 2007 by the Strategic Information and Research Development Centre (SIRD) which saw UKM reintroduce their edition into the market.[6][7]

Death

Following a stroke in 1999, Shamsiah had generally been in poor health and was bedridden by 2007.[5][8] She died on 20 October 2008 at the residence of her son, Jamaluddin Ibrahim (father of Jamaliah Jamaluddin), due to respiratory failure and was buried at the Sungai Besi Muslim cemetery at 5.30pm of the same day.

Present at the funeral were some prominent politicians including the deputy president of

Parti Keadilan Rakyat, Syed Husin Ali, and Democratic Action Party Member of Parliament, Tony Pua
.

Controversies

In 1981, the defected chairman of the CPM, Musa Ahmad, claimed that Shamsiah had committed infanticide by killing her third child while in the jungle to avoid capture.[9]

She subsequently denied the allegation in her memoirs and explained that she was convinced by fellow guerillas to give the child away to local villagers to be raised upon entering an unfamiliar district. It was only later that she discovered that the child had in fact been killed. The Japanese was raiding the whole village in an attempt to find her child, and threatened to behead everyone in the village if the child is found hidden by one of the villagers. There was no way to hide the crying child, so it was killed by one of the villagers by drowning, and the Japanese never found it.[1]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 967-942-659-9
    .
  2. ^ "Shamsiah Fakeh, the Iron Lady of the Communist Party of Malaya". BERNAMA. 21 October 2008. Retrieved 21 October 2008.
  3. ^ "Lebai Maadah: Controversial Reformist Scholar of the Younger Generation". Islamic Da'wah Foundation Malaysia. 29 November 2005. Retrieved 21 October 2008.
  4. ^ a b c "To exile and back again". The Star. 25 May 2008. Retrieved 21 October 2008.
  5. ^ a b "New edition of Shamsiah Fakeh's book launched". 19 November 2007. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
  6. ^ Martin, Vengadesan (20 October 2008). "Telling their side of history". The Star. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
  7. ISBN 978-983-3782-32-1
    .
  8. ^ "Veteran communist leader Shamsiah Fakeh, 84, dies". The Star. 20 October 2008. Archived from the original on 20 October 2008. Retrieved 20 October 2008.
  9. LCCN 81941672
    .
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